There are several scoring methods “out there” that most of you know: Bullseye, IDPA and USPSA are the ones that come to mind. Bullseye is the simplest to score. Just count the points from the target hits. There’s no time limit involved (OK, there is, but “practical” shooters would finish the stage, clean-up, drive home, and be eating lunch before the time limit was up…sorta), which doesn’t fit in with “practical” pistol shooting.
IDPA scoring is basically simple: all scores are by time. Take the time it took you to shoot the stage, and add time for penalties, non-center hits, and other stuff. I calculate an approximate IDPA score for our matches, but I no longer publish them, since they can be very different in the results they have.
USPSA scoring is what I’m mostly familiar with, and it’s what we used when we first started. (Our scorekeeper also did the scoring for one of the summer leagues and had the USPSA software.) However, nowhere could I find any method USPSA used to score multiple matches. Not on-line; not in the materials from my RO and CRO classes; nowhere.
Using the shooters’ match points for the season wouldn’t be fair. If Robby Leatham aced two of our matches for a total of 150 points, and Yours Truly with my average skills, earned 160 out of 200 points possible for two matches, it would seem that I would get the trophy that Robby deserved. So using the USPSA points, as calculated using USPSA methods, doesn’t seem to be an answer. But how are these points determined?
That answer isn’t too complicated, but it’s not as simple as Bullseye scoring. Take all of the points that the shooter earned from the target hits on a stage, subtract any penalties earned, and divide the result by the time that it took the shooter to complete the stage. This is called the “Hit Factor” in USPSA scoring. (Sharp-eyed shooters will note that I no longer have a column in the scores labeled, “Hit Factor.” It’s now called the “Point Rate” since it measures the “point speed” and whose units are points per second.) Then, in each division, the shooter with the highest HF is “awarded” all of the points available in that stage. Shooters with lower HF’s are scored as a fraction of Speedy’s HF. Add each shooter’s stage points and you’ve got the match points. That’s USPSA point scoring.
OK, so how do we get around the problem of different possible match scores? Easy. I don’t award Speedy the max points for that stage, but I rate all of the shooters in Speedy’s division as a percentage of Speedy’s Point Rate (Hit Factor, remember?). Of course, Speedy gets 100. For the match, each shooter’s percent is averaged, and the greatest (within each division) is awarded 100%. By using the maximum of 100 “points,” or percent, as the max possible for each stage, or match, we’ve got a common base for all stages and all matches.
There are a few “gotchas,” however. In the last match, the match results of the top two shooters in the Open division would have been reversed if I’d used the USPSA scoring, even though it would only be by a fraction of a point. This seldom happens, though. Trust me.
So, for the season, a shooter’s score reflects his ability to consistently score with the top shooters in his, or her, division.
As far as the scoring for the season goes, we treat each stage as a “mini-match,” and only take the best into account for scoring.
I hope that clears it up for any that were curious. If you’ve got any questions, ask away. Otherwise, I hope to see you at the next match!
