F-Class Fullbore National Championships

[DE-F-Open]

Attention Clubs & Match Directors:

I have been asked by NRA staff to share the following with you:

The NRA is seeking clubs that would be interested in hosting and conducting Mid-Range and/or Long Range F-Class Fullbore National Championships.

On January 5, 2024 the NRA Board of Directors approved the adoption of the new F-Class High Power Rifle Rule Book. One of the changes in those rules was a change in the course of fire for the F-Class Fullbore Nationals. This change will mean that the F-Class Fullbore Nationals will no longer be fired in conjunction with the sling Fullbore Nationals and that new national championship events must be established.

NRA is seeking clubs to host and conduct the new championships much as clubs have hosted and conducted the standard F-Class Nationals with which we are all familiar.

Under the new Rules, the new F-Class Fullbore Mid-Range National Championships will be fired as follows:

Mid-Range:
Day #1 - 3x300 plus a team match
Day #2 - 3x500 plus a team match
Day #3 - 3x600 plus a team match
All matches will be fired two-to-a-mound with two (2) convertible sighters and 15 shots for record.

Long Range:
Day #1 - 3x800 plus a team match
Day #2 - 3x900 plus a team match
Day #3 - 3x1000 plus a team match
All matches will be fired two-to-a-mound with two (2) convertible sighters and 15 shots for record.

These new national championships may be fired on electronic targets.

A club does not have to host both Mid-Range and Long Range - they can be held by different clubs at different times.

Clubs and match directors interested in hosting and conducting either the Mid-Range F-Class Fullbore National Championships or the Long Range F-Class Fullbore National Championships (or both) should contact Aaron Farmer at afarmer@nrahq.org.

John Sigler
Chairman
F-Class High Power Rifle Committee

 

[mgdietrich]

Make it part of SOA, prone and fclass at same time. Seems the easiest solution

 

[clowdis]

Make it part of SOA, prone and fclass at same time. Seems the easiest solution

Their format doesn't follow ours. They could make it before or after SOA but I understand there isn't much love for the BERC by F-class shooters.

 

[mgdietrich]

I don’t get f open people wanting to shoot a bunch of 300,500&600. Just seems like overkill, even as pair firing.

But it is their game- and why change Palma course? Just because they don’t want to move yardlines each day doesn’t seem like a good idea. But, I don’t shoot f-class

 

[mgunderson]

Is there a reason to separate Fclass from the sling fullbore? Is this the format Fclass used in South Africa 2023 worlds?

 

[clowdis]

It might be the NRA just looking for something to promote since their usual matches aren't going that well. I've never seen that much interest in full bore from the F-class guys myself.

 

[SSchnd]

Weird, we shoot F and Sling at CIPHRS and Sierra Cup does at Bench Rest along with Bench Rest and they do it very well for the Sierra Cup Match.

 

[Walt Krafft]

You lose a whole bunch of shooters both sling and F class with the two to the mound pair firing. Don't want to argue the thing it is just a fact. XTC and sling shooters are used to moving their gear from one yard line to another and have developed ways to easily do it. Many F class shooters have not had to do that and with rifles, rests, scopes, and everything else weighing close to 100 pounds it is a chore to move.

 

[memilanuk]

You lose a whole bunch of shooters both sling and F class with the two to the mound pair firing. Don't want to argue the thing it is just a fact. XTC and sling shooters are used to moving their gear from one yard line to another and have developed ways to easily do it. Many F class shooters have not had to do that and with rifles, rests, scopes, and everything else weighing close to 100 pounds it is a chore to move.

I totally agree. I came up via Service/Match Rifle and then Palma, but I was interested in F-class from the beginning - just nobody around here shot it and/or match directors wouldn't allow it. And then I shot a *lot* of F-class over the Palma course ,or the SOA format. To me, moving between firing lines is part of the sport. Keeping your gear at least a little more 'portable' than 5-10 trips between your vehicle and the firing point is a good thing, in my mind.

Hell, I actually prefer doing it the way the Canadian's do, where you not only move back, you move *over*, so you're not 'stuck' on a crappy firing point all day long, or conversely, hunkered down in a honey-hole all day long. Sucks a little when you get to 'roll over' from the high end all the way down to the low end, especially on a 100 firing point line, but those matches have plenty of time between relays so it's not *that* big of a ordeal, just an inconvenience.

/rant on

But... that's not the way the herd wants things to go. Get rid of 8 and 9, make everything 1k, because the targets are 'too easy' at the shorter distances. Ehhh... okay. I subscribe to the theory that you may not 'win' a match on the 'easy' shorter distance targets, but you can sure as heck *lose* the match on those. But I think there's way too much tendency to set up a friggin' gun emplacement on the firing line. As much as I like infiltration squadding for the sake of making the matches move faster, I think it gets abused in that people come and spend too much time/effort raking their firing point out like a Japanese zen garden, or something from Rick & Morty 'true level' (look it up on YT, you'll understand what I mean). If people could get away with setting their gear up once and never moving it, just have the other relay set up adjacent... they would. Again, I think the Canadian's have it right - everybody removes their gear from the line, *nobody* moves their gear up until the line is (literally) clear, and then you have three minutes (Canadian) prep time to set up and be ready, cuz when you're shooting pair fire, your partner isn't going to put up with you spending another 5-10 minutes screwing around getting set up. Personally, I just think that's taking the whole 'belly benchrest' thing too far. I get the argument that "it's supposed to be a shooting match, not a 'set up your firing point' match". Fine. If you want a pure accuracy shooting contest, go shoot Benchrest. They shoot group *and* score - from a bench. Problem solved.

/rant off

 

[Ned Ludd]

If I'm reading the "new" format correctly, moving gear between firing lines isn't going to be an issue going forward as they plan to have 3 matches a day at a single distance rather than 300/500/600 or 800/900/1000 on a single day. From above:

 

[NZ_Fclass]

It's easy to see the differing cultures of TR and F-class showing up as F-class moves away from it's Palma course roots- which we still shoot here. Gone are the days of a TR rifle with a Weaver T-15 mounted. NZ still scores the British(?) way with a 6 ring plus an X, rather than the US 10 ring. We mostly shoot string fire -
(wait for the condition) rather than the "Bisley" 2 to a mound format. Our clubs accommodate all styles - there are not enough shooters for dedicated clubs/ranges - and that includes guys with sporting guns.
We have some local F-class rules - FPR class, which takes in the PRS style rifle to a FTR match and a Hunter class - which does not seem to have taken off, surprisingly - I guess the performance of lighter rifles disappoints the shooter.


We have only one range in the country where shooters stay on the line and targets are at different distances.

Given the choice - I would prefer F-Class shot at 2 distances only - 600 and 1000 yds. Far simpler for clubs to equip, manage and organise events. Day one - 600, day 2 ,1000. All on electronic targets only - and arguably - on the same "physical" target/aiming mark - the change being made only in the electronics. - without the sling shooters, we do not need to change the aiming mark size.

 

[falconpilot]