Let me try to address the 7 sec delay and the thinking involved. Backing up a few years shooting slowfire went something like this, “commence fire, wind doped and rifle windage set. Fire the shot, scope the target to ensure it went down in the pits while opening the bolt and loading a round without closing the bolt. Pick up the pencil and call the shot, then back on the scope and check the value of the shot fired. Evaluate the wind, adjust the sights as necessary, close the bolt and fire the next shot. Repeat the procedure except add the value of the first shot in the databook. I only say these things to give you all a feel for how a new to slightly experienced shooter learned to shoot. As rifles became more accurate and ballistics improved many shooters do not keep a complete databook, some not at all. Then along came etargets and databooks in F-class disappeared almost completely. Competitors hardly ever take their eyes off the scope and databooks are unnecessary because the monitor is plotting the data. In order to keep the sport somewhat as it was before F-class and forcing the shooters to read the wind a 7 second delay was instituted. National records were not even a consideration. Many competitors at the nationals and SWN expressed the view that without it, it might more mirror bench rest than target rife shooting. After all when Farqy invented F-class he only wanted to continue shooting his target rifle 7.62mm rifle in sling competition. Since Farqys days we have come along ways in rifles, ballistics and equipment and targets. The rules of today will not be the rules of tomorrow because we will need to adapt to improvements and competitors likes and dislikes. Let’s face it rifle shooting is an ever-changing sport, enjoy what you have and adapt as it changes but always enjoy it.
Jetjock
Ok, I see that the NRA rule on the 7 second delay was not motivated by national records. I still don’t see any explanation for the selection of 7 seconds, but I’ll ignore that random capricious value for now.
I read the post a couple of times and I can’t help but think that Jetjock never fired a match in F-class competition.
I started in Connaught in 1981 pair firing on big-ash 12 feet wide targets using range-issued ammo. I went from Service Rifle to F-Class in 2006 and have never looked back. I still have my databook from my days prior to F-Class but I have not kept up a databook in F-class, or at least not one in the traditional sense of plotting every shot and recording the sight adjustment and the score for each shot. What I have is a record of the zeros that I had for different ranges and venues. I am not aware of anyone keeping a traditional databook in F-class, in which each shot is plotted along with sight adjustment and score for each shot. In fact, if you are messing with your scope for each shot in F-Class, you are doing it wrong. I will not speak for all the F-class shooters, but I do know many of them, myself included, actually hold on the target rather than dial a correction on the scope. When I start a match, I will dial in a correction for the dominant conditions and then take sighters to fine tune my setting, especially for elevation but I’m already holding on rings to deal with the conditions. When I start my string, I may adjust the elevation using the scope dial, but before I touch the windage on the scope, there has to have been a MAJOR condition change during the string.
I am always looking through my spotting scope, or at the flags or through my riflescope once I’m on the line. I know that many other F-Class competitors do the same; we are not plotting the shots on paper shooting individually; most F-class shooters haven’t done that, ever.
The etarget monitors only show the last shot fired in registered competition at Bayou Rifles, so no one is using the monitor to plot the shots.
At Bayou, we have sling shooters competing alongside F-Class shooters. At the last match, I even put sling and F shooters on the same target. All they did was change target face when they shot. Before we had to keep them separate because the paper faces are different; not so with the etargets.
I also see where “preserving the sanctity of the national records” was not a consideration in mandating the 7 second delay. Jetjock does state that the 7 second delay was mandated “(i)n order to keep the sport somewhat as it was before F-class and forcing the shooters to read the wind”.
I’m sorry to burst that bubble, but that ship sailed over 12 years ago. As I explained earlier, F-class shooters do it very differently compared to the sling shooters. When George Farquharson petitioned the DCRA for an exemption to use a bipod and a scope on his match rifle so he could continue to compete, the 40X and 60X riflescopes were few and far between and the bipods of those days were far removed from the bipods of today and especially from the battery-operated, power-driven, gyro-stabilized, GPS-located, Laser-guided, Bluetooth-connected front rests with the cappuccino add-on used in F-Open. I can also assure you the F-Open rifles of today would be near impossible to shoot with a sling and coat; the barrels (usually truck axles stolen from heavy duty pickup truck,) are so heavy they would lift most shooters from the ground when held on the line.
In my estimation, the reasoning behind the 7 second rule is faulty and capricious but I don’t really care because I shoot F-TR (the real F-class from George Farquharson’s intent.) I can’t shoot faster than 7 seconds; it takes me that much time or longer to check the spotting scope after the shot, to cycle the bolt, to pick the fired case from the bolt face (no ejector, I could not afford one,) put the case back in the ammo box, load the next round, go back to the spotting scope, then line up the rifle on target (I don’t have a return to zero frond rest and rear bag setup as in F-Open) and then look at my smartphone to get the score and location of the prior shot.
So, if the intent of the rule is to slow down the rate of fire, for some random reason, I have a question. I am planning to introduce pair firing at an upcoming Bayou Rifles match, just like they have in international competition. By definition, pair firing will slow down the rate of fire for a shooter. The way I am proposing to implement it with the ShotMarker etargets is as follows:
We will divide the shooters into teams of 2 people. Possibly one F-Open and one F-TR per team, as much as possible.
The targets will be set to no-sighter mode, all shoots will be scored. The shooters will have each other’s score cards and they will have to score each other for every shot. Do I need to set the etargets to the 7-second delay mode, or can I make them immediate?
