GB F CLASS ROUND 1 - DIGGLE 14TH & 15TH APRIL 2012 - The 2012 GB F Class League season kicked off again with our short-range shoot at Diggle ranges over the weekend of the 14/15th April.  With the shoot being 500 and 600 yards,  I thought that the entry may be small but, for the second year running, the entry list was full with 70 competitors.  That may not be a large turn out for Bisley but it was a lot for Diggle.  However, we only had one overseas competitor, Henke Lubbers, who came all the way from Holland.

Aim - To explain and demonstrate F Open and F/TR to new and inexperienced members. To increase the general Knowledge of inexperienced members and those interested in participating in Competitive F Class.

Outline Course -To have 3 concurrent activities run over 2 days, to include range and class room work at Bisley.

The European Championships - Bisley - 4th, 5th & 6th of November 2011. With 180 entries, organiser Mik Maksimovic can confidently claim that this was the world’s largest F Class competition.  It was a true international event, worthy of the ‘European’ title, with almost half the entry from overseas. As last year, we will divide our report into three sections – Mik’s take on things (the event was so big this year that Mik had to sacrifice his own shoot and concentrate on running the event), Laurie’s version of the F/TR section of the competition and, as I shot Open Class for a change, I’ll cover that part.

THE LONG VIEW by Les Holgate. As I was unable to go up to Blair Atholl for round 6 of the GB F Class Association League series, I’m very grateful to Target Shooter’s other LH – namely Laurie Holland - who did make it but says maybe he shouldn’t have!  Take it away Laurie... Les was one of several regulars missing that weekend but we still had a healthy entry that translated into 43 warm bodies on the Saturday morning, with a small preponderance of ‘Open’ shooters which is unusual nowadays.

The fifth round of the GB F Class League was held at Diggle ranges on the 17/18th September where all the competitors baked in the glorious sunshine... Well that was how I hoped to start this article but it was actually more like the underwater F Class, for the Saturday at least!

Round 4 of the 2011 GB F Class League was held at Diggle Ranges in August and surely that meant at least we could rely on the weather!

But then again, this is England and summer can be a hit and miss affair! This was the first long-range shoot at Diggle this year and the course of fire was 2 sighters plus 20 to count at 800 yards and 1000 yards on the Saturday...

When the GB F Class Association started to include the Long Range Challenge in the annual League back in 2007 there were barely 20 souls brave - or foolish - enough to take on the small F Class target at 1200 yards.

We’d no sooner got the season’s opening clash at Diggle out of the way when GB F Class League Round Two was upon us, only three weeks between them.
There seemed barely enough time to handload more ammunition, repack the suitcase and arrange for a second mortgage needed refill the tank with fuel at today’s prices before taking the High Road north for Blair Atholl in Perthshire. A 1000 mile round trip for those in the south and even 500 to 600 for those of us in the north of England.