USPSA scoring

As an IDPA shooter, I've tried a couple local USPSA matches in the last 3 months or so, including this past weekend.

I've had fun so far. It is obvious there are some significantly different aspects to the strategy and stage design.

One thing that dumbfounded me until today was the scoring. I looked up a thread on Enos, and now I understand the math they are doing once all the numbers are on the score sheet. I still don't get the difference between minor and major (I believe minor scores less points per hit?)

One thing that came as a surprise in the scores were penalties; I somehow managed to get 10 points of penalties on several stages, but was only informed of one of them at the time, for shooting .05 sec over the time limit on a standards stage. The others, I have no idea where they came from.

Even understanding the math, it is hard to get a feel for whether the scoring model favors speed over accuracy. It could be experience, but I feel the IDPA scoring model is very easy to understand, and see that it favors accuracy. Could you turn that -1 into a -0 with less than an extra half second? Probably. IDPA is a bullseye match.

I've been told that speed wins in USPSA, but if this is true, it is harder to see when your raw number is essentially a "hit factor". For people who shoot both, would you agree that speed is more highly favored over accuracy in the scoring model for USPSA, vs. IDPA?

Conflicting information to the "speed wins" theory is that all the winners at the local level here, looking back through the last year of results, are invariably major shooters. In the top 10-15% of the total results, there is hardly a minor anywhere in sight. Is this a product of who is showing up to local matches here, or does this trend carry on a national level? If it does, it would seem that the hits/points are pretty important too, and to win a division where major is allowed, you need a major gun.

Thoughts from those who shoot both?

Thanks Hoser. I shot limited minor with my SSP gear, and just topped off the mags (don't have good magazine gear for 5-6 10rd mags on the belt for Production). Sounds like you'd want a dedicated .40 major gun if you plan to compete in Limited long term.

How does major/minor, and hits on target translate into points on the sheet?

Also, any guesses as to what I could have done to generate the penalties? Next time I will ask the SO to inform me of any penalties.

So I saw on the score sheet that the first thing done was to total up all the A's, all the B's, C's, and D's. I assume that those columns are somehow directly related to the number of points scored on the stage?

And, that (mostly) completes the picture, thanks Dan.

My shot in the standards stage was at 7.35, .35 past the buzzer, or .05 over the limit... sorry about the confusion there.

I did have a couple mikes which is fortunately pretty rare for me these days but if I understand jfdavis' post above, not only do you get zero positive points for a mike, but you get 10 points subtracted as well (for a net effect of -15 vs an A zone hit?). That could be the source of the mystery penalties. I guess this is sort of the equivalent to the FTN penalty in IDPA? Also it looks like it puts a greater percentage penalty on the minor shooter than the major shooter.

In your example, I might like to tweak some numbers. 3 vs. 5 seconds is huge... so you have a 66% difference in time there, but a 40% difference in score.

For round numbers, say you shot a stage in 10 seconds and got 10 A's, that is HF = 5 for both major and minor.

Now say you shoot it in 9 seconds but drop 4 Cs; that is a HF = 5.11 for major or 4.66 for minor, correct?

10 seconds with 4 C's, HF = 4.6 for major, 4.2 for minor.

9 seconds with 10 A's, HF = 5.55 for major or minor.

So when we reduce only the time by 10%, score goes up by 11% for all A's (not practical for most I assume); but when we drop only accuracy a little, score drops by roughly 8% for major, 16% for minor. That looks like it might be the big difference between major and minor.

I have been doing USPSA statistics for 12 years so I have a pretty good foundation in what the numbers need to look like to win. It's simple, go for all A's as fast as possible. As Hoser pointed out, at the upper levels of competition it takes speed and accuracy. FWIW, minor scoring sucks.

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So it is your long term experience that minor is not as competitive as major in Limited/Open?

Could anyone recommend a good magazine rig for Production with G17 mags?

I shot again Saturday (still limited minor with my SSP rig topped off) and although I was shooting well, it is amazing the difference that a basic review of the scoring and rules can make. I would say that (obviously) a lot of the technical skills cross over between IDPA and USPSA. I'd say USPSA emphasizes shooting on the move considerably more than IDPA. That said I don't think it is possible to overstate how important it is to know the rules and scoring of the sport you are shooting if you want to do well. The research I have done since last month has instantly paid off. And I am sure there are plenty of subtleties about USPSA I am still yet to discover.

Long term I will need to either get a new gun, or shoot in Production, though I am for some reason tempted to keep doing what I am doing now for a little while. Not sure why.