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I'm starting to get it

proneshooter

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 27, 2010
696
2
57
After 15 years of shooting highpower, this scope shooting off a bipod is starting to come together.

Went today to the local NRA mid range prone match (conventional and F class) and shot my Howa 1500 on the F class targets at 3/5/6.

Score didn't matter. I went to get solid zeros for all three distances and to get trigger time at mid range distances in a relatively repeatable environment. Being able to lay down and shoot round after round from the same basic position at a target that gives you very quantitative feedback is invaluable. Unlike shooting at steel plates where spotting the exact fall of your shot is nearly impossible, a square range target not only shows you where the bullet went, it does so until you shoot it again. Don't get me wrong, steel plates are fun and make shooting alone very easy. But you can gain an invaluable amount of information about the wind, your position and recoil management, and your elevation zero with bullseye targets. Information that is almost impossible to get so easily from plates.

Not only did I refine my zeroes at those distances to the point that I am supremely confident in them, I am also starting to see the rifle track straight in recoil and keep the target in the reticle all through the recoil cycle. Not perfect by any means yet, but a damn sight better than two years ago when I first got a scoped rifle to play around with.

Even if you have no intention whatsoever to become a hardcore highpower or F class shooter, I strongly recommend participating in either until you have the basics down hard.

That is all
 
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F-Class isn't really my game, but holy cow is it a great opportunity to really refine shooting fundamentals. Lots and lots of data gathered all at once. Congrats!
 
Prone,
You are absolutely correct about the shooting of targets at long range. There is no substitute. It is not a popular stance on this site. Seems "banging steel" is the answer here. If it is hit, fine, if missed forget about it and shoot again.
Very imprecise in my opinion.
 
Its not that everybody hates FClass or anything, it simply accomplishes something very different from the practical steel competitions. And the value of competitions are what we are talking about. I don't think there is anybody here that would contest putting a huge piece of paper out at every distance to gather data (including data from shots that would've missed smaller steel) isn't a better method than not being able to see precisely where a bullet hit. On the same note, I don't think anyone would contest that shooting 20 rounds on 20 different targets in 6 moderately different positions is a good way to get the basics solid.

The reason the practical 'steel banging' competitions are so popular here is because they reward 1st round hits. They reward being able to shoot from different positions. They reward being able to adjust POI without immediate feedback from a target if you missed. It isn't about proving the precision of the rifle and shooter while eliminating other variables and it isn't about gathering data, its about each individual shot counting as a hit or a miss (practical) and firing from realistic field positions (practical). It is precision put into the context of practicality.

I enjoy FClass for exactly the reasons proneshooter notes. Great way to gather some data, great way to refine some form. For those purposes, its great (and obviously for the joy people who like to shoot it compete in it for). The practical competitions is where the rubber of that data meets the road of practical application. That mindset of practical application is what resonates here, explaining the popularity.

Prone,
You are absolutely correct about the shooting of targets at long range. There is no substitute. It is not a popular stance on this site. Seems "banging steel" is the answer here. If it is hit, fine, if missed forget about it and shoot again.
Very imprecise in my opinion.
 
thanks bodywerks. Just to be clear, I have a ton of respect for FClass and its competitors. I'm just saying it and practical competitions are very distinctly different, both completely valid in their own right, but judge very different things and looking at those differences its easy to see why the practical competitions have a little more bearing on a site like snipershide.
 
I shoot F-class, but one thing I appreciate about steel is it challenges you to be better at judging distance and making the first shot count ( especially if the steel range is unknown distance). Obviously, what is good about F-class is it challenges you to be precise in placing each shot as close to center, shot after shot at distance even though the distance is known. It is all good and we need to support each other in all disciplines to succed and overcome our present day adversity.
 
It has been my experience over the last fifteen or so years that every form of precision rifle shooting I have done has contributed to my ability with the others.

A lot of people tend to look at the differences between disciplines and use them as reasons why other styles won't help what they do now.

I take the opposite tack and look deep to see what I can take with me from one to the next. I have found that my trigger time in highpower (both service and match rifle), smallbore prone, practical scoped rifles, and now f class all have complemented each other.
 
Absolutely. Each competition is different because they challenge different aspects of the overall realm of shooting, so each competition contributes something different to the shooter and no one can be too versatile.