We congratulate Ian Klemm (F-TR, left below) and Matthew Basalla (F-Open, right below) — the 2023 NRA F-Class Long Range National Champions! The NRA F-Class championships were held at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility outside Phoenix, Arizona. The 2023 Long Range F-Class Nationals ran November 2-5, following the Mid-Range F-Class Nationals held October 29 through November 1st.

F-Open Long Range Championship

Matt Basalla (1594-101X) earned an impressive victory in F-Open, followed by Peter Johns (Second) and Norm Harrold (Third). Matt only dropped just 6 points across the three days, while Peter dropped 7 and Norm 8. Impressively Matt recorded 101 Xs during the match. Mid-Range winner John Masek told us that this was “Crazy good shooting in some tricky conditions”.

Team Lapua/Brux/Borden Wins F-Open Team Event
It went down to the wire in the F-Open Team Competition. Team Lapua/Brux/Borden finished first with 1593-95X. Team Long Shots was tied on total points with 1593 but took second on X-Count with 93X. Both those teams had shooters with superb 400-24X scores. Team Lapua also set a Nationals one-phase team record of 800-53X, breaking the previous record of 800-42X set in 2014 by the Long Shots. The top individual performance in the Team match was a 400-29X by Johnny Ingram of Team Bayou Boyz.

Conditions at the Long Range Championships
John Masek, 2023 F-Open Mid-Range Nat’l Champion, told us about the conditions during the Long Range phase of the F-Class Nationals: “Conditions for the Long Range F-Class Nationals were oddly deceiving. We started out Thursday with some mild cross winds that would switch quickly, but if you were patient you could shoot in steady conditions. It was clear that those at the top of the leaderboard had figured that out as there were quite a few shooters who dropped from zero to a just a couple points.

Friday was a pretty close repeat of the previous day and if you had figured out the previous day’s conditions you were in the top half, but there were plenty of people who struggled and dropped quite a few points. The final individual day on Sunday started in totally different conditions with a pretty decent head wind that was quickly moving the flags left to right. If you weren’t paying attention, you could easily get blown out to the left or right in the blink of an eye. The final relay was back to a crosswind with some tricky angle changes. Over the three days there was plenty of wind to help push the top shooters up, leaving no doubt that Matt Basalla was top F-Open shooter, and earned his victory.”

F-TR Long Range Championship — Ian Klemm Wins Again

In the F-TR division, Ian Klemm put in a great performance to secure his fifth National F-TR LR Championship finishing with both high score and top X-Count (1580-82X). Ian has previously won in 2021, 2020, 2018, and 2017. To secure FIVE titles in 7 years is mighty impressive. Certainly it can be argued that his FIVE F-TR Long Range Championships earn Ian the “F-TR GOAT” title (greatest of all time). Keith Trapp finished second (1578-74X) while Oleg Savelyev took third place (1575-72X).

Team Vortex Wins F-TR Team Event
As captain of Team Vortex, Ian Klemm also was part of the winning F-TR squad which scored 1588-76X. Team Vortex member Keith Trapp finished with a 400-19X, not dropping a point. He was the only F-TR shooter to have a 400 in team competition. The Bridgeville Long Range F-TR squad took second place with a 1580-61X score.

The 2022 NRA F-Class National Championships commence this weekend at the Ben Avery range in Phoenix, Arizona. The Mid-Range F-Class Nationals commence this Sunday, October 16, with practice on Saturday, October 15. The 1000-yard Long Range match starts on October 20th.

How to Avoid “Train Wrecks” In Competition

In any shooting competition, you must try to avoid major screw-ups that can ruin your day (or your match). In this article, past F-TR National Mid-Range and Long Range Champion Bryan Litz talks about “Train Wrecks”, i.e. those big disasters (such as equipment failures) that can ruin a whole match. Bryan illustrates the types of “train wrecks” that commonly befall competitors, and he explains how to avoid these “unmitigated disasters”.

Urban Dictionary “Train Wreck” Definition: “A total @#$&! disaster … the kind that makes you want to shake your head.”

Train Wrecks (and How to Avoid Them)
by Bryan Litz of Applied Ballistics LLC.

Success in long range competition depends on many things. Those who aspire to be competitive are usually detail-oriented, and focused on all the small things that might give them an edge. Unfortunately it’s common for shooters lose sight of the big picture — missing the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Consistency is one of the universal principles of successful shooting. The tournament champion is the shooter with the highest average performance over several days, often times not winning a single match. While you can win tournaments without an isolated stellar performance, you cannot win tournaments if you have a single train wreck performance. And this is why it’s important for the detail-oriented shooter to keep an eye out for potential “big picture” problems that can derail the train of success!

Train wrecks can be defined differently by shooters of various skill levels and categories. Anything from problems causing a miss, to problems causing a 3/4-MOA shift in wind zero can manifest as a train wreck, depending on the kind of shooting you’re doing.

Below is a list of common Shooting Match Train Wrecks, and suggestions for avoiding them.

1. Cross-Firing. The fastest and most common way to destroy your score (and any hopes of winning a tournament) is to cross-fire. The cure is obviously basic awareness of your target number on each shot, but you can stack the odds in your favor if you’re smart. For sling shooters, establish your Natural Point of Aim (NPA) and monitor that it doesn’t shift during your course of fire. If you’re doing this right, you’ll always come back on your target naturally, without deliberately checking each time. You should be doing this anyway, but avoiding cross-fires is another incentive for monitoring this important fundamental. In F-Class shooting, pay attention to how the rifle recoils, and where the crosshairs settle. If the crosshairs always settle to the right, either make an adjustment to your bipod, hold, or simply make sure to move back each shot. Also consider your scope. Running super high magnification can leave the number board out of the scope’s field view. That can really increase the risk of cross-firing.

2. Equipment Failure. There are a wide variety of equipment failures you may encounter at a match, from loose sight fasteners, to broken bipods, to high-round-count barrels that that suddenly “go south” (just to mention a few possibilities). Mechanical components can and do fail. The best policy is to put some thought into what the critical failure points are, monitor wear of these parts, and have spares ready. This is where an ounce of prevention can prevent a ton of train wreck. On this note, if you like running hot loads, consider whether that extra 20 fps is worth blowing up a bullet (10 points), sticking a bolt (DNF), or worse yet, causing injury to yourself or someone nearby.

[Editor’s Note: The 2016 F-Class Nationals will employ electronic targets so conventional pit duties won’t be required. However, the following advice does apply for matches with conventional targets.]

3. Scoring/Pit Malfunction. Although not related to your shooting technique, doing things to insure you get at least fair treatment from your scorer and pit puller is a good idea. Try to meet the others on your target so they can associate a face with the shooter for whom they’re pulling. If you learn your scorer is a Democrat, it’s probably best not to tell Obama jokes before you go for record. If your pit puller is elderly, it may be unwise to shoot very rapidly and risk a shot being missed (by the pit worker), or having to call for a mark. Slowing down a second or two between shots might prevent a 5-minute delay and possibly an undeserved miss.

4. Wind Issues. Tricky winds derail many trains. A lot can be written about wind strategies, but here’s a simple tip about how to take the edge off a worse case scenario. You don’t have to start blazing away on the command of “Commence fire”. If the wind is blowing like a bastard when your time starts, just wait! You’re allotted 30 minutes to fire your string in long range slow fire. With average pit service, it might take you 10 minutes if you hustle, less in F-Class. Point being, you have about three times longer than you need. So let everyone else shoot through the storm and look for a window (or windows) of time which are not so adverse. Of course this is a risk, conditions might get worse if you wait. This is where judgment comes in. Just know you have options for managing time and keep an eye on the clock. Saving rounds in a slow fire match is a costly and embarrassing train wreck.

5. Mind Your Physical Health. While traveling for shooting matches, most shooters break their normal patterns of diet, sleep, alcohol consumption, etc. These disruptions to the norm can have detrimental effects on your body and your ability to shoot and even think clearly. If you’re used to an indoor job and eating salads in air-conditioned break rooms and you travel to a week-long rifle match which keeps you on your feet all day in 90-degree heat and high humidity, while eating greasy restaurant food, drinking beer and getting little sleep, then you might as well plan on daily train wrecks. If the match is four hours away, rather than leaving at 3:00 am and drinking five cups of coffee on the morning drive, arrive the night before and get a good night’s sleep.”

Keep focused on the important stuff. You never want to lose sight of the big picture. Keep the important, common sense things in mind as well as the minutia of meplat trimming, weighing powder to the kernel, and cleaning your barrel ’til it’s squeaky clean. Remember, all the little enhancements can’t make up for one big train wreck!