F-Class and "Blow Off" rounds

B

bob3700

Member
Shot a match this weekend that was predominately F-Class shooters and was surprised by the "Blow-Off" rounds that were fired before the match began.

All the F-Class competitors were given a period of time before the match started to shoot an unlimited number of rounds at the berm. No paper targets were displayed. These "Blow off" rounds were to condition the barrel and verify their zero's. I believe the shooters were shooting at small steel swinging targets on the 600 yd berm.

In the high power prone game at 600 yds, you are allowed two sighting shots and then all subsequent shots are for record. This puts a premium on cleaning your bbl properly and knowing where your first cold bore shot will go. With only two pieces of information on windage, you need to develop the skill to make those first two shots give you valuable information. It would seem that this would be an added skill that you would want to develop seeing as the F-Class target has smaller scoring rings than the prone/sling target.

I was somewhat confused why the competitors were allowed to "Blow-Off" rounds before the competition started. If only two sighters were allowed, it would up the overall competition among the shooters.

Just curosity on my part.

Bob
 
I think it varies depending on the locale and what the match director has put in the program.

When I first shot in Canada a few years back, for my first Fullbore match (Prone and F-Class shooting side-by-side) they had a 1 minute blow-off period between prep and actual start of record time, where they pulled the targets down and competitors could shoot into the impact berm if desired. Same thing when I went to Bisley in 2009 for the Imperial Meet and FCWC. IIRC, the reason stemmed from some historical reason - back in the days of black powder cartridges, after washing out the barrel it was necessary to 'blow off' any residual moisture before starting your record shots, or something like that. Nowadays its more for the F-Open types who clean their barrels every day - but I've seen Prone shooters do the exact same thing, shoot at the backstop during the blow-off period.

It's not unheard of in High Power Prone, either. It is an entirely valid course of fire to have unlimited sighters for the first string of a 3x600yd match. Usually the reasoning there is for people who are new shooters - the NRA High Power rules specifically allow coaching during the unlimited sighter portion of any match, so their scorer (hopefully a more experienced shooter) can help them get on paper and centered up before turning them loose. Other are instances where people have traveled a good distance and had to reassemble their guns or are just trying a new load...

It really is up to the match director, and has absolutely nothing to do with whether its F-class or conventional Prone. Just because they don't shoot Prone matches that way in your neck of the woods doesn't make it 'wrong'. As long as the NRA signs off on the match program... it is what it is.
 
Blow off rounds

never heard of it referred to as that...... having shot at 2 nat`l events...and several smaller ones...we got unlimited siters at 800yds.then at 900yds. 2 siters and same at 1000yds 2 siters... at 1200yds. unlimited siters all siters were on targets and got scored....at a 600 yd. match you get 2 siters...
 
The only matches that I have attended that have unlimited sighters are 1000 yd prone matches. Each match had as many sighters as you wanted (shooting at the exposed target), but there was a time period on your overall match.

At Palma, you will get unlimited sighters at 800, then it is two sighters at 900 and 1000yds.

Never experienced the "Blow Off" rounds as no targets were exposed, they weren't sighters as there was nothing to shoot at. They were just shooting into a berm for 10-15 minutes. Seems to me that with the F-Open rifles, that would be using up valuable bbl life as some of those big magnums done get many accurate rounds down their tubes. Guess to each his own.

Bob
 
If the blow-off is that long - more than 1-2 minutes - then its not the 'blow-off' period I mentioned before, done for historical reasons.

It sounds like some sort of local variation thrown together by a match director who didn't have a lot of experience and/or got pushed into doing things a certain way by some locals. Club matches can come up with all sorts of screwy things - I went to one 300/600yd match where we shot 600... got up for five minutes, then shot 600 again, then moved up to 300. I grabbed my stuff and started heading for the pits - but no, now we shot 300 - twice - all before the other 'squad' that was in the pits ever shot one round. Thought my barrel (.308) was going to melt that day (in August).

It might be worth asking the match director what the logic is behind the extended blow-off period, and if they realize that its somewhat non-standard. Its still their prerogative to run the matches however they want, as long as it doesn't out-n-out violate any NRA rules. Just as its your option to decide their match format is just too weird and not attend.
 
I've been out for a bit (!) hence the late reply to this thread, but in the UK we tend to have a minute or so blow-off period at the first distance of the day. My rifle takes a few rounds to settle down with a clean bore, so they are important, but must admit the 'sneaky sighter' does come in handy, too.

To those with unlimited sighters in matches - wow! Very handy ;)
 
This may be a carry over from the old days. In the International Muzzle Loading matches, it is common to fire "fouling shots" into the berm. All of these shots must be declared to your spotter before firing and if they hit your target, they count as a record shot. Most of the rifles shoot differently with a clean oiled bore vs a fouled bore. I usally try to find a small rock or something to aim at to confirm that my sights are close to what they should be. We only get 13 shots for record with the high 10 counting, realy nice when your first sighter happens to turn out an X.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top