F/TR - Positive Input Required

[AlanF]

This Class has potential - its good for new shooters with an Omark or Remington, would better suit many TR shooters converting to scopes, and last but not least, it offers international competition for .223/308 shooters.

At Rosedale we have several new shooters who attend most weekends and are keen for the class to be introduced at club level and the OPM (where they probably would not otherwise compete). Next Saturday I hope to be able to get our Range members to vote in favour of introducing F/TR at our OPM in March. If they do ozfclass.com will sponsor the trophies and badge(s).

I would urge other OPM organisers to consider what interest there might be, and if it looks promising, take a risk and include F/TR. It could become the main growth area in full bore.

Alan

[Quick]

This is good news Alan. Great going for your club.

[Southcape]

Every State Association and club has the option of running F/TR at their Queens and Prize Meetings, as well as their weekend shoots. They do not need NRAA permission to do so.

Of course you will have to approach your own club committee first, and start at the ground level.

I have just written to WARA asking for F Std, F/TR and F Open scores to be separated in the Redbook. Currently, all scores are entered as F Std here in the West.

It is important that F/TR and F Open scores be registered. This way we will create a database of scores from which Australian Teams can be potentially selected from.

[Southcape]

Looks like I will be burning up some frequent flyer points over the next few years.

[Savage]

I can't see any problem in F/TR being introduced as has been said before that it will attract more people knowing that they have to put up big dollars to be able to shoot and be competive because they can just get there hunting rifle and shoot, also with out the need to use the regulated powders and projectiles it will make it eaiser and better for people like me that have a disabiity that can't stand the recoil of a 308 (with out having to spend hundreds) to be able to shoot out at 1000y and be very competive with a 223.

from my understanding getting f-open and f-standard in was a hard task and people had to prove it was a viable sport, yet it is in now and thats because clubs/states showed it was very viable, the same can be done for F/TR IMHO.


the only way our sport can survive is by having members at clubs and the wholle idea of having a club is for the members u can't have 1 with out the other, if bringing in F/TR will bring numbers and help the sport on a whole grow I can't understand why people would not push for it.


please correct me if I am chewing the wrong end of the stick.

Jay

[Fireman_DJ]

I for one am for it.
Not only my rifle, but my shooting style suits F/TR very well.

I'm not going to the range to compete, but it'd still be nice to be competitive.

[Savage]

I for one am for it.
Not only my rifle, but my shooting style suits F/TR very well.

I'm not going to the range to compete, but it'd still be nice to be competitive.

you n me DJ can have our own comp lol

[Southcape]

Many people are afraid of change. The harder we push, the more they tend to pull away.

I keep hearing that now is not the right time to introduce this discipline. The trouble is, there will never be a right time. The more time that goes past, the stronger F Standard becomes, the more people F/TR will get offside.

New shooters to F Standard don't realise we are the only ICFRA country to shoot F Std. The rest of the ICFRA world shoots F/TR and F Open.

[Norm]

Would I travel to an OPM to shoot F-Std........No.
My gear and style of shooting is not competitive. So why waste my time and money travelling to a prize meet just to get my arse kicked. I can do that at my home range!

Would I travel to a OPM to shoot F/TR...........Yes.
My gear and style of shooting would be competitive and I would not feel outgunned. I would feel like I was competing with like minded shooters with similar gear. Now that would be fun and worth doing.

[Quick]

I feel that an F/TR spec rifle can be competitive in F-Std. I shoot FS at normal club shoots as the Club doesnt support F/TR (yet) but my gear is F/TR spec and I shoot decent scores so far with it.

[Southcape]

I have traveled WA this year with my F/TR gear shooting within F Std.

This was mainly to promote F/TR to WA F Class shooters. Now we have reached 2012, I will be switching bullets, and competing solely within F/TR.

I see clubs saying they will be holding F/TR at their PM's and it attracts my attention.

[Barry Davies]

Norm,
If you consider your gear to be not competitive in FS , then it certainly would not be competitive in F/TR. There seems to be a general misconception that F/TR is somehow of a lesser standard than FS, well, not so.
A properly set up F/TR rifle will be more than competitive with any FS rifle and a fair percentage of FO rifles. What is lost in weight is easily gained in projectile.
There are plenty of FS rifles around now that conform to F/TR standards - give them a better projectile and that ups the ante somewhat.

Linda,
I would not worry so much, as if F/TR is going to take off it will, by natural attrition -- the shooters will decide, the pool is only so big, it's a numbers game, if you have'nt got the numbers - you lose.

Barry

[DaveMc]

I think Alan has the right idea here. We need some nice prizes and trophies at Prize meetings to get people into it, we also need some sort of advertising. We only have 25 members of our club but there are 1700 local SSAA members - A few turn up from time to time but haven't joined yet. It was estimated that a huge number (maybe 25-40%??) of these have 308's that could be used in FTR - Not all competitively but does that matter??? Worth giving them a taste of the sport and making sure they enjoy it.

[AlanF]

Dave,

All credit is due to some individuals in SA and WA for recognising the virtues of F/TR in Australia, and importantly, getting things done. I agree with them and can see immediate benefits to introducing it at my local range. Now is the time do it, while its getting some publicity and support. If a number clubs in eastern states do something similar, it can only go one way, and that is forwards. I wouldn't expect it to attract a huge number of hunters out of SSAA (for most of them, hunting definitely comes first), but a few are more into long range accuracy than anything else, using tactical type rifles etc. So I hope you can muster up some enthusiasm in your district. It doesn't have to be at OPM level - just having F/TR as a separate class in the weekly club competition is a very easy way of getting started.

How are your NSW Queens plans looking?

Alan

[Fireman_DJ]

Barry, you killed your own argument.

A properly set up F/TR rifle will be more than competitive with any FS rifle and a fair percentage of FO rifles. What is lost in weight is easily gained in projectile.

Shooting a F/TR rifle under F Standard requires the use of approved projectiles.
Without a F/TR class, competitors must be far superior shooters to compete evenly.
And to shoot in F-Open is even worse. Not only do they have a higher weight limit then F/TR, but they also can choose any calibre. Not just any projectile in a specific calibre.


Remember, this topic is asking for positive input. I may be misreading your intentions, but your post doesn't seem too positive about F/TR.

Both yourself and Linda are correct. It is a numbers game, but if we don't push for the clubs to support it, the numbers may never appear and the NRAA will decide that nobody wants or cares about F/TR.

We few already shooting F/TR rifles along with the support of forward thinking shooters from other classes like Alan need to break the ground to new shooters can come along and say "this shooting style is for me".