When Hunter Pistol first started up around 1980-81 (?) I thought it would be right up my alley. I had been a pretty serious ATA trap competitor, but handguns were my first love. I got a serious "bug" to start knocking over those little critters when I lived in Maryland. The local matches were at the Marriottsville range just a bit west of "Bawlmer" . I managed to win a couple of Maryland state championships in big bore Hunter Handgun. The pictures of my "Grand Slam" pin are from that period. I am curious if they still exist. I thought it was pretty nice that the NRA would put your name and the number you were to have accomplished it. My number was 53. Anybody else familiar with these little trinkets ?
My first competitions and championship was using a Nickel M19 6" with a 2X Leupold scope. I guess I missed my chance on the heading of this thread ....
To be more relevant to Smith & Wesson .... and BRAGGING (please forgive the "old guy") I guess I could have said "My "national record" using a Model 19

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Y. B. Ord & A. Ree

That's some very good shooting! I have shot IHMSA silhouetts since the 80s. We didn't have any NRA around here that I was aware of. Sadly, metallic silhouette is dying off now. I don't know about the NRA kind, but our local IHMSA club now has 10 or 12 shooters with maybe 18 to 24 guns shot per match. Years ago, there would be 30+ people at a match, with many of them shooting 2, 3, or 4 guns each. Back then, it was hard to get a spot on the firing line. Now it's pretty empty.

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protocalldesign.com

Thanks..... I have gotten the impression that silhouettes were dying out. Back in the 80's we would have close to 100 competitors for a championship. Regular shoots were around 40. It was the right thing at the right time for me !

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Y. B. Ord & A. Ree

Wow! That is d*** impressive. Not bragging if you can do it.
I think if I ever got a 40 I would have had a facsimile tattooed on my forehead. 😁

I used to shoot those matches at the K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base
outside of Marquette, MI. Did my best shooting with a .357 Ruger
Blackhawk with iron sights. Never got close to the OP's score
but had fun. Won a Smiths Sportsmen Sticks knife sharpener at one match. Still use it.

The base has been closed for years. And the range we shot on was
destroyed when the base closed. Always thought that was too bad.

Awesome accomplishment. I wish competitions weren't deminishing likek they are but that's the signs of the times. We can't seem to get the kits out to enjoy it like we did.

Hopefully things will change.

I shot only one hunter sillouette match in early `80`s at Canterbury NH.
Used a stock 586 iron sights.
Shot DA at all distancee.
Missed the first turkey at 75yds. Went up 2 clicks and cleaned them.
Up one more click, cleaned rams at 100yds.
Won it with one miss only.
Just a good memory now.
Jim

I love shooting silhouettes I just wish there was more of it now i have my own set of steel and shoot by myself with pistol but shoot silhouette with bpcr rifle so much more exciting than paper nice shooting !!

Sent from my SM-T813 using Tapatalk

Sounds like you had lots of fun. I got my grand slam pin in 82. My serial number was #1
grandslam1.jpg

grandslam.jpg

WOW ! ... Thank you for posting! YOU have yourself a pretty special pin there Mr. # 1. Where did you shoot your matches ? The only "regional" competition I went to was in North Carolina in 1983. I came in second, and got food poisoning from their "pig picking".

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Y. B. Ord & A. Ree

I done most of my shooting around Amarillo, Texas but i got the pin at the Nationals in Raton, New Mexico. I was so nervous the first day I couldn't hit anything but the second day I done better. I got second place.

Thank you so much for sharing that. I am VERY impressed ! ! ... You sir qualify as a "top gun hand"

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Y. B. Ord & A. Ree

I never shot Hunter Pistol, only IHMSA was available within my driving range. I started with a Mod 19 but quickly progressed to a Contender in 44 Mag. Then added a 7 TCU and then a 7x30 Waters.

The game has been long gone in my area now. I did get a few pins.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Hello H Richard .....
I did try IHMSA a few times with a M29 6" bbl open sights. I quickly found out two things. ONE - My body type was not meant to lay on the ground and try to shoot a handgun. TWO - The IMHSA "guys" were really REALLY serious about shooting and equipment !!

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Y. B. Ord & A. Ree

hi ken,
yes they still have the grand slam pin. i have to travel 3 hours, to shoot silhouettes, in pa, and md. be safe.....dan

It's a shame the sport has diminished so bad. I especially liked the .22 silhouette, and would have liked the NRA Hunter Pistol, which I think is only out to 100 yard and can be shot pretty well with a mid range center fire, instead of some of the fire breathing handguns we needed at 200 meters.

Were scope and red dot sights allowable, possibly in a separate class?

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Have Shot a Little Hunter silhouette, used my most accurate centerfire revolver, My 27.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Our club shot rimfire with any sight.
The course was changed a little bit. We moved the chickens to 40 yards to make a little more challenging. Rams where at 110.
We had a lot of good times at our shoots. It was tough to win as we had a group of very good shooters, oneNRA master.
When he stayed home I could win a match occasionally. 😂

image upload account

It has certainly diminished since the heydays. We still host silhouette matches at my club. We fire lever-action (cowboy) silhouette matches at the Hunter's Pistol targets and distances (out to 100 m). In the morning, it's 22 LR, in the afternoon it's center fire pistol cartridge. Once in a while, someone shows up with a scoped Contender but mostly we see lever-action, iron-sighted rifles. BTW, the term "cowboy" refers to lever actions; we're not into the cowboy action, dress up like Wyatt Earp game.

We also shoot long-range 22 silhouette out to 200 m. This is a prone or bench game, except for 50 m chickens are shot standing. Some folks will shoot the longer distances "standing on their hind legs" to challenge themselves. This games is known as a "fun" match so there are no winners per se. We compete against ourselves. Doesn't mean a thing if a bench shooter with a Voodoo beats a standing shooter with a 10/22. We all have fun shooting and standing around the fire telling tall tales.

So, at least at this club, silhouette still happens.

bigmtnman, I began to look for around for some things from Hunter’s Pistol Silhouette matches from the early 80’s and I found some pins and a loading block. My neighbor made 3 of these blocks out of solid maple. The maple blocks measure 6” X 6” X 2” and he cut them out and we finished our own blocks. The idea was to have 10 bullets available to shoot 2 rounds of targets, without having more clutter than needed on the shooting stands. The cutout portion for empties or maybe some smallbore ammo. The blocks did their job but I felt like I needed more than just what the block held, with me on the firing line. This maple block is the only survivor out of the original three. Pretty cool but not real practical but thought you might like to see it.
I also found some pins from back in the day. The larger pin is from the 1980 NRA National Match for Hunter’s Pistol Silhouette held here in Amarillo, Texas. Several pins from the Amarillo Handgunners Club, which I was a member. Several 5 in a row pins of the targets. We accumulated lots of pins and the shooters pinned them on their caps. This is all I could find. I thought there were some score cards in my shelves but this is all I found.

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James
On the Llano Estacado

I have the perfect purpose-built gun for this type of competition, but AFAIK nobody shoots silhouette around here...

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I was in the gun club in Granbury, TX shooting IHMSA in the 80s. At the time there were several North TX ranges where you could compete in 22LR and big bore. I'm not flexible enough to shoot free-style any more but I still have my 357max El dorado.

If you're ever over here on the wetside, look me up. We have three silhouette matches a month at my club. One day it's Hunter's Pistol / Lever Action Rifle. 22LR in the morning and straightwall centerfire in the afternoon. A different day it's 22LR Long Range.

sophie ---- I love the ammo caddy ! ... I could have made good use of one like that. Thanks for posting the pics. The "Texas" pins you have are very colorful ......"PURTY" I have a lot of fun memories of those days back in the '80s. Just finding where some of those matches were (out in the boonies) was an adventure !

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Y. B. Ord & A. Ree

We had a Municipal Shooting Range between Amarillo and Canyon, Texas during those years and it’s been long since gone, years ago. Speaking of ranges being out in the boonies, when we went to shoot matches with the Pampa, Texas Silhouette Club their shooting range was between Kingsmill and Pampa, north several miles, and set up in an old gravel pit and dump ground out there. Worked real good actually being dug out like it was and had natural banking and berms. Shot there several times. Fun times.

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James
On the Llano Estacado

I wonder why magnum handguns are deemed necessary at 200 meters, when the "Long Shooters" of yesteryear were routinely using .38 Special M&P Targets out to 300 yards? (!!)

Ralph Tremaine

Metallic Silhouette still has a pretty big following here in Australia.

The targets are heavy and it takes some retained momentum to knock them over at 200 meters. With lighter loads, and depending on where you it it, you can "ring" the target. If it just rings and doesn't go down, it counts as a miss.

OKAY!!-----shows you what I know!

What I didn't know was you have to knock them over----DUH!!

So the moral of the story is "Some's good, more's better, and too much is just right!"

Makes sense to me now!

Ralph Tremaine

I just got home from our club's Long Range Silhouette match. We shoot 22LR rifles at 50, 100, 150 and 200 meters. I had to grin, and so did a bunch of other folks. Two dads brought their young daughters. The daughters each beat their dads by one point. Big smiles from the kids and their dads.

I competed in IHMSA at Rio Salado Range in Mesa, Az. Back in the 80’s. At the time I was competing in IPSC, PPC, Bullseye & service rifle matches. I enjoyed the metallic matches more than any of the others.
The matches were much more laid back than the other disciplines I competed in.
I loved shooting the steel, instant feedback, you knock it down to score or you don’t. Simple & easy. This could also add to the pressure when you knew you were cleaning the rack and got to the 5th or 10th shot.
I shot long range production ( standing - iron sights ) for years with a Ruger 7.5” SBH, shooting Hornady 240 gr JHP’s over 20 gr of 2400.
I eventually moved to a 10” 7mm TCU, shooting 139’s & for 200 yds, the 154’s.
Out in the desert, the wind blows occasionally and as a result, sometimes the rams had to be “hard set” so that we could shoot w/o the wind blowing down our rams at 200 yds.
I learned a LOT about shooting at 50,100,150 & 200 yds with open sighted Hgns.
The turkeys at 150 were always my nemesis’s.
I have a box full of these pins some where, had these in an envelope in my loading bench.

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My Hunter’s Pistol Silhouette gun for the Big Bore Matches was a S&W Model 27-2 in .357 Magnum 8 3/8” barrel with a 4X Leopold EER Pistol Scope. The bullet that worked the best for me was the RCBS #82033— 162 gr. LCSWC (w/gas check) and 15 gr. of WW296 Ball Powder. The gas checks didn’t seem to make much difference in barrel leading so I eliminated them. The wind always seems to blow here in Amarillo also and if we had a reasonably calm day to shoot it was a rarity.
I only shot Hunter’s Pistol Silhouette Matches in Big Bore and Small Bore which was 25, 50, 75, and 100 meters. The Turkeys were the most difficult for me also. I never had scores as good as bigmtnman and Tolo in the above posts but I did pretty good and had lots of fun. I enjoyed the fact that the matches were laid back as you described. It was such satisfaction to hear the gong of the hit and see the target go down. Sometimes you had a hit but the target didn’t go down, especially the Rams at 100 meters and if the hit was low on the Ram body.I never shot Long Range Silhouette. Working up the most accurate load, casting your own bullets, experimenting with several different powders, loading your own bullets, that was half the fun right there and the other half was the matches. Couple of pages out of the NRA Rule Book from 1981 below. Lots of fun.

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James
On the Llano Estacado

40 rounds of big bore magnum loads would wear me out. Sounds like fun though. 😁
I have shot small bore silhouette for a while, both rifle and pistol. It is fun and fairly inexpensive family fun. It can be as serious as you want it to be.
Some pins and stuff on display with more in a drawer someplace. The pins make it fun for even the shooters who can’t win the match.

Was that Atglen?

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"Well, do ya punk??"

I'm way out in Western Washington, so no it wasn't Atglen. I hadn't heard of Atglen before. I looked it up and it seems like a real nice club! Too bad it's so far away.

hi folks, received this pin from MUGGS TAYLOR, r.i.p. muggs

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