When it comes to shooting any kind of competition, I think it should be up to the shooter as to how much he or she wishes to challenge themselves. I will use myself as an example. Several years ago I decided I would like to become a Master class shooter, but wanted to achieve this using a stock Ruger 10/22. This is a personal challenge. It is not the smart way to make Master class, and perhaps I never will. It is my choice and I don't give a hoot what anyone else thinks about it.

I could have just as easily challenged myself by using a bolt action with a 3-9x hunting scope. And there is nothing wrong with trying to cut your time time down to 30 seconds. I suspect one would become a much better hunter as a result.

But when it comes to changing the rules, we must be careful. This has harmed more than one discipline of shooting - Action Pistol is a good example. Those top shooters had spent a lot of money getting super light trigger pulls, and some just quit the sport when the NRA raised the trigger pull limits.

The NRA sent our match director literature about trying a rapid fire 30 second hunter class rifle match, not change the current rules, but add a completely diffferent match to silhouettes. we trie it out after one of our matches and it was reallly fun, i tried with my repeating hunter rifle, as well as my 10/22 standard rifle. if NRA wanted to add another type of match, i would say great, go ahead and do it, but make the rifle specs to standard rifle and not hunter, but make a seperate class for semiauto and bolt action(or anyother type of manual action i.e. lever, pump, etc.)., then maybe later add a hunter semiauto/manual action class.

just my .2 cents

I dissagree too. Any rapid fire rule would be a different match, not a different class.
I would prefer that we go back to the "run what you brung" that makes weight standard.
That is where the innovation comes from. People with good ideas improving their scores with room to experiment to find what works for them. We still have innovation, but it is like NASCAR racers. They have a thing called "supperior reading of the rules" where the rule is intact, but the overall spirit and intent of the rule is circumvented.
There are 40 targets no matter what. There is no reason to assume that the standard rifle has to be better than the hunter with respect to scores. If you are a HM with the hunter, why not shoot the same rifle ? I think the hunter class is right where it needs to stay. The standard class needs to be opened up. Or an unlimited class created. This would get the MIT graduates into shooting silhouetts. Gyroscopic stablized, electronic target aqusition, fire by wire silhouette rifles. That is where it was going when they made the changes in the first place.

Mike i think you have a good idea but for the wrong Gun. Increase the time for the standard gun. To me 5 shots in 2.5 minuets is rapid fire. Standard Gun should have 5 shots in 10 minuets.

We shoot occasionally fun RF match with Ruger 10/22, if time permits.
2 full magazines - 20 rounds in 2 min. shot at pistol SB targets (3/8 scale).
It is a lot of fun and challenge.