For this month’s blog, we are providing a brief overview of the different USPSA scoring methods and what each one means. The scoring methods are defined in Section 9.2 of the rulebook and include the following.
The most common scoring method is Comstock and is defined as unlimited time and unlimited number of shots. What this means in a practical sense is that you, as the shooter, can take as much time as you need to complete the course of fire, and you can shoot each target as many times as you want. If you think maybe you missed a target or noticed a hit in hard cover or a no-shoot, you can make up that shot without penalty.
In a Virginia Count stage, the time is still unlimited, but the number of shots is limited to that required in the Written Stage Briefing. This means that you can take as much time as you need to complete the course of fire, but any extra shots are penalized. Extra hits within the scoring zone of a target are also penalized. This means that if you take an extra shot and hit the target an extra time, you’ll be penalized twice – once for the extra shot and once for the extra hit. Extra hits on a no-shoot or in hard cover are not penalized. We are often asked, about a Virginia Count stage, “can I make up a shot if I think I missed?” The quick answer that you’ll get is “no”, but the correct answer is “yes, but you’ll be penalized for doing so.” Penalties are assessed at twice the maximum scoring value of a hit on a target, or ten points. Some competitors will know that they missed a shot and will do a quick assessment in their head: “is it worth the extra shot penalty to make up for the miss penalty?” The answer to that depends on the stage and your skill level.
The least common scoring method is Fixed Time and has the same shot number limitations as a Virginia Count stage but also has a limited time in which you can complete the course of fire. A shot fired shot beyond the specified time will result in a penalty for overtime shots. There is a 0.3 second leeway built into the rules to account for a shooter’s reaction time: for example, if the specified time is 4 seconds, a shot at 4.30 seconds would not be penalized, but a shot at 4.31 seconds will incur an overtime shot penalty.
Virginia Count and Fixed Time stages can only use cardboard targets, so any USPSA stage with steel targets must use Comstock scoring.
All the current USPSA rule books can be found here: https://uspsa.org/rules.
Thanks for reading, and if you have a question that you would like to have answered in this space, please email us at info@magiccityactionshooters.org.