Shooting timers

[Bravo11]

I'm not really up on competition shooting but I enjoy watching it. One thing I'm curious about is how the timers work. All I know is there is a guy running around behind the shooter holding up a timer of some sort. Does the timer start after it "hears" the first round and stop after it hears the last round? If so, then how does it know when the last round is fired?
Thanks

 

[OF]

All sorts of ways timers can be used - but universally they start with a button press and then just record the shot times with, like was said, an internal microphone. You don't "stop" them, after being started, they're always waiting for the next shot.

For each shot they'll usually give you at least the time to that shot from the start signal, the split between this and the previous shot and the shot number.

 

[Krag]

Dang, I thought this thread was about shooting those d*mn guys who run the clock at matches. They deserve it the way they are aways adding 5-10 seconds to my actual time!!!

 

[Sunray]

"...they start with a button press..." It's actually the shooter that starts with the press of the button. The first press causes a loud beep then the timer records the time of each shot and stops when the shooter does. The time of the last shot is the shooter's time for that string.

 

[OF]

It's actually the shooter that starts with the press of the button.

The shooter starts? I'm not sure what you're getting at, but what I meant to say was that the timer is started with a button - you start the clock running with a button on the timer...and timers don't actually stop when the shooter stops, they just record every shot, so the last shot recorded is what you'll see - but the timer is still running until you start it again. If you shoot again 10 seconds after the string ends (or whack the damn thing on the side) it'll give you a new time.

Maybe that's how you're getting screwed, Krag?!

It's pretty basic, actually...