Metallic silhouette shooting is a sport where competitors attempt to knock off metallic animal silhouettes with a single shot. The four standard animals represented by the cutouts are chicken, pig, turkey and ram.

There are many categories of firearms and shooting positons. Firearms are broadly divided into big bore and small bore rifles, big and small bore handguns and the field pistol. There are further subcategories by firearm specification, and shooting position. Distances vary from 25-500 meters. Often competitors participate in several firearm classes in the same competition.

Silhouette shooting has an interesting if a bit gruesome history: originally live farm animals were used as targets. These days the sport is of course cruelty-free, and suitable for all shooters, juniors included. Generally men and women compete together.

The sport is practiced on all continents. European shooters form the majority, but there are many competitors from USA, Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa, just to mention a few. The origins of the sport are however in Mexico, and the first competition resembling the current format was held in 1948 in Mexico City.

Typically matches are 40, 60, 80 or 120 shots. There is only a single shot allowed per target, and the silhouette must be knocked down for it to count as a hit. After a shot, even if it is a miss, the shooter must move on to the next target, in order from left to right. The winner of the match is the one with the highest animal count, with various tiebreakers used if necessary.

Finland is a member of Association Européenne de Tir sur Silhouettes Métalliques or AETSM and International Metallic Silhouette Shooting Union (IMSSU). All shooting sports in Finland are governed under the umbrella organisation Suomen Ampumaurheiluliitto (Finnish Shooting Sport Federation)

Sipoo, Finland

2018 World Championships in Silhouette Shooting were held in Sipoo, Finland.

Sipoo (or Sibbo in Swedish) is a Finnish municipality located right next to the capital Helsinki, so it has good connections to the city and the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. There are not many hotels or accomodations in Sipoo itself, but fortunately Helsinki and Vantaa both offer a large range of options.

Map of the area (Google maps)

Sipoo silhouette shooting range is best reached by car. Under normal conditions the range is open for training 10-14 Saturday and Sunday.

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