F class FAQ and general information
Since this forum was opened there have been a number of recurring themes regarding F class. I’ve asked Mike to sticky this as a FAQ and general information thread for F class shooting. Hopefully it will answer some questions and help folks to understand the game. I’m mostly going to write about F-TR. F-Open has its own unique set of things to understand, and as a beginner, that’s probably not the place you want to be. That said, someone on another board who has been an F-Open shooter and was recently trying to shoot F-TR wrote that “we refer to people ‘moving up’ to F-Open, I’m not sure that it’s not ‘moving up’ to go from F-Open to F-TR”. Shooting a 308 to 1000 yards at a 1MOA target is certainly challenging.
First, What is F-Class?
F class is a division of NRA Highpower shooting. The rules governing F class are found in the NRA HP shooting regulations found here -> Rules… <- Reading the rules is a good place to start. They answer a lot of common questions, but I’ll hit some of the highlights later on.
“F”-Class?
The F stands for Farquartsen. “F-Class shooting was the brainchild of Canadian George Farquharson and the "F" was derived from his last name. Mr. Farquharson came up with the idea of F-Class to enable he and other older shooters to continue competing alongside "iron sight" shooters who used a sling. Basically, he replaced the iron sights with a scope and replaced the sling hold with the option of using either a front bi-pod or a rest. F-Class is shot from the prone position where the shooters lay on a mat. He convinced the Canadian NRA (DCRA) to approve his idea and F-Class was begun as an official shooting sport in Canada in the 90's. This idea caught on fire and very quickly spread to the British Commonwealth, Germany, France, Netherlands and to the United States.” – from USFclass.com
F Class evolved from the original idea to take a Palma rifle, put on a bipod and a scope and shoot.
In F Class shooting today there are two (2) classes, F-Open and F-TR. F-Open is pretty much unlimited racing, you can shoot any rifle you want up to 35 caliber, you can use a mechanical front rest, a rear bag, and the rifle can weigh up to 22 lbs. T-TR is one design (ok, two) racing, the only calibers allowed in F-TR are “chambers of unmodified 308Win/7.62NATO or 223Rem/5.56x45 NATO cartridge cases”. Rifles are limited to 18.18 lbs (8.25 Kilos) and anything attached to the rifle is included in the weight including the scope and bipod.
Most F class shooting is done at long range. The National championships are shot at long range. F class uses a reduced size HP target, each ring on the target is ~1MOA (IPHY)larger than the next, so the X-Ring is 5”, the 10-Ring is 10”, the 9-Ring is 20”, the 8-Ring is 30”… The aiming black is the same size as a long range HP target.
Now for some of the rules. First understand that F-TR is F-Target Rifle not F-Tactical Rifle. Common misconception, I even heard it announced that way at Camp Perry last yr. F-TR is shooting round targets on rectangular fields; there is nothing remotely tactical about it. If you recall that the class was started by putting scopes and bipods on Palma rifles then it should make perfect sense that the specialized F-TR rifles used today look like evolved Palma Rifles with heavier barrels.
Because F class is a part of NRA HP all the HP rules apply except as modified in section 22 (2013) of the rules. There are some common surprises in the rules for guys who bring their precision rifles out to play F-Class. Without getting into the why-fore’s and reasons just be aware, they are the rules:
Does that mean you can’t shoot if you have one or more of those, maybe, maybe not, depending on the match director? The match director may allow you to participate in the match, but if you are allowed to compete your score will not (should not) be reported to the NRA to receive a classification in Long or mid range F-Class depending on what you shot. Cans will likely be OK, they don't bother anyone. Single feeding is probably considered a safety concern and probably will be required, brakes bother the guys to both sides of you and are often prohibited.
That’s the history, the basic rules, and some of the things that are sometimes not understood.
Now for some of the FAQs. Most of this is based on questions surrounding shooting 1000 yard matches, because that's what most matches are, the distance at which the National Championship is competed and it's a lot harder to get a 308 to work at 1000 than at 600 or less.
What scope do I need?
Search here there have been a whole lot of posts about it, and after you read those go and search over at accurateshooter.com and you can read a hour or two. I know that there are personal tastes and budgets to consider. I’d guess that 90% of the 200+ scopes on the line at the 2012 Nationals were Nightforce 12-42s with 1/8 MOA clicks. The eighth min clicks are invaluable for getting your elevation tuned in the 10 ring. If your shots are grouping slightly high and you have ¼ min clicks one click and you are now grouping slightly low. You are shooting at a known target at a known distance with rings that correspond to MOA (IPHY) measurements, you need all the magnification you can afford with a reticle that you like, that is thin enough not to cover too much of the ½ MOA X-ring at max magnification. You do not need (or want) a FFP reticle, they are too thick at high mag, they increase cost and they serve no purpose on a defined target at a known distance. If you hit low and right in the 9 ring you can look at the target and see that you need to come up ¾ and left ½ and having turrets that will get you there is good. Mil turrets are going to make your life harder, and you don’t need a reticle measure anything, the target is laid out so you should know the distances. That doesn’t mean you can’t come out and shoot with anything you’ve got, the guy shooting next to me yesterday was having a blast using a 10X SWFA. Nightforce 12-42, 8-32, or the new 55x competition scopes are all popular, for less money the Sightron SIII 10-50 or 10-60 are good scopes, some folks are running March high mag (50x, 60, or even 80x) scopes. All are SFP scopes.
Is there any limit on triggers?
No, as long as you don’t get accidental discharges it can be as light as you want it (but not a release trigger).
Rear Bag and Bipod?
Rear bags and bipods are personal choices, get one you like. There are a number of bipods specialized for F-TR, they all work, it is doubtful that the bipod is going to make or break you for a long time.
What barrel?
You can come out and shoot with anything. I’ve seen 18” barrels on the line at 1000 yards. Purpose built F-TR rifles will usually have 30” or more. In general Heavy Palma contours are the most bang for the ounce that will let you still make weight at 30”. A 1:12 will stabilize up to 185gr bullets, if you plan to try to shoot heavier bullets get a 1:10.
Reloading
Reloading is one that gets a lot of people wrapped up early on. The first thing you need to do is get out and shoot. You will learn about reloading as you go and as your skill at reading wind improves your reloading should too, but it will not matter if you can build bullets that will hold .1MOA vertical if the wind is pushing you 8 ring to 8 ring, and it will in the beginning. You will not get any wind reading practice at the bench. You need a bullet that will stay super sonic all the way to 1000 yards.
Understand that there is no 308 load being shot at this time that will hold the 10-ring on a center hold in a 1MPH full value letoff. Before you get into all the myriad number of things to make perfect bullets get yourself a good FL die, a good seating die (Forster or Redding), and a Lee Collet die, a set of calipers and a Hornady OAL tool and start making bullets. … Think about that, 1MPH. At the 2012 Nationals I believe Jim Crofts (2012 Champion) only dropped 4 points total for 3 matches the first day. It ain’t the bullet.
Spotting scopes,
yes, you need one, and you can spend a king ransom on some of them. Like a lot of things all you can afford, but starting out affording a high end spotter can be hard so justify when you are already spending thousands on a rifle and a scope. Once you get one you would be well served to talk to some sling shooters about reading mirage. Flags seldom tell the whole story. It is a hugely useful tool and one that the spotter in the 8 ring will remind you that you forgot to use time and time again. Seeing a letoff or a shift and watching the guys on both sides of you miss it is a good feeling, much better than watching their targets come up with yours and taking the consolation prize that it caught them too.
Bullets – the trend is to heavier, though there are a lot of people running 185 Bergers at the time I write this. About the only thing that is a concrete is DO NOT USE 168 SIERRA MATCH KINGS. They have a design that becomes unstable when they go transonic and they go all over the place. The BC is too low for you to get them to 1000 supersonic with a 308, so they are going all over the place, literally I have seen them hit sideways, or hit randomly all over the 72x72 target frame. For factory stuff I’ve seen guys shoot 600 yards with Southwest Ammo and do OK. I’m sure Black Hills Match would be OK for a starting trip to a 600 yard match; they would probably both get you to 1000 too I’ve just never seen it.
There are some other good threads from the early days of this forum being started last yr or so. I’ll try to dig a couple up and get them stickied too. There was a really good one once about “what else to bring” (other than bullets and a gun)
F-Class is one of the fastest growing competitive shooting sports, and possibly the fastest growing class NRA shooting sports. We were included at Camp Perry in 2012 for the first time. This year at the Nationals at Raton there are over 360 shooters registered. There were over 200 registered last year.
Since this forum was opened there have been a number of recurring themes regarding F class. I’ve asked Mike to sticky this as a FAQ and general information thread for F class shooting. Hopefully it will answer some questions and help folks to understand the game. I’m mostly going to write about F-TR. F-Open has its own unique set of things to understand, and as a beginner, that’s probably not the place you want to be. That said, someone on another board who has been an F-Open shooter and was recently trying to shoot F-TR wrote that “we refer to people ‘moving up’ to F-Open, I’m not sure that it’s not ‘moving up’ to go from F-Open to F-TR”. Shooting a 308 to 1000 yards at a 1MOA target is certainly challenging.
First, What is F-Class?
F class is a division of NRA Highpower shooting. The rules governing F class are found in the NRA HP shooting regulations found here -> Rules… <- Reading the rules is a good place to start. They answer a lot of common questions, but I’ll hit some of the highlights later on.
“F”-Class?
The F stands for Farquartsen. “F-Class shooting was the brainchild of Canadian George Farquharson and the "F" was derived from his last name. Mr. Farquharson came up with the idea of F-Class to enable he and other older shooters to continue competing alongside "iron sight" shooters who used a sling. Basically, he replaced the iron sights with a scope and replaced the sling hold with the option of using either a front bi-pod or a rest. F-Class is shot from the prone position where the shooters lay on a mat. He convinced the Canadian NRA (DCRA) to approve his idea and F-Class was begun as an official shooting sport in Canada in the 90's. This idea caught on fire and very quickly spread to the British Commonwealth, Germany, France, Netherlands and to the United States.” – from USFclass.com
F Class evolved from the original idea to take a Palma rifle, put on a bipod and a scope and shoot.
In F Class shooting today there are two (2) classes, F-Open and F-TR. F-Open is pretty much unlimited racing, you can shoot any rifle you want up to 35 caliber, you can use a mechanical front rest, a rear bag, and the rifle can weigh up to 22 lbs. T-TR is one design (ok, two) racing, the only calibers allowed in F-TR are “chambers of unmodified 308Win/7.62NATO or 223Rem/5.56x45 NATO cartridge cases”. Rifles are limited to 18.18 lbs (8.25 Kilos) and anything attached to the rifle is included in the weight including the scope and bipod.
Most F class shooting is done at long range. The National championships are shot at long range. F class uses a reduced size HP target, each ring on the target is ~1MOA (IPHY)larger than the next, so the X-Ring is 5”, the 10-Ring is 10”, the 9-Ring is 20”, the 8-Ring is 30”… The aiming black is the same size as a long range HP target.
Now for some of the rules. First understand that F-TR is F-Target Rifle not F-Tactical Rifle. Common misconception, I even heard it announced that way at Camp Perry last yr. F-TR is shooting round targets on rectangular fields; there is nothing remotely tactical about it. If you recall that the class was started by putting scopes and bipods on Palma rifles then it should make perfect sense that the specialized F-TR rifles used today look like evolved Palma Rifles with heavier barrels.
Because F class is a part of NRA HP all the HP rules apply except as modified in section 22 (2013) of the rules. There are some common surprises in the rules for guys who bring their precision rifles out to play F-Class. Without getting into the why-fore’s and reasons just be aware, they are the rules:
- No brakes
- No suppressors
- Single feeding required, (i.e., No feeding from mags)
Does that mean you can’t shoot if you have one or more of those, maybe, maybe not, depending on the match director? The match director may allow you to participate in the match, but if you are allowed to compete your score will not (should not) be reported to the NRA to receive a classification in Long or mid range F-Class depending on what you shot. Cans will likely be OK, they don't bother anyone. Single feeding is probably considered a safety concern and probably will be required, brakes bother the guys to both sides of you and are often prohibited.
That’s the history, the basic rules, and some of the things that are sometimes not understood.
Now for some of the FAQs. Most of this is based on questions surrounding shooting 1000 yard matches, because that's what most matches are, the distance at which the National Championship is competed and it's a lot harder to get a 308 to work at 1000 than at 600 or less.
What scope do I need?
Search here there have been a whole lot of posts about it, and after you read those go and search over at accurateshooter.com and you can read a hour or two. I know that there are personal tastes and budgets to consider. I’d guess that 90% of the 200+ scopes on the line at the 2012 Nationals were Nightforce 12-42s with 1/8 MOA clicks. The eighth min clicks are invaluable for getting your elevation tuned in the 10 ring. If your shots are grouping slightly high and you have ¼ min clicks one click and you are now grouping slightly low. You are shooting at a known target at a known distance with rings that correspond to MOA (IPHY) measurements, you need all the magnification you can afford with a reticle that you like, that is thin enough not to cover too much of the ½ MOA X-ring at max magnification. You do not need (or want) a FFP reticle, they are too thick at high mag, they increase cost and they serve no purpose on a defined target at a known distance. If you hit low and right in the 9 ring you can look at the target and see that you need to come up ¾ and left ½ and having turrets that will get you there is good. Mil turrets are going to make your life harder, and you don’t need a reticle measure anything, the target is laid out so you should know the distances. That doesn’t mean you can’t come out and shoot with anything you’ve got, the guy shooting next to me yesterday was having a blast using a 10X SWFA. Nightforce 12-42, 8-32, or the new 55x competition scopes are all popular, for less money the Sightron SIII 10-50 or 10-60 are good scopes, some folks are running March high mag (50x, 60, or even 80x) scopes. All are SFP scopes.
Is there any limit on triggers?
No, as long as you don’t get accidental discharges it can be as light as you want it (but not a release trigger).
Rear Bag and Bipod?
Rear bags and bipods are personal choices, get one you like. There are a number of bipods specialized for F-TR, they all work, it is doubtful that the bipod is going to make or break you for a long time.
What barrel?
You can come out and shoot with anything. I’ve seen 18” barrels on the line at 1000 yards. Purpose built F-TR rifles will usually have 30” or more. In general Heavy Palma contours are the most bang for the ounce that will let you still make weight at 30”. A 1:12 will stabilize up to 185gr bullets, if you plan to try to shoot heavier bullets get a 1:10.
Reloading
Reloading is one that gets a lot of people wrapped up early on. The first thing you need to do is get out and shoot. You will learn about reloading as you go and as your skill at reading wind improves your reloading should too, but it will not matter if you can build bullets that will hold .1MOA vertical if the wind is pushing you 8 ring to 8 ring, and it will in the beginning. You will not get any wind reading practice at the bench. You need a bullet that will stay super sonic all the way to 1000 yards.
Understand that there is no 308 load being shot at this time that will hold the 10-ring on a center hold in a 1MPH full value letoff. Before you get into all the myriad number of things to make perfect bullets get yourself a good FL die, a good seating die (Forster or Redding), and a Lee Collet die, a set of calipers and a Hornady OAL tool and start making bullets. … Think about that, 1MPH. At the 2012 Nationals I believe Jim Crofts (2012 Champion) only dropped 4 points total for 3 matches the first day. It ain’t the bullet.
Spotting scopes,
yes, you need one, and you can spend a king ransom on some of them. Like a lot of things all you can afford, but starting out affording a high end spotter can be hard so justify when you are already spending thousands on a rifle and a scope. Once you get one you would be well served to talk to some sling shooters about reading mirage. Flags seldom tell the whole story. It is a hugely useful tool and one that the spotter in the 8 ring will remind you that you forgot to use time and time again. Seeing a letoff or a shift and watching the guys on both sides of you miss it is a good feeling, much better than watching their targets come up with yours and taking the consolation prize that it caught them too.
Bullets – the trend is to heavier, though there are a lot of people running 185 Bergers at the time I write this. About the only thing that is a concrete is DO NOT USE 168 SIERRA MATCH KINGS. They have a design that becomes unstable when they go transonic and they go all over the place. The BC is too low for you to get them to 1000 supersonic with a 308, so they are going all over the place, literally I have seen them hit sideways, or hit randomly all over the 72x72 target frame. For factory stuff I’ve seen guys shoot 600 yards with Southwest Ammo and do OK. I’m sure Black Hills Match would be OK for a starting trip to a 600 yard match; they would probably both get you to 1000 too I’ve just never seen it.
There are some other good threads from the early days of this forum being started last yr or so. I’ll try to dig a couple up and get them stickied too. There was a really good one once about “what else to bring” (other than bullets and a gun)
F-Class is one of the fastest growing competitive shooting sports, and possibly the fastest growing class NRA shooting sports. We were included at Camp Perry in 2012 for the first time. This year at the Nationals at Raton there are over 360 shooters registered. There were over 200 registered last year.
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