Shooting offhand

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Shooting offhand is my favorite. I usually shoot silhouettes or steel. today I made up a knock down target to mess around with. Not a great picture. but here it is.I made it to shoot at 40 + yards the circles are 1 7/8"


 
I spent 25 years or more very active in silhouette competition. Both high power and small bore. I never got very good at it but always felt it was the most challenging of the shooting sports, It tested the shooter more then the equipment.

Over the years I participated in probably 5 or 6 national matches. If my memory serves me correctly I was a Raton twice and Ridge Way Pa probably 4 or more times.

It just got too expensive and I got too old. Several of my shooting buddies either died or gave it up. Its no fun to shoot by yourself

At a certain point in life the effort just seems to be to much. When I was really into it I'd often shoot in three matches a month.

My best matches in high power I'd get 20 our of 40 and in small bore I could occasionally shoot a AAA score. One of the things I miss being 73 years of age.
 
Look around for some .22 cowboy silhouette matches. Big targets for old eyes. No fancy equipment. I think the chicken is about 6x8 inches at 35 yds. The pig is at 50yds about twice chicken size. The turkey at 75 yds is a pain. Ram at 100 yds is about 14x10 inches. Easy to hit but hard to knock down. They are supposed to be lever gun matches but we allow any .22. One class for iron sights. One class for optics. Besides the grandkids I would say average shooter age is 60 plus. Good matches to fill the competitive urges and the comradeship of being on the firing line 
 
I had a lot of fun shooting silhouette matches as well. I liked small bore the most and my kid liked lever gun matches the most. I guess I liked them all. I even had a hoot shooting black powder cartridge, I didn't do great there but there were some great people to shoot with. Too bad they died off so much. I still have a couple contenders, I dont know why my wrists wouldn't take the recoil. And I have a couple 1712 set up for small bore. They probably have cobwebs on them. I have about 10 or more steel plates around the yard and walk around plinking. I end up getting bored shooting on the bench. Just thought I would share the target. I get a kick out of making them. I made this one similar to the RX target system. They make a nice target I hope he sells a bunch.
 
Never done anything BUT shoot off-hand.

Back in my...almost every weekend shooting powder burning days. Both handguns and long guns, and a coupla short...long guns (bullpups!).

And now that I have a couple of PCP, springer, single pump, and C02, I'm still shooting offhand. I'd imagine that most PCP's and my single shot springer, along with my single pump "target" gun, they can shoot better than I can. 

So...that said, why benchrest shoot ? "I"...need to be a good shot...NOT some bench full of crutches..! Just my opinion.

Mike