Scoring gauges are tools used in

shooting sports Shooting sports is a group of competitive sport, competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airgun ...

to determine the precise position of a bullet hole on a

shooting target Shooting targets are objects in various forms and shapes that are used for pistol, rifle, shotgun and other shooting sports, as well as in darts, target archery, crossbow shooting and other non-firearm related sports. The center is often call ...

, and hence its scoring value. There are mainly two types of scoring gauges used for paper and cardboard targets, either the "

cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

shaped" tool or a

transparent Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to: * Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material They may also refer to: Literal uses * Transparency (photography), a still, ...

overlay. The increased use of

electronic target Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal * Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device * Electronic ...

s have led to manual scoring gauges being less used. In modern olympic precision shooting competitions there is usually no manual evaluation of scoring hits any more. However, many of the same principles for manual scoring gauges discussed in this article also applies for programmed scoring gauges used in electronic targets.

Types of scoring gauges

Manual cone gauges

Some competition rules state that a cone tool only can be used to gauge a bullet hole once, since the tool widens the hole.

Manual overlays

Overlay gauges can be used several times without affecting the target, making it possible for several

referees A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

to evaluate a scoring in case of doubt. Scoring overlays are amongst others used in

practical shooting Practical shooting, also known as dynamic shooting or action shooting, is a set of shooting sports where the competitors try to unite the three principles of precision, power, and speed, by using a firearm of a certain minimum power factor to scor ...

within the

International Practical Shooting Confederation The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is the world's largest shooting sport association, and the largest and oldest within practical shooting. Founded in 1976, the IPSC nowadays affiliates over 100 regions from Africa, America ...

Automatic electronic target gauging

Electronic targets do not need physical inspection, but rather relies on a programmed gauging of the bullet hole.

Caliber independent gauging

Scoring gauges can either have a fixed gauging diameter used for all bullet diameters, or have the gauging diameter vary depending on the caliber used. Caliber independent gauging is solely used on both paper and electronic targets in olympic precision events. Some sports use caliber dependent gauging for paper targets. * Caliber dependent gauging gives a slight scoring advantage for calibers with larger bullet diameters, since the larger diameter of the bullet more easily can break scoring rings. * Caliber independent gauging means that bullets with different diameters will be compared based on the center of their bullet holes, giving a more fair comparison of marksmanship across two cartridges where the bullet diameter is the only difference. With caliber independent gauging, two different caliber shot holes, with same distance measured from the center of their bullet holes to the center of the target, will always score the same value. To give an example of the difference, consider using a cone shape gauge to score a

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

bullet hole (with the .22 LR having a bullet diameter between 5.7 to 5.73 mm), the tip of the scoring gauge might have a diameter of 5 mm and a gauge base measuring 5.6 mm in diameter. On the contrary, a scoring gauge for the

9×19mm Parabellum The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Parabellum or 9mm Luger or simply 9mm) is a rimless, tapered firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer Georg Luger in 1901, it is widely considered the most popular handgun a ...

(9.01 mm bullet diameter) might have a spindle diameter of 9.65 mm, and is therefore slightly larger than the bullet diameter, which is also the case for most scoring gauges. Therefore, an edge hit with the .32 S&W Long (7.9 mm bullet diameter) gauged with a 9.1 mm bullet diameter scoring gauge would be gauged as almost one millimeter over the actual bullet hole, and possibly breaking a scoring ring the else wouldn't be broken.

Method

The outcome of a score gauging is binary; either the bullet hole is assigned a scoring value or not. A bullet hole that doesn't touch a scoring edge does not need to be gauged, but bullet holes that touch a scoring edge often need to be gauged. These touching-an-edge situations can be classified into five scenarios: * Being

tangent In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points on the curve. More ...

to the scoring edge from the outside. * Breaking a scoring edge from the outside. * Breaking a scoring edge from both the outside and inside. * Breaking a scoring edge from the inside. * Being tangent to the scoring edge from the inside. Whether the bullet holes in these scenarios are scored as the higher or lower value depends, according to the

Civilian Marksmanship Program The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is a U.S. government-chartered program intended to promote firearm safety training and rifle practice for all qualified U.S. citizens with a specific emphasis on youth. Any U.S. citizen not otherwise legal ...

(CMP), on whether the target is scored "inward" or "outward".{{cite web, url=https://slideplayer.com/slide/241206/, title=Civilian Marksmanship Program - ppt video online download, website=slideplayer.com

Inward scoring

Scoring with gauges outward is done as follows in CMP: * Higher value: ** Outside edge is tangent with outside of the scoring ring. ** Outside edge of gauge inside of scoring ring. ** Outside edge of gauge outside of scoring ring. * Lower value: ** Outside edge of gauge lies inside of outside edge of scoring ring.

Outward scoring

Scoring with gauges inward is done as follows in CMP: * Higher value: ** Inside edge of gauge touches or is tangent with outside edge of scoring ring. ** Inside edge of gauge breaks outside edge of scoring ring. * Lower value: ** Inside edge of gauge does not touch outside edge of scoring ring.

References

Shooting sports