Lever Action Rifle Silhouette competition uses tubular magazine-based rifles with metallic sights (Primarily lever action rifles). Targets are steel silhouettes shaped like game animals. Chickens up front followed by rows of pigs, turkeys, and furthest away, rams. Unlike bullseye competitions, there are no scoring rings. If you hit a target and it falls over, it is scored as a hit. If you miss or even hit a target and it doesn’t fall, that is scored as a miss. All shooting is done from a standing/unsupported position. There is an exception process for disabled or handicapped shooters to compete from a wheelchair, etc.
Silhouette shooting (A/K/A ‘Siluetas Metalicas’ ) came to this country from Mexico in the 1960s. It is speculated that the sport had its origins in shooting contests between Pancho Villa’s men around 1914. After the Mexican Revolution, the sport spread quickly throughout Mexico into Texas and the United States. Competitors frequently refer to it as competitive plinking due to its laid-back atmosphere that is popular with families and shooters of all ages.
For the Smallbore Rifle category, an open-sight .22LR caliber rifle with a tubular magazine is used. Although lever actions are the most commonly used, pump and semi-auto rifles are allowed in the Smallbore Rifle category, as long as it has a tubular magazine. For Pistol Cartridge Category, a Lever Action Rifle with open sights chambered in a pistol caliber is required. Common calibers in use for Pistol Cartridge Rifles are .22mag, 25-20, 32-20, 38sp/357mag, 44sp/44mag. .22LR is also a legal caliber, but will not reliably score the heavier Pistol Cartridge Rams. For the Rifle Cartridge category, larger targets are further distances (with Rams out to 200 yards/meters) are used. Lever Actions chambered in 30-30, 38-55, and other bottleneck cartridges are common. Matches require 40 to 60 rounds of ammo (more if there is a practice session or shoot-off). Binoculars and a spotting board are other accessories normally used as well.
5 shot increments fired in a 2 minute time limit at banks of chickens, pigs, turkeys, or rams. Most competitions have at least 2 relays so one person shoots while another person spots & scores. At the end of that shooter’s relay, the roles are reversed and the next person shoots while they then spot & score for the 2nd shooter. At the end of the match, all hits are totaled and, if there are ties, a shoot-off ensue, or a tie-break may be determined by classification based on a specific type of target (i.e. – most number of turkeys hit, etc).
Step 1: Join TSRA
Step 2: Contact TSRA Directors below
Judy Lee
Lever Action Rifle Silhouette Director
LARS@tsra.com
Tim Lee
Lever Action Rifle Silhouette Director
LARS2@tsra.com