F-Class practice and your range ?

B

brudford

Guest
After talking a few people into starting a F-Class league at our club here in Western PA there was a issue that I missed completely . We only have one range which has a 100 , 200 and 300 yard target boards . The range is covered with about 8-10 really nice wood benches . How do we practice for F-Class ? If I come out to the range during the week and set all my gear and mat on the ground and another shooter wants to shoot off the benches there goes my practice session . There are only a few shooters in F-Class now , and there is no way they are going to close certain days for F-Class prone practice only . So the only time to practice would be the few practice rounds before a match . Big problem as I see it !
 
We have the same problem because the firing line for prone shooting is ahead of the benches. If a shooter is prone and someone wants to use the benches the prone shooter is supposed to have 30 minutes and then move off the line. We've had some prone shooters refuse to move until they are done, period. OK, I just tell them to keep their heads down ;) There is enough room on either side of the row of benches for one person to shoot prone. Weekends are impossible to accomodate everyone. - nhk
 
Good points , see you have the same problem and a good sense of humor, I think that is freakin funny as hell ! Just keep your heads down . Thanks
 
brudford said:
I think that is freakin funny as hell ! Just keep your heads down .
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Actually... not entirely facetious. When doing scheduled sight-in following flying in to England for 2009 FCWC, we were shooting from the 100yd line on the left hand side of the range. About five minutes in, we heard a 'KAPOW' from behind us... turns out there they also use the *right* side of the range concurrently (from an elevated firing mound) with about 10-15 yard separation. The locals didn't seem to mind, but we hurried up and got the heck out of Dodge.

Back to the original topic... I'd say move some of the benches. They don't need to shut down the *whole* firing line, but they can certainly share. Half for the bench guys, half for the people on the ground.
 
Moving benches

milanuk said:
I'd say move some of the benches. They don't need to shut down the *whole* firing line, but they can certainly share. Half for the bench guys, half for the people on the ground.
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I don't know about other ranges, but ours are permanent concrete benches at 100 & 200M with the berm for prone ahead of them at 100 & 200 yds. - nhk
 
We shoot F Class at 600 yards, and have informal practice sessions about one a month during the week. We block out a 2 hour time period, usually 10:00 -12:00, and make sure it's posted in the monthly calander. We shoot 2-20 round relays, and so far everyone has been happy with the set up. No one seems to think that reserving the range for two hours a month is to much to ask for.

Ken
 
Thats similar to what we do here locally. In our case it involves shutting down a few firing lines that are down range for the interim, but we aren't shutting down the whole range, and certainly not for the whole day.
 
+1 on the shutting down shorter ranges; When we shoot 1,000 yard F-Class practices, we can't shoot anything shorter (as in 600, 800, or 900). When we shoot short range practice at 300, we can't shoot 200. We run practices for no more than 3 hours (generally 9:00 am until noon).

Jeffvn
 
The range I belong to only goes to 200M and we don't have an F-Class group. High Power and Three Gun each have a Saturday or Sunday a month as does Black Powder and Pistol. Weekends are mostly organized activities and individuals don't get much of an opportunity to shoot. I was able to shoot F-T/R 600M at another club along with their High Power, but they haven't listed any more matches. Another club advertised F-Class, but that was with a 200 yard High Power shoot and High Power targets. They didn't understand F-Class was prone and expected us to shoot the same position and timed fire as High Power and were suprised when I went prone in each relay. I averaged 8 seconds per round single loading and wasn't able to get off 20 rounds and shot 200-18X, 150-13X (timed), 170-16X (timed) and 198-11X on the larger targets with my .223 varmint rifle and loads. I haven't found any F-Class matches so far this year that wouldn't require overnight travel. My budget won't allow much of that. - nhk
 
nhkuehl said:
Is that still F-T/R and Open? Any matches in along the front range of Colorado or Wyoming? - nhk
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It;s not REALLY NRA F-Class, it's a made up form of shooting like it from a bench that is not supported by the NRA, only the local Club it is shot at.

We can shoot from between the benches prone, but for what use as the Club has stopped supporting NRA Matches.
 
I don't what club you belong to, but McDonald Sportsmans Assn. goes to 600 yards. They shoot BPCR there to 500m, so the target butts are 200, 300, 385, and 500 meters with a backstop at 600 yards. Maybe you can get some interest from that club, as they do seem to have an active rifle membership. Just an idea...check them out.
http://www.mcdonaldsportsmen.com/
I was not a member there but shot there often with a friend.
 
walkinhorseman said:
I don't what club you belong to, but McDonald Sportsmans Assn. goes to 600 yards. They shoot BPCR there to 500m, so the target butts are 200, 300, 385, and 500 meters with a backstop at 600 yards. Maybe you can get some interest from that club, as they do seem to have an active rifle membership. Just an idea...check them out.
http://www.mcdonaldsportsmen.com/
I was not a member there but shot there often with a friend.
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Not much of an optionas it is an 11 hour drive to the Club you gave the link to......
 
brudford said:
After talking a few people into starting a F-Class league at our club here in Western PA there was a issue that I missed completely . We only have one range which has a 100 , 200 and 300 yard target boards . The range is covered with about 8-10 really nice wood benches . How do we practice for F-Class ? If I come out to the range during the week and set all my gear and mat on the ground and another shooter wants to shoot off the benches there goes my practice session . There are only a few shooters in F-Class now , and there is no way they are going to close certain days for F-Class prone practice only . So the only time to practice would be the few practice rounds before a match . Big problem as I see it !
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Taildrag- This thread started talking about a range in Western PA???? That was my frame of reference. I currently live in NH but migrated from "Western PA". McDonald is in SW PA, close to W Va. For people living in Western NY, it is about 2.5 hours S on I-79 from Erie, PA. Certainly not a one day event from there. Are you looking in NW or SW PA?
 
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