F-Class practise...how much???

[dawgmaster]

I know everyone will be much different, but thought I'd hear from a few of you on how much you practise???
How many times a month?
Roughly how many rounds a month or year etc. ?
And in some cases how many barrels a year?

 

[memilanuk]

15-20 lbs of powder per year... lay off during late fall and winter.

 

[Steve Blair]

But, Monte, our competition season is late Fall, Winter and early Spring.

You really meant: "...lay off during August and September when it is too damn hot to lay on the sand."

Seriously, I practice every other week, about 150 rounds per session. Usually, one competition per month. That works out to about a .308 barrel per year. When practicing, do the whole routine. Take your timer, wait ten seconds between shots for target pulling and watch the clock. It is surprising how close you can get to match conditions when you go through all the motions.

 

[HillbillySniper]

Once the weather breaks in the end of march early april ill try to shoot everyday all thru the summer all the way up to when our archery season starts at the end of september. Last year in april I pit together a new rifle as of the current date I have well over 600+ round thru just that rifle in a year. That includes atleast one match a month sometimes two.

Hillbilly

 

[Taildrag15X]

I guess I'm getting older as I did shoot all year long no matter what the weater here in the Artic of Northern NY, now it's on any warm (anything above 20 F) day between Nov. and April 1st to keep the trigger finger moving. From April-Oct. there are at least 2 Matches per month somewhere I could compete in with at least 2 practice sessions at the Range "live fire" and untold amounts of "dry firing" at home. What I miss out on is the wind reading pratice that comes from 600-1,000 yd. as there are limited number of Monthly Open Practices at the National Guard Base.

I'd love to build a 40X 22 lr. up the same as my F/TR Rifles so I could shoot indoors over the winter.

 

[Va Jim]

Thats exactly what I am having done. CMP 40X, new bolt from PTG. Ray Bowman from Precision Rifle and Tool will work his magic on one of his FTR lowboy stocks with the aluminum bedding chassis. I figure out to 200 yds will be good practice.

JimC

 

[Lbart]

Dawgmaster,
From your questions I will assume you are relatively new to F-Class shooting and I will approach this from that view point. I don't practice at all and only shoot 3-5 major matches a year, but I have 48 years of competitive trigger pulling in a large number of disciplines; the last 12 with F-Class. Even so, I have to really work the first day or two in a large tournament to remember everything I know and to retrain myself to do things without thinking about them.

A relatively new shooter should practice enough to develop mental and muscle memory to the point that a shot is fired without conscious thought of the event happening. You should be able to concentrate on the wind and mirage and how it will affect the bullet impact and not on your rifle holding or aiming. How much time or rounds fired depends on the person and how he practices. You should practice as you would in a match. Setup a routine and checklist for everything you do.

There should be goal to you practice sessions. Shoot against other shooters. Do not practice for practice sake. Bad practice habits are worse than no practice. The best practice is matches themselves. By shooting in matches you get to pick the brains of other BETTER competitors when not firing (i.e. in the pits). Doing so will increase your knowledge rapidly. Reading books on competitive shooting is another way of picking brains.

To improve you must have a goal for every time you shoot. It can be a personal best score or beating a certain better shooter for the first time, whatever, but you need a goal. Notice I have not given you a number of rounds you must fire or the number of barrels you need to burn out. That is for you to determine. Don't forget about dry firing. The "old geezer" J.J. Conway, the father of US F-Class shooting used to dry fire at home quite a bit.

You are the one who has to determine how much practice you need, but I will say this...COMPETING in matches are the best way to improve your scores.

Best of luck,
Larry Bartholome

 

[Taildrag15X]

Thats exactly what I am having done. CMP 40X, new bolt from PTG. Ray Bowman from Precision Rifle and Tool will work his magic on one of his FTR lowboy stocks with the aluminum bedding chassis. I figure out to 200 yds will be good practice.

JimC

I'd like to do a copy my 2 F/TR Rifles that are almost twins themselfs, HS-025 stocks, 20-50x50 Leupolds, 2 oz triggers, Harris Bi Pods, Pod paws and Pod Locs......just one is a mouse gun (per tallgun) .223 Rem. and the other .308 Win that I just finished.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Dawgmaster,
From your questions I will assume you are relatively new to F-Class shooting and I will approach this from that view point. I don't practice at all and only shoot 3-5 major matches a year, but I have 48 years of competitive trigger pulling in a large number of disciplines; the last 12 with F-Class. Even so, I have to really work the first day or two in a large tournament to remember everything I know and to retrain myself to do things without thinking about them.

A relatively new shooter should practice enough to develop mental and muscle memory to the point that a shot is fired without conscious thought of the event happening. You should be able to concentrate on the wind and mirage and how it will affect the bullet impact and not on your rifle holding or aiming. How much time or rounds fired depends on the person and how he practices. You should practice as you would in a match. Setup a routine and checklist for everything you do.

There should be goal to you practice sessions. Shoot against other shooters. Do not practice for practice sake. Bad practice habits are worse than no practice. The best practice is matches themselves. By shooting in matches you get to pick the brains of other BETTER competitors when not firing (i.e. in the pits). Doing so will increase your knowledge rapidly. Reading books on competitive shooting is another way of picking brains.

To improve you must have a goal for every time you shoot. It can be a personal best score or beating a certain better shooter for the first time, whatever, but you need a goal. Notice I have not given you a number of rounds you must fire or the number of barrels you need to burn out. That is for you to determine. Don't forget about dry firing. The "old geezer" J.J. Conway, the father of US F-Class shooting used to dry fire at home quite a bit.

You are the one who has to determine how much practice you need, but I will say this...COMPETING in matches are the best way to improve your scores.

Best of luck,
Larry Bartholome

+1

The only time I shoot by myself is to work up loads, once I have a good load worked up, I shoot as many matches as I can.

 

[dawgmaster]

Great input evryone...thanks a bunch!

I'll take all the advise I can get.

This upcoming season will be my first. The only range in Saskatchewan is about 230KM away. But atleast it seems there is nearly some type of shoot or get together there monthly(seasonal of course) So for now I practise myself. And I'm only shooting at 500yds right now. I plan on 300,500 and 600 this year. The rifles I have were barreled with slow twists...so not exactly long range-perfect!