How do you come up with a rating for how well you shoot?

[bainter1212]

Over the weekend, I shot Steel Challenge with an accomplished target shooter at his first "action shooting" event. After the first stage, he commented: "Being on the clock makes a huge difference!" On the last stage, he said: "I'll be coming back for more of this."

He scored rather poorly and his metric for measuring himself encountered a significant paradigm shift, but... he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yes....being on the clock for the first time really shifted my paradigm as well. I went from "I am a pretty good shooter" to "I am a rusty novice" right quick.

But I DID have a heck of a lot of fun!

 

[Radagast]

I used the straight eights because they were available and legal under the then rules. The Heinie slant pro are the same sight without the dots, many prefer a fiber optic front sight these days. I didn't use the dots, I used the post and notch sight picture.

The Heinies are much better than the plastic 'ball in cup' sights provided by Glock. At 25 meters the Glock sights would cover the target, I was effectively firing blind. With the Heinies I could locate the two outside corners of the rear sight on the shoulders of the IPSC target and the post would be centered on the A zone. A handy trick as the zone borders are defined by perforations rather than a printed line.

I am talking of a time over a decade ago so i won't guarantee this as being exact, but IIRC, when I first bought the Glock I was grouping six to eight inches at 10 meters. This halved to around 4 inches after the trigger connector change, then two inches after the sight change. I then worked on maintaining that accuracy as I moved the targets further out. I got to the point that I could keep the majority of my shots in the A zone at 25 meters.

Fun anecdote. at the 2003 OZ nationals there was a stage with three targets at 1 meter, over a low barrier and three partial targets at 35 meters around a corner. I blazed away at the 1 meter targets then took a brace against the corner and took three aimed shots at each of the 35 meter targets, sacrificing the time on the extra shots (only two were required per target) in case of any misses.
I ended up with a clean miss on each of the one meter targets. Apparently I can't point shoot. I had 1.5 to 2 inch three shot groups on each of the 35 meter targets. It was a learning experience.

You can definitely buy performance. A race 1911 or 2011 will outperform a service grade pistol in the hands of anyone other than a complete newbie. I spent $3000 on such a gun and it was definitely more accurate (5 shots into an inch at 25 meters) and faster to shoot. I never warmed to it and ended up selling it on.

 

[MrBorland]

there was a stage with three targets at 1 meter, over a low barrier and three partial targets at 35 meters around a corner. I blazed away at the 1 meter targets then took a brace against the corner and took three aimed shots at each of the 35 meter targets, sacrificing the time on the extra shots (only two were required per target) in case of any misses.
I ended up with a clean miss on each of the one meter targets.

LOL. Been there, done that. It's a classic "sucker" setup: Some very easy and very close targets immediately followed by long hard ones.

The stage designer intentionally sucker shooters in 2 ways: He knows some shooters will see the short targets as freebie "can't miss" targets and will hose away at them (yes, apparently I can miss ). And since they're in hose-fest mode, the stage designer also knows they probably won't apply enough brake for the long ones. It's a scenario with a very subtle and very real disaster potential. At least you were wise enough to do what it took to get your hits on the longer targets.

 

[Sam1911]

The same basic functional applies to shooting the IDPA Classifier. Shooting Stage 3 first probably would bump the average shooter 15 points.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

Well, it's easy, really. I'm a good shot, and everyone who shoots better than me is lying.



What, no, I have no idea why there are powder burns on my target.

 

[Ed Ames]

I used the straight eights because they were available and legal under the then rules. ... I didn't use the dots, I used the post and notch sight picture.

That makes sense. My core gripe with the 8s (and a sad number of other dot sights) was/is that the dot picture and the notch picture result in different POI. If you can ignore the dots it is a basic steel sight, better than stock glock plastic.

 

[Confederate]

I'd say if they fall over after you shoot them, you've done quite well!

 

[ugaarguy]

Continued by OP here - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=761589