F-T/R Cartridge Selection
- Thread starter ryanjay11
- Start date
Retired Grunt
F Open Shooter
Can't you use something else and shoot Open? I.E. .224 Valkyrie.
to be Honest some of best HM's shoot the .223
to be Honest some of best HM's shoot the .223
The thing I love about FTR is the simplicity of only two calibers. That keeps the experimenting down significantly and emphasizes gun handling and wind calling. The guy or girl with a 1/2 MOA rig can compete with the 1/4 MOA rig with excellent wind calls and gun handling. When you consider the ballistic differences alone to F Open, it amazes me how competitive the FTR scores can be.
Rules is rules. Some people just don't like rules. Seems pretty simple to me, F?TR class = 223, 308,
MikeMcCasland
Team Texas F-T/R
I love FTR being limited, and honestly a lot of folks don't understand just how well the .308/200.20x combo can perform.
It blew my mind when I finally got my first "real" FTR gun built.
It blew my mind when I finally got my first "real" FTR gun built.
MikeMcCasland
Team Texas F-T/R
It's understandable too. If your experience with those two calibers is 77gr/168gr SMK levels of performance, you might think shooting good scores with either at 1,000 to be an impossible feat.
I dipped my toes into F-Class shooting a 6.5CM with 140 Hybrids (I had a couple of good barrels too). I decided to go TR because I liked the "spec racing" aspect of it, but I anticipated it being even harder to shoot than my 6.5CM.
My first 1k match after I had my TR gun built, I was immediately finishing 10+ points higher; and that trend continued.
You try telling folks on internet forums that a 308 can be easier to shoot at 1k than a 6.5/140 combo, and their heads will explode.
DirtySteve
Gold $$ Contributor
The cool thing about the 308 is you can run a 155 a warp speed or a 200 at a decent speed. With the 223 you better go as heavy as you can as fast as you can.
F-T/R is a creation to get FClass a better exposure in UK and Commonwealth countries where, by rule, the Target Rifle category limits rifles to 223 and 308. In many of these countries the ranges used are military ranges and the military range safety zones are based on 7.62mm and 5.56mm NATO Ball cartridges. Using ammunition that exceeds these ballistics can get these ranges closed to civilian usage.
IIRC, when George Farquharson showed up with a scoped rifle and “just wanted to shoot” it may or may not have been with a 308. When I met him about a year later, he had his rifle with a 7mm-08 of some kind for a barrel. He did this because he didn’t want to shoot the “issued” ammunition that you were required to shoot. He was an avid shooter and experimenter. A couple of decades later, the militaries in the UK and elsewhere, stopped issuing ammunition to these organizations so they started hand loading. But the rationale for the T/R caliber restrictions is to keep ranges open.
IIRC, when George Farquharson showed up with a scoped rifle and “just wanted to shoot” it may or may not have been with a 308. When I met him about a year later, he had his rifle with a 7mm-08 of some kind for a barrel. He did this because he didn’t want to shoot the “issued” ammunition that you were required to shoot. He was an avid shooter and experimenter. A couple of decades later, the militaries in the UK and elsewhere, stopped issuing ammunition to these organizations so they started hand loading. But the rationale for the T/R caliber restrictions is to keep ranges open.
In the UK, we've seen this reversed in recent years. Early days after FTR was introduced and became established, our national league rounds had a modest bias to 'Open', then it moved to a 50/50 split which remained the case until maybe two, three years ago. Now it's gone to a fairly marked FTR preponderance at this level at any rate. There is a bias towards FTR entries in my main club which is very active in F at all distances up to 1,000 yards, but not as heavily as has happened at national level.
I've moved from FTR to Open since I finished shooting at national level, but am unusual here. The improvement in 308 Win ballistics with 185gn and especially 200gn bullets has I believe much to do with this. I should add that 223 has a much smaller role in the UK than is obviously the case in the US. (AFAIK, I'm the only competitor to ever use this cartridge seriously in national league comps here, and I wouldn't today if I were to re-enter FTR at this level.)
You may wanna run them hard at a 1000, but I have shot my best 6-500 yard scores around 2700fps. from the little mouse gun…hope Montana is treating you well my friend.
XTR
F-TR obssessed shooting junkie
masochism vs. self gratification. Not too hard to understand.
I love F/TR and like you having a custom built rifle for this discipline is really a game changer.
My club has a 'military' class in F, for tactical and factory rifles. I know many American clubs do this too, but IIRC usually have all sorts of restrictions on weight and barrel length etc. Ours is effectively 'Open' except folding bipods and no full BR/F type back bags. It has become very popular especially for our winter fixtures and these guys / girls and their rifles can really shoot. Scores are as high as both FTR and F/O up to 800 yards, but tend to tail off a bit beyond there. Hot 6.5 Creedmoor loads with heavy bullets and some 6.5X47s seem to be the norm, no doubt some 6 Dashers around too.
We originally introduced it for members who wanted to shoot 338LM tactical jobs, and a few still do. Not competitive though!
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