300 Yard F-Class Question

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Walkalong

Walkalong

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I am thinking of trying out F-Class at the gun club. My question is, based on your experience, which .223 rifles should I consider, and why? My experience is in Varmint guns of yesteryear and Benchrest. I have very little idea what folks shoot in F-Class etc. Lets say a price range of $800 to $1200.

Thanks, AC
 
AC,
Are you choosing the .223 Rem for economy? If you have any plans in the future to shoot the mid-range prone course (Memphis club runs those) at 300, 500 and 600 yards you'd be better off with a .308 Win. If you plan to stay at 300 yards you'll do fine with a 77gr SMK or similar. Regardless, you'd be hard pressed to find something better than the Savage 12 FT/R with that 30" barrel.
 
dprice3844444 said:
223 is cheaper and won't beat us old folks to death like 308 will.
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223 Rem is cheaper to shoot but the rifle weight limit for F/TR is 18.2lb so recoil really isn't an issue. The model 12 F/TR from Savage weighs 12.65lb without optics, base/rings or bipod. Shooting .223 Rem will put you at a disadvantage compared to .308 Win shooters. The 10 and X rings are sized for a .308 caliber bullet i.e. 1 and 0.5 MOA minus 0.308/2 inches and wind drift at 300 yards can be significant for a .308 bullet let alone a .223 bullet.
 
For just 300 yard matches a .223 should suit you very well. Out to 600 it gets more challenging with a .223. But if you don't have a place nearby that goes out to 600, I wouldn't buy a rifle just for that contingency.

Those Savages are very attractive price-wise, and there's no denying they shoot well competitions like F-class.

Were I in your shoes I'd get one of those, in .223. You'll enjoy yourself, and you'll be able to afford to shoot it much more than a .308. I've often thought about getting a .223 version of my .308 Winchester HBV just for the cheaper practice.
 
I saw a right bolt left port Savage at one of the matches. Is that a stock item, or special order?
 
I think a GOOD .223 is fine for 300 yards. Or 600.
The calculated wind drift for a 175 gr .308 SMK at 2700 is 6.4" at 300, 28.6" at 600 yds.
The calculated wind drift for a 75 gr .224 AMax at 2800 is 7.0" at 300, 31.9" at 600 yds.
The calculated wind drift for a 90 gr .224 VLD at 2700 is 6.1" at 300, 27.2" at 600 yds.
(For 10mph crosswind per JBM)

I have shot all these loads. You might lose points by .6" with the .22 AMax, but you might gain by .3" with the .22 VLD relative to the .308. Me? I am not a good enough shot and wind judge for it to matter.

ETA: A 155 Scenar at 2900 beats them all in windage, but darned if I can tell a difference in MY scores.
 
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are you talking about central alabama gun club? if so that would be my rifles(savages) my son shoots my savage tiger shark in 223 (mcgowen barrel) the barrel loves 69gr smk's but after our team match this weekend it getting throated for 80 gr. amax's. as far as a disadvantage i dont think so in practice this past weekend he shot a 194 5x and a 196 9 x . the only reason i am getting it throated longer is to shoot 75-80 gr out to 1000 yds i also shoot a savage lrvp that was a 223 right bolt left port that i changed to a 308win this past winter both are f t/r guns (he shot in f open in our feb match placed 5th out of 9) .
if it is at cagc let me know if you want to try them or my f open gun (6.5creedmoor) i often let people try them and yes with the weight limit in f t/r at 18.8lbs it can soak up alot of recoil my left port right bolt weights in at 17lbs and it is nothing for me to shoot 75-100 in one sitting.
 
We have team match tomorrow against backwoods shooters you should come out and see how it is run and like I said if you want to shoot any of mine I should be there next Saturday to sight in the 223 and loS test my 6.5 creedmoor rifles I' ll be more than happy to bring some extra ammo for you to shoot.
 
both you can walk or drive down to the 300yd targets
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Same difference.
You are dependent on what you do with sighters on a gong before going for record on paper, right? That's tough, you are at the mercy of condition changes and no way to know what you are doing. Unless you have a spotting scope capable of picking a .22 out of the black at 300 yards. Which I have not seen.

Regulation ranges like Ft Benning have target pits with operators and each shot in slowfire is spotted for you.
 
Target backers make seeing holes easier. We made them for our 300 yard walk-up range targets. It is a 4x4' piece of corrugated white plastic panel a few feet behind the targets. As it gets shot out we staple a white garbage bag over the center. Unless mirage is especially horrible or a low quality spotting scope is used it works pretty well.
 
You are dependent on what you do with sighters on a gong before going for record on paper, right? That's tough, you are at the mercy of condition changes and no way to know what you are doing.
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That would be tough. Shooting Benchrest I could always see my shot, unless the mirage was horrible, or it was raining really hard. Then you gave it your best guess and prayed.
 
We don't shoot the steel gong anymore for sighters they put a shoot and see Target below the score Target .it does make it easier I have a elcheapo spotting scope that I use in practice when my son is shooting and I'm not if I am shooting next to him I spot with my rifle scope its a sightron 10*50*60
 
Got called in at 7:30ish, left at 10:00ish and came to the range where they were pulling targets at the time, but was called back in again 10 minutes later. argh.
 
it was a good match everything went smooth our team lost me and my son shot good i shot my lrpv shilen 308 1st rnd 195 3x 2nd 196 8x my son shot my tigershark mcgowen 223 1st rnd 196 6x 2nd rnd 190 3x it was fun . now to take the 223 barrel off so i can have it throated longer for 80gr heads.
fclassteammatch016.jpg
 
Old George Farquarson would be tickled pink to see his F-Class doing so well, so far from his home range in British Columbia. He came through the Prairies enroute to the national matches in Ottawa about 1995, and his driver was my old junior's coach. George was a talker! He could sell icemakers to Eskimos, as the expression goes. But he had the right idea about a class for guys who couldn't get into a sling or see iron sights as well as they used to. After he passed away, another shooting buddy of his loaded some 7.62 rounds, and a little piece of George was left on DCRA ranges across the country.
 
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