American Marksman competition

[photoracer]

Mike B. sees this as more of an introduction to competitive shooting with a TV final as a bonus. Something to concentrate on actual shooting not the historical mish-mash that Top Shot became. More like American Idol or Nashville Star for shooting. Closer to a reality type show with the best shooters rising to the top. Demographic studies have shown that not many will watch a show with pros shooting because the average viewer can't relate to that skill level. But the TV final will not be a continuing show just the final event.
Well as for a top flight show with shooters from a range of disciplines think about how the popularity of Top Shot eventually went away. Or consider how you would make a TV version of the World Shooting Championship at PNTC.

 

[Yoshi]

Cool! I am gonna give it a go.

 

[AmMarksman1]

Here is an article written on an online blog that expressed the similar opinions to yours. Once we had a chance to explain who we are and what we are doing it seemed to change his perspective.

Below is the direct link to that article.

http://www.gunnuts.net/2016/01/25/i-was-wrong-about-american-marksman/

I hope this helps.

 

[jimbobborg]

I went to Elite Shooting Sports in Manassas today to shoot this. The American Marksman web site said ESS was doing this Monday through Friday, 9am to 8pm. Well, not quite. ESS is only running qualifiers Monday through Thursday. Which may or may not be fortunate for me. I bought a few of the targets while I was there, and my pistol had some failure to feed problems. Guess it's time to clean it Anyway, they have practice targets, which are the same size as the official targets, just different paper. I asked about the course of fire, since it's kind of confusing when you read the AM web site. The first course of fire is 2 shots per target, the second is 1 shot per target, the third is 2 shots per target. Time is measured per course of fire. You shoot the three courses of fire twice, one set on one target, the second on the other target. Magazine changes are not on the clock. Time plus penalties is the final score. I bought 4 more targets, as ESS is further from me than Sharpshooters, so I'll be shooting two more days and then I'm going to go final on Monday.

 

[AmMarksman1]

Elite Shooting Sports should be going Monday through Friday, I will put out a call to them ASAP. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

As for the course of fire, it is made up of three strings, string 1 is 10 rounds, shooting 2 rounds at each bullseye, string 2 is 5 rounds, shooting 1 round at each bullseye and string 3 is 10 rounds, again, shooting 2 rounds at each bullseye. Each registration gets you two courses of fire and two targets.

Targets are made up of 5 bullseyes with different penalties for where you shoot. Time plus penalty scoring format.

I am glad to hear you are getting some practice targets as well. Good luck on Monday!

 

[jimbobborg]

Thanks. I shot the qualification today. Rounding up, 33 seconds for the first, 37 for the second. That was with penalties. I had an FTF on the second relay, so a mag change was needed. Not easy to do with a Ruger Mk II. Since this is running until May, I may try again.

 

[DanGuy48]

Looking over the rules, I find it interesting that they do NOT want people who actually have top-tier results in the shooting sports.

Sad, really...you could put a good show together with top-flight competitors from a range of disciplines and let them shoot for an aggregate score. With the shooter who is an expert as host for that episode.

Yeah, that kind of bothered me too. I was awarded Distinguished Expert, 4 position small bore through the NRA's competition program and then went on to win Va state championship, 4 position, for Sharpshooter class.

BUT, that was over 40 years ago and I have not shot competition since then. It was also a rather different type of competition than this. But, their game, their rules. Maybe if it's successful enough, they'll open up more categories.

 

[jimbobborg]

Just checked the leaderboards, I'm 5th in the Mid-Atlantic in Rimfire Pistol There are only 4 people in the Mid-Atlantic who have shot for score with a Rimfire Rifle. I'm definitely trying this again, without skipping practice.

 

[photoracer]

Mark P in Colorado told me he thought anyone under about 30 sec should qualify for regionals. Now he is a disqualified shooter since he is considered too good but just to give you a scale he has done it in under 12 seconds combined. I have not started using the practice targets I got yet but based on target size and other factors I am pretty sure I could do it under 20 seconds. Definitely with the rifle and maybe with the pistol. But as far as I know being the best in your area doesn't get you anything except maybe bragging rights. I don't plan on shooting for score until early April as I have to take time off work to shoot it.

 

[jimbobborg]

My times were actually 23 and 25 seconds, but with penalties, they were 33 and 35. They only count the best of two scores. With a rifle, I could definitely shoot faster and be more accurate. If I could get a decent .22 rifle in the next few weeks, I might try again with the rifle. BTW, once you sign in, you can see the scores now that the qualifications have started.

 

[photoracer]

I guess I should look at them as I did signup last month.
I have not decided which of my 10/22 rifles I am going to use. Either my primary steel rifle or my backup which I can put a couple difference red dots on depending on whether my practice says I should go small or stay big on the dot size.

 

[jimbobborg]

You really should get some of their targets. If I had known about them, I would have bought a bunch earlier. Rifles are shot a 30'. The center of the target (0 down) is about 2 1/4" in diameter. Take that as you will.

 

[AmMarksman1]

You can check the leaderboards at any time and you do not need to be signed in.
http://www.ammarksman.com/standings?standing=local

The top 125 scores from each firearm in each division and region will qualify for regionals. Good luck to you all!

 

[photoracer]

OK that means at 30' 1 MOA is exactly 0.10" so a 16 MOA dot would cover 1.6" of the center of the target. That's doable although I might decide to shoot the backup rifle using the Walther Competition Reflex sight which is supposed to be 10 MOA or 1" in this case.
Did you shoot the targets from bottom to top or top to bottom. You should do the former because it keeps the next target visible and not blocked by your firearm.
Looking at the current standings that looks about right.
I bought a pack of 25 targets figuring I would sell or donate what I don't use.

 

[jimbobborg]

I shot top to bottom. You can shoot them in any order, as long as there are 5 shots on each target. I'm going to have to shoot this again, I can shoot fast enough, just need to stop shooting outside the inner circle.

 

[photoracer]

You don't even have to shoot that much when practicing. Just practice the correct transition distance to each target snapping the gun to each one. Because there are penalties for not hitting the center I don't recommend the usual technique of shifting your eyes to the next target just before breaking the last shot on the previous one.
If you start with the targets on the bottom row the gun will get there slightly quicker than going all the way to the top reducing your first shot time. Then the next target is always visible. If you start on the top, the middle and bottom targets are blocked from view by your gun so the transition is more vague since you can't directly see the next target you want to snap the gun to.
This is the kind of thing top shooters use to break down a stage they have not seen before. You develop the priorities based on the target positions and the length of the transitions, then add in the ways you do things fastest to come up with the best plan for yourself.

 

[jimbobborg]

This is the kind of thing top shooters use to break down a stage they have not seen before. You develop the priorities based on the target positions and the length of the transitions, then add in the ways you do things fastest to come up with the best plan for yourself.

Thanks for that. I've not been told how to break down a stage, in spite of how long I've been shooting.

One other thing I will note, when I was shooting the qualifier, there were other people shooting in the same range. The timer would pick up the shots fired by the other shooters. I heard the guy running the timer commenting on how there were six shots on the timer during the single-shot per target run. Their timer didn't have a way to show which shot was my last one versus a random shot by another shooter there.

 

[jimbobborg]

They put up information about the Regional. Mid-Atlantic will be shooting at Peacemaker July 15-17. http://www.ammarksman.com/contentplain?content-id=10486 Match fee is $99 per person. They are providing the guns and ammunition. Each competitor will participate in 6 courses of fire that include .22, 9mm, 12 gauge shotgun and .223 caliber bolt action rifle.

 

[Blaster229]

Looking over the rules, I find it interesting that they do NOT want people who actually have top-tier results in the shooting sports.

Sad, really...you could put a good show together with top-flight competitors from a range of disciplines and let them shoot for an aggregate score. With the shooter who is an expert as host for that episode.

Well, if they did this, it would have to be a more difficult string of fire. I mean, did you see the targets and from 20 feet using a pistol? 3 minutes for 25 rounds is an overabundance of time. With a .22 even?

 

[jimbobborg]

Well, if they did this, it would have to be a more difficult string of fire. I mean, did you see the targets and from 20 feet using a pistol? 3 minutes for 25 rounds is an overabundance of time. With a .22 even?

It's time plus penalties. The best shooters are doing this under 20 seconds. My best time was 23 seconds, but I had 10 seconds in penalties. To get no penalties, you need to hit five 2.2" circles at 20 feet 25 times.