Basic Look at USPSA Scoring

Sometimes the scoring of the match can seem somewhat confusing. He hear terms such as Alpha, Mike, hit factor, procedural, etc. We are going to try to break down the scoring of the match in a way that is less confusing.

First, the definitions:

• Alpha: Hit in the A range of the target
• Bravo: Hit in the B range of the target
• Charlie: Hit in the C range of the target
• Delta: Hit in the D range of the target
• Mike: Miss
• No Shoot: Hit on a "hostage" or no shoot target
• Procedural: Violations that break the rules of the stage
• Major: Pistol ammo larger than 9mm
• Minor: 9mm ammo

Scoring is slightly different for major and minor shooters. Both types will score 5 points for a hit in the A range, but a major will score 4 points for a hit in B and C range (3 points for minor) and they will also score 2 points for a hit in D range (1 point for minor). The first step is to figure up the raw score by adding up the points for all the targets that you hit. At this point, it is time to figure your deductions. For each miss, no shoot, and procedural, subtract 10 points from your total, and this will determine your final score. Once you have your score, divide that by the time in seconds that it took to complete the stage. This is how you determine your hit factor, or points per second.

That hit factor is important because each stage is scored on a curve. For the final stage points, we only look at the hit factor and the total possible stage points. The actual points on the stage hit do not matter. For example, for a stage with 100 points possible, we have three shooters with a hit factor of 5, 3, and 2.5. The first shooter would get all the stage points or 100. Since the second shooter had a hit factor that was 60% of the winner's hit factor, they would receive 60% of the stage points, or 60 points. As a result, the final stage scoring would be 100, 60, and 50 points. Hopefully this clears up any scoring confusion you may have.