Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting F-Class Explained (3- The Rifles (part A, F-T/R MR))

F-T/R, The rifle.

In this installment, I would like to discuss aspects of the selection of an F-T/R rifle, what I look for in such rifles and so on. I will describe my current .223 rifle for MR.

First of all, the rifle has to fit the rules of F-T/R competition. There are really only two requirements, the caliber and the overall weight. The caliber selection is very simple; .223 Remington or .308 Winchester, period, end of story. No AI, no improved anything. The rules are not as strict about the exact dimensions of the chamber, but my belief is that if and when this will be enforced, they will probably use guages for your ammo and perhaps the chamber as well. If you ammo does not fit in an industry standard (SAAMI) cartridge guage, that is probably going to cause you issues at some point. So don�t start building you rifle trying to stretch the rule, that will only hurt you.

The overall weight allowed is 18.18 pounds, and this includes everything that is attached to the unloaded rifle, such as optics, bipod, sling, and other doodads. If you want a level on your rifle, like I do, that is part of the weight. I keep my rifles just under 18 pounds to allow for variations in scales. I have never had my rifles weighed at a match even when placing at or near the top, but I want to make sure my rifles are legal; no sense shooting a rifle that will not pass close inspection; those will surely arise at some point.

Ok. Let�s talk caliber. The odds-on favorite for LR F-T/R is the 308 Winchester; it has a wider array of high BC bullets and makes bigger holes on paper. After topping out with a .223, I decided to go .308 for LR, 800/900/1000 yards. For the MR, (300, 500, 600 yards,) I am sticking with .223 Remington. It has shown me that it can be a match winner at these ranges.

Prior to 2009 if you entered a competition with a rifle, you had to use that rifle for the entire event, unless it broke. In 2009, the NRA changed the rules so that one could change rifles at each stage, but you had to use the same rifle for a specific match. In other words, if you are in an MR competition, with 300, 500 and 600 courses of fire, you could elect to use a .223 at 300 and 500, and go for a 308 at 600. You cannot change the rifle in the middle of the 300 yard course of fire for example.

After a few years shooting the .223 at all ranges, I decided it was best to use this rifle at MR only. Having two different rifles for F-T/R has some advantages and disadvantages. The down side is the added cost and the duplication of optics or also in my case the different manual of arms and the multiplicity of loads.

On the plus side, not using the same rifle for everything provides for longer barrel life, reduces wear and tear on the rifle and the fact you have a spare rifle in case one goes down during a big competition is a hidden plus. I use the same bipod and rear rest for both, I have the exact same scope and reticle on both and I use the same powder for both calibers.

The Barrel Selection.
I consider the barrel the single most important aspect of a match rifle; you can always improve your ammo, your hold, your trigger control. You can always change the stock, the trigger, the scope, but if your barrel is no good all these things are for naught. You need to start with a superb (I did not say �good enough,� I said �superb�) barrel. I like cut-rifled barrels better than button-rifled or hammer forged barrels. Argue all you want, I don�t care. Whatever floats your boat is fine; my goal here is not to convince you one way or another to select any type of rifle or caliber, I am just presenting my findings. I do want to convince you however, that the barrel is the MOST important aspect of your rifle. On the other hand the good thing is that barrels can and will be changed as they do get used up. If you get into F-class competition, you will need to learn about barrels to become competitive.

Speaking of twist, the selection of the twist should be considered very carefully. Your rate of twist should be able to properly stabilize the longest bullet you will want to shoot in competition. It should not be much faster than needed. There are schools of thought that believe one can over-stabilize a bullet, others that say it just isn�t true and yet others who do not say either way. I chose my bullet first, then I selected the twist rate that I calculated/believed/read/received input on to properly stabilize it, without going overboard. I still believe a faster twist presents more resistance to the passage of a bullet through the barrel and since I am shooting pretty hot loads, why add more troubles?

I like my barrels with very heavy contours. The heavy barrel is needed to endure the somewhat rapid pace of fire, without the usual attendant POI shift due to heat. Heavy barrels also help tame the recoil of the rifle and thick barrels cool faster than thin barrels because of the increased surface area. A typical match in F-T/R is either 15 or 20 rounds for record with two sighters. So, you need to measure the impact of 17 or 22 rounds through the barrel of your choice. This is not a magazine dump, but when the conditions are right, and I have a good target puller, I can and will put my 22 rounds downrange in less than 10 minutes. When the target comes back up, I will typically fire within 3-5 seconds with my AR. With my bolt rifle, this takes a little longer. More on this in another chapter, but all this to say that if your barrel can�t handle that pace of shooting and keep its POI, you will have problems.

I like my barrels to be as long as possible for the extra velocity they can generate. My .223 has a 26 inch barrel and my 308 has a 33 inch barrel. For the long trip downrange, I want to give the bullets the most boost I can provide by using as much as possible the hot pressurized gases my cases generate. The report out of my rifles is definitely not very big. Also remember, no muzzle brakes, suppressors or cans allowed in F-T/R competitions; NRA rules.

I do not want my barrels fluted, I want the full weight of the barrel and fluting reduces the barrel stiffness. Yes, I know people have told you fluted barrels are stiffer, but this is only compared to a barrel of the same weight. For the same diameter, a fluted barrel is not as stiff as a non-fluted barrel; material talks.

I also get my barrels sand-blasted, I believe that a mirror finish keeps the internal heat from escaping as fast as in a sand-blasted barrel. I have nothing to prove this, it�s just a belief. Feel free to confirm or infirm that belief; I am not married to it. I like my crown recessed to protect it. The crown is critical in accuracy. To clean this barrel, get a nice coated one piece rod of sufficient length and use a proper bore guide.

So spend your money wisely, the barrel is THE area where you do not want to cut costs.


My .223 Rifle for MR.
Mt .223 F-T/R rifle started life as an ArmaLite M15A4(T). Coming out of Service Rifle competition, I was extremely familiar with the AR-15 rifle and absolutely loved its ergonomics and the easy modifications that could be done at home. Service Rifle has rather stringent rules regarding equipment, but in F-T/R, I could let my imagination run wild in accurizing and improving an AR-15 for this type of competition. I also discovered that my handloading needed further improvement, but that�s for another chapter.

The biggest single improvement I made to my AR was to give it a truck-axle type of barrel from Krieger. When it comes to AR-15 barrels, I consider Krieger the best there is, no disrespected intended or meant for all the other barrel manufacturers. I chose the 26 inch barrel with a tight .223 chamber but with the long 5.56 leade. My only goal was to shoot the 80grain bullets and I needed both a faster twist (1:7.7 or 1:8) and the long leade. This barrel has both qualities. The twist rate is the 1:7.75 from Krieger, which allows me to completely stabilize the 80gr bullets I like to shoot for their high BC values and accuracy. The leade is long enough to allow me to seat the bullets as I want them to be seated. We will talk more about ammo and bullet selection in another chapter.

Now the vast majority of F-T/R competitors will NOT start with a .223 Remington MR rifle on an AR-15 platform. They will instead use a bolt action, either a Remington 700 or one of those fine Savage rifles. This works extremely well and they can have rifles accurate enough almost out of the box to go play in F-T/R and learn what they need to do to their rifles.

There are many gunsmiths who will work on a 700 and the barrel attachment system on the Savage allows the end user the capability to rebarrel his or her own rifle themselves. The .223 has the advantage of being extremely accurate and pleasant to shoot. It also requires about only half as much powder as the .308 and the bullets are somewhat cheaper. Another advantage is that shooting a .223 heavy rifle in a 66 round prone competition will not beat you up as much as shooting that full load .308 bolt action rifle. And as you get into the zone and start crawling up the stock, your eyebrow is less likely to become acquainted with your rifle scope. There ain�t nothing that will take you out of the zone faster than getting wacked hard in the face; ask me how I know this.

Another advantage that I discovered about using an AR-15 as an F-T/R rifle is two-fold. Due to the gas system, the shooter workload is reduced; I don�t have to open the bolt and pull out the spent cartridge, it comes out for me when I pull the trigger. All I have to do is load the next round in the ejection port and push it into the chamber. I installed a through the triggerguard bolt release. So, I can actually keep up a faster pace of shooting and I move around less, because I only need to load the next round and write down my score, if I�m keeping my own score. When I have someone else keeping score, I can go even faster and completely concentrate on shooting; it�s bliss.

The other aspect is that the barrel stays cooler in a semi automatic, because the case that gets ejected on firing carries out a huge amount of heat instead of transferring it to the barrel. Compare the feel of a cartridge ejected from a semi as opposed to a case that comes out of a bolt action. Where did you think all that heat from the case went? Is this a reason to go semi? Nope, but it�s another thing to think about.

Lots of people firmly believe that a semi cannot be as accurate as a bolt action. Ok, but I have beaten LOTS of bolt action shooters with my semi-auto, including F-Open uber-rifles.

Because an F-T/R shooter spends his time shooting prone, the rifle needs to be adjusted to the body for the prone position and all the enhancements to the rifle are executed with prone position in mind. I tried several bipods and before I got the Sinclair Moon-Lander type bipod, I was using a Versapod. I believed the way the Versapod was attached to the rifle, the cantilevered fashion of attachment contributed to reducing the rifle hop that I saw with the Harris bipod. I really like the Sinclair bipod and have been using it for about a year now. It allows me to really set my rifle to fit my natural point of aim. We will talk more about bipods in another chapter.

Once I am prone on the ground alongside my rifle I try to stay as still as possible, not move around much. Beside the through the triggerguard bolt release, I also use the Bob sled (10 round equivalent model) to single-load my cartridges in the rifle. The Bob sled has a positive bolt hold open feature that I really like. It has never failed me. Before that I used the Sinclair single load follower but after several failures to hold open the bolt, I looked for another solution. I did not like breaking position to pull the T-handle of my rifle because the bolt had not stayed open. I use chrome silicon springs throughout the rifle for dependability and that includes the buffer spring. Because I use very stout load for LR, I always had a heavy insert CWS in the bolt carrier, now that I have been using only my MR loads, I still leave the CWS in place as it controls how far my cases are ejected, 18 inches when prone. Speaking of triggers, I replaced the stock trigger with a Geisselle two stage trigger. The first stage is set at a shade over two pounds and the second stage is a few ounces.

The best pistol grip I ever found for prone shooting an AR-15 is the Tubb pistol grip. I started with those fancy grips with the palm shelf. I have a few for sale if you like them; I think they are horrible for prone shooting; they actually hurt my hand after a few dozen rounds. Ooops, I guess I don�t know much about selling used parts. I replaced the standard stock with a Magpul PRS stock, and I use it at full extension and with the cheekpiece raised somewhat. This gives me proper cheekweld for the scope on its 20 MOA mount. The optics will be covered in another chapter.

So, reliability, ergonomics and accuracy enhancement are the keywords in the rifle parts. I have observed my fellow competitors looking for the same features in their bolt action rifles, many in .223 for MR and even LR. They look for ease of use in the prone position and the minimum of fuss. They do not want to move around once in position and many have come to realize that faster shooting rates sometimes yield benefits and so look for ways to minimize the time between shots; more scope and aiming time, less rifle support activities.


Being Competitive.
So I get asked, what kind of accuracy do I need out of my rifle to hope to be competitive in F-class? I don't want to scare anybody away, because I believe that until you have tried it, you will never know. Let's talk about what it can do at 100 yards first. If you can't get it to perform at that range, it will not get better further out; that's a myth right there.

If I cannot get my rifle/scope/ammo to group 10 rounds close to a half-MOA, I will not have the confidence I can be competitive on the 1 MOA F-class targets at 300 yards, let alone 600 or 1000 yards; groups sizes increase with distance. On the other hand, when I do reach the half MOA point, I don't work on my handloads any further; I work on my shooting.

"Because I use very stout load for LR, I always had a heavy insert CWS in the bolt carrier, now that I have been using only my MR loads, I still leave the CWS in place as it controls how far my cases are ejected, 18 inches when prone."

consider an adjustable gas port gas block

Adjustable would work. The weights work good to, and about as easy to adjust. Or port the barrel correctly which is what I do, but it can limit what I shoot from that barrel in the future, though my small ported barrels for stout 90 jlks have run all my rapid ammo just fine. Including 52s... And I can always open my port later if needed by a bit...

Now if someone would have an adjustable one with some type of readable meter on it, IE settings that you could go to and come back, that would be interesting.

Thanks for the F-Class post series!

We are just starting F-Class in my country (mostly MR) and recently I have a shooter that insists that muzzle breaks/flash hider are allowed in F-Class in certains situations (ex: military rifles, like factory AR or even M-14).

The way I read the rules, it is not allowed in F-Class. Only in Service Rifle Highpower. So, are muzzle breaks and/or flash hiders allowed in F-Class in any way?

Thank you!!

Muzzle brakes are not allowed in ANY NRA competition that I am aware of and that includes Service Rifle competition.

Here is the rule that governs all this:

3.16.1 Compensators and Muzzle Brakes - The use of compensators or muzzle brakes is prohibited. An extension tube that has been installed on the muzzle of a rifle to extend the sight radius shall not be considered a ''muzzle brake''. The extension tube must have an interior diameter of .5 inches or greater and may have 1/4'' x 1 " slots cut at 12 and 6 o'clock to remove cleaning patches. Threaded holes along the top of this tube for the installation of sight bases will be allowed.