Reason for the ARA Sighter Rule

[dankillough]

14.3.0
If, during the routine examination of any target by the scoring team, a competitor‟s target is
discovered that has no sighter shot placed into the Sighter portion of the target, as stated
above, a friendly and private notice of the Sighter Rule shall be made to the competitor by the
Match Director.
14.3.1
No penalty or punitive action need be taken against the competitor unless he
continues to ignore the rule.

The 3 Sighters at the top of the target have "Sighter" in the box. The rule states that at least one shot should be place in one of the 3 Sighter boxes. Also, at the beginning of each target, I always ask the competitors to start with the Official Sighters.

Reason For The Rule
If everyone starts with the Official Sighters, then it will immediately be obvious if we have any crossfires. Inevitably at every big match we will have at least one crossfire and 99% of the time one competitor has started at the bottom of the target and the other started at the top of the target and they meet in the middle. I have never seen anyone do this intentionally, and typically the offender is so embarrassed about the mistake that the problem is not repeated.

 

[Bill Wynne]

Thanks for pointing this out, Dan.

I am guilty of not shooting the sighter target for reasons that don't pass logic test. I sometimes shoot at a bullet hole in the backer instead. If it is my second or latter target and I feel good about the conditions I will fire a couple of warmers off the target.

I will correct this practice from now on.

Bill

 

[bob finger]

Bill: Many of us shoot the first two or three off the card as especially the first one often goes wild. The first shot ON TARGET should be on an official sighter. Me, I use the official sighter box corners farthest away from the record bulls for the first few, then (hopefully) drill the center official sighter so whoever hangs the target has a hole to put the nail through. bob

 

[MIKECAMERON]

Dan

The sighter rule is a good one and should be used by everyone but if they did what I do they would NEVER have a crossfire, the first thing I do when I set my rest up is to look at the top of the target to READ my competitor number it helps with parallax setting(if it is blurry I adjust till I can read the number) and makes sure it is MY TARGET, lol.
MC