Shooting Steel

IHMSA stands for International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association. We shoot steel targets at long distances with handguns. In this game you're allowed one shot on each target and you must knock it off its pedestal to score the point. If you merely ring the target or turn it you get no point, it must fall. The biggest targets (Rams) weigh 55 pounds so it takes a wallop of terminal energy to topple them. And that means the shooter must contend with rather harsh recoil. Training oneself to ignore the recoil is unnatural and that's one of the reasons a perfect score is so difficult to achieve. But it sure is fun!

Shooters are allowed to have a spotter with them who watches where the shots land and advises the shooter on corrections to make. Chris spots for me and I for her.

In the big bore event, targets are set at 50 meters (or yards, depending on the range), 100M, 150M, and 200M. The chickens are at 50, pigs at 100, turkeys at 150 and rams at 200 meters. There are ten targets (silhouettes) of each animal for a total of forty.

At the fire command you have two minutes to shoot the first five targets. Then there's a 30 second break before stage 2 where you shoot the second bank of five targets. You shoot from left to right, one shot per target. Before you move to the next group of "animals" you must adjust your sights to account for bullet drop at the increased distance.

I started shooting silhouette in 1995 and my first score was a dismal 8X40 while shooting from a prone position, placing me in C class. That was demoralizing!  I've long since changed my free-style position to one called Creedmore where you lie on your back with your knees locked together, feet spread, and the gun rested along the side of your leg. The gun must not touch the ground or have any artificial support.

Over the years I've advanced from C to B to A to AA and about five years ago I broke into AAA class. To be in AAA class you have to hit at least a 37X40 twice within a season. I've managed to hit a few 39s in the last few years but the perfect 40 had eluded me until this past Sunday in Alma, Michigan.

On the chickens my trigger was breaking well with nothing scary or too close to the edge. On pigs I did have one shot go wild, the bullet hit a pig along the back-line and bounced into the berm about 3 feet back but the target fell. All the other shots were solid hits.

On to the turkeys. These are the hardest to hit!  And this is where I start to get nervous and usually screw things up! My wiggle was larger than the target so I shifted my brain into autopilot, holding light trigger pressure until the gun went off, seemingly on its own. One shot broke with the crosshairs 2 inches over the back but the hit was on target. I think my subconscious moved the gun while the bullet was still traveling down the bore to correct the shot. We got through the turkeys clean. Whew! A fellow shooter asked how I was doing. I told him this was the first time I was ever clean through the turkeys. Wow, if ever there was a statement that could jinx me, that would be it.

We moved to the 200 meter rams. 'Slow, steady, breathe, make every shot count, take your time, wait for it to happen, you can do this.' Each target in the first bank fell one at a time with solid hits. Not all were near the center but each had at least a couple of inches of meat around them. This is the point in an entry when things get very intense and I'm most likely to screw up. My heart rate went up and I started to shake. I settled in for the second bank of rams. The first 3 animals fell with seemingly little effort. There was a lot of deliberate breathing and self-assurance. When #3 went down I did that terrible thing where I remembered I was about to beat my best score ever. 'Not now! Concentrate, you can do this.' The crosshairs came up on #4, wiggled around a bit then BANG and down goes #4. Chris calmly said, "Last one, Bud, plenty of time, make it count." The crosshairs wandered around the ram and BANG, the gun went off. I had my doubts until I saw the target change from black to gray as it started to fall backward. Whoo-hoo! Got it! Now all I had to do was keep breathing long enough to set the gun down. Chris was already jumping up and down by the time I put the gun in the cradle. I stood and gave her a huge "Thank you!" hug. She did an awesome job keeping me straight, focused, and calm (enough). Wow, did that just really happen?

Maybe my planets were correctly aligned and the gods were smiling on me. But...in order to get an international rating I'll have to shoot ANOTHER 40 within a year so I have until this time next year to qualify for international class. The pressure's on!

Up until now my biggest shooting accomplishment was taking second place in a five state district championship. I got a nice trophy for that. See picture.

Sometimes the bear eats you, sometimes you eat the bear.
To be honest...I think I just got lucky.