Thank you Saeed for the new forum, much appreciated.

Chaps irrespective of whether we are hunters or paper punchers I think we can all agree that we are not benchresters thank god!

Long range shooting for me is practice for the field , as well as better than golf, and so I'm mainly interested in disciplines that use slings and bipods.

Here in the UK that means Formal target rifle, Match rifle, Service rifle or F-class. http://www.nra.org.uk/common/a...ines/tr.asp?site=NSC

I shoot all but prefer F/TR class as it's the closest to what we would do in the field.

I'm sure a few of you will have seen this guy's article on shooting with a simple bipod to a very high standard but in case a few haven't it's well worth a read.

http://www.6mmbr.com/TacticalFroggyA1.html

http://www.6mmbr.com/ReloadingFroggy.html

Ghubert,
Glad to hear from fellow match shooter from across the pond! Was scheduled to shoot at Bisley some years ago, did not make it, but friend of mine has shot there several times and always enjoyed it and the company as well. He uses one of your actions, RPA.
Here in the States we shoot what we call National Match which is position shooting at 2,3,and 600yds. Either Service Rifle or Match Rifle. Pretty much a military style training course with rapid fire in sitting and prone plus standing slow fire and prone slow fire for a total of 50 rounds. Curious if you folks do these type of matches?? Hate to admit it, but you "blokes" usually kick our rear ends in Palma Matches.

Hi mate,

It's great to hear from you guys too. It's a pity you didn't make it over to Bisley, your friend seemed to enjoy his trip to one of the last little bastions of Edwardian England left on our island.

I've been doing a little reading into your formal target shooting disciplines out there since Andy postulated the idea of this forum and it seems that we do things a little differently across the pond to you.

The main difference with Target Rifle (TR) seems to be that we only shoot prone where as you guys have very cool 3P stuff. I may be wrong about this but at Bisley at least shooting in any position other than prone or benchrested is not allowed, mainly because if one hold a rifle and 33degrees and touches off a .308 there the rounds might land in Woking High Street!

Short range matches are typically held at 300 yards, mid at 600 and long range means 900/1000 yards. As a side note it's interesting how much better one does at 900 than at 1000 and the amount of elevation needed to go up just 100 yards at that distance. Depending on the ammo ( Formal target rifle mandates one use issued ammunition ) you are also just about transonic and it all goes a little haywire. Race guns in exotic calibres improve the situation considerably for competent shots but where's the fun in that? This is all shot with peep sights on rifles that range from non-competition fun session .303 SMLEs ( If you're on the 6'x6' target board at 1000 you are entitled to a pint at lunch time) to RPA, Barnard, Swing, Musgrave etc tight chambered 7.62 with 32" barrels and skeleton stocks. From the race guns we get around 30.06 velocities from the 155gr bullets ( around 2950 +-30) which keeps the Lapua and SMK designs supersonic out to 1200. More and more people are experimenting with things like Bergers and heavier weights but most of the development is in the F class where you guys are technological world leaders but we Brits, only because of the usually appalling weather , do tend have more experience shooting in the wind.

Service rifle here was shot with hi capacity bolt guns after the semi-auto ban in the late 80s but nowadays people tend to use straight pull AR-15 type rifles. Armalon and SGC are the leaders in that technology and the latest ones aren't half bad, though obviously not as fun as semis.... The rules are similar to yous and the course of fire is usually mixed up a bit each time but again similar to yours.

quote:

Civvlian Service Rifle and Practical Rifle have many similarities although Civilian Service Rifle (CSR) matches tend to be shot at shorter distances (100 to 500 yards) and usually have a lower round count count per practice (e.g. 10 rds per practice instead of 20 to 30)

CSR matches are based on the Army Rifle Association matches with timings adapted to suit bolt-action / straight pull rifles. Most matches consist of deliberate, rapid fire and snap shooting practices including movement between distances and different shooting positions (e.g. standing, kneeling, sitting or squatting and prone)

There are four classes of rifle:

Historic: Any SMLE / No.4 / No.5 rifle service pattern as issued with no attachments
Any Iron: Any rifle with iron sights, no restriction on slings (but bipods may not be used)
Service Optic: Any rifle with optic sights no higher than 4.5x magnification, no restriction on slings. Bipods and forward vertical grips cannot be used but the rifle magazine may touch or rest on the forearm or on the ground
Practical Optic:  Any rifle with optic sights of any magnification, with no restriction on slings or bipods, although if a bipod is used it must remain fitted to the rifle at all times during the match

A number of CSR competitions are held during the year with a 3 day competition held every year as part of the NRA Imperial Meeting

The historic classes are great fun, I alternate between an Lee-Enfield Envoy and a late Boer war era SMLE. The Envoy is as accurate as a modern rifle and even the SMLE holds around 2MOA with good surplus stuff. You have to aim off as the sights aren't windage adjustable, three or four targets down sometimes at a thousand!