Canadian Airgun Forum

I just hope FT doesn't turn into another equipment race...

You can spend as much or as little as you want. At the end of the day you still need to make the targets fall down and that's up to the individual pulling the trigger. Everyone shoots under the same rules of the division they have chosen to enter on the day of the shoot.

There is definitely a hardware element however the way that we shoot HFT minimizes it.
I shot my first HFT match with a $90 Crosman Optimus with an inexpensive scope.  I have since upgraded both gun and scope and now shoot a used TX200 with a $350 scope.
Since you cannot use your scope for range finding, cannot use greater than 16x, and cannot adjust your turrets, I see no need to invest more in a scope or gun.  We also have different divisions for springers and PCP.

In a recent match I got beat by 2 points by someone shooting a Crosman Optimus with a Discovery scope.

Better shooters often buy higher end guns and scopes so it can blur the difference between equipment and skills. I believe that I am more accurate with my current setup than my original one (as I  type this it makes me want to do a head to head test) but the biggest part of my improvement has been experience in knowing how to estimate range and how to shoot at small things at varying distances.

I am definitely the limiting factor,  if you hand me a $3000 gun with a $2000 scope on it I doubt that it would help my score. Half a dozen practice sessions might be worth a point or two though.

Rob27

In hunter, you can use a stool and unattached monopod or sit like WFTF folks do and still use as monopod. The standing and kneeling shots are identical in WFTF and HFT. So considering, you sit with no support and shoot traditional standing and kneeling in WFTF, it would seem to be the most traditional of the divisions. In WHFT, most shots are taken prone, with the hand and rifle against the lane stake. How often do you lie down to take a prone shot when hunting?

Our three divisions of Open, Hunter and WFTF should be enough to suit almost everyone. In Open Division, you can use a range finder, support harness, attached bipod, stool, ...

Our top score at the 2021 Nationals was with a TX200, not a Steyr, Anschutz or FWB PCP.

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner

Quite a lot, actually, but only when shooting field rats.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Daryl, you have a nice bipod holding that gun up nice and steady. Not allowed in our HFT.

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner

My only other prone shooting (competition) is with an Anschutz sling with a shooting mitt.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

If I put effort into shooting I don't like the equipment to hold me back. Specifically if I break a shot well with good understanding of the wind I want that shot land reliably. That's part of why I'm going with a PCP rather than a springer.

I don't specifically tie this to price though. I'm currently shooting silhouette with the least expensive rimfire I've had in a while (Tikka T1X) because it's extremely consistent and fits me very well. My last, significantly more expensive, Weihrauch HW66 just didn't fit and even a silhouette specific stock didn't make it work for me plus it was very hold sensitive.

You sound like me when I started FT, I wanted the pcp to make sure I got a hit if I deserved it. I shot pcp for maybe 14 years in competition and did quite well. I have been shooting springer almost exclusively for the past four years with a few years of transition in between, bringing me to about 22 years of competition. I have found that if I do everything right, the target goes down, the same as it did with a pcp. When the target does not fall, it is invariably me holding the equipment back, the same as it was with a pcp..

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner

I wish I could stand and shoot like that (Olympic style), but not any more. Too hard on the back.
Even the monthly postal muzzleloading matches are hard to complete - shooting 3, 5 shot standing targets makes me hurt for hours.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Got it in hand and WOW, this will spoil me. Still a touch loud for around the house with the low pressure regulator. I'm going to complete the modifications to reduce air volume back to original in a reversible way (this is simply some spacers in the plenum) so I can run the regulator pressure a bit higher and possibly back off the hammer spring for more gas efficiency/less noise.

Nice. You will be knocking targets down in no time.

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner