Trego's Mountain Ear

When we were first married, Renata and I ran across a group of folks in north central Montana who shot IHMSA – International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association, if I remember correctly.  The sport started in Mexico – south of the other border.  They silhouettes out of sheet steel – gallinas, javelinas, guajalotes and borregos (chickens, pigs, turkeys and rams to our Havre teachers) and shot at them with rifles at ranges from 200 to 500 meters.  No rest, no prone positions – just stand on your hind legs and try to knock the steel plates over with your hunting rifle.

Frankly, I didn’t shoot all that muy bien, and feeding my old 257 Roberts made the 40 round matches a bit spendy.  Then we discovered a match with smaller targets, at closer ranges for 22 rimfire.  They looked the same, but this illustrates how small the targets were:

Chickens were set up at 40 meters, pigs at 60 meters,  turkeys at 77 meters, and the rams at 100 meters.  You remember there are no rests, no prone or sitting shots – these folks even called me for using a sling.  They were using Anshutz (one had a Winchester 52) and I was still using my old Remington 510 single shot.  I was outclassed in both ability and equipment – but they were nice about it.

The IHMSA folks stayed with these ranges for pistols – and Renata, showing true kindness bought me another barrel for the TC.  Unfortunately, even when I hit, those 55 grain bullets wouldn’t reliably knock over my targets.  IHMSA has moved into allowing a bunch of shooting positions – back then they were teaching me to hold that long barreled Thompson Center with both hands.

When we moved to Trinidad, Colorado, we found a new sort of match – Service Rifle.  Most folks were using M1 Garands – but any service rifle was acceptable.  The army had issued Winchester 94 lever rifles to their folks protecting the Northwest Spruce for WWI aircraft production.  Soldiers of the 339th Infantry used 1891 Mosins when they invaded Russia at Archangel.  1903 and 03a3s were perfectly acceptable.  I shot my first match with a borrowed AR-15.  Leonard was using a SMLE – pronounced ‘smelly’ and standing for short magazine Lee Enfield.  I guess they figured that if we could still use the 1917 Enfield, we might as well let the Brit rifles compete, too.   Standing, sitting, prone, 200, 300 and 600 yards, and I was expected to use the sling.  I still have to think about using a rest – but I’m glad the service rifle folks got me back in the habit of using a sling.

It’s been a long while since I shot at the little steel chickens – but I have a good hill for a backstop, and I can rig the distances in the hayfield.  And, while I’m old, and no longer steady, there are a few permissible modifications I can make to a Ruger 10/22.  Who knows?  A dozen years from now a couple of grandkids may even get into the sport.  The targets are available.  This batch is just a little over $100 plus shipping -but you have to paint them yourself.  Even if the rules still won’t accept the sling.