Learn › Track 01 · Foundations
How a shot is scored
Two shots land in the 10 ring. One is dead centre. The other only just touches the ring line. The electronic screen shows 10.9 for the first and 10.0 for the second. So are they worth the same?
Think first: In qualification, shot A shows 10.9 and shot B shows 10.0. How many points does each add to your qualification total?
- 10.9 and 10.0
- 10 and 10
- 11 and 10
Whole rings: the touching rule
In whole-ring scoring, a shot scores the ring its hole is in. If the hole touches a ring line, it scores the higher ring. A pellet is 4.5 mm wide, so it scores 10 whenever its centre is within 8.0 mm of the exact middle. That is the 5.75 mm radius of the 10 ring plus half a pellet. The target works through this step by step.
Qualification is scored in whole rings, and so is mixed team qualification. Finals, including the mixed team final, are scored in decimals. Decimals split each ring into ten equal bands, from x.0 to x.9.
Decimals: ten bands per ring
The rings are 8 mm apart in radius. Decimal scoring cuts each of those 8 mm steps into ten equal bands. The closer the pellet’s centre is to the middle, the higher the tenth.
Think first: Rings are 8 mm apart. Each is split into ten equal decimal bands. How wide is one band?
Now slide a pellet out from the centre and watch both scores change. The highlighted band on the scale shows every centre distance that gives the same decimal.
A few things stand out:
10.9 covers only the first 0.8 mm. Every 10.9 is almost a perfect shot.
10.0 is the outermost band of the ten, 7.2–8.0 mm out. The pellet only just touches the 10 line. Move it another hair and it scores 9.9.
The inner ten (the 5 mm dashed circle) counts when the pellet’s centre is within 4.75 mm. In decimals that is roughly 10.4 or better. It never adds points, but it breaks ties.
Think first: A shot scores exactly 10.0. Tap where it could be, straight to the right of centre.
Paper and electronic targets
Both kinds of target use the same rules. They just measure the shot differently.
- Paper targets — One shot per card for match shots. Cards are scored in the results office. · Doubtful shots are checked with a 4.5 mm scoring gauge. Touching a line scores the higher ring. · Slower to run: 90 minutes for the 60 shots instead of 75.
- Electronic targets (EST) — The target measures where the pellet passes, using microphones or light beams. Every shot appears on a monitor at your firing point. · Must measure to within half a decimal ring. A paper or rubber witness strip records every shot as a backup. · Required at the Olympics, World Championships and World Cups.
More on how the systems work and what happens when one fails is in Paper vs electronic targets.
When the totals are level
Ties are common. Whole-ring scores bunch together, and at the top level a single point often separates several shooters.
Think first: Two athletes both finish qualification on 577. The rules want a fair way to split them that still uses whole rings first. What do they check first?
- Who shot more inner tens
- Whose decimal total is higher
- Who finished their 60 shots sooner
If inner tens are level too, the rules go further back through the card:
- Most inner tens.
- Highest last 10-shot series, then the one before it, working backwards.
- Shot by shot from the last shot, with an inner ten beating a plain 10.
- Decimals, shot by shot from the last shot.
- Still tied: same rank, listed alphabetically by family name.
The full detail, including shoot-offs in finals, is in Tie-breaks.
- Qualification counts whole rings (max 600). Finals and the mixed team final count decimals (max 10.9 a shot).
- A hole touching a line scores the higher ring, so a 10 is any pellet centre within 8.0 mm.
- Each decimal band is 0.8 mm. 10.9 needs the centre within 0.8 mm. 10.0 only just touches the 10 line.
- The inner ten (about 10.4 or better) adds no points but is the first tie-break.