There is nothing stopping a F-Res guy from buying 10 barrels and picking the best.
The 308 can group as good at 100 yards as a 6.5x284.
F-Res here allows a ski-pod which is a great improvement over the bi-pod and about equal to the front rest.
My point is that, IMO, there is not that much difference between F-Open and F-Res. The proposed F-Tac would have a significant difference to encourage more shooters and easier for new shooters to join. My other point would be many guys that shoot open dedicate more time into their equipment and ammo to get better groups, this often leads some people to believe its all in the cartridge, not the shooter and the gear. If I had a 30 cal blank I'd shoot F-Res this year.
Would love to have you guys out here on the east coast.
Regards,
Rob,
Open Savage shooter
F-Tac rifle is a bone stock Savage Choate
True, there is nothing stopping an F-R shooter (or an "F-Tac" shooter) from buying barrels by the gross as some of the F-O shooters do (not a large percentage, mind you, but definitely present). But knowing the great majority of the top F-T/R shooters down here, I can confidently say that very few if any are actually doing so. Most of the .308 shooters here put their time into load development, tinkering with seating depths, powder charges, and different projectiles.
The F-T/R guys I know put in easily as much time developing loads as do the F-O shooters, perhaps more so as their barrels will last 4 times longer. Even out to 300 yards, there is virtually no difference in accuracy between the 6.5x284 and a good .308 load. Most of the guys I shoot with on a regular basis have pulled off a "clean-clean" (all shots in the "X" ring) at 300 yards on the new US F-Class targets (I think 36mm "X" ring vs. the ICFRA 35mm "V" bull). The 6.5x284 really starts to shine out at 800 yards and beyond, where the crazy-high BC starts to take wind drift out of the equation. I really get a kick out of some of the newer F-O shooters looking down their snoots at the F-T/R Class, as if they are some inferior class of shooter due to their (sometimes) lower scores. What any of the .308 classes is teaching is better wind reading. Perfect case and point, the US Team Coach, Gary Rasmussen put on a demonstration at this years Canadian-American Matches by beating ALL of the F-Open shooters in the grand aggregate of a 5 day 1000 yard match with his "lowly" .308. It was impressive to watch!
I would debate the equivalence of a "ski-pod" to a bench rest. I know that a lot of the guys down here like them, but until last October, I ran exclusively the same GG&G "tactical" 11.5 oz. bipod that I run in Tactical matches in all of the F-Class matches I competed in (including the 2007 Fullbore National Championships which I won). Of course, the GG&G is much less prone to the "Harris Hop", as it has no rubber, bouncy feet, or springs attached.
Darrell
BTW, whereabouts back East do you compete? We will be back on the US East Coast (Camp Butner, North Carolina) in October for the US National Championships.
