Far to Near? Yep.

[Steve Anderson]

Inspired by cz75ipsc's post: here

I set up a test to see if a given array would be shot faster far to near or near to far. I set mine up at 5, 10 and 15 yards, beacuse the only Meters I know about are a smokin' New Orleans funk band.

The best near to far had an .84 draw and was 2.38

The best far to near had a .93 draw and was 2.14

I shot them a few times until I had two All A runs to be fair to the test. the far to near was ALWAYS faster, regardless of the hits.

In a match, I doubt I would get a sub one draw to a 15 yard popper, but you never know.

If you listen to the shots it's so obvious that the far to near is faster. I'm able to speed up with confidence as the run progresses, vs. having to be more careful as the run progresses on the near to far.

Would I have the guts to shoot it that way at a match? I hope so.

Near to Far

Far to Near

SA

[dv8]

Oh yeah, that was fast... I'd feel lucky to have done that anywhere under 4 seconds.

Could you tell whether left/right order also had an effect or was it just near/far?

Thanks.

[Jeeper]

Could you tell whether left/right order also had an effect or was it just near/far?

I am also curious about the direction playing a factor here. So steve you have to set it up both ways now!

Make it snappy too!

[skeeter]

i've noticed the same thing at our steele matchs. tried runs near to far then far to near. the far to near was always faster

[j1b]

Unless there is another trick - I've always found it faster to start far and work closer. Intuitively that doesn't make sense - but its the clock that counts.

Damn it Steve - that was one of my best kept secrets!

JB

[Run n Gun]

Doesn’t Matt say the same thing on one of his videos?

[kdj]

Doesn’t Matt say the same thing on one of his videos?

I think he says the opposite: Near to Far, in the videos?

Like most things, it's probably dependant on the specific circumstance. If Steve did the mirror image and it was still faster far to near, then one more variable would have been eliminated

Kevin

[Steve Anderson]

I'll do just that next week. I'm very interested in these things...

SA

[John Dunn]

I think Matt talks about target math and knowing what your draw speed is to a hit at various ranges. Say that you are not the Barrnestormer or Steve, and that your 15 yard draw is 0.5 seconds slower than your 5 yd draw, then the results may vary, and you may be better off shooting near to far.

This thread reminded me of a classifier I shot last year that I shot in both limited and L-10. The first three targets were engaged from a box, and I ran it both ways. Far to near was much better for me (on that one at least). Great post.

[Flexmoney]

I've watched shooters from various skill levels shoot stages/arrays similar to this.

Regardless of which way is faster...far-to-near is a lot safer (point-wise). Much easier to upshift than to downshift.

[Nik Habicht]

Shooting the Steel Challenge Match at Old Bridge today, this really helped on Round about --- I think that's the stage, four plates progressively further away from left to right, then a sharp swing right for a much closer stop plate? I was managing 1.70-1.80 draws to the far target and loved how easy and fast and sure the transitions seemed --- much better than before when I used to go left to right...

[BigDave]

When I have the option, esp. on steel, I like shooting far targets first because of the sight focus and trigger control must have to hit that target and then progressively give that focus away on closer targets. I'