All F-T/R Shooters,
I've been thinking about this for a while. I've been seeing bullet weights and bullet designs change and improve, and it occurs to me that the rule set that was adopted based on technology 8+ years ago might not be working as well as it once did.
In my opinion, F-T/R branched off of F-Open for a reason; people wanted a 'limited' equipment version of the game, that wouldn't bankrupt them paying for new barrels 2-3x per year. Basically it would be something that would be more of a NASCAR, vs. the top fuel dragsters that F-Open trends towards.
At the time, a 190 was a *very* heavy bullet for a .308, and their wasn't a huge difference in wind drift between a fast 155 and a slow 190. There was a distaste for limiting bullet weight (certainly shared by myself), with the thought being that allowing some innovation and 'tinkering' room would help grow the sport. Well, it certainly has!
Even up to a couple of years ago, the 155's were most of what you saw on the line. This is still generally true today, my go-to competition load is a *fast* 155.5 (~3125 fps). With this, I don't have a whole lot of trouble keeping up with guys running up to 200 grain loads. There is a trade-off, of course, the 'heavies' go through the wind a bit better, but the 'lights' group a heck of a lot better (in general). These trade-offs kept an even playing field.
Now, with a new crop of *very* efficient 'uber-heavy' bullets coming on line (215 grain, 230 grain, etc.), the level playing field has developed a bit of a list...
Backing up a bit, it has always been my thought that one should be able to take a 'more or less' factory rifle, GOOD quality handloads, and the same wind-reading skills as anyone else on the line, be very competitive in F-T/R. As most know, I have been running a bone-stock factory rifle (as well as the rest of Team Savage) for the past 6+ years. It doesn't matter whether you prefer Remington, Savage, or any other maker, you should be able to get into the sport relatively inexpensively, and be competitive with a 'more or less' unmodified rifle, running some sort of a "standard" recipe for a load.
With the growing popularity of the 'uber-heavy' bullets, this philosophy is starting to go out the window. In order to run the uber-heavies, you will be required at a minimum to get a gunsmith to re-cut at least the throat of your chamber, then you are stuck with a tiny number of projectiles that will work in the rifle. From experience, testing the 215's and 230's, I see that while it is *possible* to get them tuned perfectly, and get both velocity and decent accuracy out of them, I worry that these are going to turn out to be the "90 grain .223" bullet project of the day.
The "list" to the level playing field comes with the phenomenal ballistics that the uber-heavies (for instance, a 230 grain Berger Hybrid) bring to the game. If you can get the 230 going relatively quickly (2500-2600 fps), and it definitely CAN be done, you are looking at approximately a 30-40% reduction in wind drift over *any* bullet lighter than 200 grains. The vertical groups are a little worse than the current crop of heavies (185-200 grain), but not much worse. In a very real way, we will be exchanging our exceptionally accurate current style of .308, for something less accurate, but able to shoot through conditions more easily. Is that where we want to go as a class?
People that want to be competitive will feel compelled to drop the expense of modifying their rifles, and not have any guarantee that their mods will turn out to be effective. We will have strayed from our successful initial model for F-T/R, as a class for 'shooter vs. shooter' competition, and be marching down the road that you must have a $5000 custom to be remotely competitive. I think that this would in the long run be very destructive to the class we've developed.
The rules as they stand now will be in effect for at *least* the next year and a half (nothing should - or can- change prior to the 2013 World Championships next year). Given the massive outpouring of dissatisfaction on how the last rule change (course of fire change) happened, I figure that getting the public discussion started early rather than later would be a good thing. What I would particularly like to avoid is people dumping vast chunks of change into modifying all of their equipment to run uber-heavies, then find out "whoops! there's been a rule change".
The rule change I would probably propose (both for US "NRA" Competition, and "ICFRA" International Competition), assuming that the general consensus is in favor, would read as follows:
Current:
<span style="color: #000099">A rifle restricted to the chambers of unmodified .308 Winchester/7.62mm
NATO or unmodified .223 Remington/5.56mm X 45 NATO cartridge cases. The rifle must be fired off a
bipod, rigidly attached to the rifle’s for-end, and/or a sling. Any bipod, meeting the definition of a bipod,
may be used but its weight must be included in the rifle’s overall weight. Any safe, manually operated
trigger is permitted. Any sighting system is permitted, but it must be included in the rifle’s overall weight.</span>
Proposed:
<span style="color: #006600">A rifle restricted to the chambers of unmodified .308 Winchester/7.62mm
NATO or unmodified .223 Remington/5.56mm X 45 NATO cartridge cases.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #990000">For .308/7.62mm NATO, a maximum permitted bullet weight of less than 201 grains. </span></span> <span style="color: #006600">The rifle must be fired off a
bipod, rigidly attached to the rifle’s for-end, and/or a sling. Any bipod, meeting the definition of a bipod,
may be used but its weight must be included in the rifle’s overall weight. Any safe, manually operated
trigger is permitted. Any sighting system is permitted, but it must be included in the rifle’s overall weight.</span>
Thoughts?
Good shooting to all,
Darrell Buell
Captain, Team USA F-T/R
I've been thinking about this for a while. I've been seeing bullet weights and bullet designs change and improve, and it occurs to me that the rule set that was adopted based on technology 8+ years ago might not be working as well as it once did.
In my opinion, F-T/R branched off of F-Open for a reason; people wanted a 'limited' equipment version of the game, that wouldn't bankrupt them paying for new barrels 2-3x per year. Basically it would be something that would be more of a NASCAR, vs. the top fuel dragsters that F-Open trends towards.
At the time, a 190 was a *very* heavy bullet for a .308, and their wasn't a huge difference in wind drift between a fast 155 and a slow 190. There was a distaste for limiting bullet weight (certainly shared by myself), with the thought being that allowing some innovation and 'tinkering' room would help grow the sport. Well, it certainly has!
Even up to a couple of years ago, the 155's were most of what you saw on the line. This is still generally true today, my go-to competition load is a *fast* 155.5 (~3125 fps). With this, I don't have a whole lot of trouble keeping up with guys running up to 200 grain loads. There is a trade-off, of course, the 'heavies' go through the wind a bit better, but the 'lights' group a heck of a lot better (in general). These trade-offs kept an even playing field.
Now, with a new crop of *very* efficient 'uber-heavy' bullets coming on line (215 grain, 230 grain, etc.), the level playing field has developed a bit of a list...
Backing up a bit, it has always been my thought that one should be able to take a 'more or less' factory rifle, GOOD quality handloads, and the same wind-reading skills as anyone else on the line, be very competitive in F-T/R. As most know, I have been running a bone-stock factory rifle (as well as the rest of Team Savage) for the past 6+ years. It doesn't matter whether you prefer Remington, Savage, or any other maker, you should be able to get into the sport relatively inexpensively, and be competitive with a 'more or less' unmodified rifle, running some sort of a "standard" recipe for a load.
With the growing popularity of the 'uber-heavy' bullets, this philosophy is starting to go out the window. In order to run the uber-heavies, you will be required at a minimum to get a gunsmith to re-cut at least the throat of your chamber, then you are stuck with a tiny number of projectiles that will work in the rifle. From experience, testing the 215's and 230's, I see that while it is *possible* to get them tuned perfectly, and get both velocity and decent accuracy out of them, I worry that these are going to turn out to be the "90 grain .223" bullet project of the day.
The "list" to the level playing field comes with the phenomenal ballistics that the uber-heavies (for instance, a 230 grain Berger Hybrid) bring to the game. If you can get the 230 going relatively quickly (2500-2600 fps), and it definitely CAN be done, you are looking at approximately a 30-40% reduction in wind drift over *any* bullet lighter than 200 grains. The vertical groups are a little worse than the current crop of heavies (185-200 grain), but not much worse. In a very real way, we will be exchanging our exceptionally accurate current style of .308, for something less accurate, but able to shoot through conditions more easily. Is that where we want to go as a class?
People that want to be competitive will feel compelled to drop the expense of modifying their rifles, and not have any guarantee that their mods will turn out to be effective. We will have strayed from our successful initial model for F-T/R, as a class for 'shooter vs. shooter' competition, and be marching down the road that you must have a $5000 custom to be remotely competitive. I think that this would in the long run be very destructive to the class we've developed.
The rules as they stand now will be in effect for at *least* the next year and a half (nothing should - or can- change prior to the 2013 World Championships next year). Given the massive outpouring of dissatisfaction on how the last rule change (course of fire change) happened, I figure that getting the public discussion started early rather than later would be a good thing. What I would particularly like to avoid is people dumping vast chunks of change into modifying all of their equipment to run uber-heavies, then find out "whoops! there's been a rule change".
The rule change I would probably propose (both for US "NRA" Competition, and "ICFRA" International Competition), assuming that the general consensus is in favor, would read as follows:
Current:
<span style="color: #000099">A rifle restricted to the chambers of unmodified .308 Winchester/7.62mm
NATO or unmodified .223 Remington/5.56mm X 45 NATO cartridge cases. The rifle must be fired off a
bipod, rigidly attached to the rifle’s for-end, and/or a sling. Any bipod, meeting the definition of a bipod,
may be used but its weight must be included in the rifle’s overall weight. Any safe, manually operated
trigger is permitted. Any sighting system is permitted, but it must be included in the rifle’s overall weight.</span>
Proposed:
<span style="color: #006600">A rifle restricted to the chambers of unmodified .308 Winchester/7.62mm
NATO or unmodified .223 Remington/5.56mm X 45 NATO cartridge cases.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #990000">For .308/7.62mm NATO, a maximum permitted bullet weight of less than 201 grains. </span></span> <span style="color: #006600">The rifle must be fired off a
bipod, rigidly attached to the rifle’s for-end, and/or a sling. Any bipod, meeting the definition of a bipod,
may be used but its weight must be included in the rifle’s overall weight. Any safe, manually operated
trigger is permitted. Any sighting system is permitted, but it must be included in the rifle’s overall weight.</span>
Thoughts?
Good shooting to all,
Darrell Buell
Captain, Team USA F-T/R
