Personal Hit Factor / When to make up a shot

[af220wa]

Any good books or links to the science, tips or best practices on calculating hit factor, personal hit factor, and when to take a makeup shot?  Looking for something simple that I can practice during a match to get proficient at calculating on the fly.

[Broncman]

Occasionally if Comstock is used and I am presented with a very obscured target or headshot only, I may take an extra shot. My split times are pretty good , so one more shot sometimes is insurance. 

 

You really have to game the stage while awaiting your turn to shoot to see where you want to take risks.

 

[N3WWN]

A lot of it depends on your skill level.

You may be able to ballpark the stage time by taking the number of shots and multiplying by your average split and transition times and then add in 1 sec for every 3 steps between shooting positions.

If you have .40 splits and .60 transitions (avg is 0.50), a 32 round field course with 4 shooting positions, each 5 steps apart would be (32 x .50) + (4 x 5 / 3) = 16 + 6.67 = 22.67s

32 shots is a max of 160 points.

160 pts in 22.67s is 7.0577 HF. This assumes all alphas.

To decide if it's worth it to make up a miss, you'd have to do so in less than 2 sec. That's because a miss is -10 points + -5 points for an alpha or -15 points total. If it takes you 3 sec to make up the mike, you're averaging a HF of 5 into your estimated HF of 7. If it takes you 2 sec to make up the mike, you're averaging a HF of 7.5 into your estimated HF of 7.

But, you can't do this math on the fly... at least I can't.

Even if you could, there are tons of other variables that you'd have to take into account, such as your alpha to charlie and delta ratios, props, moving targets, off-balance positions, etc.

I heard that a good rule of thumb for someone starting out is 3 sec to make up a delta or mike , but I haven't run the numbers to know how accurate that info is in reality.

While I'm not sure if any of this will be helpful for you, and I'm sure others have differing opinions, I think this type of exercise is best done in post match analysis.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Hi-Power Jack]

Sounds like a fairly good analysis, N3WWN   

 

I've seen so many newbies take 5+ seconds to "make up a shot" - just

doesn't make ANY sense to take that long.

 

Couple seconds, max, I'd think.  Gotta be fast.     

[Broncman]

Last match I had a steel that refused to fall... 4 shots later it fell...so did I. Cost me first place in my class and dropped me from 3rd overall to fourth.

Got to know when to move on.

 

When I went to inspect the falling plate, it had gotten turned and all shots were ricochet's...

[uewpew]

my .02 ...don't worry about calculating HF before running a stage.  Just be as fast and accurate as you can be.  Figuring the HF can be helpful, but certainly not necessary IMO.  

 

As for make-up shots...only take make-up shots if you call a Miss/NS/Delta/etc...  If you're looking at targets for hits or going back to them after you've moved on, chances are you won't be improving your hit factor.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I've gotten to the end of a COF and "felt" that I might have missed a target (forgot to

shoot one), and the RO  says "Are you SURE you're finished?", indicating he KNOWS

I forgot to shoot a target ....

 

And, I'll be damned if I'm going, at that point, to spend 3-6 seconds walking backwards,

looking for a target that I missed and then engage it - it's too late - will take "too long"

to justify the amount of time it will take ....

 

So, I have just shrugged and ended the stage, and took the loss.

 

If I was in the correct position, had not dropped the mag, and knew exactly which

target he was talking about, I'd have pumped two extra rounds down range.

[N3WWN]

Another rule of thumb is to not do a reload for 1 final shot on a stage. The time it takes negates the benefits of the 5 points (or less).

Shooter fires 1 shot at paper, gun goes click, rushes the reload, fumbles the mag, finally gets it seated, aims, click, racks slide, aims, bang... charlie. 3 points in 6 sec for a hit factor of 0.5 to math into your stage HF.

See a lot of noobs do this...

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[zzt]

This is a lot to get through, but I found it very helpful.  http://www.travis-tomasie.com/hit-factors-and-uspsa-ipsc-scoring.html

 

You know in advance how fast the COF is likely to be, just by looking at the stage design.  So you can determine in advance whether it is worth the time to make up for a D or a Mike.

[motosapiens]

i'm really good at math, but it's dumb to do math while trying to shoot. just get it into your head, if you see what looks like a D or mike from the sights, make it up (before you move to the next target). If you are not able to call your shots from the sight picture, forget all the other stuff and just work on that. There is no time that you shouldn't make up a mike that you see from the sights. OTOH, if you are only seeing it from looking at the target, stop doing that.

[zzt]

I still like TT's comments at the end.  Shoot a lot of Alphas fast.

[a matt]

Just what I have found in practice with field courses I can take a tenth or so and per shot and give up a few seconds on the stage time to get alpha's and that gave me a higher hit factor vs attacking it like a speed stage.  On the short speed stages its all about that, the SPEED.  But like T.T. said just shoot alphas as fast as YOU can. If you don't like the results then work on you speed or your accuracy in practice. I'm sure others may have different results.    Good luck. 

 

[rowdyb]

Dont shoot in such a way you have to make the decision to shoot a make up shot in the first place.

[SCTaylor]

No. Go listen to Stoeger podcast from about two weeks ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[a matt]

Who? 

[SCTaylor]

44 minutes ago, a matt said:

Who? 

 

Asking me? Ben Stoeger's podcast #193 start approx. 5 minutes in.  He answered a question of mine which is exactly what the OP is asking.