Camp Atterbury will no longer be a sort-of "well kept secret" highpower range anymore. A superb facility that will now enter the limelight as a go-to and must-shoot range. Shawn Agne and his crew have definitely helped transform it into a genuine first-class program. The CIHPRS helped pioneer the use of electronic targets this year, which enticed several shooters into shooting more often.
This years Nationals will now allow the XTC shooters a chance to also shoot the mid-range matches.
If only the NRA would let the F Class shooters back in?
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Dear GIBrass,
As far as the NRA "letting the F-Class shooters back in", please consider the following - and oh, by the way, you may get your wish - or at least part of it......
I assume you mean NRA letting F-Class shooters shoot in the "conventional" "sling nationals" like they did at Camp Perry a few years ago.
Here's the deal - a few years ago NRA held the first NRA F-Class Mid-Range Nationals in conjunction with the "conventional" or "sling" mid-range nationals. Unfortunately F-Class participation was very low, indeed. It was a little better the second year, but just a little. At the same time, NRA held what was known as the F-Class Great Lakes Long Range Regional which was shot at the same time as the "sling" Long Range Nationals using the "sling" format and program. The reason it was a Regional was because the F-Class Long Range Nationals were held elsewhere and you can only have one national championship per discipline.
The majority of the F-Class community made it very clear that they wanted their own nationals, separate from the sling shooters and using a separate program - the shoot-off format and the inability to use competitor "seeding" after the first day of competition were also reasons why the F-Class Community wanted to be separate from the sling shooters. The majority also wanted the F-Class nationals to be held at various locations around the country as opposed to holding them in the same location year after year. Another factor was that there simply were not enough range days available at Camp Perry to run a separate F-Class National Championship program at Camp Perry - the National Guard needed those days for their own training.
The 2016 Mid-Range and Long Range F-Class Nationals were held in Lodi, WI and will be there again in 2017. Who knows where they will be in 2018 or beyond.
So, it isn't really a question of "letting F-Class back in" but rather a question of how to have the F-Class Nationals in a format that fits into what the F-Class Community wants and deserves - which is its own, distinct national championship. That was the main issue at Perry.
But, with the pending move to Atterbury, there has been some preliminary discussion of finding a way to include F-Class in the mix without disturbing the concepts for the F-Class nationals that are already in place. Thus, I believe that some very preliminary discussions are being had about the possibility of having an F-Class Long Range Regional either before or after the "conventional" sling nationals. Again, this is all very, very preliminary... but it is being discussed. Who knows, maybe they will add Mid-range to the discussion as well.......
Given the very newness of the announced move to Atterbury and all of the other work that must be accomplished before that move can take place, I suspect that it is far too early to know all that might eventually transpire.
It is good to know that there are others besides me who might want it both ways - independent and separate F-Class Mid-range and Long Range National Championships, plus the ability to participate in the "conventional" and traditional NRA High Power Rifle Championships along with the sling shooters from our respective clubs while still shooting F-Class.
Hope this helps,
DE-F-Open
