Practical Hunter Legal

[braud357]

I may be remembering this incorrectly, but it seems that Dell Taylor was asked several years ago if we were supposed to use Production gun rules or Unlimited gun rules for Practical Hunter. His response was - if I am remembering correctly was "Unlimited" ! Again - please correct me if I am wrong !

Any hunting style handgun with a maximum length of 21 inches.
2.
Optics are allowed up to a maximum of 6X power. The use of higher variable power scopes will be allowed, But they must not be used over 6x during the course of fire. The use of fixed power scopes over 6x is not allowed.
3.
Guns must be as manufactured with only cosmetic modifications.
4.
Ported barrels are allowed as long as they are shot from a SAFE position.
5.
A rest such as a bipod or a sandbag supporting the barrel in the prone position may be used by an unclassified shooter and by shooters in classes A and AA. Allow Artificial support in practical hunter for shooters up to 12 birthday.

Any gun under 21” in length
Melvin

Melvin, it kinda straddles the categories, doesn't it !

[braud357]

I may be remembering this incorrectly, but it seems that Dell Taylor was asked several years ago if we were supposed to use Production gun rules or Unlimited gun rules for Practical Hunter. His response was - if I am remembering correctly was "Unlimited" ! Again - please correct me if I am wrong !

Now you got the error that has been running rampant all these years. Neither Production or Unlimited gun rules apply to Practical Hunter! Only the Calibers apply. .22 PH will be 22LR only. Short Range would be Field Pistol Calibers only and LR PH is any BB Caliber allowed

I talked to Dell at OKC and he does not remember ever saying this.

The original intent of Practical Hunter was for somebody to Buy an Off the Shelf gun and have a category they could shoot. I am going through the old news issues and seeing if anything concerning PH was printed.

Thanks for the interpretation ! This is why I initially was against the Practical Hunter categories. We already had categories to accommodate these types of guns ! Under the rules "as written" you could probably use a "Super 16" barrel on a Contender and still make the length requirement ! The Practical Hunter rules were poorly written from the very beginning, and this is the result !

[i26963]

Actually, Rich Mertz did offer a Bomar sight for a while. I had one with a Bomar from him.
Melvin.

[i26963]

I may be remembering this incorrectly, but it seems that Dell Taylor was asked several years ago if we were supposed to use Production gun rules or Unlimited gun rules for Practical Hunter. His response was - if I am remembering correctly was "Unlimited" ! Again - please correct me if I am wrong !

Any hunting style handgun with a maximum length of 21 inches.
2.
Optics are allowed up to a maximum of 6X power. The use of higher variable power scopes will be allowed, But they must not be used over 6x during the course of fire. The use of fixed power scopes over 6x is not allowed.
3.
Guns must be as manufactured with only cosmetic modifications.
4.
Ported barrels are allowed as long as they are shot from a SAFE position.
5.
A rest such as a bipod or a sandbag supporting the barrel in the prone position may be used by an unclassified shooter and by shooters in classes A and AA. Allow Artificial support in practical hunter for shooters up to 12 birthday.

Any gun under 21” in length
Melvin

Melvin, it kinda straddles the classes, doesn't it !

Yes, i guess a Production gun can be used, probably at a disadvantage though, with the longer barrels.

[nutcase]

Ok, I went through the old IHMSA News and found this out.

Practical Hunter was in Trial period from Jan 1st 2011 to Dec 31 2012. It was approved in July 2012 By the board during the meeting. it was added to the rule book in 2013.

The wording during trial period is almost exactly the same as found in the present rule book.

Also, There are no articles written explaining Practical hunter ever printed in the news.

So, we screwed up from Day one.

[forest341]

deleted

[i26963]

To show how unclear the rules for Practical Hunter are, consider the very title of the rules for it.
It says:

SECTION XII: PRACTICAL HUNTER RULES
Class Descriptions:
The purpose of the class is to provide a course of fire..............

Prior to the addition of these rules for practical hunter entries, the term "class" was only used to identify competitors skills based on their demonstrated abilities into one of the following classes; A, AA, AAA, or Int. Then PH rules came along and refers to the 3 disciplines as a "class description", instead of "category". Then later in the rules it refers to them as "long coarse", instead of "class" or "category". The rules book is not the place to just throw out some terms any which way.

Everything about the PH rules are confusing from the start, vague at best, and impossible to figure out if a pistol is compliant.

If a PH shooter wants to shoot a Thompson Center pistol that he/she bought, is it illegal to use a purchased barrel that is NOT from Thompson Center? If a competitor buys a MGM, Fox Ridge, or Bullberry barrel in 22 Hornet for the short coarse thinking it is legal, just as it is for a Production - Field Pistol entry to swap barrels, would that be NOT "as manufactured" per rule #3?

Isn't the term "as manufactured" synonymous with "Production"?

I am sooo confused.

All the barrels you mentioned are legal for Production class, provided they are the legal length, sight radius, barrel contour.
So, to me, they would be legal for PH.

[64XP-100]

The 3rd party Contender barrel rules are in the "Production" section of the rules, not the PH section of the rules.

[forest341]

deleted

[nutcase]

The 3rd party Contender barrel rules are in the "Production" section of the rules, not the PH section of the rules.

So does that mean we can or can not apply that "Production" section of rules to a PH pistol's configuration?

I can't find any wording in the PH section of rules that says anything about any other category rules will be applied to PH configurations.

Both of my PH pistols entries that I shot last week at the WC will need to be DQed because I used a MGM & a Bullberry barrel.

he is right that Production Rules do not apply to practical hunter. if they were not Dqed at OKC, then they are fine. But from now on, we need to go through the PH rules and see what we want to do with it.