The US F-Class Open Rifle team takes off for London on July 15th to participate in the 3rd World F-Class Championship. This event is held every four years. The first one (held in Canada) was won by USA, the second one (held in South Africa) was won by South Africa.

Our team members are flying from various airports around the USA and one even from a Canadian airport (double Customs clearance), but we all land within a couple of hours of each other at London's Heathrow airport. The coaches are ready for the challenge and the team members are all ready to swoop up the gold!

We arrive at Heathrow on the morning of July 16th and will be taking mini vans to Bisley Camp, which is approximately an hour away. Our ammo was graciously shipped by air by Berger Bullets and is awaiting us at the armory in Bisley. We expect to collect the ammo on the afternoon of the 16th, get barrels screwed on and guns assembled that same day in preparation the next day's events. There is a practice session at 900 yards on July 17th as well as three matches, the Century 500 and 600 yards and the Admiral Hutton 900 yards. There are a number of different matches just about every single day until Saturday the 25th of July.

On Sunday, July 26 we will be holding an all day practice at 800, 900 and 1000 yards

Then, the World Championships start on Monday July 27, 2009. 

The whole US F class Open team will be shooting the proven 6.5-284 caliber. Several of the other teams are shooting the ballistically superior 7mm calibers, but we expect to outwit them with our calculated wind calls. The English have a "home court" advantage and are utilizing their best wind readers who know the nuances of their ranges inside out. Nothing like a good challenge to bring out the best in us!

There are at least 6 nations competing in the F-Class Open category that we know of right now:

USA
Great Britain
Ireland
Holland
Germany 
South Africa

Monday and Tuesday, July 27 and 28, are the individual matches to crown the individual World Champion. Wednesday and Thursday, July 29 and 30, are the Team World Championship matches. This is the one we all have trained so hard for, the one that matters the most. The one we hope to win!

Is there anticipation at this point? Well, when you get up in the middle of the night from a dream (nightmare) where you find yourself at the wrong airport to fly out to Bisley, where you feel that you forgot to pack your underwear, and the most interesting one.....where you have been escorted by security into a room and one of security agents is putting on a latex glove.................Bisley here we come!!