Henry Rifle Forums

One of my favorite targets for backyard air gun shooting are regulation size air gun silhouette targets. Hit one of these with even a 500 fps target velocity air gun and they really go flying. Actual air gun silhouette competition is offhand, only, but in the backyard I also shoot them using an air rifle from a rest at varying distances. Still a challenge and super fun, no matter how you shoot them.

Here are the regulation sizes.
* Chickens - 1” tall by 1” wide, pistol at 10 yds. rifle at 20 yds.
* Pigs - 1.5” tall by 2” wide, pistol at 12.5 yds, rifle at 30 yds
* Turkeys - 2” tall by 1.5” wide, pistol at 15 yds, rifle at 36 yards
* Rams - 2” tall by 3” wide, pistol at 18 yds, rifle at 40 yds

My only complaint is that I have to stop shooting and walk down to the silhouettes and set them up, again. Sometimes they really go flying so I have to do some searching for them.

There are some silhouette swinger targets on the market that eliminate the need to stop shooting and reset, though. The problem is that most of them are larger than regulation size AND all targets are on the same swinger assembly, so you have to set all of them at a single distance.

Recently, though, I bought regulation (1/10 scale) silhouette swinger targets. https://www.qualitytargets.com makes a nice set and they are regulation size, not the much more common 1/7 or 1/5 scales, plus each target is an individual swinger, so you can set each target at its regulation distance. I'll set this first set at regulation pistol distances and probably buy a second set to make up an air rifle silhouette backyard range.


Let the fun begin.

I have a set of those. I should set them up in the shop so I could shoot on a rainy day like today.

Was thinking about getting my indoor range back up and running, too. Looks like a rainy week, ahead.

Lately it's always rain in the forecast.

I know what you mean by saying they go flying. A local range used to run their version of rimfire silhouette. Official size silhouettes, but they placed them at 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards. Their range had berms at those distances, and local range rules required targets be placed in front of the berms. The 25 yards chickens would also "go flying", and after loosing a couple, they devised a way to leash them with a thin cable, like a bicycle cable, which helped keep them from going too far.
I like the concept of how it's either a hit or a miss in silhouette.

Me, too. It's either score or no score. There's no guessing. If it goes down, you score. If It's still standing, even if you hit it and it just wobbles, no score. Instant feedback. With spinner targets, it can sometimes be hard to tell if you hit when there's just a glancing blow. That's the disadvantage of putting the silhouettes on a swinger. Does save a lot of walking and time for resetting, though.

Have you tried shooting any of the boutique swaged airgun slugs through your gear?

Not yet, but I have thought about it. Given that I am only target shooting, I'm in no hurry to try slugs, though.