F-Class in Memphis this weekend (2/22/14)

[jwrowland77]

Looking forward to finally shooting in an f-class comp this year. Been itching to get out there since end of deer season.

This weekend in really looking forward to it because this will be the first time my dad has seen me really shoot rifle. He's seen me shoot a shotgun and pistol and a .22, but nothing this far.

Plus, I upgraded my rig to something better from last year when I shot.

I shot a Savage Axis .308 22" barrel 1:10 twist with a Caldwell bipod and rear bag, cheap optics but they work great.

My new rig is a Rem 700 SPS-V .308 26" barrel 1:12 twist with a Sinclair bipod and rear bag with the same optics. Saving for a Vortex Viper PST scope and a choate tactical adl short action stock.

 

[jwrowland77]

Awesome day of shooting today out in Memphis. I was able to set some personal best again. As long as I keep improving from match to match, I'll be happy. Eventually, I'll have to upgrade my equipment. I think if I upgrade my optics, I'll have another increase in score

 

[taliv]

Cool. Is that your 3rd match now?

Early spring matches are usually the worst wind conditions of the year around here

 

[jwrowland77]

No. It was my 4th one. I seem to be scoring higher every match and every string though. Every string I have shot since the first one has been higher than the previous. I honestly believe my optics are holding me back now from being right in the mix.

The highest I shot this time was a 180. Which means I'm just a matter of 10-15 points from being in the mix of things and that's using a Truglo 8-32 cheapo scope. Lol. I think if I switch my scope out, it'll help with the clarity and get me right in the mix of things.

Yeah, I made a few bad wind calls during match. It would go from being dead up to 12-15mph. Most the time I would over call. This was the first time I've used 175gr. The other 3 matches I used 155gr Palma bullets.

 

[Walkalong]

My younger son shot his first F-Class this Saturday. (300 yards reduced targets) He has never shot prone that I know of, or off of a bipod, nor shot this rifle, so I was curious how soon he would settle down. I spotted for him which helps here as often times you cannot see the bullet holes through the scope, and of course no pit or crew to mark targets.

Here they went to four targets with 10 rounds on each one. His first target was the worst, and then he settled down pretty well. He was pleased, and I was impressed.

388 5X

 

[jwrowland77]

Awesome. I can't wait to get my oldest daughter into it. I'm planning to get her the same model as my .308 just in .223. I'll have to find out the rules on helping her in her first couple until she gets the hang of it.

 

[taliv]

when i took my daughter (she was 12) to her first f-class match, I let her shoot all by herself with no help or coaching from me at all. but i made sure she scored the other guys correctly and went to the pits and helped her pull targets since she couldn't reach the high shots or pull the target frame by herself. it was a good day.

 

[Trent]

Well been chatting with jwrowland off of THR and had to go buy myself a Sinclair bipod to "keep up with the Joneses."

Was mounting it tonight and while I was going over my rifle, I noted that there was a bit of play in my Nightforce scope. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I isolated it down to the front base. Removed the scope (ugh), noted the front ring had a bit of wiggle, so I removed the rings (double ugh..there goes my zero), and found that the original Leupold aluminum weaver front base I put on the rifle some 18 years ago had bright shiny metal spots on it.

Over time, and with recoil, the aluminum deformed and is now useless as a mount. So I ordered a pair of steel bases tonight.

I would say that putting a set of cheap $10 aluminum bases on a 300 win mag, and leaving them on through a Krieger rebarrel and all kinds of other work, would sound kind of like a dumb idea.

But I got to thinking of it and those aluminum bases outlived the original barrel (> 2000 rounds) and another 440 rounds on the new barrel, with magnum recoil.

One could say, that might have been the best $10 I ever spent. But I should have spent $25 and got the steel ones to begin with.

At least I found out before the next match. I shot a 196/5x and a 196/11x in the last match. 4 shots of each worked themselves out of the 10 ring in to the 9 ring. With a loose scope... I can't say I'm upset about that.

With the new Sinclair bipod, lower scope rings to reduce neck fatigue and get a better cheek weld, bases that aren't loose, and a good day.. I'm going to try to crack my first 200 next time out.

 

[Trent]

My younger son shot his first F-Class this Saturday. (300 yards reduced targets)

Good shooting for first time out!

Those 300 yard reduced targets can be evil.

 

[jwrowland77]

What did ya think about the bipod Trent?

 

[Trent]

Pretty solid bipod, but doesn't mate up well with the Choate stock very well. The stock has a rail on the bottom with the bipod adapter, that you can reposition; but doesn't allow the Sinclair to mate up real well. The rail is about 1/2" tall, and even with the Sinclair cranked down, there is a 3/8" open air gap on either side between the stock and the Sinclair. So lots of "wiggle".

I'll shim it up with something (cork, washers, something).

 

[Walkalong]

Those appear steadier than a rest. I am surprised they allow them as "bipods".

 

[jwrowland77]

They are steady, but not quite like a rest. They still move around like a regular bipod would, and the back still moves like a rifle on a bipod, it's just wide. It's actually only like 2 pounds. Maybe a little less.

 

[Trent]

Those appear steadier than a rest. I am surprised they allow them as "bipods".

Since I shoot F-Open, I *could* use an actual rest, with some restrictions (3 spiked feet, etc).

F-TR is restricted to bipods.

I refuse to use a rest, even though I shoot F-Open. I got the Sinclair to solve a minor recoil issue - I have been using a Harris Ultralight Swivel bipod. Under recoil the rifle can "twist" slightly. (This "minor issue" has prevented me from laying down perfect scores... really tearing my hair out.)

"Cant" introduced on a rifle, even a slight 1 degree shift - such as mine might experience under recoil before the bullet leaves the barrel - can throw the bullet off a couple of *feet* at 1000 yards.

Far less pronounced at shorter ranges - it's a math problem on line of sight vs. line of bore; the more drop, the worse the margin of error. So at 100 yards it's nearly a non-issue unless you are shooting benchrest. At 300 yards it's a bigger deal; at 600 yards a huge deal, at 1000 yards.. you may completely miss the target if you have a 2 or 3 degree cant on the rifle.

Here's a discussion of the math involved; http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_7-7_Cant.htm

The error introduced by "cant" is nearly *entirely* on the horizontal plane. It does affect drop, but only by a ratio of around 1:100. E.g. a 24" error on the X axis is only around a .25" error on Y axis.

Going back over my targets on calm days, known good shots, when shooting from a sandbag I get very little horizontal shift. When shooting off that Harris bipod, on a calm day, I'll get a shot disbursement with random fliers on the X axis. I believe this is due to cant introduce in the millisecond or so that the rifle is recoiling before the bullet leaves the muzzle.

The Sinclair is an expensive piece ($250ish), but I'll be able to mount bubble levels to it (and my rifle) to ensure that I'm 100% in alignment, bore to scope. It won't allow cant to be introduced under recoil as I can strongly lock down the cant adjustment lever. The only thing I'll need to make sure is that it can recoil straight back; so I'll put a board under it to make sure a random rock in the gravel doesn't introduce a sudden jump on one side of the rifle.

 

[Trent]

Couple pics of the new rig assembled from different angles set at different heights. The bipod is surprisingly light.

 

[jwrowland77]

Sweet man. I was looking at one of those stocks but just didn't like the look of the open hole in the butt stock. I was looking at a stock from that manufacture but with the solid back with the cutout piece.

 

[Trent]

Go ahead and say it. It's an UGLY stock.

I don't like the way it looks, but I do love the way it feels.

 

[jwrowland77]

Lol. Yes that's what I first thought when I seen it at Midway looking at stocks. Lol