Long Range, Technique, to aim off or not, fast or slow

[SnipeWench]

I often wonder whether the experience I'm gaining as a rimfire benchrest shooter will equate to better wind calling for centrefire shoots. I'm often (read always) holding off during a rimfire shoot, and am pretty good at watching a flag change, and perform an instant hold-off change and fire, watching the POI hit in the middle more often than not.

I learnt the holdoffs from the holdoff chart on the BRT website, so the holdoff areas would be the same for centrefire as for rimfire, with one exception - the holdoff distance from the centre would not be as great as that required for a .22LR subsonic pill in breeze.

So, if I know how to hold off, where, and can read the flags, would it be better to go with these instincts, or lean off the scope turrets and hold centre? I can remember where I hold-off each time, so getting a consistent hold off position is not a problem.

- bec

[a.JR]

H

[Rinso]

Snipewench,

In short yes it will help. Wind is wind and the effects are the same just the level of effect varies. Any level of skill can only make for improvement over a zero level of skill. The best solution as you already know is practice.

[malcolm]

I have to agree with Rinso------------ some days are diamonds----- some days are stone
Malcolm

[justjeff]

Well guys, if some days are stones, yesterday's 500m shoot was like standing under a rock sieve in a quarry. Worst conditions I have shot in for quite a while, bad mirage and a wind that just couldn't make it's mind up.

Jeff

[Brad Y]

We had some mixed conditions today- warm and sunny one minute then overcast the next.

Noticed a few things.

During a 'boil' shots would go high.
Our running mirage had little to no kick in it.
The way our range is laid out there is trees either side and the cross winds dont generally affect one side as much- I learnt to pick and watch the most important flags of the day and discount a couple that were screwing with my head and that was about all.

Needed an 87 from 90 to take second. First spotter 4, next 5. Cut them and first shot 6 then X,X,6,6,5,6,6,6... was going well til the only shower for the day kicked in and I rushed a 4. Needed the rest of the shots to go in the 6 ring. Dunno why, but once the rain finished after a few seconds my main POI was 10 o clock in the 4 ring. Another 4 and a 5 thrown in there and it was all over.... Bloody shooting.... Dont know if the moist air caused my problems from the shower or what but even the scorers behind me didnt notice a flag change. All the 6's and X's were shot real quick to make the most of the conditions. Was even yelling for the marker to get the paddle out of the way at one stage...

Anyway it was great fun, and the challenges of trying to tame the wind always gets me back for more.

[a.JR]

Hi All , Well Saturday's 550 yard match proved to me with out one shadow of doubt that runnin em when your set up for it is the best way.. To look through the DD Nightforce on Sat ,the dot would swim in all directions up to 1 & 1/3 minutes around the target face .. Say about 7inchs of movement . I ended with a 2.0 in agg ,on the 2nd & 3rd target i adjusted to where i thought they would land from sighter info and railed the 5 on asap . It went 1.8in twice for small groups otd.. The other two targets were shot slowly at about 25 seconds for 5 shots and adjusting when thought needed ,they went 2.2 & 2.3ins and both have about twice the vertical .. To me anyhow it's fast or real fast that will produce the small one's each time compared to pickin..JR..Jeff Rogers

[Brad Y]

Yep agree with you JR, run em fast. Luckily for you guys you dont have the target going up and down all the time and someone waving a scoring paddle

[a.JR]

Hi Brad , I don't think there is any more or less Skill when you have the target pulled and marked to it staying fixed in place .. It's just different, the results will always be different in the long run also .. F/class will never be LR Benchrest and viva la diference i reckon..JR..Jeff Rogers................

Yep agree with you JR, run em fast. Luckily for you guys you dont have the target going up and down all the time and someone waving a scoring paddle

[stinkitup]

That may change a little as more ranges begin to use electronic targets and scoring meaning you can run em down fast.

[Brad Y]

Yes our club is looking at getting the electronic targets soon. We have few younger people marking for us so they are sometimes a little slow in pulling and marking targets.

[Tony Z]

Just my 2 cents.

I reckon that FClass is a tougher shoot than 1K. The multiple ranges spread over an entire day are way tougher to deal with than one range sat behind a bench,
At the moment 1K is dominated by rifles and not shooters, whereas i firmly believe FClass is dominated by shooters more than the rifles. When the time comes that electronic targets make a big impact on FClass the style of shooting will change and with it so will the rifles.

[m12vlp]

Been shooting F-Class on electronics for a year now after shooting on paper for two.

The electronics can help you get them down faster but i've found that you still need to pay attention to what's happening on the flags and on target.
Because F-Class only rewards you for hitting the middle of the target and not for shooting the smallest group the strategy you employ during your shoot is very important. With the need to predict/guess/calculate an adjustment or hold off you can easily forget to pay attention to the repositioning of your rifle between shots if you try and run too fast.

Good gear helps though.

All good fun

[a.JR]

Hi all , With talk from the powers that be in F/class that there will shortly be an approx 20 sec delay imposed on electronics , so that you don't get none of them fancy machinegunners competitin , i don't see them wanting any changes to allow competitors to take advantage of shooting fast so it will end up much like the conventional target pullers .. At present i don't see any 60 with 10s at 1K which is effectively just over a 5inch 10shot group or even for that matter a 60.0 at 1000yds which is just over a 10 inch group .. Even though it is a score shoot only the groups still come with this territory of performance and for me anyhow i would have to see regular 60 with 10s at multiple locations to believe that using the ,Shoot ,wait ,look at the flags and shoot again style system can give performances like are shot at 1000 yd bench nearly every weekend at present in the US and some weekends here in AUS.. I think F/ class is great with lots of competitors just the way it is..JR..Jeff Rogers