What Is a "Factory" Rifle

Jackie
If the concern is that this shooter will dominate the "factory class" to such a point that it would discourage new shooters, think about this.

Explain it to the shooter, get him involved. Do this WITH him not TO him.

Allow 3 or 4 1st place finishes, or possibly even the whole season.

Then Issue a "performance DQ" for that rifle for the following seasons - applicable only to "Factory Class".

Frame the DQ as a Badge of honor or accomplishment, get a classy sticker printed to proudly display on the stock of the rifle. Make it sound like the highest accomplishment a factory rifle can aspire to, which it basically is.


Then hope he doesn't whoop up on the sporter class shooters too much. :D
 
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The Savage Rifle is my starting point

I have been on this forum for just a few months learning as much as I can. I bought a Savage 12 FTR as my first highpower a few months ago and started shooting it off the bench. It shot very well so my interest in improving and learning more about benchrest shooting increased.

I would like to shoot in Factory Class, or anything else I can with the 308 to get experience and work on technique since the Savage is my only gun. If there were many rules regarding my absolutely stock rifle, (still with factory set trigger pull) not being acceptable my interest in competition would diminish. I would have to dish out a fair amount of money for another gun, dies, brass, scope, etc., before I had fully found the areas I wanted to pursue. I would still shoot, but would miss out on friendly competition, and I think that is where I would learn the most.

I believe that with decent equipment, the shooter makes the difference. If someone outshoots me with their "factory" gun, then I would be more interested in getting better since I could see that I could be better and that I wouldn't have to immediately buy another more expensive gun in another caliber and the equipment to have fun being in the sport. I would want to learn something from the guy that is shooting so well in the factory class.

The "factory" designation means to me that I could go out that day, or perhaps in a few, and buy the same gun I saw shooting well, and start shooting. The simple approach would be the best.

I look forward to buying a 6ppc bench rifle, but a "factory" rifle has been a great place for me to start.
 
Savage Fan

One Savage is never enough!

Savages.jpg
 
How about calling the class "Factory Repeater"? A single shot rifle would then have to shoot in the modified class. (Yes, I know there are bunches of repeaters out there that will shoot......)

-Dave-:)
 
Factory Class

Jackie,
The english language is VERY complicated. I believe if a gunsmith produces X # of rifles he is considered a manufacture SOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Is Kelby,Borden,Dwight Scott etc. considered a manufacture.
The reason I brought this up is we have all seen Factory classes go all to H****. Remember the Pure Stock drags of the late 70's the 50/50 Rimfire sporter, I was almost run out of Wva because I showed up with a FACTORY Cooper , look at it now.:eek:
K.I.S.S. may be the best method. The real issues are do you really want to spend the time inspecting each rifle. With the Savage it is SOOOO easy to set the bbl back and rechamber do you know if the factory bbl is 24 or 24.25" long?:mad:
On a parting note I know that you will be fair in what you decide and if anyone knows you they know this.:):):)
Jim
 
Hippy said:
Jackie,
The english language is VERY complicated. I believe if a gunsmith produces X # of rifles he is considered a manufacture SOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Is Kelby,Borden,Dwight Scott etc. considered a manufacture.

Jim
Click to expand...

Yes they are. Which is why consideration should be taken for the name "Production".
 
Seems to me we just had this conversation.

Which is why "factory class" should be left up to the individual club!! BUT having said that, factory at Dublin is not factory at Elberton is not factory at Riverbend is not factory at Piedmont. I don't want to buy 4 or 5 factory rifles so I can be competitive at all the clubs I might want to shoot. And I don't want to "rebuild" my factory rifle everytime I go shoot a different club. I can just keep my "factory" class range fees in my pocket. More than once I have been asked, "you bringing the Savage"?

Would it be so far from the realm of possibility: some clubs in the same general area get together and for a little while, set aside egos etc, and compromise a little on their rules as to what actually constitutes a "factory class gun"? Would this not allow MORE guns to be shot at MORE ranges which would benefit MORE clubs? I feel sure a lot of us IBS guys have something just sitting in the closet they would love to shoot as a second gun at a registered match. Dublin (M.G.G.O.A.)used to hold club level AND registered IBS matches at the same time and I thought they worked pretty darn well. They sure got me hooked!

Just a thought.
 
Oh boy,...

This is always a fun discussion. Small shoots are terrorized by this question, and I'm with you Jackie. As long as it's the factory action, barrel, a SAAMI standardized cartridge, and prefably factory stock, I'd call it a factory gun. I would still consider Coopers and 40Xs factory. And yeah, those new Savages are gettin' freakin' accurate. It's pretty scary how far Savage has come and how they are really raising the bar for factory accuracy. Good job Savage, and thank you benchrest for most of the innovation. :D lol

Matthew S Keller
 
Tbonz, I sure hope julia doesn't see AVG pic/post,,,,,,,,,,, hmmmmmmm maybe we do need to let her see that, the resulting fire/divorce sale might be good,,,,,,,,,,

the wind is my friend

DD
 
TBonz said:
Adrian...

I think you're missing some of them...
Click to expand...

I know the 270, 22BR, 20 Tactical skinny barrel and the one I just got back from Jerry isn't there. Plus the 300 WSM my neighbor has.

DD - Have you seen my Savage belt buckle? You gotta getcha one of these.
 
Jackie, If its in the catalog as a factory gun Then its a factory gun. What is there to think about. Its what it is.
 
david dumas said:
Tbonz, I sure hope julia doesn't see AVG pic/post,,,,,,,,,,, hmmmmmmm maybe we do need to let her see that, the resulting fire/divorce sale might be good,,,,,,,,,,

the wind is my friend

DD
Click to expand...

You should see how pissed she gets when she wants to put Lucy or Woodstock in a safe but won't fit because they are "full of junk" as she puts it. :)

Adrian
 
At one time, when they first discontinued the old, open-top, single shot actions, Savage claimed that the single shots of that time offered no accuracy advantages (at least, that they could see) over the actions that had a magazine. They may well have changed their tune, but if the old SS had an advantage, it wasn't much. YMMV.
 
How about this.

I mass produce everything I build, at least by my definition. Hell, I probably made over a 1000 actions this year already, so I am close to a big manufacturer. SO I meet that rule. I have a catalog, SO I meet that rule. Maybe I will make a run of Predator V's, screw them into my Robertson stock with a jewell trigger and a cnc chambered shilen match barrel chambered to 30 br. I bet I can make em in mass, at least 20 to 30 or so such that anyone that wants one for next year can have it. I will sell them for less then a couple grand to all the factory shooters.

Is this a good plan for next year? Will this encourage the factory class and bring in bunches of new shooters? What if 5 factory guys take me up on this deal. It really shouldnt have much effect on the others playing the game, should it? I am sure the Savage shooters in 6BR will have open arms to the new guys bringing these in (playing their own game, right). Hurry up and let me know so I can get to work.

Jackie, take a look at my post on the other thread. I think that will be your easiest answer.

PS. Sorry about the sarcasm, its late but maybe somewhat warranted
 
Twists to Factory Class competition

Most shooters think of Factory Class as a vehicle to bring more shooters into the competitive arena. These shooters are generally envisioned as having little or no competitive experience and who haven't yet been bit by the "custom gun bug".

The guys up in KY run some very successful balloon and egg matches which include a very popular Factory Class event. These FC matches include the newcomers with compliant guns----and also include the same competitors who also shoot custom guns in the Custom Classes. Although all FC competitors shoot legal guns, the event becomes the equivalent of an "Open Factory Class" and is a very tough match.

I think I'd be in favor of having a "Beginner" subclass of FC---a new shooter could declare to be a "beginner" for a prescribed number of shoots or until it can be shown that he/she should be moved upward in class. I'd be in favor of allowing "beginners" to bring what they have and shoot it against other "beginners"----with the obvious exception of serious BR guns.

Once these shooters get moved out of Beginner Class, they'd have to shoot in whatever class their gun fits.

There are a lot of varmint hunters out there with very good factory and custom rifles who have never shot in any form of competition. This might be a good pool of shooters to recruit competitors from.

Good luck in figuring out what the definition of "is" is, as regards FC rifles.
George in KY has a very liberal set of FC rules and he still gets fussed at.

A. Weldy
 
I've just bought a savage

and so far it looks like a wise choice. I bought it because of the very thing that is being discussed here. They're accurate.

I have a very restricted budget and cannot afford a custom rifle. I could have bought a remington but there was no guarantee that it would shoot. In fact chances are that it wouldn't.

Given a choice of buying a remington and risk coming last or buying a savage and possibly coming first there was really no choice.

But just as coming dead last all the time isn't much fun, winning all the time isn't fun either.

If your savage shooter is really keen and enjoys the challenge he'll start to get bored with shooting in factory and want to move up.

Once he's won a few factory shoots, invite him to shoot with the big boys.

If he's really, really, keen get into his ear and suggest how good it would feel to compete with and beat some of the customs with his humble factory offering ;)

With any luck I'll be following this very path myself :cool:

Oh, and come clean with exactly what rifle he was shooting so that prospective newcomers know what to buy for their first benchrest rifle.
 
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