Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting help - describe F Class competition

I have heard some things about F Class but don't know what is myth or fact. Can some one provide a description or a reference on where the rules are posted? Appreciate your help.

http://www.nrahq.org/compete/RuleBooks/HPR/hpr-book.pdf

The above is the offical book for the rules.

Where are you located?

Ftr shooter - I am in Central PA.

The rules don't give a very good intro to F-Class, or any NRA discipline. You kind of need to have an idea of what they are trying to do before the rules make much if any sense at all.

General concept: You shoot at a target that is, for the sake of this example, 600 yards away. The center ring or 'X' ring of the target is ~3" in diameter. The next ring out is the 10-ring, and is 6" dia. The 9-ring is 12", etc.



The targets stick up over a protective berm, behind/below which they can be pulled down and scored, then ran back up.


Targets up, view from 600yds


View in the pits, targets down

You fire a shot, after which the people in the pits pull the target down, put a spotter (the white disc with the spindle, shown in the first picture) in the bullet hole, and hang a value marker (the orange disc in the lower left corner of the first picture) around the outside in locations that correspond to your score for that shot (if a shot is near a scoring line, its hard to tell whether its a 10 or a 9 from several hundred yards away, even with good glass), and then run it back up.

On the next shot, the person scoring your target will pull it down, remove the spotter from the previous shot, put an appropriately colored paster over the hole, and put the spotter in the new hole, move the scoring disc and run it back up. The whole process *should* take 10-15 seconds per shot.

This process is repeated until you have the required number of record shots 'for score' or you run out of time. There are a few variations on how many shots and how much time, but for this example, you get two 'sighting' or 'sighter' shots (freebies for getting centered up on the target - they don't count towards your score) and then 20 'record' shots for score. The time allotted is generally at least 1 minute per shot, or 22 minutes (2 sighters + 20 record shots). You can shoot as fast or as slow as you want - if your target puller is healthy and fast, you might be done in under 5 minutes. Or if the winds are changing direction you might take 21:59 to shoot in... but at 22 minutes, the targets get pulled down and stay down whether you are done or not!

Who shoots, who scores, and who marks the targets when, etc. is referred to as 'squadding'. For a normal 600yd match where you shoot three times @ 600yds (3x600), ideally the match director will assign people to 3 relays, with one person per relay on each target. Starting out, relay #1 goes to the firing line, relay #2 sets up a spotting scope (or binocs, but trust me, even a crappy spotting scope beats holding up binocs) and folding chair behind their shooter on relay #1, and relay #3 heads to the pits to pull targets. Relay #1 shoots, #2 scores for them (writes their scores down on the score card), and #3 pulls.

Then once the line is made safe again, relay #3 comes out to score, relay #1 goes down to the pits, and #2 gets ready to shoot. This is called a 'pit change', and will happen several times throughout the day so everybody shoots, everybody scores, and everybody pulls targets.

So at the end of the day, you'll have fired 66 shots - 2 sighters and 20 record shots, x 3. While the shooters put the targets away and clean things up, the match director will be tallying the scores (either manually or on a computer) to see who won, who got second, if there were any special categories like Junior (shooters under 21) that bear recognizing, etc.

Now that you are probably thoroughly confused we'll cover the guns: there are two equipment 'classes' to F-Class - Open and TR. Basically... Open is unlimited caliber (under .35 cal), front rest allowed, rear bag allowed, no brakes, under 22lbs for the gun as you pick it up of the rest.



TR is .223 Rem or .308 Winchester from a bipod (or sling), rear bag allowed, under 18lbs ~2 oz as you pick it up off the ground (including bipod or sling).




Rifle must be fired from the shoulder (not free recoil), from the ground in the prone position.

Usually there is a minimum number of shooters (5) before match directors will split F-class into 'Open' and 'TR' for awards. If there are only six shooters, everybody is generally lumped together and everyone is essentially shooting 'Open' regardless. At larger matches (regional or national championships) is where you'll almost always see the classes split up as there are plenty of shooters in both groups.

Matches can be shot at different distances from 300yds to 1200yds, with targets sized accordingly for the distance. Some matches may have you shoot at three different distances in one day, say 300, 500, 600yds, changing firing lines between each relay. Others may have people shooting other variations such as 'pair fire' where the shooter and scorer set up on the line side by side, alternating shooting and scoring. Details like that are what the rule books are for, and you'll quickly get the hang of it by going to matches. For now, the above should get the general idea across.

Good writeup on the basics. Basically prone highpower but with differing targets and rifles but for one who has no clue, thats much better description than reading rules written by attornies...

A little over a year ago, I wrote a series of posts here that describe F-class in detail. It took a while, but I found them and here are the links:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_1_Intro_to_F#Post3156757
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_3_The_Rifles#Post3156759
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_4_The_Optics#Post3169113
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_5_The_ammuni#Post3296328
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_5_Ammunition#Post3300732
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_9_Sighting_i#Post3304405
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_12_Let_s_go_#Post3186434
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthread...Class_Explained_13_Let_s_go_#Post3191179

You should be able to find some matches in PA.

Denys

Denys,

Maybe we need to see about getting some of these posts combined into one thread and pinned at the top of the forum?

Monte

Monte, I think that's a capital idea and I'm sure between us and many other here, we can supply a LOT of pictures.

Whose cage do we rattle for a pin up?

Denys

I believe Rick can arrange the permanent posting and not a bad idea either. Damn fine one if you ask me.

Already sent him a PM

Answer to OP. Its something that will make you cry

I had a brain phart about getting into this. Did some research about what equipment I would have to get. To be competitive I rounded the total off at about 3K or a lot more. I think I will let this idea fade. In central PA at the club I belong to there are some guys who really like comnpetition like High Power, etc. One friend is contempating building an F class rig.

Strut, go out and buy the following

Savage F TR Rifle at around a grand

Leupold Comp Series fixed 35X scope at around 895.00

These are street prices.

That will be good enough to win matches with if you do your thing correctly

You can even get a Weaver T36 for about $400 and that works well too.

Do you handload?

Yep, even the cheaper scope and the savage. Starts you out reasonably and if you reload its not that bad.

Highpower has never been cheap though either.

Jeff

I've never shot in comp. before but I shoot a lot at 600 yds. and some at 1000.I would suggest you develop your skills(wind reading,trigger pull,etc..)then spend your money.

Ron

Let me completely disagree with that assessment for the simple reason that I know of no better way to develop wind reading skills than by shooting in the wind at long distances.

If you know of any other way to develop skills that will allow me to reliably place a bullet at 600 to 1000 yards in windy conditions, I would be very interested to know it.

As for being afraid of participating in competitions, let me just add that nobody will laugh at you and there will be no end of people helping you learn and giving you tips. I also have a hard time finding a venue where I can shoot 600 to 1000 yards outside of competition.

I think what he was saying, is that buy starter stuff, then learn to shoot in conditions then drop the jack on a better rifle and scope combo. At least tahts how I read it.

As to learning to read wind or shot at X distance, thats the best practice of course but long range 22lr shooting can tell you a lot. As can other calibers loaded to mimic the wind problems at 1000 and so on.

I still say its much easier to shoot highpower(not F) 10s at 600 than it is at 200.... hence you can learn shooting up close but wind reading further off. But if it burns you for barely a 9 at 200, then thats a 10 at 600 (reduced course comparison, not the SR at 200)

It sure is not the way I read it. But then again, that's just me.

I'm sorry but you read it wrong,Rost got it right.I didn't say don't shoot,I agree thats the best way to learn and develop your skills,didn't mention any thing about being afraid either.Sorry you took my post the wrong way.

Ron