Classification system for the rimfire division of Steel Challenge

[Nimitz]

unfortunately not officially until Jan 1, however it will be fun to make my initial classification a GM so that will be good motivation to get there by Jan

[ZackJones]

unfortunately not officially until Jan 1, however it will be fun to make my initial classification a GM so that will be good motivation to get there by Jan

You have a whole year - the new classification system is effective as of 1 Jan 2016.

[Nimitz]

exactly ... however, I expect to be there by the Nationals in March ....

[photoracer]

I agree with Zach's approach in theory. The question is how to set the baseline. I pulled the data for the rimfire pistol at Nationals. You need a number less than 65 to start with. 25% of the rimfire shooters at Nationals were under this for the 6 classifier stages.

Which baseline to choose depends on your motivation. If the motivation is to have GM be the top 5% at Nationals then you would choose 50 seconds and have very few GM's (Only Max and Heath were under 50 seconds for the classifier stages). If you used 50 seconds the breakdown using Zack's approach would be:

GM 50 seconds 2 people

M 57.5 seconds 6 people

A 65.5 seconds 5 people

B 88.5 seconds 20 people

C 154 seconds 10 people

D 384.5 seconds 4 people

That is a pretty reasonable spread. If you wanted to have more GM's then you might go either 52.5 or 55 but if you do that then you would likely want to narrow the brackets so that you don't get too top heavy.

Input?

This looks closer to reality. At the various Ruger/NSSF world championships I generally shoot somewhere between mid A to top B in percentages compared to the pros like BJ and others. And since my best 6 classifier stages from 2014 total around 65.85 that looks about right.