I agree with a lot of that.
There's a lady here in AZ that will sew you up a shooting harness. Or she still was as recently as about two years ago when I asked her about it and for permission to pass on her contact info. She made mine around 2017, and I've shared her info with a couple of Open hopefuls since then.
All but one of my clean scores were in Open. Only recently got my first clean score in Hunter, and it was an easy course.
And mostly the same gun/barrel/pellet. ("Mostly" cuz one of the Open cleans was with a different gun).
Okay, a couple of items.......
#1 - I figured out how to get my open piston vote to register at the beginning of this thread......duh!
#2 - I would have to disagree about open being easier to shoot than hunter class. Consider this; open class on a bum bag and feet either spread, or (like me) crossed in order to get a comfortable position is much more prone to being affected by the wind. At BASF, when the wind blows, YOU MOVE! A reason I still shoot open is the being able to use higher magnification on the scope, although I only use 24X.
With hunter class, you have your bucket, both of your feet spread, AND you have both legs of your shooting sticks firmly on the ground. Your rifle is supported by the sticks, with your hands supporting the rifle, which in turn is braced with your elbows on your knees. How is that not more stable than open class? Granted, I see some shooters with one hand on the shooting stick and other hand on the rifle grip. The two handed grip is what one gentleman uses (Cole, you know who I refer to), and he will clean your clock on a regular basis, and twice on Sundays!
I still believe, based on the above, that hunter class is the easiest. If the other way around, how come they are not shooting open class, hmmmmm.....???
#3 - I know of two individuals who would gladly make harnesses. I know that Tom Price is not making his any longer, and I believe his patent has expired. I have found a few minor drawbacks in that design that I believe can be corrected and these 2 individuals could easily make those modifications. I have not pursued this because of one "personality" that gave me all particular "grief", but won't go into that.
If harnesses were made available, would anyone be interested in giving open class a try?
I am old, (74 on Monday) but not yet senile (mercifully) and love to shoot....piston.....and so long as my body allows me, will still shoot open class. I need to ask my back and knees permission, but will still give others a run for their money.
#4 - there was an effort, back in 2017, to add the unlimited class to the AAFTA rankings. It was tried for one year and at that years national championships, when in discussion at the annual meeting, was shot down. It was an attempt to allow older shooters, those with disabilities, or restricted movement, or dimished eyesight (not blind), and opportunity to use a rangefinder, sticks, bucket, higher scope magnification, etc, a chance to compete alongside everyone else. Not sure why it was shot down, but a number of clubs still use unlimited class, but only on a club level. maybe time to reconsider that?
Sorry for being so lengthy, but had to get this off my chest, and put it out there as food for thought.
