No optics, bipods, or rests permitted — equipment limited to sling and shooting jacket.

That's 1,000 yards with iron sights, a sling, and whatever wind-reading ability you've built over the years. If you've ever tried to call wind consistently past 600 on a match day, you already know how humbling that is — at 1,000, you're not just reading the flag at the line anymore.

F-Class targets add an extra scoring ring at the center — half the diameter of the smallest TR ring — to account for the inherently tighter groups achievable from a supported position.

That's the part F-Class newcomers don't always appreciate until their first match. The supported position buys you a lot, but the scoring ring shrinks to match — you're still being pushed toward a standard that would embarrass most unsupported shooters even on a clean day.

ICFRA was formally founded in July 2003, absorbing the Palma Council's functions and giving the 2003 Palma Match its first official status as a World Team Championship.

The Palma Match ran for over a hundred years before it had a formal world championship body behind it. That's a long time to operate on tradition and handshake agreements — and it somehow worked well enough that the discipline survived intact.

The discipline was created in Canada by George "Farky" Farquharson — the F stands for his name.

Spent a fair amount of time at the LGS counter over the years listening to people debate what the F stood for. Farquharson deserves the credit — he built something that spread from Canada to Kenya and Mongolia. That's not nothing.

For those of you who've shot F-Class or TR at any level — did you know which international body governed your division's rules when you started competing, or did that only matter once you were looking at nationals or beyond?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By The Boise Gun Club Team