TargetTalk

The black areas inside targets for various shooting disciplines have different ratios vis-a-vis the white portion. This implies that the 'aiming areas' are proportioned differently. My post is basically to understand the logic behind this.

The ISSF targets have following black-to-white ratios/dimensions:

10m Air Pistol - 1:2.6 (59.5mm 7-ring to 155.5 1-ring)
25m & 50m Precision Pistol 1:2.5 (200mm 7-ring to 500mm 1-ring)
10m Air Rifle - 1:1.5 (30.5mm 4-ring to 45.5mm 1-ring)
50m Rifle - 1:1.37 (112mm 3.5-ring to 154.4mm 1-ring)
300m Rifle - 1:1.6 (600mm 5-ring to 1,000mm 1-ring)

Do the black-to-white ratios cater for the degree of difficulty in aiming in various disciplines or have something to do with sighting peculiarities/optics at different distances? Or, are they based on a somewhat arbitrary convention?

Could we not establish a uniform black-to-white ratio of, say 1:1.5, which would 'raise the bar' so to speak and help improve scores? Any experts out there who could wisen me on this issue?

Airknight wrote:Could we not establish a uniform black-to-white ratio of, say 1:1.5, which would 'raise the bar' so to speak and help improve scores? Any experts out there who could wisen me on this issue?

It seems that you are trying to compare scores in one event with those in another. I fail to see why you would want to do that, or even expect that they should be the same.

What really matters is comparing scores between shooters in the same event.

As for trying to draw comparisons between the different sighting systems in rifle and pistol, I fail to see the logic I'm afraid.

David: I think I wasn't able to come across clearly. My point was just to understand the logic behind the black-to-white proportions. In other words are these ratios driven by some kind of formula or it is arbitrary, based on experience over time?

As for comparing different disciplines, that wasn't the idea really and I regret 'mixing apples and oranges'.

Best to compare apples to apples. So suggest you run these calculations for standard pistol and for NRA 50 yd slow fire and 25 yd sustained fire targets and see what turns up. Don't really have any desire to do the work myself :-)
Fred

The black-to white ratio is coincidental. For cartridge rifle, the aiming black and scoring rings are scaled, taking into accout the distance and the diameter of the bullet. I haven't fooled with pistol targets to know about them. Air rifle targets are their own beast, not scaled from anything els as far as I can tell.

The black-to white ratio is coincidental. For cartridge rifle, the aiming black and scoring rings are scaled, taking into accout the distance and the diameter of the bullet. I haven't fooled with pistol targets to know about them. Air rifle targets are their own beast, not scaled from anything els as far as I can tell.

Just shoot the middle and they are all the same :-)