Not to toot my own horn but for those of you unfamiliar with the ARA competition.
Tape 25 dimes (5 columns x 5 rows) to an 11x17 piece of tag board. Now hang it at 50 yds. You must put a minimum 20 of 25 shots within FDR's head on those dimes,
against the clock, or you're just there for the ambiance.
Here's one of my targets from Sunday:
Each shot cannot break outside the bold blue 100 point circle or it is scored down to a 50. This is called "Worst Case Scoring" 20x100 +5x50 =2250 out of a possible 2500. That would be a minimum average for 6 cards of 25 shots each, in order to compete at the state level.
Here's how critical the scoring gets:
The bullet on the left didn't quite stay within the circle, though the ink looks intact. The "P" means it was mechanically checked with a .224
Plug surrounded by a magnifying glass, the Gold Standard for scoring.
Last thing you want is for a participant to contest the results. The Plug has the last say. For the 150 bulls we shot, I took 1st place by 4 1/2 bulls. 2nd place beat 3rd by 3 1/2 bulls. Believe it or not, there was a 2 way tie for 3rd/4th and a 2 way tie for 5th/6th! That's how tight it runs. After 6 years of semi monthly matches and 12 tournaments, I've never seen a perfect score card. A handful of 24 out of 25 including one by me about a month ago but never 25 for 25. They do happen however, especially by the creme de la creme at the Indoor Nationals during the winter. Outdoors is not as easy. A
Butterfly Sneeze along the way to the target can throw a sub-sonic 22 LR out of the 100 ring.
My pockets are not deep enough to afford traveling around the country competing enough to qualify for the big prizes at the National Level, which is fine. "A man's got to know his limitations."
Hoot