Black Powder Cartridge Silhouette
The buffalo guns from the 19th century are thundering again on the high plains of New Mexico. It’s the NRA’s fastest growing new shooting sport... but it’s for old rifles... dropping Rams, Turkeys, Pigs and Chickens...
The targets are steel plates. The challenge is to knock them off the rail, using 500 grains of lead over a charge of black powder. The competitors are 547 yards, or 500 meters, from the rams. It’s a challenge similar to the shots the buffalo hunters fired 130 years ago and it’s the national championship of Black Powder Cartridge Silhouette in this edition of Shooting USA.
The appeal of the blackpowder cartridge silhouette begins with an appreciation of the historic guns that are qualified to shoot this sport. There’s little question Tom Selleck gets credit for spreading the interest, in his role as Quigley with his 45-110 Sharps. Since the release of “Quigly Down Under”, not only Sharps have been brought back from our history, but also Stevens, Ballards, Winchester High Walls and Remington Hepburns, either as restored originals or recreations of the guns of the past.
We’ll name the Blackpowder Cartridge Silhouette National Champion, but we’ll also meet men, women, sons and daughters who just enjoy spending this time together on the range.
And we’re taking a tour of the Whittington Center, property owned by the NRA and created as the most comprehensive shooting facility in the country. More than 125,000 people visit each year outside Raton, New Mexico, to compete in numerous NRA competitions held on the ranges and to hunt the 33,300 acres of the Whittington Center.
