I’m probably the type of person that sported/hunter is meant to appeal to. I used to hunt, but the family friend who owned the farm has passed and now with two very small children the chances of me getting out for a whole weekend are minimal.
I’ve been to a QRA introductory shoot, but from my research online I was a bit dubious about the cost requirements to even start shooting FR or F-class and talking to the guys at the shoot basically confirmed that I didn’t have enough cash to burn to compete. Sure, I’m not a good enough shot to compete either, but there’s nothing more demotivating than knowing that you’re doubly disadvantaged by both lack of skill and lack of gear. Basically it seems that even if I did “git gud” then I’d still be uncompetitive without spending a lot of money I don’t have.
I was looking at hunter/sporter, even though most of the people I spoke to at the QRA seemed to look down their nose at it, but from the rules as I currently read them it’s basically just a slightly lighter F-class.
A weight limit of 6.5kg seems pretty heavy; from what I can work out, a 26” Howa in a Hogue stock weights about 4kg and a 56mm Delta Stryker scope weights a smidgen over a kilogram. Even with lightweight bipod and rail, I’m not lugging that around while hunting.
I feel like a lot of the rules to make this a somewhat realistic hunting analog would all sort themselves out with a lower weight limit. 26” barrel maximum seems sensible. No chassis. Repeater. I suggest minimum energy requirements along the lines of muzzle energy 2000 ft-lbs (although this may not even be necessary).
Ultimately, and this is just how I feel so others may feel otherwise, if someone turns up with a custom rifle that’s trued, carbon fibre stock, 26” custom barrel etc and I have a 22” Tikka in a walnut factory stock then at least I still feel like I’m shooting in the same class if both systems weight 5kg. If we’re both poor shots then I can probably still compete and if it really gets to me then a (admittedly probably expensive) rebarrel would close most of the gap.
If the aim is just an economy class (rather than a true hunting class), then allowing chassis and a higher weight limit is fine; just go with the fixed bid system from folk racing (
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folkrace). Funnily enough, the old April Fool’s about e-class shooting was pretty much on target (pun not intended, but I’ll leave it there).
As as I said, my experience is minimal, but this is what has put me off from club shooting. I simply do not have the money to spend on something suitable for F-class or F-TR (especially in the current climate) and the clubs I spoke to don’t have a left-handed club rifle.
Here ends my “why did I even bother to write that?” meandering. Thanks for reading if you got this far.