Jay, I'll give you the extended version, also for the benefit of everyone reading this who may not understand it either.
There's always F Class "O" (Open) and F Class "F" (Farquharson) at PRA Matches. Awards are determined by numbers of shooters in the category. The APRA awards per the DCRA Rules. This is also pretty much standard across the Country. Something like; 3 competitors = Gold. 5 competitors= Gold and Silver. 8 competitors = Gold, Silver and Bronze. I'm not 100% sure but it's something like that. So, to award all three medals in each catagory, you'd need 8 F Class Open and 8 F Class Farquharson at the match. On the supplied score cards, there's usually a place to put in your classification. In our case it's F-O or F-F. In the US it's F Class T/R (Target Rifle) which, for all intents and purposes, mirrors F Class F
Until recently, the low number of F Class shooters, found them lumped together as most regional matches didn't seem to attract any more than 5 or 6 of either category combined. The annual CFRC in Ottawa has historically awarded both via competitor numbers alone. In addition they also ran a 223/5.56 Championship limited to that caliber only.
As the numbers of competitors is starting to grow at the Provincial level, the Sask Provs, BC Provs and Oregon this year, had numbers that allowed both categories to get awards. There may have been others but I'm not aware of them and appologize if I've left someone out. Again, it's all based on numbers.
Internationally, Target Rifle Shooters are classified by their personal performance. Like Greenshot, Sharpshooter, Expert and Master, based on a given percentage of points out of a total number shots for score. They award each class within TR by the same formula as stated above. As F class is the bastard child of Canadian Fullbore TR, I'm quite sure, they're not quite sure how to handle us as our numbers continue to grow. If you look at the Awards Table at any of the Canadian matchs you'll see what I mean. Having said that, F Class is still in it's infancy and does not have the 125 year proud tradition and history TR maintains. We've got a long way to go and evolution is a funny thing.
The US has begun classifying F Class shooters by a similar system. What this means now is; if you have 8 Green shots, 8 Sharpshooters, 8 Experts and 8 Masters, they all get awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. This, in combination with Daily Aggs and the Grand Aggs, should provide enough awards to make everyone happy and provide some incentive to keep shooting. Whether Canada will follow suit with F class shooter classification remains to be seen but I don't think the numbers justify it at the moment.
I hope this answers your question at least partially. If, after all of this, we can remember what it was. Anyway, yes you can shoot F Class "F" at any PRA match. You might find you're the only one, but you can shoot.
Cheers, Glen
