Erich Mietenkorte keeps running out of room on his trophy shelf and he doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it.
Team Lapua’s top silhouette shooter swept both the smallbore and high power aggregate titles at the 2026 Bernd Meier Silhouette Invitational Championship, held March 21-22 at the Mission and District Rod and Gun Club in Mission, British Columbia, Canada. The two-day event drew top competitors from across the Pacific Northwest for one of the region’s most demanding tests of offhand precision.
On Saturday, the smallbore competition featured four 40-shot matches with steel silhouette targets set at 40, 60, 77 and 100 meters—chickens, pigs, turkeys and rams, each requiring a clean knockdown to count. Mietenkorte delivered a commanding performance using Lapua Midas+ rimfire ammunition that had been custom tested and matched to his rifle at the Lapua Rimfire Performance Center in Mesa, Arizona.
He carried that momentum into the high power match on Sunday, where a short-range course of fire used scaled-down steel targets to replicate the difficulty of a full-distance silhouette match without requiring a 500-meter range. Shooting a Hunter Class rifle chambered in 6 mm BR, Mietenkorte topped the high power aggregate with a handloaded combination of Lapua 6 mm BR cases, Vihtavuori N140 powder and Berger VLD Target bullets: 95-grain for chickens, pigs and turkeys, stepping up to 115-grain for the heavier rams.
“In rifle silhouette, accuracy is only part of the equation,” Mietenkorte said. “You need consistency, and you need enough energy to take the target off the stand. If it doesn’t fall, it doesn’t count.”
He continued: “That’s why I put so much emphasis on my ammunition and components. From rimfire to centerfire, everything has to fly straight, load consistently and hit hard without coming apart. I need to trust every shot, and there isn’t a better combination than Lapua brass, Vihtavuori powder and Berger bullets to get that done.”
The sweep adds another chapter to what has become one of the most dominant runs in modern silhouette shooting. Mietenkorte won the 2025 NRA High Power Rifle Silhouette National Championship, claimed the Hunter Rifle title at the 2025 Lapua Super Shoot, swept all four Washington State Silhouette Championships last year and has won the Iron Man Silhouette Championship four consecutive times. Whether it’s rimfire at 100 meters or centerfire at 500, he continues to set the standard in a discipline where one missed knockdown can be the difference between winning and watching.
Mietenkorte also credited his full equipment setup: “Huge thanks to the partners that make it all possible. Lapua ammunition and components continue to set the standard, Benchmark Barrels flat out perform and the Vudoo Gun Works and BAT Machine actions have been nothing short of rock solid. SSP Eyewear keeping everything clear on the line.”
Learn more about Lapua and the 2026 Bernd Meier Silhouette Championship in Canada.
