Concrete Mounds

[Southcape]

I understand Canberra and Darwin have concrete mounds. Can someone explain how F Class use these mounds, with the front rest.

Or is it simply a case of F Class shuffled down one end.

[johnk]

Linda,

I'm guessing that you have concerns about how consistently a bipod will move on concrete during recoil. I carry a Bunnings flocked rubber backed doormat (or is it a bathmat?) that will solve that problem.

20.10.1.2 If the front rest is a bipod:-
(a) the feet of the bipod may be placed on the ground, or on material such as carpet or on a flat board.

John

[Southcape]

Hi John,

We have a club here in WA looking at putting in concrete mounds. They don't have any F Class shooters currently, so had not given the thought to how the mounds would effect the ability to use a front rest.

I was wondering how F Class get around this on the concrete mounds.

[johnk]

I'm with you now, Linda,

They're not my favourites because they grind the toes off your boots, given half a chance & you need to use a padded groundsheet or mind control for comfort lying on them. Some bipods don't like skating on them & there can be elevating issues with front stands. They tend to be built with less than desirable fore-aft slope, aprticularly if you are familiar with earth mounds.

However, as shooting smallbore taught me, somebody used to shooting prone on grassed mounds can feel real pain until they acclimatise to concrete - the left elbow particularly, expecially for those with a less than perfect position.

Apart from that, it's a lot easier to clean animal faeces of concrete than grass & they don't need a whole lot of maintenance. However, the biggest plus is they're consistent rain, shine or drought - your elbows or bipod will never sink into them.

The F class teams at Canberra managed them Ok, by & large, though a few individuals could have given more thought to their peculiarities when it rained.

John

[Tman]

I remember shooting in Canberra years ago in the National Queens, the one thing I remember the most apart from the flags blowing in every direction, was having sore knees, hips and elbows from the concrete mounds!!

The other aspect was the heat from the concrete on those bright sunny days,later in the day.

I have a rubber mat, that I was going to use on the grass mound, but now I have found another use, that on a concrete mound, in conjunction with a padded fullbore mat that I lie on.

The left elbow for me has also been a problem, solved by way of a skateboarding/rollerblade elbow pad with the hard plastic taken off, which I put over my sweatshirt before my shooting jacket.

My old khaki shooting jacket had quite substantial elbow pads and no problem, but my new (not so new now after 10 years) Walden Miller jacket had elbow pads that were thinner, hence the extra padding.

It would get quite painful without the extra padding, and my elbow would get inflamed, so just prior to a Queens I went out to Rebel Sport and bought elbow pads and cut the hard plastic bit off. This did the trick whilst I was shooting fullbore and now I shoot Fclass.

The other option with concrete mounds are the padded shooting mats that fullbore shooters use, and since I shoot smallbore as well, this was an easy transition anyway. Just a couple of ideas for you.

[Mark Hamersley]

Hi Linda

I haven't used a bipod on a concrete mound, but once you hammer in the 50mm spikes your front rest isn't going anywhere - just kidding

My memory of concrete mounds in Canberra is of sore elbows (take more padding next time! ) and near burning from the hot concrete. If you are used to variable sloped grass mounds you should be able to deal with concrete ones easily enough - the consistency is a plus too. With a front rest it is similar to shooting from a concrete bench, I didn't notice any stability issues. They have a number of benefits in my opinion, I'm quite happy to use them. Having witnessed portable benches set up on concrete and on sloping grass mounds, the one on concrete appears far more stable to me. This would be a benefit to less able shooters looking to use a bench to extend their shooting days.



best regards


Mark

[mike H]

Having shot at Canberra Queens for a few years, I like their mounds for F/class. The regular surface is easier to use than some grassed mounds, with clumpy tufts of grass. This is with a bipod. The organizers always have thick rubber mats available for all positions, moving them from range to range at the same time as the score boards.
Mike.