The U.S. F-Class Rifle Team, is a group of dedicated very-long-range shooters, who banded together to win the first World F-Class Championship 26-28 August 2002. The International Team consisted of a team captain, a team manager, a central coach, two firing point coaches, eight firing members and two alternates.

The team traveled to the Connaught Ranges just outside Ottawa, Canada, to compete in individual and team matches at 700, 800 and 900 meters. The U.S. team dominated the matches with wins in both team matches, against outstanding rivals from Germany, England, Australia, South Africa and Canada. Team members also placed second, third, fourth and sixth in the individual competitions.

The first thing you should do before going to your first F-Class match is to get a copy of the match program and find out what ranges you will shoot and how many shots you will fire. I always figure I will need 60 rounds for a Palma® match and as many as 30 for a 20-shot 1,000-yard string.  Make sure you take enough ammo. Don't scrimp on the sighters.

Once you know what distances you will fire, you need to get zeros for those ranges. If you don't have easy access to a local range with the needed distances, don't panic! Get yourself a computer ballistics program, measure the height of your scope centerline above the centerline of the bore, and find out the altitude of the range and likely temperature.  You will also need to know the velocity of the bullets you are using. Using this data you can print out a come-up sheet.

Go to the local 100-yard range and put up a target at least three feet tall.  Draw a plumbed vertical line from top to bottom.  Put an aiming point near the bottom and zero for 100 yards.  Next, mark horizontal lines on the target at the required height for 100 yards to hit at whatever ranges you will shoot at.  For example: 300, 600, 800, 900, and 1,000 yards.  Come up what you think are the required number of clicks on your scope to hit each line and zero for every distance and record the knob settings.  The reason for the plumbed line is to keep you from tilting your rifle or to determine if the crosshair is crooked (canted).  If you run out of adjustment before you reach the 1,000-yard line, you will have to shim you rear base or ring. 

You will find as you shoot the actual longer distances that your short-range windage zero will be off to the right and you will have to put on about a minute left wind at 1,000 yards and less as you come closer to the firing line.  This is normal and is due to the right hand spin of the bullet causing a drift to the right.

Let me say here it is very important that you know your "no wind zero."  How else are you going to know what to do when the wind changes from the right to the left or just quits altogether?  You need to know it for all ranges.