Update 2007

John Sept 2005 CS Fall Match cropped
The 2007 ORA competitive shooting season had a reduced number of matches for a couple of reasons. First the matches normal held at Cedar Springs were cancelled because there were some physical changes made to the yardages. Previous to 2007 we had firing points at 300, 400, 500 and 600 yards. These yardages have been removed and only the 300 yard firing points remain. In Kingston matches were pretty much cancelled for the season because the military needed the use of their range for their own purposes.

As a result I’ve only shot a limited number of competitions. I keep track of what I’m doing under Match Results on my website. Along with tracking my own efforts I’ve included the results of the competitors I shot against in this area.

F-Class by design accommodates a very wide range of target shooters. It has been constantly evolving since the time a competitive Canadian TR shooter George Farquharson mounted a scope on his TR rifle and set it down in a rest on a firing point, maybe it wasn’t a rest but one of them fangled bipods as story can get twisted and Farky continued to shoot alongside his long time shooting buddies. George loved target shooting and his buddies so much that he did not want to give it up simply because he faced some new challenges. So he found a way to continue shooting his rifle. What’s great about what he did was that he opened the doors for a whole new class or discipline of target shooting on a level and scale unprecedented in sports today. Worldwide I can’t think of a single sport that has grown as fast in such a short period of time. I’ve had a passion for target shooting all my life. It got bushwacked for quite a number of years but when I found out about fclass... woah!

For newbies who have been thinking about getting involved with target shooting the best thing I can say to you is that right now is your time to try this sport! The timing and entry point isn’t going to get any better for you later. Even if you’ve never shot a center fire rifle in your entire life or even own one there is a way for you to jump right in. All you have to do is show up at one of our ORA Intro Days which are held throughout the year. This isn’t a difficult a thing to do. You find the dates the Intros are being held and you simply show up on time. We have everything you need at these events to allow you to put rounds down the range. Your investment at this point amounts to what you would spend paying for a movie, parking and maybe dinner afterwards. Unlike a movie though I’ll guarantee you this one is not going to suck! If you make the effort to do this just one time it’s going to open a door you just won’t believe.

I’m basically hibernating right now as the 2007 season is 3-4 months in the making. Come spring 2007 we should have a tentative calendar with dates for the matches and disciplines and then we can get down to business as usual. You’ll find the calendar I’m talking about here when it’s ready http://www.hockings.net/ora/ This is also an excellent site if you’re involved with target shooting in the ORA. Even if you don’t belong to the ORA (Ontario Rifle Association) but having been thinking about target shooting, long range target shooting, or wondering what its all about this site will help you a lot. The webmaster there is also an avid target shooter and they spend a lot of time keeping the site as current as possible. Way more than I do with mine. When on the site pay particular attention to the Intro Dates. Those are the days that have been set aside for new shooters to give you the opportunity to try what we do.

I don’t shoot during the winter months and this downtime as I call it involves a fair bit of reading and definitely involves a bunch of case prepping for the caliber’s I shoot. My buddies, no doubt are either hibernating like myself or thinking about some kind of new rig to unleash some whump-ass come spring. I wish them all success with their projects. We have used a reduced veebull for some matches and I believe that practice will continue in 2008. Other than this, it’s just making the time to show up for the practice and competition dates which if you’re a die hard that shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

On the reading front you might do well to check out www.6mmbr.com. They usually have a lot of articles on all kinds of stuff. The site is extensive and it stay pretty current if not on the bleeding edge. All kinds of new rigs coming outta the woodwork. If you’ve got money, lots and lots of money you won’t have any trouble finding ways to spend it logged in there for ten minutes. There are some good articles, many good articles. Might even be worth a bookmark too. Just remember keep it all in context of what your own personal aims area.

I usually have a look at some of the gun related conferences on the internet. www.long-range.com/ comes to mind (don’t forget that hyphen!) or who knows where you’ll end up these days on the net and www.canadiangunnutz.ca. Most of the stuff I’m looking for has to do with long range target shooting so you won’t find me reading or participating in the black powder threads, or handgun threads, or hunting threads. Sometimes I go on a rant in the gun-related political threads. Nothing that should have me flagged as being a subversive but you never know these days. Seems anybody who likes anything to do with firearms is on some kind of list. The political types who thought up our 2 billion boondoggle if you ask me they deserve to be on some kind of a list!