Wheel Burners hold a Rimfire Steel match on the 1st Saturday of every month. We usually set up 3 or 4 stages of steel with 5 plates for handguns and rifles. Occasionally a 6th plate is added for rifles.

At a Rimfire Steel Match, the minimum equipment is a .22 caliber rimfire handgun, either semi-auto or revolver plus a .22 caliber rifle. All participants and spectators must wear eye and ear protection when shooting is in progress. Other useful stuff is a minimum of five magazines or speed loaders and a box or bag for carrying your gear. If you would like to shoot but don't quite have all the gear, we can arrange to lend equipment for the match.

Although the minimum round count can be 200 rounds for a 4 stage match, we recommend shooters bring at least 250 rounds since it is possible to miss!

Handguns do not require a holster. The starting position for handguns (both autopistols and revolvers) is "low ready" with elbows touching sides and muzzle at a 45 degree down position. The starting position for rifles is with rifle mounted but aiming at the ground. At the start signal, bring the gun up and hit the plates as fast as you can. There's usually a Stop plate that must be shot last, but the rest of the plates are "as you see them." The maximum possible time for a stage is 30 seconds, so if you run out of ammunition or have a jam or miss the stop plate that will be your score for the stage. Most handguns and rifles hold 10 rounds so making up a couple of misses won't run you dry.

Each stage gets 5 "runs" that are individually timed. The lowest 4 times are totalled for the stage time. Each of the 3 stages is shot with both handguns and rifles for a total of 6 stages. It's just like golf - lower is better. Open and Limited are scored separately. The minimum total time for all the stages earns first place in the Open or Limited division, and the remaining Open or Limited shooters have their score calculated as a percentage of the best score. To see how that works, look at this month's Rimfire scores.