Recently the NRA appointed F-Class rules committee has ruled that our felt lined top blocks are now illegal for F-Open competition for the upcoming 2024 season.

Aaron Farmer, the NRA deputy director for competitive shooting has verified this information and the new high power rule book coming out in January of 2024 will reflect this new restriction.

Over the last year, in preparation for this possibility, we have been developing a new top block design utilizing a unique sand filled system. This system has been tested and is currently in production and will be available in December 2023 and available prior to January 2024.

We have just filed for a new US patent on this technology as it is very innovative but as the new bags are filled with sand, they comply with the 2024 NRA high power rules regulating F-Open equipment.  https://competitions.nra.org/media/8913/2023-high-power-rifle-rules.pdf

Rule 3.4.1 (8) on page 68 of the NRA high power rule book states:

“The contents of front and rear bags will be dry, finely divided (less than 5mm/0.19”) granular substance such as, but not limited to, sand, gravel or grain, packed loosely enough so that the bag will be visibly deformable by pressure of the range officer’s fingers..”

 

For 2024 our Rodzilla 5-Axis top assemblies and our Raptor and T-Rex front rests will be offered with an exciting new patent pending improvement called Torque Taming Technology, or T3 for short.

NOTE: For our short-range benchrest shooters, we will still offer our IBS top block for use with the one-piece sand bags as in the past.

Until now front rests, regardless of materials used, have only allowed for adjusting the tension on the sides of the forearm at roughly the 3:00 and 9:00 positions. This arrangement does little to control the counter-rotation of the rifle under recoil without a lot of tension, limited by rule, and therefore drag.

So, in response to the new 2024 NRA ruling, we have developed our new T3 sand bag option for our top blocks. These bags are small round bags filled with sand and run the length of the top blocks. However, these new sand bags are arranged with a vertical stager and not aligned directly across from each other at 3:00 and 9:00. These sand bags are mounted to stainless steel carriers and individually adjustable for height. Our two, small bottom sand bags that support the rifle still toggle front to back and are unchanged.

How the T3 technology works

By providing only two small contact patches at the highest point on the left side of the forearm and the lowest point on the right side we greatly limit the stock from counter-rotation under recoil. Additionally, this provides the added benefit of a very small amount of drag.

 

By design our new T3 aluminum top blocks work equally well with felt to limit counter-rotation for all non-F-Class shooters. With the felt option you will always have the greatest amount of contact at the top on the left side of your forearm and on the lowest point on the right side of the forearm.  This is accomplished with the blocks being parallel but canted to the right while looking from the shooters side.

Felt sided blocks have been both effective and popular. Felt dampens harmonics in rifle stocks especially for rim fire competitors as well as for center fire rifles where allowed. Therefore, we offer felt as the default material for our top blocks.

Micro adjustable feature

Also, for 2024 models we will now offer an optional, micro-adjusting block. This block mounts to the left side of the top plate on our new 5-Axis top plates. This feature allows the shooter to precisely adjust the gap between the top blocks. by loosening the one locking bolt on the left block and adjusting a fine pitch thumb screw in or out you can now precisely set the tension on the forearm as desired.