Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Rifle Matches in PA or surrounding?

Hey guys, I’d like to participate in some kind of rifle match in PA or local state. I have a bolt action .223 that I’d take. I just to go to see what it’s like and if I’d be interested to go further and just learn. Thanks gents!

Kyle

Very nice very large shooting range Ridgeway Pennsylvania

I’ll have to look it up. Any idea on a name?

Ridgeway rifle club I believe

http://www.ridgwayrifleclub.com

Nice folks and stunning facility.

Where are you located Kyle?

Somerset county.

New Holland - https://www.nhrpc.org/highpower
Reade - http://readerange.org/
Too much stuff going on in PA for me to list. Check this out:
https://ct.thecmp.org/app/v1/index.php?do=matchRegistrationListUpcoming

They used to have groundhog shoots in Beaverdale.

Still do.
http://www.southforkrifleclub.com/home.html



One coming up in a couple weeks.

You are lucky to be in PA. It's a great state for shooting sports!

I’m gonna check that out! Looks like a good place to start!

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Where you at in Somerset?
Much of my family is from there, I'm in Bedford.

I did not shoot there but the Ridgway Club has targets up to 1000 yards. I visited during a match great folks. Good country.

Ridgeway is the Mecca for metallic silhouette shooting. I just got back from shooting the rimfire silhouette match yesterday. Very nice facility and worth the 4 Hour Dr. from Maryland.

Nice! That’s good to hear. I honestly am not too sure what to look for as far as what match to sign up for but I’m still reading rules and stuff. All I have to use is a ruger 77 .223 with a SWFA 6x42. They might turn me away when I show up seeing that rig lol.

MKM Precision in Kennerdell, PA. It's a PRS range. Steel out to 1200ish...


We have a weekly league...usually Thursday evenings may- Sept. 49rds needed. We shoot KYL racks from 400-1k. 7 shots per rack and a point system. There's a bit of a payout at the end of the season. Don't have to commit to anything. You can show up once or shoot every week. Pretty Low key small group of shooters and a lot of good help to be had. Shot of a bench with bipod and rear bag or prone from bipod and rear bag....though we've had F Class shooters shoot with their rest.

I frankly can't think of any sports where you'll be competitive with that rig. Go, if you want to check something out. But be prepared to write some checks totaling a couple grand, minimum.

Tyrone is right on...unless you find like a factory sporter varmint shoot or something.


A couple minutes watching guys bang steel at distance will have your credit card melting before you leave....if your into that. I saw my first bullet trace and was hooked.

Smallbore metallic silhouette has perhaps the lowest entry costs of any shooting sport. A decent .22 bolt action and a scope of moderate magnification with turrets and you can be competitive in hunter class. Yea, most of us end up with Anschutz eventually but there are still a lot of folks shooting great scores with CZ's and others.

Pugs, is that still shot Standing?

Yep. Although Benchrest silhouette is getting more popular with the older crowd. Same targets @ double the distances.

However, from the standpoint of sanctioned and registrable matches, it's all offhand.

Never played the bench rest silhouette game , kind of interesting. However I have shot many high power and small bore silhouette matches. It's actually my favorite discipline of the shooting sports but It's always amazing to me when you get new shooters that can really blow and go and talk about how good they can do till the match starts and then after the match it seems like so many of them are never seen or heard from again LOL

Don't know about there but around here some clubs have what they consider Hunter factory bench rest .Which means it's has to be a factory gun totally factory and no scope no more powerful than 6x that gun would fit right in.

All true but it's also a game you can get better, to a point, with reasonable practice. I'm just an A shooter with an occasional AA match. But other than occasional air rifle practice session I shoot one match a month. Even at that I'm generally shooting much better by the end of the season

Most definitely a skill you can hone. Definitely a skill you can lose when you don't practice. In a very humbling game. For me personally it's more about making myself happy and doing good and getting better on my own level. A decent AA silhouette shooter is usually the best shot in any hunting camp.

Is there a harder shooting sport than silo shooting? I don't think so.

T, never heard of silo shooting. What is it?

In my opinion no , though there are some people who are have earned their way into master class in both smallbore & high power fewer in high power, there are very few who actually shoot masterclass scores on a regular basis.

silhouette

I saw lots of high power across the course shooters that could shoot HM scores very regular if they didn't have to include off hand scores.

Never got the chance to try silhouette but I can see it would be a very demanding sport.

To be clear the entire course of silhouette is shot off hand..

Depends on the discipline centerfire handgun metallic is laying on your back with apiece of leather on your leg for a rest. Challenging to say the least.

Scullton Rod and Gun has a benchrest centerfire competition as well as some .22 matches almost in our backyard. Maybe not what you're looking for. They have a website.

tag

Understood. That's why I think it would be very demanding.

I shot a few fun matches where the whole national match course was shot offhand. Not many showed up.

Had a pretty good match at Atglen Pennsylvania yesterday.

Nice shooting Roof!

Just to clarify. That was my hunter handgun card and I was match winner with that. I was only class winner with my hunter rifle. But it was my best day so far.

Ever shot smallbore silo, Roof?

Yes, I should have specified I shoot small bore standard rifle, small bore hunter rifle and small bore hunter handgun. I have not gotten into high power yet.

I've shot smallbore. I know how hard it is. Win, place, or lose, that is a good score!

I was shooting HP at the time, in the upper 180s Standing and the best I think I did at silo was about 9, 8, 5, 5.

On the silhouette game a lot of clubs here have an easier game and not just NRA certified distance and targets. They use like pistol Target size at closer ranges 25 50 75 and 100. That keeps people hitting enough of them they stay interested.
I personally like that stuff that keeps people that aren't steady anymore for kids or anybody in the learning process easier targets to hit and learn from. Before they graduate on to actual NRA stuff the NRA silhouette matches are very tough.

Sorry I didn’t see this sooner but there are a decent amount of rifle shoots in PA- I’ve been a shotgunner my whole life so didn’t pay attention to them until recently. Fairchance Rod and Gun Club (just outside of Uniontown, PA) has the state benchrest competition. There are benchrest style ground hog shoots at Lawrence County Sportsmen (near New Castle), and there are a lot of clubs that have fun shoots/leagues.


I belong to Centerville Sportsmen near Brownsville and we have 5 leagues every month, always something different. This month we are shooting open sighted .22’s at NRA knockdown targets from sitting and prone, 75-yard revolver silhouette shooting, 25-yard silhouette shooting with snub nose (pretty much any pistol with less than a 3” barrel), and a 100-yard offhand lever gun silhouette league. We have multiple leagues where your .223 would be fine, plus you can drag some other guns out to try if you’d like. The only problem is we shoot the leagues on Thursday nights and if you work, it might be hard to make it there after getting off (our curfew is at 8:00).

I'm heading up to Ridgway this weekend with Roof. Smallbore on Saturday and Centerfire on Sunday. Excellent facility, great bunch of guys, and the town of Ridgway is one of the friendliest and clean little towns I've ever seen. Heck, it wouldn't take much for me to pull up stakes and spend my Golden Years living there just for those reasons!

If any of y'all are headed there this weekend also, look me up.

To the OP or anyone thinking about shooting this game: Ixnay on the .223. Rules require 6mm or larger. 6.5's currently are favored by a lot of top shooters.

Even with a heavy superior BC .22 bullet driven as hard as you can, knocking over the rams at 500 meters is very chancy. Like as in low probability because they weigh 65 pounds. But on the other hand, you may really clean up on the closer/smaller targets with a light recoil accurate rig like that which could still make for a decent final score. But that's a moot point because of the 6mm rule. Some guys are experimenting with small 6.5's like 6.5TCU with that strategy in mind. "Heck, if I can knock down 15-20 chickens, pigs, and turkeys, and only knock down a couple rams, then I'm definitely in the running for an award."

There is Union County Sportsman Club in Millmont, PA. They hold a couple benchrest matches each year, Great place,

McDonald gun club. 10 miles west of Pittsburgh. Benchrest and Ground Hog shoots.

Lawrence Co gun club. Benchrest and Ground hog shoots 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh

Hey Model70Fan,

I've been down the road you're on right now. I just Googled gun clubs near me and would change the area.
I grew up in Cambria County outside of Ebensburg, and I live in the Pittsburgh area now.

I've got lots of clubs near me that hold NRA/CMP across the course highpower matches. Many of those clubs also have other rifle matches like F-class, Benchrest, grounhog, Standing only, hunting rifle only, etc.

I love to shoot CMP XTC matches and I've shot at Reade which is basically due north of you, or slightly north east.

As far as highpower silhouette - the rifle needs to be at least .243/6mm caliber. So, no, your .223 won't qualify. But when I was getting started I just showed up anyway. There were guys at the match that had spare rifles and they just pushed the gun and ammo in my hand, and told me how many clicks up the scope should be at each yard line. It was really welcoming and a great way to learn.

All this kind of makes me regret leaving Pa. over 50 years ago. Kind of.

http://stthomassportsmen.com/groundhog.php

Might be a little too far from you? But these groundhog matches are alot of fun, and competitive in any class.

PA state silhouette championship this weekend at Ridgway. Small bore on Saturday, centerfire on Sunday.

Good luck, if you're competing, bud.