Forum rules
This section is for people who shoot or want to shoot in competitions and includes future events, how to get started, choice of rifle and calibres including wildcats, how to prepare for your competition, and of course how you did!
John MH wrote:
A good compromise for any budding AR F-Class shooters would be to try Highpower but use a scoped AR; this allows you to use the benefits of the magazine fed system in a competitive way with stages at 200 yards Standing Slow-Fire and Sitting-Rapid (fully utilising the magazine system), 300 yards Prone-Rapid (fully utilising the magazine system) and 600 yards Prone Slow-Fire. There are also Mid Range Matches at 300, 500 and 600 yards all Prone Slow-Fire and Long Range Matches at 800, 900 and 1000 yards all on decimal targets.
John (or anyone else!)
Genuine question - who / where is running Highpower matches in the UK?
Iain
Mark Bradley [ his business is building ARs ] runs Highpower and CSR comps at Bisley .
Mark Bradley does not run Highpower Matches at Bisley, he does much of the organising and running of the NRA CSR Matches but rarely shooters HP these days.
Highpower is run by the HRA (Highhpower Rifle Association), Mark Bradley is a member but mostly concentrates on CSR.
Matches are run monthly on Century but over the last 2 years turnout has been falling from a monthly average of 20+ competitors to only 5 to 7 or so. A great shame as its a very good course of fire.
Last edited by John MH on Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
This interests me because I'm interested in moving into F Class but I'm not really interested in the long range aspect of it. Most of my range time is at 300, 500 and 600; anything longer is a special event or requires a hundred miles plus driving. I can't afford to change a barrel every year so I don't want to be pushing large projectiles at warp speed. As I get older and stiffer I don't want to be firing heavily recoiling guns anyway.
My ideal would therefore be a .223 shooting a challenging course of fire that is within the reasonable expectations of the round distance wise. I think there is a place for the AR shooters and also for those who want to fire single shot without a magazine.
I'm no expert so I may have missed some things but hopefully this makes sense; a sort of mini F Class really.
Watcher wrote:This interests me because I'm interested in moving into F Class but I'm not really interested in the long range aspect of it. Most of my range time is at 300, 500 and 600; anything longer is a special event or requires a hundred miles plus driving. I can't afford to change a barrel every year so I don't want to be pushing large projectiles at warp speed. As I get older and stiffer I don't want to be firing heavily recoiling guns anyway.
Watcher - how far can you be from Diggle? We shoot 'club' F Class every fortnight at all distances. There is a great variety of equipment - anything and everything! Please come and shoot!
This Saturday it's 200 yards!
ovenpaa wrote:I have had a bit more of a think about this...
Introduce a maximum all up weight and maximum barrel length as well and why not introduce a maximum magnification, all things to try and level the playing field and keep outlay down. We know the .223/5,56x45 is a very capable round out to 600 so shooting at half MOA V at 600 yards is certainly doable.
Great idea, I hope it happens and I hope it is locked down enough to prevent it becoming a serious arms race and the good part is you do not need the latest Gucci front rail, butt section or remote magazine release to shoot well.
Pie in the sky Dave! Firstly, the AR is one of the most expensive platforms to start with. And, almost every one is different - so immediately you start to lay down your restrictive cost-saving, level-playing field rules, the existing owners of ARs will start to moan - "I'm not changing my £1500 Schmidt & Bender" "My barrel's too heavy/long/short" etc. etc.
Even then - in that hypothetical 'level playing field' someone will finish last and that 'someone' will moan about it being an 'arms race' etc...... because his AR was blaa blaa blaa!
We have an F Class club shoot at Diggle every couple of weeks - the Practical Rifles guys often take part with their ARs etc. They don't expect to win, they compete because they enjoy it! They don't mind if we shoot in their Practical event with our F Class rifles............
Thank you for your kind offer. I'm not that far from Diggle although I've never shot there. I shoot at Altcar most of the time.
Part of my problem is not really understanding what F Class is all about; I come from a TR and Service rifle background. The way I've read it is that you either shoot FTR (with all the issues I've discussed regarding calibre, barrel life etc.) or you shoot 'pure' F Class which probably involves an incredibly obscure American wildcat cartridge. Benchrest likewise is just a bit too esoteric for me.
I'm a member of a club at Altcar that's very big into F Class so it may well just be a case of getting a fuller understanding of what its all about.
Mike357 wrote:Having spent some time at Lantac talking shop, I'm pretty sure that a lot of the cost of high end ARs is connected with bits that don't really affect accuracy like fore ends, billet upper and lowers and the aforementioned scopes which will be restricted.
Vince, your thougts. :lol:
I agree with the fancy (tactical style) fore-ends/stocks etc. having no effect and to some extent lowers but a well made Billet Upper would have an affect on accuracy as far as my knowledge goes. A straightpull has to be built in exactly the same way as a bolt gun, or any gun for that matter, to shoot well. A machined from solid receiver with the appropriate tolerances makes for a nice true run for the bolt carrier, which in turn lets the bolt head align and lock up properly into the perfectly machined recesses, just like a proper bolt gun. People will always want the best they can (or in my case, can't!) afford.
I think competition like this would be a good way to let people run AR platforms competitively outwith practical/service competition and to shoot a type of F-Class that to some extent limits the equipment race but it's still going to be expensive. The benefit of the format would be parity in terms of ballistics and the associated reloading costs. Barrel life of a .223 is also a lot friendlier than the latest 7mm Fastasf**ken Loudenboomer!
Sandgroper wrote:I like the idea of a level playing field, but why stop at Bisley?
The 600m (yard) range should mean that there is more choice as far as ranges are concerned - even in this neck of the woods we have access to a 600m range - Cawdor.
What about a postal competition for those that are unable to travel? Mind you, I'd need to get an AR first. :G
The Level playing field is the hard bit to set up. All the AR owners I know seem to have slightly different set-ups.
Tell me what you'd like to see done at Cawdor & I'll see if we can organise it.
