Scoring shots on the line: radial tears, grease rings, etc

Attachment 39674

Local club is having a summer bullseye competition and I'm discovering how many shots are wobblers. I'd score the above target a 93, but they're scoring it a 91. The grease/carbon rings (which don't photograph well in the black) clearly cross the line for both disputed shots. Both of the disputed shots have radial tears than break the line. But neither of the main bullet holes breaks the line.

I mean as long as they score it consistently it doesn't really matter, but my thinking is that since the grease rings are .355" wide -- that's what the bullet physically touched. The 9mm fmj just didn't punch a clean hole like a .40 or 38 wad cutter.

Anyway, how do most bullseye competitions deal with this?

At our club we drop a "loaded" JHP cartridge in the hole, and it almost always ends up being pretty obvious. I can't remember the last dispute.

ETA: Guessing that that approach would give a 92. Buy maybe 93.

Without reading how it was scored, I scored it 93.

Nobody at your club has an overlay?

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Originally Posted by HopetonBrown

Nobody at your club has an overlay?

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Not sure - what's an overlay?

This is a local range/gun store doing a promo where the highest 5 scores after 2 months will get to pick between 5 prizes

I shoulda left a link in my initial reply.

https://www.doublealpha.biz/us/daa-ipsc-overlay-gauge

yeah, that would settle it!

Better backers and gluing the target to them has cleaned things up significantly for our club. We use spray glue to attached the target firmly to fresh cardboard, or even better plastic political signs.

The overlay templates are one good way - fairly fast and cheap.

I was partial to these, because the magnification helps:
http://www.champchoice.com/store/Mai...ons&item=M1722

The official way is with plugs:
https://www.accurateshooter.com/comp...coring-gauges/

A couple of random comments:
1)If you read the rulebook, there are very specific rules about scoring devices, procedures, and so on. They may have changed since my glory days, so I'll forego many details. One thing to note is that the various overlay devices don't affect the hole. Plugs can affect the hole and its apparent location if used incorrectly, deliberately or otherwise. Our rule was competitors could use whatever they liked in the way of overlays, but plugs were only for the match officials.
2)People protesting scoring is a bit of a PITA. Charging a fee to protest scores is fairly common.
3)I went out of my way to discourage arguments about scoring. I was particularly trying to attract new/beginning/casual shooters. I had a couple of instances where new shooters found people being extremely concerned about a point one way or the other to be very offputting. No matter what device you use, there will be ambiguity. Heck, the ring can only be printed on the target with so much accuracy. If it's the national championships, OK, but for a weekly club match I tried to foster an attitude of 'if the call went against you this week, it will go for you next week, let's not sweat it and have fun'. Oddly, the high masters never seemed to sweat it, even if it cost them the match, as much as people in the middle of the pack worrying about whether they had placed 18th or 19th.

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Originally Posted by whomever

Oddly, the high masters never seemed to sweat it, even if it cost them the match, as much as people in the middle of the pack worrying about whether they had placed 18th or 19th.

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Something about not seeing the forest for the trees...