I think to take an action designed specifically for prone Fullbore or FClass and test it at the short or long range BR disciplines is not really a test of anything more than the ability of the shooter to overcome the inadequacies of the design. What arena does the INCH want to be known for? Jack of all trades and master of none?
I see a venture like this as futile unless the action can be fitted with a 2 ounce trigger, fit into a weight category while retaining some sort of reasonable barrel profile, have the bolt lift effortlessly with a finger or two, extract and eject the case without disrupting the sand bags and feed another cartridge with the same lack of effort. With out this, you are asking someone to step backwards 30 years to prove a point to someone who will likely never buy the action for this purpose anyway. And lastly it has to be pretty, without that, you lose.
Agreed, it has already been said that the action is not designed for the BR role.
I say give the action to German, and another to Bruce Scott here in my home town and if you wish to get it into FClass, Bill Hallam in West Australia is the guy.
Bill Hallam is someone I respect and admire for his determination and shooting ability, along with his excellent knowledge of rifle building, and the real nitty gritty of gunsmithing etc. There is however, a problem nationally where many known rifle builders have some sort of fixation with Barnard actions. No problem with me, the INCH actions being fielded here beat them and others every time they go into a competition. Funny how people don't remember that happening.....
Otherwise mate, you are a little behind in your local knowledge. We won a PM last weekend with the INCH in F Class, and have otherwise had divisional wins locally (including by myself) using the INCH at the WARA Queens. There are many other successes that would take some space here to note, which has all been done in the past 12 months or so. We have MUCH bigger fish to fry on the international scene, as will be shown from work done in other countries where the INCH is now being used by very competent shooters.
It is a shame there are no equipment lists, the wins and divisional stuff at events here would show the success of the INCH is out of all proportion to their numbers. A top 10 finish in the Grand at the 2009 Imperial Meeting at Bisley is also a good example - this is the TOP event for prone shooting. This was by a prototype, not a full production version, which are a major improvement in many areas of function. It was the ONLY INCH action fielded in the event.
The only handicap we have, is that almost all of the users to date are in lower divisions (mostly newer shooters, which includes myself). Given some time, these people will change up to higher divisions. If you look at every other action maker, this is the same process they had to undertake. The INCH has only been commercially available for about 15 months, not much time to develop a national reputation.
The INCH will have a good comparison next year in the World Championships and Palma teams events, where we will be fielding quite a number of INCH actions, and rifles built by myself - whole teams will be using them. We sell the INCH worldwide, AU is really a very small market for us. A lot of AU people just don't understand that other markets are simply a lot bigger than ours. I am absolutely confident that people will no longer have this negative view of the INCH, once they see the elevations shot at 1000 yards by people that know how to handle a rifle.
To break into the 1K arena, well that needs the three Bs. Barrels, bullets and brass. The rest is just an accessory where stocks just have to track, and the action has to hold the scope, trigger and pressure. Ugly works just fine in 1K.
Absolutely, this is something brought home for me as recently as last weekend. I have learned a lot over the past few months where some time has been spent in F Class, more so to gain knowledge from a different persective on rifles, barrels, loading techniques and all that, to bring back to the Target Rifle discipline.
