TargetTalk

A group of shooters from my league were talking about the coming change from the A36 target to the USA-50 target. (You should understand that we are a bunch of duffers who shoot for fun, with no aspirations to world-class competition.) We were wondering about a couple of things. First, we were wondering if the entire target has been re-scaled, or only the 10-dot. (NRA's on-line rule book has dimentions for all the scoring rings of the A36 target but nothing at all on the USA-50 target, and I could not find target dimentions on other websites.)

Second, and this is going to be more of an opinion question, will the more challenging target set off a "technology bomb," as the rifles and ammo we currently use (rifles with tens- if not hundreds- of thousands of rounds through them, and basic ammo like SK Standard or lower grade Eley) are no longer sufficient to clean a target with an invisible 10-ring. We understand that we are duffers, but for the more skilled duffers who currently carry 99+ averages in the prone position, dropping to a 97 average will be a blow to the ego. Upgrading or rebarrelling a rifle and shooting EPS bullets is a cost some shooters may not want to pay, and our league really can't afford to lose shooters. We are just wondering if anybody else has considered these things. All thoughts are appreciated.

The differences between the A36 and the USA 50 are minute, but revolve around the USA 50 being a true reduction of the international 50m target to 50ft. The A36 is slightly bigger than the true mathematical reduction. Collegiate shooting changed from A36 to USA 50 about 5 years ago. The first season saw only a minute drop in scores, and now scores are if anything higher on the USA 50s than on the A36s in their last season. So the moral of the story is the center is still the center.

The USA 50 has a negative diameter 10 ring meaning you have to cross the center of the target with the outside edge of your shot. The dot on the USA 50 is mainly cosmetic, though I believe it technically must be shot out to shoot a 10, but don't use that when sight scoring, it is very inaccurate. Instead, learn the distance inside the 8 ring the shot has to be for it to be a 10.

In terms of gear, SK Standard Plus is more than enough to clean a USA 50. That was my practice ammo in college and I cleaned them left and right. If a rifle is not able to clean a USA 50 at 50ft off a bench, then the rifle is in extremely poor shape and cleaning these targets is the least of your worries. For smallbore, I don't even bother using my best ammo at 50ft (Lapua Master L), I use SK Rifle Match (my lot of this cleans 50m targets with ease) because it's not worth it to waste good ammo at 50ft.

To delve deeper into the question of the difficulty of these targets, look at the NCAA Championship results and you will find the highest prone score to be 199. Over recent years, us coaches have moved the emphasis away from prone and into standing. We stress that matches are won in standing and lost in prone. We stress shooting well in finals, also standing, and we haven't encouraged our shooters to shoot as much prone. Those points in prone are free points.

I shot 50ft electronic targets for the first time in December, and prone was a joke. I hadn't shot in a month and dropped 2 points in my first 4 shots. After that, I got myself back on track and never shot anything less than a 10.4.

I guess the moral of the story here, and forgive my harshness to your shooting buddies, is that first, all the difficulty is in their heads and the excuse that it's the gun's fault is a crutch, and second, if they would quit shooting your league because they can't man up to the challenge of a marginally smaller target, their place in the sport is questionable.

USAS has the dimensions for the USA 50 in the rules section of their download site. The black aiming part of the bull is only several hundredths of an inch smaller than the A36. The rings are thicker. The real question comes in with the "10" dot being approx. three times larger. This requires the shot hole to be closer to the actual center of the bull in order to completely cover the dot. This is why the switch will most likely cause the scores, initially anyway, to conceiveably drop a bit.

My shooter just competed in the TSRA State Indoor Championships in Texas.
A young lady in the competition shot a perfect 400 prone using the USA-50.
The scores were not measurably different than using the 'old' A-36.
Mathmatically the USA-50 is aprox. 7% smaller and the rules (NRA) state that the .030" dia. 10 ring must be "obliterated".
The A-36 had an .008" dia. 10 'ring' and was scored if touched.
The most shooters were 'whinning' about the smaller, tighter bulls but,
their scores did not reflect there opinions.

Thanks to Bill for pointing me to the target dimentions of the USA-50 target. This target is indeed marginally smaller. The diameter of the black is 2 mm smaller than the A36 and each scoring ring, 9 - 3, is also smaller. Remember that the published dimentions are for diameter, however, and the radius from the center of the black is half that distance, so the effective reduction in scoring size is on the order 0.4 - 1.0 mm per scoring ring. As others have noted, scores will drop but probably not too much.

Thanks also to Soupy44 for his comments, which are thoughtful and well taken. I need to stand up for my league mates, however, and point out that what collegiate shooters and teams do does not correspond to what casual league shooters do. Some of these shooters are over 70 years old and are still shooting with their adult grandchildren. The league is set up so that they can still contribute to their teams, even if only in the prone position. They have long ago earned their place in the sport, and the sport would suffer from their premature loss.

TomN wrote:. . . .The league is set up so that they can still contribute to their teams, even if only in the prone position. They have long ago earned their place in the sport, and the sport would suffer from their premature loss.

I used to shoot in a similar league as you, Tom, and I agree with you. Some people are lacking the physical ability to shoot well and some are lacking the mental ability, however, we welcomed anyone to shoot even if they were just there for the camaraderie and only wanted to "pull the trigger!"
Ben

I apologize if I made you feel as though I was attacking your league members in any way. Those who have been shooting for longer than I have been alive are the ones I am least worried about losing. Most of the people that beat me in the prone matches I go to are 40+. I doubt you will lose anyone to the target change. They are the ones who were around when the change was going to the A-36 from the A-17, image that jump.

It's the folks with not so textbook goals that the sport will lose. Too many people set goals of beating thus and so or winning thus and so. That's ok, so long as you have measurable goals along with them that don't rely on something that is outside of one's control. Improper goal setters see the new target as a barrier to them cleaning every prone target they shoot.

If anyone hears someone talking about how they won't be able to clean prone anymore with the new target, challenge them to raise their own bar; see the new target as a chance to improve on their abilities.

I'd like to add something on the technology war part. I don't think technology has much to do with it at all. The advances in rifles for 3p have really come in stock design and fit over the years. Current production factory rifles shoot no better than those of 40 years ago. I also have some $300 sporters that shoot as well as my 2013 as far as raw accuracy goes. That is what I like about 3p. As said above sk standard plus shoots way better than I ever will. My body and mind are my limitations.

I have been told by an older shooter that he prefers the USAS 50 foot target over the A36.
Why? With irons the bull shows up better.

The USAS 50 target looks a lot like the old US Army targets we used to get from the DCM. The black looks a little smaller than an NRA licensed target and the 10-dot is a little bigger. We never liked the Army targets too well because they had a glossy surface and would reflect light, making them hard to shoot with iron sights. We ended up using them for backers, but probably still have several cases in storage.

Anonymous wrote:The USAS 50 target looks a lot like the old US Army targets we used to get from the DCM. The black looks a little smaller than an NRA licensed target and the 10-dot is a little bigger. We never liked the Army targets too well because they had a glossy surface and would reflect light, making them hard to shoot with iron sights. We ended up using them for backers, but probably still have several cases in storage.

I remember them. We had a conversion scoring system we used to equate the scores with the A-17. If I remember correctly the scoring rings were much wider than the A-36 which tended to "whiten" the black.

Speaking of the USAS 50 target, are the printing companies ramping up production to handle demand as the A36 goes away? I imagine that teams will use up their stocks of A36 for practice, but there won't be any substitute for the USAS 50 when tournament time rolls around.