Today marks the beginning of International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association season at my club. I think this is quite likely one of the most challenging shooting sports out there. I shot in three classes. First was field pistol, with my Smith & Wesson 629 Classic loaded up with .44 Special, open sights, standing unsupported off handed, two hands. Field pistol is half size animals, with chickens at 25 yards, pigs at 50, turkeys at 75, and rams at 100. I was disappointed to only score 11, but the guys who have been doing this for a while said 11 isn’t too bad for starting out.  Went on to smallbore pistol with the Mk.III, with 3/8th scale animals, and did 12 on that. Finished up on big bore, which are full sized animals at 40 meters (chickens), 100 meters (pigs), 150 meters (turkey), and 200 meters (rams). My whopping score of 6 is to be feared! Needless to say, I need more practice.
Neat thing about hitting the full sized rams at 200 meters (I only hit one) is you have enough time to be disappointed you didn’t hit the thing before you realize you did. It takes even more time for the *ping* and the sound of the ram falling over to get back to the shooter.
It’s an interesting sport, and hitting things at 100 yards with a pistol is quite a challenge. Even harder at 200 yards. I think my one ram was merely luck. I think I will keep doing this though, and hopefully it’ll make me a better pistol shooter.