If you ever want a break from the bench,

[Danny Creasy]

here is a local offhand fun match that we shoot in Sheffield, Alabama. We call it 50/25 Rimfire Sporter. The shooter comes to the line and engages 25 targets from 50 yards with 30 rounds of .22 LR ammo in 10 minutes. All shooting is offhand and unsupported with no slings allowed. The silhouettes can be taken in any order and one's score is the number of steel targets left standing after all 30 rounds are expired or the 10 minutes have elapsed (whichever comes first). So, the low score wins. We also record the number left standing in the top row to serve as a tie breaker. If a shooter left nine standing overall and he shot off the pdog in the top row as well, his score would be 9X6. If he left seven critters overall and that included the pdog and one of the top row's little chickens, his score would be 7X5. We still get a lot of ties though but it doesn't matter since the only prizes are bragging rights and enjoying the outdoors with a bunch of shooting friends. An eligible rifle must be of general sporter configuration and weigh no more than 8.5 lbs and the trigger must simply be safe.

Our target racks have evolved from heavy and cumbersome wooden monstrosities to these sleek steel beauties in the 20 years that we have been shooting the game:

We offer three classes; telescopically sighted, aperture sighted, and open sighted. I plan to use my CZ 452 UltraLux in O Class this weekend:

The Anschutz 1710 makes a nice T Class rifle but it is humbling to have some good ole boy show up and beat you with his 30 year old Marlin 60 :

We shoot this match at 8 AM on the first Saturdays of each month. We charge no fee and our matches are open to the public.

Several of the local USBR shooters like to give this game a try with their Sporter Class rifles.

 

[Roger T]

We run ours with swingers useing the same siloughettes. I like your setup.....

 

[Danny Creasy]

Thanks, we keep swingers out their for folks to practice on during the month. Something about walking down and resetting has become part of the tradition and joy of the match.

By the way, we move these racks up to 25 yards and shoot the same game on second Saturdays with rimfire handguns. We call it 25/25 Pistol and the classes are; open sighted revolvers, open sighted pistols (semi-autos, bolt actions, and single shots), and optically sighted rimfire handguns (any action style).

 

[hi2utoo]

Thanks for sharing Danny. Looks like it would be a lot of fun, and a break from the benchrest game. Have you had anyone come out to shoot this game and move on to the benchrest game such as IR50/50, ARA etc... if your club shoots such?

Les

 

[Roger T]

The swingers are suspended 5 to a bar, chicks @50yds, pigs @ 100, Turks @ 150, Rams @ 200.

 

[Danny Creasy]

Thanks for sharing Danny. Looks like it would be a lot of fun, and a break from the benchrest game. Have you had anyone come out to shoot this game and move on to the benchrest game such as IR50/50, ARA etc... if your club shoots such?

Les

As far as benchrest goes, I started a non-sanctioned br game back in 2006 at our club using the USBR target. Some of our members really fell in love with it and I handed it over to them. They now shoot sanctioned USBR matches at our range on third Saturdays.

As to your question, yes, several folks have tried the 50/25 match and found it too difficult (offhand shooting is very challenging for some) or simply not their cup of tea only to dive in upon checking out the brenchrest game (the heavy rifles really attract some folks like bees to honey). Two very different disciplines (raw marksmanship vs equipment mgmt to some extent) but many shoot them both. As a matter of fact, we have five monthly rimfire sporter matches and a couple of years ago I started an annual club match that involves all five. I named it the Sporter Master Match and we shoot it in October each year. An all day .22 rifle pentathlon of sorts with a new .22 sporter awarded to the top shooter (links below):

http://dwightpilkilton.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=rapidfirerimfire&action=display&thread=567

http://dwightpilkilton.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=rapidfirerimfire&action=display&thread=805

I managed to dig out of a poor performance in the opening BR event in year one but I dug the same hole just too deep in year two (I had never shot a sub 200 USBR target in competition before this one).

 

[Danny Creasy]

Big turnout last Saturday:

Two points though my buddy that created this pic transposed 50/25 to 25/50 and although it did seem like a Spring day, its still winter.