Sent some photos to Gary Anderson this past weekend for his opinion on what the ISSF is meaning about this rule.
Below these photos is Gary's response on what he thinks ISSF will rule on this jacket (a KT Adventure). If you have jacket seams that look like these, get ready to repair/replace.
(And yes, it's a new jacket ... started shooting it at trials in Feb)
And my own $0.02 is that this seam offers no support.........
Also note that this seam passed stiffness EC at Winter Airgun a week ago.
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Gary's response to my query:
(my underlined emphasis)
In regards to his mention CMP and NRA comps .... these two organizations usually amend their rules to comply with ISSF after a few years pass. It will be crazy for shooters not to begin to conform as you don't want to have an NRA Suit & a ISSF suit.......Thanks for getting touch with your questions regarding this new rule.
First to restate what you probably already know: ISSF Rule 7.5.4.5 prohibiting "any horizontal seam or seams under the elbow of the support arm in the standing position" will apply for ISSF competitions (World Cups, etc.) beginning in 2013, but this rule was not included in the 2012-2014 National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules so it will not apply in any 3-position air rifle competitions in the U. S. USAS Rules for next year are not yet finalized, but it is likely that USAS will pick up some version of this prohibition, perhaps with a grace period for achieving compliance.
The purpose of the rule is to prevent manufacturers from take advantage of this critical support surface for the standing position by using a seam to add stiffness that exceeds the 3.0mm depression minimum that a flat panel without a seam is allowed to provide. We had a couple of manufacturers that started doing this including KT and one Asian manufacturer. It became just one more small example of the "technological doping" that the ISSF must either fight or see its efforts to keep the playing field level go out the window.
We are still in the process of developing precise guidelines to give ISSF Equipment Control Inspectors. We likely will end up with something that says if the horizontal seam is clearly visible below the tip of the elbow when holding a rifle in standing, the seam will be legal. Any seam that lies anywhere between the tip of the elbow to a point 6 or 8 cm above where the tip of the elbow lies will be illegal. That means the jacket which was shown in the photos you attached is likely to be illegal for ISSF competitions, but not for 3-position air rifle and NRA competitions in the USA.
I am working with our ISSF technical experts now to finalize a guideline for rifle jacket inspection so my advice would be to wait a few more weeks before undertaking any modifications so that we have a final ISSF interpretation on this rule.
With best regards,
Gary
