F CLASS at the IMPERIAL
F Class at the Imperial Scotsman Des Parr is one of our most
dedicated F Class competitors and he regularly travels abroad to seek out the greatest challenges. This time however Des stays on home soil and shoots the Bisley Imperial. “It’s your National Championship – try it sometime.”
As match reports go, you’ll be familiar with the usual format of NRA Journal articles on who won what, who had a disaster and so on. This little report will not focus on the usual tedious lists of scores but rather it will simply focus on the highlights and overall experience of taking part in the Imperial - to give you a flavour of the event.
Those who were there will know all they need to without a rehearsal of it, while those who missed it will only want an idea of what the Imperial is all about.
The first week of the Imperial started off pretty cool and overcast – typical good old British summertime weather. The first week is when the Match riflemen take to the ranges, shooting at distances of 1000 to 1200 yards.
Match Rifle events offer the chance to really see what the F Class Open rifles in particular are capable of and previously, some competitors have taken the opportunity to bring some really special rifles to try out – ‘big boy’s toys’ - such as the 30-338 Lapua Magnum or a mighty 7mm-338 Lap. Mag. All good fun – and of course, it keeps gunsmiths and barrel makers in employment!
They are a different bunch of people the Match riflemen; they take their shooting seriously of course, yet still have fun and good humour – exactly like the F Classers! Shooting at such long ranges and battling against the elements teaches us humility and maybe that shows through. For whatever reason, the F Class Hopton is a fun event - so much so that Mik Maksimovic has proposed to rename it the ‘Fopton’.
The ‘F’ in F Class is sometimes thought to mean ‘Fun’ class and I’m happy with that description too – after all, don’t we all shoot to have fun?
Over the four days of the ‘Fopton’, firing about 220 rounds, Mik prevailed over John Carmichael and myself in a good-natured contest. Mik and John both used a 7WSM, while I used a 284 Win. There wasn’t that much to choose performance wise, though the 7WSM did have that useful added margin of horsepower and velocity useful at those longer distances.
The weather? As Oscar Wilde so aptly put it “There is no such thing as bad weather, just unsuitable clothing”.
Well, Bisley in 2011 certainly put that adage to the test. Week two of the Imperial seemed to have rain just about every day. Trying to get sodden kit dry again in time for the next day’s deluge became a full-time job; my room resembled a Chinese laundry with kit hanging from every hook and peg. Even the car was used to spread out soggy kit, hoping the ‘greenhouse effect’ would dry stuff. The things you have to do when soaked through…... The NRA is clearly missing a trick - they could make a fortune offering proper drying facilities.
However, it was not quite as bad as 2007, when canoeists were spotted on the far side of Century, but it was bad enough. Some folk didn’t have a good time of it at all, deciding to just call it a day and quit. I watched some poor bedraggled shooters simply get up before shooting had started, throw all their soggy kit in the car and drive off (what about their issued ammo?).
Those guys who packed up and left were beaten even before they started. You cannot avoid getting wet when shooting in the UK but, you do choose to be miserable – it is up to you how you deal with adversity - you choose how you’re going to react and feel. You can choose to react positively.
How to view the rotten weather of week two of the Imperial positively? Well, as a rather protracted test of our wet weather routines, a chance to check out if everything worked OK and, if not, then why not? Clearly others felt the same, as HPS Supplies were doing a roaring trade selling capes and ‘weather- writers’. Little things like that make all the difference between simply being wet or being wet and miserable.
The weather didn’t put off David Lloyd but then he is Welsh, so he is presumably quite used to rain. David, in only his second Imperial won the Grand Aggregate by 3 clear points, which is a terrific achievement. To
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