Basic Rifle Setup for F Class

[rckendall]

i am wondering if there are any rules of thumb for adjusting length of pull and eye relief for a rifle in F Open Class. The question comes from a resent discovery by me that two of my rifles differed by nearly an inch in length of pull. Both have adjustable butt plates and probably both were adjusted to accommodate eye relief.

So, it's kind of like which came first, the chicken or the egg. Which should be adjusted first (I'm thinking length of pull), but to what standard, since a sling and associated hardware are not involved?

Thanks for any insight you care to offer.

Richard

 

[dcali]

In my opinion, length of pull is not very important for F class, since there is no sling involved. It is much more important to set the scope in a place where it is comfortable to look through, as the high mag scopes we use are not very forgiving in terms of eye relief or placement. The way I do it is to get behind the rifle, find a comfortable place for my head on the comb, and then set the scope to match that (either move to a different slot or slide it in the rings). Once the sight picture is good, I adjust length of pull so that the rilfle touches my shoulder.

 

[CharlieNC]

I like to do step one at home on the floor which is setup length of pull based on achieving a stable boby position, including position of arms to achieve a good hand position for trigger pull ( its surprising how much these are related ). Do this without paying any attention to the scope. Step two I do at the range which is to adjust the position of the scope, after getting into the proper position established in step one. You do not want to get into a poor body position chasing the scope.

 

[ShootDots]

The two (2) respondents above have given you some very good advice. Here is something, in my opinion, is just as important and maybe more so. Depending on which front rest you have, you have to worry about controlling torque! Many of the front rests have a minimal opportunity to control torque. If you can not control torque, you will never be very successful in F-Open, especially at long(er) ranges. TIP: If you have an S.E.B. NEO there are adjustments to close or open up the "ears" of the rest. Place your rifle in the front rest and loosen up ONE SIDE of the ears. Now squeeze them together snuggly against the stock>>>WHILST those 2 knobs that push the ears in are LOOSE. After you have it snugged up against the stock, tighten the ear you are pressing against the stock. NOW once you slide your rifle in, you can turn those knobs in, pushing the ears against the stock in a controlled fashion. This will minimize, almost to the elimination of torque on the rifle. It certainly will negate any effects of torque. This is a BIG problem with larger cartridges shooting heavy for caliber bullets. This is one area of "set-up" that needs to be closely looked at!

 

[CharlieNC]

Just say a video a few items down in the Daily Bulletin that clearly portrays what I was trying to say.

 

[rckendall]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I set up on the carpet this morning and checked both rifles. They are completely different in style, and each a different length of pull, as I mentioned in my original post. But each one had perfect eye relief. Since I keep my cheek away from the rifle it was not quite like the video showed, but the perfect eye relief was repeatable on both rifles.

So, I feel pretty confident in the setup of each rifle but must say that I'm curious as to how they differ so much in basic measurements.

Thanks again,
Richard