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S&C TV | Gary Chillingworth | HFT walkthrough: What is HFT shooting?

What your showing is EUROPEAN / ENGLISH "HUNTER FIELD TARGET" where adjusting parallax to find the distance is NOT allowed.

Here in the U>S<A we shoot Field target "Hunter Class" which operates under different rules & we can & do use parallax articulation to determine distance, have a 16X power rule and allowed to sit on a seat or ground and use shooting sticks.



Completely DIFFERENT game on these shores ...



FYI,

Scott S




 
Y'all:

I lived in the UK for a couple of years and shot HFT at the Bisley Field Target Club just southwest of London. Scott's comment about "guessing" isn't too far from wrong but the guesses are very educated. 

The typical strategy is to set the scope up focused at 25 to 30 yards depending on preference. Shooters then learn to guess distance based on how far out of focus a target is, Also; kill zone size at various distances is very specific and can be used to get a general yardage. Bracketing is also used extensively just as we do in the US version of the game. For example; a 1.5" kill zone is 3 MOA at 50 yards and 16 power, the same kill zone is just under 3 MOA at 55 yards.

There are entire websites on the subject if you want to more than what I listed.

Cheers,

Art "Ponda" Womack


 
I feel like playing both game rules would probably be beneficial for the other. Learning to range more than one way has to gain you skill. I really respect the British airgun community. They really emphasize shot placement and skill. Not that people don't here just with all the energy limitations and different rules it seems like there's a culture of marksmanship that is engrained into thier shooting. Cool video. 
 
There are MANY undisclosed or spoken of Nuances within the American game we play as well. Loosely that of understanding and applying RISE / FALL angles of pellets at distances short and far either side of zero range. If up close inside your ZR the pellets on the way UP to line of sight and if say we have a 3/4" KZ and you take the shot in the MIDDLE of said KZ you really only have a 3/8" window to sneak in the pellet. You likely won't over shoot it .. But UNDER SHOOT IT hitting the 6' clock. OUPS !!! Out far the same applies.

As to validate my perspective and applying said process ... In the AAFTA ( USA FIELD TARGET ) in the Hunter class, no competitor at a National Championship had EVER SET hight match score during said Nationals. Until 2017 on Pheonix AZ where it happened. Then in 2021 at Morro Bay CA this happened again with a Hunter Class competitor shooting the high match score. BOTH TIMES, Same Competitor doing so twice ! Even more to the point doing so shooting a loopy trajectory .20 caliber rifle being about 800fps in a class dominated by .177 cal's 880-920 fps !!

Yes indeed knowing and understanding angularity of a pellets flight can be HUGE & understood applied with great success.



Bracketing and ranging prowess absolutely required as well ... There is whole lot going on with the top shooters and why they stay on top of there game well as they do.



Scott S
 
At 16X .... generally ranging errors as you go out 40-45 and beyond is what happens, You generally will not have errors of target being closer than it is, but errors of being farther than you range it. Any distance beyond ZR where actual target is further out than ranged will have POI being LOW because pellet is falling !! Reverse happens in close where most likely you won't have a ranging error of targets being further out, but one where target being likely closer. And with the pellet rising on the way to your zero range which your under when up close a target that happens to be a tad closer will POI LOW

Very seldom are far or near targets overshot, most will be undershot.



Scott S


 
Y'all:

I lived in the UK for a couple of years and shot HFT at the Bisley Field Target Club just southwest of London. Scott's comment about "guessing" isn't too far from wrong but the guesses are very educated. 

The typical strategy is to set the scope up focused at 25 to 30 yards depending on preference. Shooters then learn to guess distance based on how far out of focus a target is, Also; kill zone size at various distances is very specific and can be used to get a general yardage. Bracketing is also used extensively just as we do in the US version of the game. For example; a 1.5" kill zone is 3 MOA at 50 yards and 16 power, the same kill zone is just under 3 MOA at 55 yards.

There are entire websites on the subject if you want to more than what I listed.

Cheers,

Art "Ponda" Womack





hold on a minute here, didn’t the UK switch to metric system? You guys still use inches and MOA? A bit surprising. Either way it definitely looks harder the way you guys are doing it. in some ways I kinda like how the Canadians are ranging with reticle but allowed to focus.