2019 ASSA National Prone/F-SBR/Position Championships

[1813benny]

Fellow Competitors:
The match program has been formally released and entries are being accepted for the 2019 ASSA National Smallbore Championships. The matches will be conducted at The Cardinal Shooting Center located in Marengo, OH from July 5-12, 2019.

The disciplines include conventional prone and 3-position and small bore F-Class individual and team championships.

For additional information and to obtain the match program, visit our website at:

https://www.americansmallbore.com/championship-calendar-x.html

If you have additional questions, feel free to either post here or direct them to me via PM.

Best Regards,
Ken
ASSA Secretary / Treasurer

 

[Peebles24]

PM sent

 

[rmist]

This is a very well run match. Great people and lots of fun !! Registration can be made until 28 June. See you there !

 

[kzin]

It looks like ASSA has avoided the contention around free recoil never clearly resolved in NRA f-class??? Intentionally or just by writing clearer rules?

ASSA f-class position rule simply says 'prone'

prone rule says shoulder 'can' be used for support

if the butt of my f-open rifle is a little off my shoulder at firing, nobody has any excuse to complain?

 

[1813benny]

It looks like ASSA has avoided the contention around free recoil never clearly resolved in NRA f-class??? Intentionally or just by writing clearer rules?

ASSA f-class position rule simply says 'prone'

prone rule says shoulder 'can' be used for support

if the butt of my f-open rifle is a little off my shoulder at firing, nobody has any excuse to complain?

Under 3.2 Artificial Support, the position of the rifle butt is clarified:

3.2.5. Position of Rifle Butt

3.2.5.1. In all positions, except as clarified for the standing position, the buttplate of the rifle must:

3.2.5.1.1. be held against the front of the shoulder

3.2.5.1.2. on the outside of the shirt and/or shooting coat

3.2.5.1.3. must not be touching the ground​

If you would like the VP of Competitions to review and confirm that the buttplate must be against the shoulder for F-SBR, I can request that clarification on your behalf.
Regards,
ken

 

[kzin]

Under 3.2 Artificial Support, the position of the rifle butt is clarified:

3.2.5. Position of Rifle Butt

3.2.5.1. In all positions, except as clarified for the standing position, the buttplate of the rifle must:

3.2.5.1.1. be held against the front of the shoulder

3.2.5.1.2. on the outside of the shirt and/or shooting coat

3.2.5.1.3. must not be touching the ground​

If you would like the VP of Competitions to review and confirm that the buttplate must be against the shoulder for F-SBR, I can request that clarification on your behalf.
Regards,
ken

ok, thanks, it is essentially the NRA text reorganized and renumbered so I failed to find it.

The way you phrased that makes it sound like a foregone conclusion, hope it wasn't meant quite that way.

I very much believe the 'must be held against' phrase seems clear in isolation but the context is overlooked. The ASSA organization of the rule with position of the butt clearly subordinate to 'artificial support' helps my argument. The point of 3.2.5 is that sling shooters cannot have any support for the butt other than holding it against the shoulder. F-class clearly can support the butt with the rear bag so the section banning artificial support of the butt is implicitly overridden. "Must be held against" only exists as part of banning artificial support, when support is allowed it becomes irrelevant. It was never meant to ADD a 'style' requirement as some who see the phrase in isolation assume.

Maybe a much bigger, better question than the legalese is simply does the f-class community WANT free-recoil to be legal or not? I can start a thread and stir up this debate one more time if we think we can accomplish something this time.

On the other hand if it's decided that "must be held against" is the rule then EXACTLY what does it mean? Is light contact between the butt and light, loose clothing sufficient? If so then free-recoil is not really prohibited anyway, it just requires more careful set-up to comply with a meaningless visual requirement.

Having officials make a subjective judgement of whether there is sufficiently firm contact between the butt and shoulder seems a terrible option to me. If a rule allows no objective enforcement the rule needs to be changed or discarded.

 

[1813benny]

ok, thanks, it is essentially the NRA text reorganized and renumbered so I failed to find it.

The way you phrased that makes it sound like a foregone conclusion, hope it wasn't meant quite that way.

I very much believe the 'must be held against' phrase seems clear in isolation but the context is overlooked. The ASSA organization of the rule with position of the butt clearly subordinate to 'artificial support' helps my argument. The point of 3.2.5 is that sling shooters cannot have any support for the butt other than holding it against the shoulder. F-class clearly can support the butt with the rear bag so the section banning artificial support of the butt is implicitly overridden. "Must be held against" only exists as part of banning artificial support, when support is allowed it becomes irrelevant. It was never meant to ADD a 'style' requirement as some who see the phrase in isolation assume.

Maybe a much bigger, better question than the legalese is simply does the f-class community WANT free-recoil to be legal or not? I can start a thread and stir up this debate one more time if we think we can accomplish something this time.

On the other hand if it's decided that "must be held against" is the rule then EXACTLY what does it mean? Is light contact between the butt and light, loose clothing sufficient? If so then free-recoil is not really prohibited anyway, it just requires more careful set-up to comply with a meaningless visual requirement.

Having officials make a subjective judgement of whether there is sufficiently firm contact between the butt and shoulder seems a terrible option to me. If a rule allows no objective enforcement the rule needs to be changed or discarded.

I agree. Having officials make a subjective call on a rule is not acceptable. And to your point, the point about the buttplate being in the shoulder is under the artificial support rule.

Based on that, I would say that it is not required to have the butt of the rifle against the shoulder.

With all of the above said, ASSA has our annual members meeting during the championships and the shooters can give direct input on any changes - including clarification on rules - that are of interest.

Best Regards
ken

PS: FYI, the entire ASSA rulebook is not the NRA text reorganized. Every rule was typed clean and our format is our own. Took months, but it got done....my carpel tunnel in both hands was my direct ROI for that task.

 

[kzin]

thanks

 

[Iggyort]

This is a very well run match. Great people and lots of fun !! Registration can be made until 28 June. See you there !

Great Match . I will be there!!