I thought I posted about this already, but for some reason can't find the post, BUT,
I am curious, I understand it to be pretty complicated. The scoring. I shoot minor 9mm, if that makes a difference.
Is it better take your time and get more alphas/ fewer charlies, but have a worse time, or is it better to speed through it and have maybe a few more charlies, but a fast time.
How important is it to take a 3rd shot to get rid of a charlie.
Thanks!
In Hit Factor scoring (USPSA and IPSC) the answer is: "It depends!"Originally Posted by jrobinson
Rules of thumb:
Stages with < 5 hit factor generally favor accuracy. If you know you binked a Charlie, make that shit up. Eg. in minor a Charlie is -2 points, which, at 5 hit factor equates t0 .4 seconds. If you know you can make up a shot in less than that, you'll be ahead.
Stages with high hit factors, say > 7.5 Hit Factor, generally favor speed. If you know you binked a Charlie or a Delta, don't make it up, because that is just stacking time. Eg. in minor that Charlie, -2 points, works out to the time of a split: ~.25 seconds. Just not worth burning more time to make it up.
Higher hit factor than, say 10: turn on the bullet hose and just be happy to hang charlies and Deltas on paper.
For stages with hit factor 5 < x < 7, this is the sweet spot. Shooting clean with clean movement should help her. Making up a shot if you can, is acceptable.
The problem:
Nobody know the exact High Hit Factor of a stage until someone good actually bothers to shoot it. We can guess, and as we practice, develop some feelings for how long stuff should take, but even then certain tasks can "pollute" this understanding... Does the stage contain a lot of long movement with no shooting time (that'll lower a hit factor)? Does the stage have you doing a bunch of bullshit: carrying stuff? pulling ropes and etc to open ports/props? That may also lower a hit factor?
So... With that in mind, what was your question again?
Lol! What determines a hit factor? you mentioned <5 hit factor, etc.. What is a hit factor?
Unlike Les Pepperoni, I am a USPSA newbie and trying to figure all this stuff out myself. I found this video pretty informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owQfj41Ns4w It kind of takes the info that Les gave you, but spells it out for twelve minutes or something.
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason.
Say a stage has 10 targets.
Each target requires 2 shots.
That's 20 shots.
Each shot is worth a maximum of 5 points. (An Alpha is 5 points. Steel is worth 5 points.)
The stage has a maximum of 100 points.
The Hit Factor is Points divided by Time.
How long does the stage take? Depends on the stage.
Let's say the targets are all really close and stacked together... The stage may take, say 8 seconds. This is a 100/8 = 12.5 Hit Factor. Go Fast.
Let's say the targets are all spread out... The stage may take 18 seconds. This is a 100/18 = 5.5 Hit Factor. Probably want to get your hits.
In short, points per second.
For a minor scored gun, an Alpha is 5 points. A Charlie is 3.
If I draw and fire 2 shots in 1.7 seconds and hit an A and a C, that's 8 points and a 4.7 hit factor (points divided by time).
Les is saying that for a stage with a high hit factor, that means a fast paced close range stage where speed matters most. A low hit factor stage will have more long shots and slower pace and more confirmation/ make ups makes more sense. At my low experience level, recognizing the need for makeups and processing them takes a LOT of time, unless I called an obvious bad shot.
If you're shooting limited minor, Major is also 5 points for an Alpha but 4 points for a Charlie, so Major takes less of a penalty by throwing a Charlie. That means to win shooting limited minor, you have to shoot more Alphas and less Charlie's just as fast as the next guy shooting Major.
But if you're fairly new to USPSA like me, I shoot limited minor too because that's the gun I carry and want to shoot. I don't shoot production because the higher number of reloads would vastly complicate your stage plans. So I just shoot limited minor and focus on improving my own performance. It would be awhile before it matters if I'm shooting Major. I'm more worried about being safe, remembering my stage plan, not DQing, improving, and having fun!
You should understand the math of hit factor, because that is how USPSA scoring works, but if you are not a math person, just shoot for alphas as fast as you can. That is different than just shooting alphas.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
If you don't want to do math, here is a wag that works well. Shooting minor, a charlie costs you .40 in time, and a delta costs you .80. A miss is three seconds. At a 10 hit factor, cut all those times in half, so a C is .20, a D is .40, and a miss is 1.5 seconds.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
So called misses are always made up? Likewise called no-shoots?
Comment by shooter at USPSA Nationals, some years ago: Any sport that takes 20 minutes to explain the scoring system has got problems.
When IPSC was trying to get in as a "demonstration event" at the Olympics, they were going to use Time Plus scoring so the spectators could tell what was going on before the match was done and hit factor, stage factor, and results were computed.
Code Name: JET STREAM
Reply With Quote