Just got some ARA 50 yd targets to mess around with. I’ve never shot any competitions that use that target. I only shoot PRS. What is a respectable score and what is a winning score?
Thanks
Thanks
ARA Target Scores
- Thread starter Csafisher
- Start date
American Rimfire Association
www.americanrimfire.com
click on the link and then browse whatever state of your choice, and then Factory or Unlimited class. You can select 2023 and see the entire year of results if desired. You have to change the month every time tho.
Just my thoughts as I see it....
Each shooting range has a score range it allows due to normal conditions. Figure these conditions out and this will put you at the top end of the scores. As I see it, you're shooting against the range and conditions.
1800 to 2000 is respectable. As you start figuring things out I'd say 2000 to 2200 is a good place to be. When thing start coming together I like staying above 2200. My X count goes up when I have a good read on the conditions of the shooting range.
Shot at a new club yesterday, meet a great group of people and had a good read on the conditions. Here are my results.
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What kind of gun? To be honest, if you are using your PRS/NRL gun, a score of 2200 on a regular basis would be exceptional. Outdoors in some wind, you will probably be good expecting 1800-2000 on a regular basis until you get to understand the wind. You need wind flags if you don't have them. Don't be surprised if you shoot a 1500 or 1600 at first either. Scoring correctly requires a plug. Worst edge scoring takes a little time to get used to and do well.
The guy that just won the indoor nationals missed 6 shots total on 6 complete cards. He shot 3 perfect cards out of those 6. That's insanely hard.
The guy that just won the indoor nationals missed 6 shots total on 6 complete cards. He shot 3 perfect cards out of those 6. That's insanely hard.
Rimx and Vudoo. Shooting off bipod/rear bag. Outdoors in south Texas. There is typically a fair amount of wind. We don’t get many calm days down here.
So something similar to this.
As Hozzie stated....you're gonna need flags.
This is on one of our windy ranges.
Yes. Using my NRL/PRS guns. Just for fun and something different. The wind calls is something I’d like to learn more.
Do you have a reference for wind holds? I know I had read some stuff on an old rimfire site about wind holds.
In general a wind from the right will push a bullet left and high. A wind from the left will push a bullet right and low. The harder the wind, the higher or lower the bullet will go relative to the push. Headwinds and tailwinds can make a bullet go high, low, or seem to do nothing. If you don't have flags you're just guessing and that is going to make it worse as it can change fast and you don't realize it. On top of that, all of your windflags will not show the same condition, you will have to determine what flags seem to be telling you the most. Most of us run 5 or 6 flags.
There are wind charts out there depicting this, but I think new shooters rely on these a bit too much as they take them as gospel. It doesn't always do what you think it will or what the chart says.
The best advice is to shoot sighters and see what your flags are telling you for that condition. Try to pick one condition and shoot it. Don't try to adjust all of the time to changing conditions. Sometimes you have to if time is running out, but use all of the time you can. Sail tails are an important aspect that help you determine how hard the wind is actually pushing. Shooting an ARA card at 50 yards for score is very different than shooting an NRL target even at 200 yards.
This thread on RA may be of help for more info.
www.rimfireaccuracy.com
There are wind charts out there depicting this, but I think new shooters rely on these a bit too much as they take them as gospel. It doesn't always do what you think it will or what the chart says.
The best advice is to shoot sighters and see what your flags are telling you for that condition. Try to pick one condition and shoot it. Don't try to adjust all of the time to changing conditions. Sometimes you have to if time is running out, but use all of the time you can. Sail tails are an important aspect that help you determine how hard the wind is actually pushing. Shooting an ARA card at 50 yards for score is very different than shooting an NRL target even at 200 yards.
This thread on RA may be of help for more info.
A Wind Chart
I've been messing around with designing a wind rose or chart that actually describes where the bullet impacts rather than those in the past which only show an exaggerated flight of the bullet with no info for wind velocity. The problems are creating a chart that's intuitive, but not cluttered...
www.rimfireaccuracy.com
Yes Sir.........the one Hozzie references to is what I found to work best for me. It's not exact but gives you a good idea what to look for and where to start from.
The more you shoot over flags, the more you will pick up on how the bullet is affected.....just takes some time.
As a side note......I want to say thank you to Mr. Landy for taking the time to make this chart for us.....just in case he sees this post.
Well said Sir!!In general a wind from the right will push a bullet left and high. A wind from the left will push a bullet right and low. The harder the wind, the higher or lower the bullet will go relative to the push. Headwinds and tailwinds can make a bullet go high, low, or seem to do nothing. If you don't have flags you're just guessing and that is going to make it worse as it can change fast and you don't realize it. On top of that, all of your windflags will not show the same condition, you will have to determine what flags seem to be telling you the most. Most of us run 5 or 6 flags.
There are wind charts out there depicting this, but I think new shooters rely on these a bit too much as they take them as gospel. It doesn't always do what you think it will or what the chart says.
The best advice is to shoot sighters and see what your flags are telling you for that condition. Try to pick one condition and shoot it. Don't try to adjust all of the time to changing conditions. Sometimes you have to if time is running out, but use all of the time you can. Sail tails are an important aspect that help you determine how hard the wind is actually pushing. Shooting an ARA card at 50 yards for score is very different than shooting an NRL target even at 200 yards.
This thread on RA may be of help for more info.
A Wind Chart
I've been messing around with designing a wind rose or chart that actually describes where the bullet impacts rather than those in the past which only show an exaggerated flight of the bullet with no info for wind velocity. The problems are creating a chart that's intuitive, but not cluttered...
I agree, I used this chart as a starting point to reading the wind. It gives you the basics. Again, thanks to Landy.
Thanks Guys,
I put a lot of work and time into designing those charts, as well as attempting to explain how to use them.
I may have slightly failed with some of the explanation part because the comments I've seen over the last few years aren't quite how I envisioned them being best used, and at some point, I may make an addition to the original thread on Rimfire Accuracy with a few thoughts.
Thanks again,
Landy
I put a lot of work and time into designing those charts, as well as attempting to explain how to use them.
I may have slightly failed with some of the explanation part because the comments I've seen over the last few years aren't quite how I envisioned them being best used, and at some point, I may make an addition to the original thread on Rimfire Accuracy with a few thoughts.
Thanks again,
Landy
I have found your charts to be very helpful. For example, I'll shoot a card using sighters for my holds and then create a composite group using OnTarget (which you also steered me towards). I look for a lobe or grouping that hurt my scores and refer back to your chart to tell me what condition I was missing. Then I watch out for evidence of that previously missed bothersome condition the next time I shoot. Thanks.
Looking forward to having you join in on the ARA matches. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Here are my scores from the very first oficial ARA Unlimited match I attended back in 2022, I used my CZ 457.
| 1700-5X | 1660-1X | 1595-5X | 1580-4X |
Well it’s probably just for fun. I’m not sure we have any down here in corpus. Might be one in San Antonio. Haven’t looked into any matches yet.
Looking for some scoring help. Posted two targets and some close ups of questionables. I don’t have a plug. Maybe I need to get one. These were shot at 45 yards off a bipod and rear bag. One with tenex that doesn’t seem to shoot great. Has a big es and sd. The other with lapua super long range.
Attachments
Target #10 is the only almost questionable shot. All the other three I’d call as 100’s. I would plug gauge all of them but #10 is the only one that looks close to breaking the line (ARA uses worst case scoring, if line is broken you get the lower score).
Scoring targets after the match is one of the reasons I gave up being a match director for ARA as it eats up so much time . Even after we switched over to a scanner it still took about 2 minutes per target as opposed to 5 minutes per target when done by hand. And the scanner wasn’t perfect either. It would mis-score about 1 out of 20 cards.
Pretty good results for being new to the game, wind is your biggest variable.
Scoring targets after the match is one of the reasons I gave up being a match director for ARA as it eats up so much time . Even after we switched over to a scanner it still took about 2 minutes per target as opposed to 5 minutes per target when done by hand. And the scanner wasn’t perfect either. It would mis-score about 1 out of 20 cards.
Pretty good results for being new to the game, wind is your biggest variable.
Take it out completely. Sometimes you can still see a small fraction of the dot and the plug will cover it.....that counts as an X also. A plug is needed to make a call on the close shots.
