Range set-up requirements of BPCR silhouette??

[detritus]

Howdy gents,

first off please excuse my ignorance of this particular shooting discipline, i am simply trying to gather info  in an effort to get ideas of what can be done to improve the quality of and level of participantion in the rifle shooting sports at my local range.  i ask your help and your patience in this matter.

recently a discussion between myself a few other fellow shooters who are mainly into "match type" shooting, versus hunting and or plinking (though we do those tings too) turned toward ways we felt that our gun club was currently "below-par" and how we thought those conditions could be improived.

In the wake of this (reasons explained at bottom), i have been left with the the question of,  what additional and/or different "equipment" on the part of the hosting range (Not the shooter, the range) is needed and or required, for a site that is currently equipped to run a standard "High Power" silhouette course??

i may be mistaken but, somewhere along the line (from a M. Venturino article maybe?) i got the impression that the target setup for BPCR and HP silhouette were exactly the same (same targets, same ranges) such that the course itself did not need to be altered.  please confirm this one way or the other...

it is also my understanding that in BPCR Silhouette ONLY the chickens have to be shot from an offhand position.  and that all the other targets can be fired upon from seated, prone, or otherwise supported positions.

is there anything i should know about that is an absolute need for bringing in BPCR shooters, including and especially those who own a BPCR type rifle but have never shot a silhouette course, to our silhouette shoots etc?? (other than getting the word out that they are invited to come and see)

also and this may be a silly question, but COULD a small number of BPCR shooters co-exist on a silhouette firing line with a small group of High Power shooters??  or would that be a nightmare?? (currently we aren't sure we would have the numbers to support a BPCR-Only match)

the reason for all these odd questions....  it has come to the attention of the more serious rifle shooters that rifle silhouette may be removed from the schedule next year due to low turn out rate.  and ideas are being bantered about among some of thenm about "how to save the program" (the only current "rifle silhouette" match fired at our range is the High power course).  the two leading ideas, (with one relying on the sucess of the other) are....

1. Create another "match/discipline director" position on the board, and give "Rifle Silhouette" it's own Director (currently Pistol and rifle are under one VERY over-extended director, who shows little interest in maintianing much less rejuvenating/expanding the scope of the rifle group)

2. Add/try out any of the following disciplines to see what if any interest there is within the gun club in each of themm
 A. Small Bore Rifle
 B. BPCR
 C. Lever Action silhouette
 D. some sort of "pistol caliber rifle" course of fire.


well anyway i've rambled on and probably gone WAY off course here. so i'll stop.

thank you for your time and any info or advice you cna give me.

[Coldspring]

Both of the clubs I shoot at were orginally high power silihoutte ranges and it is still shot at one of them. As long as there is room for the shooters to shoot prone on pigs, turkeys and rams and have their spooters on line with them there should not be any changes necessary to the range it's self.

The problems I would see with both shooting at the same time would be that there are different time allowances for the 2 diciplines so that would probably be confusing and the smoke would probably cause some complaints from the high power shooters. Someone else may think of something else.

If you can tell us where you are located someone may be able to tell you where there is a match within a reasonable distance that you coulld go to and observe how it is run.

When I started shooting BPCS there were 3 clubs shooting in Texas now there are 4 and a 5th is trying to get started. "If you build it they will come"

Wayne Lovell

[detritus]

If you can tell us where you are located someone may be able to tell you where there is a match within a reasonable distance that you coulld go to and observe how it is run.

Actually if this line of thought goes any further, i and hopefully someone else whi is more "involved" in the silhouette group, will be heading up to Yaupon Creek Silhouette Association in Columbus (about 2 hours away)  this is the nearest large scale BPCS range that i have found.

i'd thought of the smoke factor,  and if this concept is pushed through as a "test" or way to draw new shooters we'd probably have the BP guys together with the HP guys spotting etc and vice versa.  this also allows for the time differences you mentioned..

as for room to be prone for the rams,  well our "ram-line" is set up just "up range" of our NRA high power rifle pit, so the firing point for the rams is the "High Power" 600yard prone firing point.   so i don't think there would be a problem with space (14 position line).

thank you for the info so far, it's been helpful :-)

[Coldspring]

Yaupon Creek is one of the 2 clubs I shoot at the other is the Heart of Texas Silhouette Association, their range is near Mexia. Where is the club you are talking about.

Wayne Lovell

[detritus]

Where is the club you are talking about.

do you mean the club that i am currently a member of and looks to be losing the Rifle silhouette discipline?