Don't try F-Class

JBD

JBD

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Far too addictive for the average gunnutz.

I went to my first precision match this morning. I had been putting it off as I figured my rifle was not up for it. It is a 2003 stock savage 223 12 fvss that I swapped out the plastic stock for a boyds target laminate and bedded. Unfortunately mine is not a stock savage that shoots in to the twos like everyone's does on the internet.:) Mine shoots slightly under a minute of angle. It was my understanding that the V-Bull is .5 MOA so my gun, load and skill could not hold that so I figured there was not much point in showing up.

I always wanted to try it out and I am glad that I did.
Rnbra was making wind calls for me, so it was basically point and shoot. With his help my lowest score was 49/50 with a few v-bulls to a high of 50/50 with a few v-bulls. Shooting at 300,600,800 and 900 Meters. Until today the farthest I have shot was 300 Meters.

RNBRA offered to let me try his custom at 900 Meters. I shot a 49/50 with 8 V-bulls. Very nice rifle and load.

Accuracy is nice and more accuracy is definitely nicer, but a factory shooter can play too. There was no need for me to wait until I had built a custom, and come up with the perfect load to try my first match.
 
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Awesome shooting. I wish more people would come out and try it.

Rishu_Pepper shot his first ever 300-600m match this weekend end at Vokes and placed 3rd!!!
 
Nice! I'm looking forward to getting out myself. I'm working on getting a good load for my rifle and after today I think I'm real close.

jasonburnsdundee said:
Accuracy is nice and more accuracy is definitely nicer, but a factory shooter can play too. There was no need for me to wait until I had built a custom, and come up with the perfect load to try my first match.
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I have a Savage LRPV .223 that I managed to get my paws on with some creative trading and a little luck. It's looking like it will do around 1/4 MOA consistently. Now if only I could :rolleyes:.
 
CyaN1de said:
Awesome shooting. I wish more people would come out and try it.

Rishu_Pepper shot his first ever 300-600m match this weekend end at Vokes and placed 3rd!!!
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3rd is not that impressive considering there were only 5 shooters, two of whom left after the first day :redface::D

I'll post pics in the Long Range Competition thread.
 
rishu_pepper said:
3rd is not that impressive considering there were only 5 shooters, two of whom left after the first day :redface::D

I'll post pics in the Long Range Competition thread.
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Yeah but you were beating Ron after the first day......and you would have beat him today had he not run home with his tail between his legs. cp: LOL
 
CyaN1de said:
Yeah but you were beating Ron after the first day......and you would have beat him today had he not run home with his tail between his legs. cp: LOL
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LOL I'll reserve judgment on that one. The Major is a good guy, he told me a good story of when he visited my hometown while he was still in the service, way back when.
 
jasonburnsdundee said:
There was no need for me to wait until I had built a custom, and come up with the perfect load to try my first match.
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This is a huge point. Far too many folks think they need the very best of everything before they even try the game, so they never show up to see what it's all about.

maybe we'll see you next weekend?
 
You are so correct about the custom rifle thing. Any rifle that can hold 1 MOA will suffice! After 250 – 300 m precision rifle is a wind guessing game. The shooters that can best read the wind are the shooters that win the awards!
 
Jason it was great to shoot with you yesterday, it was really nice to see how much you enjoyed the day. Am looking forward to shooting with you this upcoming weekend at our Provincials.

I am sporting a big fat bruise on my right shoulder from the poorly fitting completely unpadded butt of my F-Class rifle, I assume you have a similar looking mark from it too?

I was shooting an old F Class rifle (an M70 in an amazingly ugly BR stock, with a 26" MacLennan barrel), and was mostly testing ammo and rifle that day (a South African F-Class shooter is looking to borrow a rifle this year in Ottawa and I don't want to loan anybody a mediocre rifle). I am trying two new bullets this year, the Berger 155.5 Fullbore and the new Sierra #2156 (155). The Bergers are shooting wonderfully, right off the bat, fortunately I got to take full advantage of mpwolf's existing experience with this bullet. I was using a good hot load of H4895, thrown not weighed charges, in a Lapua case giving about 2975fps. The bullet is loaded to give about 15 thou of jump to the lands. At 300m it put 12 shots into 0.5 minutes of elevation and at 900m into about 1.0 minutes. I don't yet have the #2156's shooting well, at 600m 12 shots went into about 1.8 minutes of elevation.

Because yesterday was a "practice" and not a match I could coach Jason quite freely and that worked quite well. He was an extremely prompt shooter, breaking well-aimed shots almost instantly on command. I don't know if he knows enough yet to realize just how good and helpful that is to a rifle coach (but it sure is!).

At the last range of the day I had shot a 49.8V at 900m (on the TR target, i.e. V-bull is 12" diameter, 5-ring is 24" diameter). Then since there was time and ammo left I suggested that Jason give it a try too. I didn't tell him the score I made but about 3/4 of the way through his string (he was just hammering the target the instant it came up) I mentioned to him that it would not be polite to beat me with my own rifle. No I wasn't serious but as fortune would have it he ended up with the identical score!

Jason said that his rifle and ammo were shooting 5 shot groups just under 1 MOA at 300m. In the shooting yesterday it seemed to me that he was getting that sort of performance for 10-12 shots at 300m and 600m. His groups opened up a bit at 800m and 900m, to about 1.8MOA vertical at both ranges; this is probably due to a bit of velocity stringing, which he might be able to improve with a bit of fine tuning load development. In the meantime I would say he's ready to shoot our Provincials this weekend with his more or less off-the-shelf econo kit.
 
JB, and RP, congrats on getting out and having some fun. That's the way to do it.

Forget about the 'competition" and go have fun burning powder. The more you shoot, the better the scores.

Daniel, that was great of you to lend a hand. That is what this sports needs - willing participants and experienced shooters willing to help them out.

To a point, we need to spend a few dollars to get a rig capable of certain levels of performance but it doesn't have to cost quantum bucks.

Sometimes we get into some pretty heated posts on 'crap this and junk that'. That certainly discourages participation as the thought of custom everything puts the $$$ out of reach.

As long as it will hold the 5 and V bull, the rest is up to the driver.

hope to see more shooters out at each local match.

Jerry
 
Daniel, that is an awesome account!! I honestly get more fun out of helping a newcomer than I do shooting my own match. There is a pretty long list of F-Class shooters that are now better than me, who got their start with using one of my guns in their first-ever match. CyaN1de being one of them!

Lee J. one of our new FTR shooters is competing in FTR (NOT sporter) using a factory Reminton 223 and kicking serious butt! Short Range F-Class only requires a rifle to print .8MOA groups at 300 yards/meters. This is roughly 3" and most rifles can do that with good ammo, no problem.

One of the best things I ever did was compete with a factory rifle for my first couple of years. I did not win (at that time, everybody shot in one class... there was no FTR and Open, let alone a sporter class) , but I learned a truck load from simply participating and getting to meet so many excellent, welcoming shooters. It made my choices very easy when it came to going the custom route. I knew what I wanted and felt very prepared for the process. I have had the priviledge of meeting and shooting with many Canadian Hall of Fame shooters. Their experiences and insight came with some pretty impressive credentials. Curiously, not one of them posts on CGN! (The lesson here is that attending just one of these matches is worth a lifetime of hanging our here :D)

We now have three classes, meaning one has a terrific opportunity to try the sport in a very incremental way, and you success is judged against others with the same sort of expereince and equipment... much more fun and fair I think!
 
So my Savage 111 with a shillen magnum barrel and falcon menace scope would be a good starter gun? I got the accutrigger, accustock model. I am waiting for my barrel in 6.5x55.
 
tbrwlf said:
So my Savage 111 with a shillen magnum barrel and falcon menace scope would be a good starter gun? I got the accutrigger, accustock model. I am waiting for my barrel in 6.5x55.
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To quote RNBRA shooter, my gun and load was good but not spectacularly accurate. However if you can hold the group over the bull it can still produce a decent score. My gun was decent enough to try F-Class and it is a factory gun. Yours should be even better.

My gun and load were capable of 49/50 with 2 v bulls at 900 Meters. 5 Minutes later I shot RNBRA shooters gun at 900 Meters with a score of 49/50 with 8 Vbulls. So there is a difference between a good gun and an excellent one. But not, in my opinion, enough to say no I am not going to try that out until I get the cats ass gun. I had a lot of fun and would have missed out on a great day of shooting if I were to wait until I had gotten a full custom gun.

And yes you will be seeing me at the provincials. :D
 
tbrwlf said:
So my Savage 111 with a shillen magnum barrel and falcon menace scope would be a good starter gun? I got the accutrigger, accustock model. I am waiting for my barrel in 6.5x55.
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Absolutely. In fact it is probably good enough to take you quite a bit farther than just a "starter gun".
 
tbrwlf said:
So my Savage 111 with a shillen magnum barrel and falcon menace scope would be a good starter gun? I got the accutrigger, accustock model. I am waiting for my barrel in 6.5x55.
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Without a doubt, you will have more giggles then you can imagine.

I used to compete with a Stevens LA - won a few local matches. Now I have a Savage SA and Shilen barrels - won my first local match recently.

Any Savage or Stevens action will work just fine for the F class game.

bolt timing (cause factory bolt lift isn't so good), bedding (yes, the accustock needs to be properly bedded something fierce), work up your loads properly with accurate bullets and there is little reason why you can't have a rig shooting with V bull punching accuracy.

The only area that you might consider changing is the scope. The FM is a decent mid priced scope but optical clarity and magnification is not as good as other options. Can it work - absolutely but in time, it will hold you back.

A scope is what I would suggest new funds be put towards.

But first, get out there and have some fun. Once you have shot on target, you will quickly see what you like and don't. When you settle on your equipment, the next task is learning to read the wind.

This is a lifelong quest.....and what Precision shooting is all about.

Jerry
 
When and where is the next match or training match in New Brunswick? I might have to try and go to at least watch as I don't have a rifle. I was suppose to go out shooting with a Buddy a couple of weeks ago but my dad had to go in for surgery :( It might give me a good idea on what I should buy to get into this sport.

Thanks
 
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