Stepped reticle and smaller targets
Just an observation that the "stepped plug" idea, if you really think about it, ends up being equivalent to Jackie's "closest to center" idea and would seem to be quicker to score.
Greg J.
The ease of holding VFS matches is an important consideration. Any modifications to the rules should not substantially increase the difficulty of or time required for scoring. IMHO, measuring every shot with a caliper crosses that line. Until electronic scoring is cheap and easy, it just isn't practical. But there are two things that I think are "broken" with VFS, that can be "fixed" within the constraints of keeping VFS a simple game.
First, the scoring scale is extremely compressed, which distorts the distinctions among the scores. It is so easy to shoot 250 at 100 yards that the order is determined by what should be a tie breaker - the X count. Further, hitting X's is so easy that almost everyone hits half or more, leaving only about a dozen different levels of scores (approximately 250-12X to 250-25X). With so few levels, there are often ties in X count (at the KY State shoot, for which results are shown on the IBS website, 33 0f 36 positions involved ties), which means that wins are determined by the order with which the X's were hit, either the number of X's among targets, or worse yet, the order of X's within a target. Many shooters don't shoot the bulls in the 1-2-3-4-5 order on the target anyway, so this tie-breaker is quite arbitrary, no better than tossing a coin. I would rather see wins go to the shooters who shot demonstrably better that day, not the ones who just happened to hit X's in a particular order. At 200 yards, dropping one point often means you may as well pack up and go home. As a case in point, at the KY State shoot, Wayne France would have won, but dropped to 15th with 249-17X. The winner shot 250-15X and 14th place shot 250-7X. Who shot "best" is not as clear as it could be if the range of scores were broader. Dropping a point is frustrating. One shooter did, in fact, after dropping two points on his first target, pack up and leave. At both yardages, a target difficult enough to produce average scores no higher than 200 and a top score of 230 or so would promote greater separation among scores, show winners more clearly and leave room for future improvement.
Second, the current game favors larger calibers. So far, development is stalled at 0.308, but it won't be long before someone tries 0.338 or 0.375, then 0.45, then 0.50 and so on. The sky is the limit. I, for one, don't want to take the pounding of a 4 gauge to stay in the game.
The best idea to solve the second problem so far seems to be a stepped plug, or reticle with multiple circles, with the score based on a standard caliber, such as 0.308. No extra equipment needed, and minimal extra effort. The first problem could be solved by scoring worst edge with the current targets, or scoring best edge with smaller targets. Rick, you could score with your current reticle, or one very similar to it, and the smaller targets should cost less. What do you think?
Cheers,
Keith