struggled for different reasons in this match, Russell in an uncharacteristically lowly 46th with 84.4v, while Alexandr’s overall standing fell from second to ninth place thanks to 82.3v.
How about me? Physically, I was almost back where I started on the firing line, target No. 48 against the trees. As my partner and I went forward to replace a couple of Relay 2 ‘Open’ competitors, their faces didn’t suggest high scores! Recognizing me, one suddenly cheers up but it’s only more Schadenfreude. “Ho! Ho!” says he. “You WILL have fun shooting a two-two-three with the verticals out there!”
Now that’s encouraging! My partner is a long-time Bisley shooter, a lovely fellow called Anthony Fraser. Will the trees protect us from right wind gusts I ask, suspecting the answer but hoping to hear otherwise. Unfortunately not, I’m told – the wind curls over the trees and affects our verticals unpredictably and the tree line ends at around 600 yards anyway with sloping ground to the right that sees wind gusts from that side push bullets up. For those readers outside of the UK, the ‘Magpie Alley’ nickname that is unofficially applied to the far right group of Stickledown firing-points has nothing to do with birds, rather the old-fashioned name for a hit scoring ‘three’ – or a Magpie.
I don’t know if it was the tree line effect but I again, needed left windage on despite the flag aspects and it turned out to be a fishtailing wind for most of the match – eight shots on the wind plot needing left, two zero, and five right up to and including shot No.14; all to the left after that. There were three notable reversals, the biggest at the three quarter mark when a small right value suddenly became 2-MOA left, a switch that I never saw on any flag and gave me a low ‘two’ at four o’ clock. However, yet again, it was the verticals that did the worst damage, nine points lost in another near 2-MOA spread helping me to a pretty miserable 78.2v. I didn’t know how that split between the rifle and the conditions but noted that my partner’s verticals were very good for the first 10 then went downhill badly during the second half.
As the results went up in a commendably short time, it became apparent how Saturday’s matches had turned things around in F/TR and how stunning Stuart’s victory was. In a sport that usually sees tiny points spreads across the top half dozen competitors, his
29
THE 2011 EUROPEAN F CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS BISLEY - ENGLAND
aggregate of 452.33v was quite something, a clear 10 points ahead of second place man Adam Bagnall who headed up a group of seven covered by only two points from 442 down to 440. Stuart had the highest V-count too leading only three F/TR competitors with 30 or more, Alexandr Nicolaev (32) and Russell Simmonds (31).
Here are the final top ten placings in F/TR; 1 - Stuart Anslem (GB) 2 - Adam Bagnall (GB) 3 - Steve Donaldson (GB) 4 - Maksim Semonovykh 5 - George Barnard (GB) 6 - Paul Eggerman (Ger) 7 - Enrique Cabera Orti (Sp) 8 - Adrian Casey (Ireland) 9 - Alexandr Nicolaev (UKr) 10- Richard Jones (GB)
452.33v 442.24v 442.23v 441.25v 441.24v 441.19v 440.28v 440.25v 438.32v 438.19v
Finally, what kit did people use? We’ve put a table together for the top 10 in each class, see the following pages or go to the GB F Class website to see how this looks... No great surprises on actions and scopes, except I thought there would be more than one Sightron scope. Four Broughton barrels surprised me a little – no True-Flites either. All ammunition is .308 Win (I was the only .223 Rem shooter I believe) and Lapua brass, Berger bullets, and Viht powders rule these particular roosts, particularly Bergers with nine out of ten using them, only Enrique Cabrera Orti loading Australian Dyer HBC 155s as an alternative. (No Sierra MatchKing users!) 155gn is still the favourite weight but the heavies have a following and there will be 200-230gn Berger Hybrids around for next year’s Europeans. I was unsurprised to see Stuart’s performance with the 185gn Berger BTLR, still the best all-rounder for .308 Win in my view but underestimated by many GB F/TR shooters for some reason – it’s very different in the USA! Also of note on the ammunition side is a marked move back to ‘single-base’ powders with half of the group using Viht N140 or Hodgdon VarGet, the remainder on the hotter burning double-base Viht N540/N550 or Alliant Reloder 17 propellants. So far as builders are concerned, Stuart Anselm (Osprey Rifles) and Mik Maksimovic (Dolphin Gun Co.) are the people to speak to, although the winner’s rifle was ‘smithed by our very own editor Vince Bottomley.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116