Jim Carmichel called it the "common ground on which to unite".
It is a sport that appeals to hunters, plinkers, and serious target shooters without the financial barriers of some other competitive shooting sports. By the mid-1980s it was the fastest growing gun sport in the United States. Growth was steady until 1973 when the NRA became involved in the sport. The first silhouette range constructed in the United States was in 1967 at Nogales, Arizona. Because of the sport's Mexican roots, in the United States the silhouettes are often referred to by terms from several varieties of American Spanish, namely gallina (chicken), jabali (pig), guajalote (turkey), and borrego (ram). The first metallic silhouette match was held in Mexico City.
By 1948, metal cutouts of the animals were used instead of live animals, birthing " siluetas metalicas". Metallic silhouette is descended from an old Mexican sport, dating back to the early 1900s, where live game animals were staked out at varying distances as targets. The targets used are rams, turkeys, pigs, and chickens, which are cut to different scales and set at certain distances from the shooter depending on the specific discipline. A related genre is shot with bow and arrow, the metal targets being replaced with cardboard or foam. Competitions are also held with airguns and black-powder firearms. Metallic silhouette is shot with large bore rifles fired freehand without support out to 500 meters, and with large bore handguns from the prone position with only body support out to 200 meters. Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at steel targets representing game animals at varying distances, seeking to knock the metal target over. In the fullbore handgun event target the angular target heights are approximately three to four times larger, or 12-20 MOA (3.5-5.6 mrad). Target sizes of the chicken, pig, turkey, and ram targets, scaled to their angular sizes as they would appear if placed at the correct distances from the shooter during the fullbore rifle event with target heights of approximately 4-5 MOA (1.2-1.5 mrad).