The perfect match for Erich Mietenkorte meant he took home the Washington Silhouette Rifle Championship title. Using ELEY’s 22LR match ammo, Erich beat second place by three points to claim the top spot on the podium.

You may recognise Erich’s name from an article written In August introducing Silhouette Shooting. To find out more about the competition format, check out the original article here.

We caught up with Erich Mietenkorte to hear more about his winning story.

“Most recently I shot in the Washington State Rifle Silhouette Championship held in September. It’s here I won the Silhouette Rifle Championship Trophy using ELEY Match ammunition.

Yet, I did something that I never thought I would ever do. I just finished a new barrelled action and got it back from the stock maker the morning of the match (that’s why it’s an ugly banana yellow in the pictures… It’s going to the painter soon). I sighted in my old rifle like I normally do before a match. I had some extra time so I torqued down a scope to my new rifle just to check out its accuracy with ELEY ammunition. My first five shots were in the same hole at 40 meters. I then checked it at 100 meters and all 5 shots were in a 1/2″ group.

Upon seeing this I decided to shoot my new rifle at the match. Even though I had never shot the rifle before, the accuracy I was getting with ELEY Match was definitely confidence inspiring. I proceeded to shoot 56/60 targets winning the match by 3 points! I then shot the next match, again with my new rifle, and won the Championship Title.

Normally, I would never use untested equipment that I haven’t trained on for a big competition like. However, I just couldn’t ignore the accuracy I was getting with this rifle and ELEY.

After the match I was fielding questions regarding ELEY from other competitors who were using other ammunition. My results with ELEY definitely piqued their interest.

As the season slows down during the winter, I’ll be making plans to fly down and visit the ELEY test range in Texas to see what other flavours of ELEY this rifle likes.”

What is Silhouette shooting?

Silhouette truly brings precision shooting to a simpler and some say a more pure form. You won’t find any heavy 3p coats or anatomically adjustable rifles. What you will find are competitors all over the world simply standing on the firing line and shooting. However, don’t let the seemingly simple way that shooters compete fool you into thinking that it is easy.

Silhouette encompasses many disciplines including small-bore and high power rifle, lever action rifle, pistol, air rifle and air pistol, as well as black powder cartridge. Any of these disciplines can really test a shooter’s ability and fundamentals, the saying in rifle silhouette is “the bench proves the rifle, standing proves the shooter.”

To get started in the silhouette discipline, take any scoped .22 rifle and show up to a match.