New to F-Class - Wanting some advice

[BATattack]

New Class of F Class,

I think we are going to have to invent a new classification or division in F Class in some sort of "Hunter" or Light Rifle Class.

I hear so many stories of people bringing their sporter type rifles to the range and then having others telling them their rifle won't be good enough, and they would be better getting some sort of specialised target rifle.

Most of these people then give up and go off to the SSAA.

Bob

couldnt agree more! people are so obsessed with converting t/r shooters into f class they arnt seeing the bigger picture! t/r shooters are happy doing what they enjoy .there are thousands of hunters that are keen to use there rifles more and learn how to improve their ability.

i have a dozen friends that would like to get into f class but cant justify having a dedicated rifle. maby we need to look at a informal hunter class that can be shot before the normal comp on saturday (maby only 1 detail?) or on sunday?

keep the ranges under 500yds

factory hunting rifles only. no varmint rifles and only factory barrels.

scopes limited to 12x ( set and taped by R/O on 12x for a variable)

any caliber can be used under 8mm.

[AlanF]

I'm not so sure - it s a bit like Benchrest vs F-Class - only a small number shoot both for any length of time - and most tend to go back to what they started in.

We have large numbers of deer hunters in Gippsland, and they keep dropping in to our Saturday shoots. They might shoot once or twice with their hunting rifles, then we wouldn't see them again.

I decided to do something about it, thinking that if we could get a big group of them together, we could have enough of a field for some decent competition with similar gear, and they would keep coming back. So I organised a "hunting rifle technical day", with flyers in all the local gun shops. It offered things like assistance with sight-in, bore-scope inspection, chronograph test, technical sessions on long range shooting etc. plus a 10 shot competition at 300yds. This plus barbecue lunch for $60 per head. The idea was to get them together and try to gauge interest in a regular shoot for hunting rifles, possibly out to about 5-600 yards. We had ONE taker. Fortunately we required pre-registration so didn't lose out financially. Interestingly, he is the same new member I mentioned above who is getting an F-Open rifle!

Most hunters seem to be interested almost entirely in hunting, and all they want from us is somewhere to sight their rifles in, preferably without having to join a club. John Eland, you warned me about this from your own experiences at Grantville and you were dead right! (even if you're wrong on some other things ).

Alan

[Dazza]

Which lead me to think of the T3 varmint as i have a T3 Hunter in 25/06 that will happily shoot 3/8" @ 100m all day (providing i do my part of course).
Thanks

Why not just have a go with the 25-06?

Projectiles from the heavier end of the scale, with a boattail, should be fine out to 600yds.

Probably even get away with a standard scope set up.

You never know you might surprise yourself!

[johnk]

Bob,

There used to be such a class but it got written out at the big rule shakedown.

Ken Larkin has been trying to launch it again since as it's big up his neck of the woods. He posted something on that here a year or so back: http://ozfclass.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

John

[IanP]

I think this thread has been hijacked!!!!!

Maybe start another thread on hunting class if thats where the discussion is heading.

IanP

[Paul Janzso]

Steve
Have a look at murraybridgerifleclub.com.au

Check out the Bench Rest page, there is a short vid of Dave shooting his Tikka Super Varmint in 308 off a rest at 1,000 yards. He has added weight to the but and it handles very well.

You could also get your Tikka and re-stock it in a MBR copy style stock.
Peter Van-Muers, a web sponsor has laminated blanks, he could also have it inleted for you and you could add plenty of weight to tame recoil. Also have him fit a 20 min rail for scope elevation.

It would be a cheep way to enter F Class Open.

I would also recomend a 300 WSM instaed of the 300 Win Mag, I don't know why, but I use one.

Cheers
Paul

[ratshot]

Pest bird you and I seem to live by the same philosophy, if all else fails use a bigger stick.

[Woody_rod]

It offered things like assistance with sight-in, bore-scope inspection, chronograph test, technical sessions on long range shooting etc. plus a 10 shot competition at 300yds. This plus barbecue lunch for $60 per head. ....... We had ONE taker.....
Alan

Your problem is the price tag. Are you seriously expecting people to pay $60 for that? They can get all that for free every week at our local club - except the BBQ. A BBQ pack is $8.

How about do all of the above, and your club pay the costs. You might find a lot more acceptance of the idea.

[M12LRPV]

Hi Stevo,

Have you shot any F-Class yet?

Many of us at my club started with factory rifles (including one guy with a tikka) and have done reasonably well with them provided they put the effort into things like reloading. Most of us are now rebarreling to match barrels in heavy profiles after burning out our factory barrels learning the sport.

Consider what you have got in the safe already for your first steps into F-Class before buying more gear. You might be better burning out your 25/06 barrel learning then re barreling to something else later.

My club has had a few people come along with sporter and varmint weight 270's (gunshop recommended to them for deer) and they cannot get through 12 shots before they give up because of the recoil. Shooting prone is a lot different to shooting in other positions when it comes to recoil. The rifle really positions at different points.

The point is that you're looking at entering a new sport with newly purchased heavy recoiling not quite ideal equipment.

You have a few risks to contend with.
1. You may not like the sport and choose to give it up.
2. You may find the recoil to be too much and want to change calibres.
3. You may find your action purchase to be less than ideal depending on how serious you get. (there's a reason custom target actions rule the top spots)
4. ???

Personally I (like most here i expect ) think your biggest risk is the recoil of the 300WM. That is without knowing what your experience is with big kickers. Perhaps look at a second hand one with a good action so that your initial outlay is reduced in the event that you need to rebarrel to something tamer.

[AlanF]

Your problem is the price tag. Are you seriously expecting people to pay $60 for that?

$60 is hardly a king's ransom Rod. We charge $30 for 2 shoots with the club 6BR. If we charged nothing, there would be no commitment - you'd get people saying they were coming then not, and others just turning up for a laugh. This would have involved a lot of people's time and effort, so it should at least have benefitted the club coffers.

The main thing it says to me is that there wasn't enough interest for us to go to the trouble. That's fine - we have enough F-Class members already, and probably wouldn't have gained many anyway.

Alan

[actionclear]

Yikes! You pay $30 in range fees each week!



I guess we really are spoilt out in the bush. Our range fees are $6 a week.

If someone shows up to have a go at shooting, their first shoot is free.

We have a function similar to Alan's planned for the end of seeding. It will be a team event, and entry's will cost $10 per team. It is designed as a fun social day/night, with a BBQ dinner and overnight camping encouraged. Any other costs involved to the club will be covered by a couple of raffles and opening the bar.

[AlanF]

Yikes! You pay $30 in range fees each week!

Linda,

Our range fees are $60 per annum, and club $25 per annum. The $30 I mentioned is for 24 shots with our Savage 6mmBR club rifle. But some of us occasionally let new shooters use our rifles, and don't always charge. So we're not money hungry. Most of our range income is from govt. grants.

Alan

[Stevo]

wow a lot more posts while i was at work today but thanks for the replies its been an informative/educational read.

not really sure where to start as far as replying goes, the reason i hadnt intended on using the 25/06 for starting out is theres only a cheap dodgy scope on it but more so the fact that the BC's on .257 projectiles is pretty poor, so it makes a good hunting gun but poor target gun/caliber.

I originally was pretty bent on finding a solution to allow me to cross over to F-Class and use a 300WM, however in my current budget that is seeming almost impossible. Basically the more im thinking all of it over i'd say you've all managed to convince me to opt of a savage f-class in 6.5x284

then perhaps in the future with some practice and more money to spend move to something custom possibly in 300WM or another such caliber

one question that has been bothering me is the question of if i'll need new reloading gear. Currently using a lee turret style press (the one you can put a turn-able head with up to 4 dies in it) which has been observed to move by up to maybe 50 tho upwards while re-sizing. Does anyone else use a turret style press and notice this/have a problem with it? would i need a single stage press for reloading for F-class? or would that be another thing to put on the list of "in the future when i get more practice and more serious"?

Thanks again for all the help and replies guys, been very informative and persuasive (but in a good way)

[M12LRPV]

There are plenty of 25 cal projies with BC's above 400. The problem is more likely going to be in getting your hands on them as the 25's can be hard to find and expensive.

That much play in a press would bother me personally but other's might not care.
You can blow through a lot of rounds shooting F-Class. If you're happy with your case life then all and good. For me with two shooters in the household it's more than 2000 rounds a year which is a lot of work for 200 lapua cases to deal with.

[Woody_rod]

Stevo,

There is a huge amount of info available on this forum and elsewhere online. Just use the search function in this forum for reloading stuff.

I would not use the turret press, too much movement.