International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Associations (ICFRA)

The roots of organized international fullbore competition go back to 1876, when the first Palma Match was contested by teams from the United States, Australia, Canada, Scotland, and Ireland — shot with muzzle-loading rifles at distances out to 1,000 yards. The Palma competition is considered the world's second-oldest international team rifle match.

The matches ran through the late 1920s, the trophy was eventually lost in Washington D.C. around the start of World War II, and the event was revived in its modern form in Canada in 1966.

Evolution from informal Palma Council to formal international confederation

Modern Revival and Formalization

For decades, those matches operated under the loose authority of the Palma Council. The push toward a formal international body started at the 1999 Palma and Individual Long Range World Championship in South Africa, where representatives from 14 countries formed a steering committee to build something more permanent.

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. Management of Palma and TR events was vested in ICFRA's World Championship Committee, while F-Class events fall under its F-Class Committee.

F-Class itself predates ICFRA as a formal body. The discipline was created in Canada by George "Farky" Farquharson — the F stands for his name — who is enshrined in the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association (DCRA) Hall of Fame in the Builder category. In the United States, J.J. Conway is widely credited as the discipline's stateside pioneer.