2021 Victorian ULTRA 500 State Titles Report

Definition of an ULTRA 500 Unlimited Handgun Metallic Silhouette Event

What is a SSAA/IHMSA ULTRA 500 Silhouette competition you may ask?

International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA) competition has been historically conducted using steel targets and contested in two categories, Small Bore & Field Pistol events on a 100 metre range and Big Bore events on a 200 metre range.

The ULTRA 500 Handgun Metallic Silhouette event is an evolution of long range shooting principles and has extended to a 500 metre range for Silhouette Handguns utilising the 200 metre Big Bore targets.

Following on from the popularity of ULTRA 500 competition in the USA in recent years the concept of an ULTRA 500 event in Australia came to realisation mid 2017 at the SSAA Monarto Handgun Metallic Silhouette And Shooting Club Inc. (MHMSSC) in South Australia and resulted in MHMSSC hosting the first official ULTRA 500 event in Australia during April 2018, this 2018 event was also attended by a Victorian competitor from which the idea grew to host a similar event in Victoria.

The SSAA Eagle Park Sporting Complex in Victoria is located just 60km South West of the City of Melbourne and offers a wide variety of shooting ranges and disciplines and is where the Sporting Shooters Pistol Club (SSPC) of Victoria conducts official monthly IHMSA Handgun Metallic Silhouette events.

It was here that the Victorian ULTRA 500 event came to realisation with SSPC introducing and proudly hosting the inaugural Victorian SSAA/IHMSA ULTRA 500 State Titles on Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th May 2021 on Main Range 1.

The ULTRA 500 event can be contested with a variety of purpose built equipment such as a Remington XP100 or Wichita, (both bolt actions) with the versatile “Break-Open” Thompson Contender “G2 or Encore“ models also very good options.

A variety of commercially available cartridges in calibres such as 6.5mm, 7mm or any of the 30 calibre offerings with barrels typically up to 381mm in length are suitable.

Custom “Wildcat” cartridges can also be used, a “Wildcat” is a cartridge specially developed to optimise performance that may not be available in commercial cartridges.

For the more adventurous, larger calibres with higher case capacities can also be used but these come at a premium with increased recoil.

Magnum revolvers such as 357Mag, 41Mag or 44Mag may also be used but these can prove to be marginal with “knock-down” power on the heavy Rams at 500 metres due to the remaining projectile velocity and energy attainable from revolver barrel lengths usually not longer than 254mm.

The ULTRA 500 targets are set at the following distances and order with the Rams being the last targets addressed,

Chickens at 200 Metres,

Pigs at 300 Metres,

Turkeys at 385 Metres,

Rams at 500 Metres.

The ULTRA 500 course of fire commences with a 30 second duration “Load” period followed by a 2 minute 30 second “Fire” duration with 5 targets being engaged firstly on the LHS section of the Chicken target bank of 10 targets, followed by a 30 second Cease-Fire duration, then the same process is repeated on the RHS section of Chicken target bank of 10 targets. This method is repeated for the remaining banks of targets being the Pigs, Turkeys and Rams with Cease-Fire intervals as required for target resetting for the next squadded competitor.

Competition Time

On the morning of Tuesday 18th May three banks of 40 targets were set up of which two banks were the official Full Size Big Bore targets with the third bank set up with Half Size targets as a novelty match and after target setup the rest of the day was occupied by Sighting-In and Practice.

The original long range weather forecast was for light Northerly winds of approximately 6km/hr and temperatures around 16C which is almost ideal however whilst rain did not spoil the party the reality was that for the rest of the week South to South-Westerly winds of 20km/hr gusting to 30km/hr was to be the norm with all competitors needing to compensate with significant windage adjustment and the Rams needing to be clamped “Hard Set” to prevent them from falling in the blustery wind conditions.

Competition started in earnest at 9:00am on Wednesday morning with exceptional target visibility and some very good early shooting considering the windy conditions with Jason R. opening his account with an excellent score of 22 in the UAS category (Scoped) and Stuart K. with a score of 12 in the Open Sights category, both competitors setting the standard for the day.

Barry W. soon followed with an excellent score of 25 in the Open Sights category which was not challenged for the rest of the titles with Barry W. again setting the goal post at a very high level late on Wednesday afternoon with an outstanding score of 36 in the UAS category (Scoped) which also was not challenged for the rest of the titles. Stuart K. followed up on Thursday morning with an excellent score of 26 in the UAS category (Scoped), Barry and Stuart attaining top two results in both Unlimited and Unlimited Any Sights events.

The final State Title matches were completed mid to late Thursday morning at which point everybody’s focus was keenly turned to the Half Size events however due to the significantly increasing and gusting wind conditions it was unfortunately decided to abandon the Half Size novelty event until next year.

The scores achieved did not really reflect the abilities of competitors as the conditions were very challenging with the gusting winds presenting an almost impossible task at hand however all competitors enjoyed themselves, displaying a spirit of camaraderie and sportsmanship at the highest level.

The ULTRA 500 State Titles culminated with presentations of SSAA Victoria Gold, Silver and Bronze medallions made after dinner in the Bistro room at the ever popular Little River Hotel with a unique Plaque presented to Barry W. who was the outright winner.

In no particular order of priority a note of appreciation goes to the Sporting Shooters Pistol Club for their support and hosting of the event, to SSAA Victoria and SSAA Eagle Park Complex Staff for their multifaceted support in ensuring the event was a success, to Mark B. from the Rifle Silhouette group who so graciously offered their targets and range facilities to us to allow the state title competition to take place. Last but not least, a special note of appreciation to the interstate competitors from South Australia and the ACT who made the individual road trips and contributed in so many ways to ensure the inaugural Victorian ULTRA 500 State Titles were a success.

Inquiries for Victorian ULTRA 500 Unlimited Handgun Metallic Silhouette State Titles can be made to Peter at – [email protected]

2021 VICTORIAN ULTRA 500 UNLIMITED (OPEN SIGHTS) HANDGUN METALLIC SILHOUETTE STATE TITLES
Name	Club	Grade	Gun	Total	Chicken	Pig	Turkey	Ram	Placing
Barry W.	SA	AAA	XP100 6.5 Grendel	25	3	7	7	8	1
Stuart S.	SA	AA	XP100 7 BR	12	2	4	4	2	2
Peter M.	VIC	AA	T/C 7-30 Waters	11	4	1	2	4	3
Noel W.	SA	AA	XP100 30 IHMSA	10	5	0	3	2
James M.	VIC	AA	Wichita 7 IHMSA	8	3	1	2	2
Rick J.	VIC	AA	Dan Wesson 357 Max	6	2	2	2	0
Roger M.	VIC	AA	T/C 30-30	5	0	2	2	1
Wayne C.	ACT	AA	Wichita 7 IHMSA	5	2	2	0	1
Bob M.	SA	AA	XP100 6.5 Creedmore	4	1	0	2	1
Barry S.	VIC	AA	Remington 7 BR	1	0	0	0	1
Jarred M.	VIC	AA	Wichita 7 IHMSA	1	0	0	0	1

2021 VICTORIAN ULTRA 500 UNLIMITED ANY SIGHT (SCOPED) HANDGUN METALLIC SILHOUETTE STATE TITLES

Name	Club	Grade	Gun	Total	Chicken	Pig	Turkey	Ram	Placing
Barry W.	SA	AAA	XP100 6.5 Redding	36	10	10	9	7	1
Stuart S.	SA	AA	XP100 7 BR	26	8	6	6	6	2
Jason R.	VIC	AA	XP100 300 Whisper	22	7	6	6	3	3
James M.	VIC	AA	Wichita 308	19	4	8	3	4
Peter M.	VIC	AA	T/C 7-30 Waters	18	5	7	3	3
Noel W.	SA	AA	Wichita 308	18	5	7	4	2
Roger M.	VIC	AA	T/C 30-30	11	4	2	1	4
Wayne C.	ACT	AA	Wichita 7 IHMSA	10	4	1	0	5
Bob M.	SA	AA	XP100 6.5 Creedmore	5	0	0	0	5
Jarred M.	VIC	AA	Wichita 308	4	3	0	1	0
Barry S.	VIC	AA	Remington 7 BR	2	0	2	0	0