M R P C

Medford Rifle and Pistol Club

Fullbore

Home Page Contacts Fees/Dues Events News For Sale Links Join! Club Rules	1253 E. Vilas Road, P.O. Box 235 Medford, OR 97501	Join Today!
	What is FULLBORE? Fullbore is modeled after the type of target shooting common in Europe, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and a number of other countries throughout the world. It is by no means a new sport. However, it is only lately becoming popular in the U.S. Some cnfuse it with our Long Range program but it is somewhat different and does not exclusively involve the longer ranges. U.S. Highpower rules define ranges as follows: Short range --- 100 through 300 yards Mid range ----- 500 through 600 yards Long range ---- over 600 yards (usually 800, 900 & 1000 yards) Fullbore involves all 3 of these categories and courses of fire are made up of strings fired from 300, 500, 600, 800, 900, and 1000 yards. Other features set Fullbore apart from conventional Highpower: A. Strings of fire are relatively short; 7, 10, or 15 shots. B. All firing is done from the prone position. C. Two sighting shots are allowed for each string and these sighters may be converted to record shots if the shooter so elects. Some restrictions apply. Fullbore is not as physically demanding as conventional Highpower and does not require nearly as much training for one to be competitive. It is well suited to older shooters and juniors as young as 11 or 12 take well to the game. Women have excelled and even been dominant worldwide. The reasons for the reduced training time as compared to Highpower are easily explained. Highpower involves 3 different positions (standing, prone and sitting) and 3 different ranges (200, 300, and 600) and both slow and rapid fire. Fullbore, on the other hand, only involves sone very basic position and only slow fire. There is a lot less to learn. It has been my experience that older (45+) shooters attempting to break into Highpower become quickly discouraged and drop out of the game while many Fullbore shooters are competitive into their 80's and may have started after 60. Suitable Rifles Target rifle: The target rifle is rather strictly defined primarily because of the standardization imposed upon our teams competing with those of other countries. The rifle must be chambered for the unmodified .308 Winchester or .223 Winchester. Metallic sights except that a single lens may be placed in either the front or the rear sight (not both). The rifle should weigh not more than 6.5 kilograms or 14.3 pounds. Any safe trigger. It will be fired as a single shot so no magazine is necessary. Bullets for the .308 should weigh not more than 156 grains and for the .223 not more than 80 grains. The typical target rifle has a 30 inch barrel, an adjustable buttplate, adjustable foreend stop and quite often an adjustable cheekpiece. It is going to be fired from the prone position with the aid of a sling. F-Class or Free Rifle: F-class rifles are essentially bench rifles fired from rests placed on the ground. Calibers of .35 and less are acceptable. Rifle can weigh up to 10 kilos or 22 lbs. Any sights. A front rest or rear rest or both may be employed; however, no adjustment of the rear rest is permitted. The butt of the rifle must be in contact with the shoulder. Typically a benchrest type front rest is employed in combination with a vee shaped sandbag rear rest. Compensators or muzzle brakes are prohibited. F-Class T/R (Tactical Rifle): F-class T/R is often called Bipod Class. Rifles may be .308 or .223 with no restrictions on bullet weight. Almost always scope sighted. Fired from pront with an attached bipod, no rear rest. Note: Each category competes for its own awards. Usually if there are not 5 or more F-class or F-class T/R they would compete as a single F-class. You do not need an expensive bench rest or target rifle action to build a good fullbore rifle. A Remington 700 or Winchest Model 70 are both quite adequate. Lately Savage has been producing some very accurate rifles at a reasonable price and that shoot well right out of the box. PUt a scope and bipod on one and you have a top tactical rifle and have the basis for building a target rifle down the road. If you are going to shoot F-class or T/R you need to pay particular attention to the scope. Not all scopes are capable of adjustments from 300 to 1000 yards and there are only a few that are really desirable or even adequate. Lots of power is not necessarily good. Too much power magnifies the mirage and also leads to shooting on the wrong target when you cannot include your target numbers in your field of view.