OzFclass

Bad weather is playing havoc with the commencement of the 2010 National Championships, with saturated ground at the 300 & 500 yard mound forcing a change of program for the first day. There will now be two stages of 10 shots from 1000 yds, which could be interesting as there is still some rain about but strong winds are also forcast this afternoon.

Given the dynamic state of play right now, and predicted over the next few days, I will try to keep a notice going on the NRAA website (under results) to keep folks up to date.

Geoff.

The rain has won out and unfortunately the first day of the leadup has had to be scrubbed. Visibility was such that the targets simpy were not visible throughthe mist and light rain/drizzle.

G.

We usually have a day or two of rain every month or so, but this lot rolled in mid September and the rain has only gotten heavier since. Forget our cars, pretty soon we'll be rowing 10 foot tinnies out to the mounds.

With all the flooding around Brisbane I hope this lets up soon.

We finaly got some shooting done on the 2nd day of the lead up. We had a few scattered showers through the day, but nothing torrential. The ground was pretty muddy, so we did a double 600 yd instead of moving back to the 800yd swamp. The weather will hopefully be good for the teams shoot today and the 1st day of the Queens tomorrow.
In Target Rifle Mathew Taylor wont the lead up with consistant good shooting.
In F class std, Nick Williamson had to shoot off with Bob Petterson for the leadup aggregate, with John Peters 1 point behind. There was some confusion before Johns last shot as to how many he had left to fire and after a few minutes sorting out, the flags had changed around and he got a 4 which cost him a win. It should be a good contest in F class standard during the Queens with lots of good competition.
In F class Open, the turn out was piss poor, with only myself, Marty Lobert and Kelvin Bell shooting. I hope some more turn up when the weather dries out, as I suspect some dont want their pretty little tack drivers to get wet. When we are getting pathetic turn outs like this, I wish we were mixed in with the other shooters on the ICFRA targets.
I was using a 6x47 and 284, Marty a 284 and Kelvin Bell a 6.5x284

I will try to report back from the coal face as the Queens progresses.

Rod, I am interested in the rules for F Standard. Can we still use a front rest, or do we have to use a bi pod? Did I read somewhere that all front rest uses were to be classed as F OPen?

Woody_rod has just left for the airport, he should be on the ground in Brissie tomorrow. He has a couple of INCH's on him.

We will be doing a road trip in 2011 shooting our way up to the Nationals.

actionclear wrote:Rod, I am interested in the rules for F Standard. Can we still use a front rest, or do we have to use a bi pod? Did I read somewhere that all front rest uses were to be classed as F OPen?

Woody_rod has just left for the airport, he should be on the ground in Brissie tomorrow. He has a couple of INCH's on him.

We will be doing a road trip in 2011 shooting our way up to the Nationals.

This is the info on the NRA site:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR F CLASS SHOOTERS COMPETING AT THE NRAA CHAMPIONSHIPS BRISBANE IN OCTOBER 2010

As promulgated the NRAA Championships in October this year will be shot under ICFRA Rules.
WITH THE EXCEPTION OF F CLASS.

Due to the ICFRA rules not catering for F Class as we compete here in Australia - both F Class Standard and F Class Open will be conducted under Australian Standard Shooting Rules (SSR's) as amended and in force at the time.

As previously announced Target Rifle competitions for the championships will be conducted under ICFRA rules.

John Fitzgerald
NRAA Director - Rules Portfolio.

Not sure what will happen further on.

Regards
Cameron

Thanks Cam.

Hopefully it stays the same for 2011.

The scoreboard (link to it on the NRAA website) is now (I hope) a little better for people looking at it from their homes (rather than as a scoreboard in a bar or in the paddock). The page now displays all disciplines/grades and the user can simply scroll up and down at their leasure.

Geoff.

Woodyrod. A few people in Australia use front pedastal rests in F standard, so no worries there.

In the 1st day of the Queens, the weather came good, cloudy, but no rain. The winds were not too bad, just a bit switchy, but some very good score were shot.
There were 9 shooters in F Open today, with a few others who intended to turn up, but work commitments kept them away.
As for calibers in F Open
Marty Lobert 6BR and 284
Jim Dunsmore 6BR + 6.5?
Barry Lewis 284
Karl Bell 6x47 (6.5x284 for longs)
Vince Northfield 6.5x284
John Tracey 284
Kelvin Bell 6.5x284
Mark Fairburn 22BR , 308, 6.5x284
Rod Davies 6 Dasher
In the daily agg, I just pipped Kelvin Bell (who has had a few realy great ranges) and Marty Lobert, just behind.

One thing to note is Jim Dunsmore got his first possible 100 today at 500yds, while the flags were up so big ups to Jim Dunsmore.

In F standard, Bob Pedderson got the daily agg one point ahead of Peter Drew and 2 points ahead of John Peters, with plenty of others just behind, so the competition in F std is red hot.
They shot an extra 500 today which was supposed to be shot tomorrow, but as the weather tomorrow is expected to be very wet, they wisely ran an extra range today while the sun shone.

Can the christians, Muslims, Hindus and Bhudists all pray to their respective gods for decent weather tomorrow.

Cameron Mc wrote:

actionclear wrote:Rod, I am interested in the rules for F Standard. Can we still use a front rest, or do we have to use a bi pod? Did I read somewhere that all front rest uses were to be classed as F OPen?

Woody_rod has just left for the airport, he should be on the ground in Brissie tomorrow. He has a couple of INCH's on him.

We will be doing a road trip in 2011 shooting our way up to the Nationals.

This is the info on the NRA site:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR F CLASS SHOOTERS COMPETING AT THE NRAA CHAMPIONSHIPS BRISBANE IN OCTOBER 2010

As promulgated the NRAA Championships in October this year will be shot under ICFRA Rules.
WITH THE EXCEPTION OF F CLASS.

Due to the ICFRA rules not catering for F Class as we compete here in Australia - both F Class Standard and F Class Open will be conducted under Australian Standard Shooting Rules (SSR's) as amended and in force at the time.

As previously announced Target Rifle competitions for the championships will be conducted under ICFRA rules.

John Fitzgerald
NRAA Director - Rules Portfolio.

Not sure what will happen further on.

Regards
Cameron

Hopefully after next years Palma we can forget about the ICFRA rules and move foward using our homegrown FS rules which work and numbers continue to grow. The rest of the world needs to look at our rules and well they work, we have the biggest number of FS shooters in the world we must be doing something right.

Matt P

Looks like the wind might have got up a tad at 1000yds ?

http://www.nraa.com.au/results.php?assn=natl&year=2010&set=qu_d3m2&type=match

Alan

I've shot on Belmont since not long after it opened in the 60s, the the breeze yesterday was among the roughest at times - most times.

Back home from Belmont now.
The forecast wet weather stayed away, but in its place came some very tricky winds.
Marty Lobert won F Open with consistant good shooting then showing his long range prowess at 1000yds, showing why he got a long range Medal in the Bisley World Champs.
Kelvin Bell shot very well thoughout the whole Queens to get 2nd place. The way he has been shooting lately will mean he will be the man to beat in Canberra next month.
I got counted out for 3rd after leading from the first range up until the last range, with what I thought would be an unbeatable lead, until I got slaughtered at 1000yds . While I was shooting 1000yds, I saw lots of misses along the line and 2s were a common score on the leading A grade F std and fullbore targets, so I got away with it lightly.
A special mention goes to Vince Northfield, who got 2nd in the daily aggregate for the last day, on his 1st F class competition, showing he is picking it up quickly. The whole bunch if F Open were a good freindly bunch with some new additions and I hope they all keep going in more Prize shoots and return for next years Queens.
In F std, Ernie mace showed why he was picked at the QLD F Open team coach to take 1st place. Bob Petterson had what he thought was an unbeatable lead into the last 1000yds until he got a 35 in the bad patch. Greg Warrian, the NSW F Std team coach showed his wind reading skills to take 3rd overall.

In Target rifle, Brian Litz, the balistician from USA got the win (by 1 V bull)from Ross Geange and George Edser. Evan Jones, an under 25 shooters was leading target rifle with a perfect 400 at the end of the 2nd day until he got chewed up in some bad long range conditions. he will be one to watch in Target rifle in the future.
As predicted there were a lot of overseas shooters, coming to check on conditions for next years World Championship. It was good to talk to shooters from all over the world. Overall the shoot went well. We had some rain, some sun shine, some easy calm conditions and some awfull conditions, so I dont know what the international competitors will pass on about what to expect next year.
All good fun.

Hey Rod (Davies),

I wanted to catch up with you while I was there, but had many to talk to...always the way.

While only at the Belmont range for 3 days, I was not shooting, but saw that the conditions were pretty rough. It is good to see poor conditions for the best shooters, it is the only time their skills are really used. The better ones really are better, as wind reading is what our game is all about.

I have heard that the ICFRA version of the "other" version of F Class will certainly be F/TR, with FO remaining something like it is now. This was directly from the top, not second hand. I was interested to ask, it is may impact a lot of shooters here.

The one thing I am not sure about is when the ICFRA F/TR (if it is the case) rules will begin to take effect: is it for the National NRAA Queens, the lead ups to that, or just the individual World Championships, starting directly after the NRAA Queens?? We need to know for sure.

I have no problem with using the F/TR rules, as we can then attract these guys from overseas. We must try to think a bit wider than our own shooters. Personal opinions from me aside, we need to be sensible about how we go across the divide currently between our "version" of FS and the more widespread F/TR ICFRA version.

An open questions begs here:

Would potential medal winners in F/TR that read this forum stay at home purely out of dislike for a relatively minor rule change so that they could then otherwise compete with in an international event? I know what I would do, and have already started making changes in that direction.

The conversations I had with various people at the NRAA Queens up till yesterday, the 16th of October, was that we have two versions of F Open: F Open and F Open Restricted. This is simply about using a rest, and a bipod, nothing much different otherwise.

The best part about the F/TR rule is there IS NO BULLET LIMITATION. This is the worst part about our FS rules here.

Think about using a 200 grain bullet at 1000 yards instead of the very ordinary and poorly performing 155 grainer in any brand name. Again brings to mind the 90 grain berger for the 223...

Interesting Post Rod.
Apart from the other aspects of F/TR vs the Aussie way of doing it, do you honestly believe that the NRAA/States are going to give up on their monopolized supply of projectiles ( 155 gn ) and throw it open to "any " projectile thereby losing a reliable source of income.
First FS then TR??
Do you think that the average aussie shooter is going to be happy that those that can afford it are going to use the " best " and usually the most expensive projectile at probably 50c plus, while he has to use common old HBC's at 35c?--actually the HBC's are a very good projectile if you take the time to find out what they like.
FS in this country is NOT about appeasing international shooters ( with due respects ) it's about appeasing our own local membership and making sure we keep them.
I seem to remember you complaining about the price of imported projectiles not so long ago -- what changed your mind?
If the NRAA see some wisdom in adopting the F/TR specifications in order to attract international competitors, I personally don't see a problem, providing they do it for the Nationals only, and let any aspiring aussie shooter comply. But to make changes of the magnetude you are talking about would be political suicide.
It is not " a relatively minor rule change " as you suggest.
And the difference between FS and FO is not simply about using a rest or a bipod--what about calibres?
F Class is doing very nicely thank you--because of the rules in place, and in spite of the fact that we do not comply internationally.
FS is the fastest growing discipline within FB shooting, and not just because we are getting old and doddery, as some would have you believe--actually there are many people of all ages shooting F Class who have never shot FB before.
LEAVE IT ALONE--IT AINT BROKEN.
Barry