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An explanation of how the NRA calculates classifications


After each NRA sanctioned highpower tournament the sponsor sends the scores of all participants and the number of shots they fired to the NRA. The NRA then receives these scores and enters them into their computer system. When the computer updates scores (about every week or so), it starts at the last match for which the NRA has received your scores and starts going through to previous matches, if any. When it sees that you have scores for 240 or more shots it then takes the average score over those 240 or more shots and checks to see if you can be re-classified. If that average is not in a higher classification range, all the scores are kept until the next time the NRA receives scores from a match. At that time the process is repeated.

To make this easier to explain, let's take the example of Joe Highpowershooter. Joe was re-classified as an Expert over the winter and he's starting this season with his new classification. When he starts attending matches those scores get sent to the NRA.

The NRA now receives the scores for a tournament that Joe fired in. Let's say that it consisted of 80 shots and Joe's score was a 750. Since this was the first match score the NRA received since Joe was re-classified last winter, there aren't the requisite number of shots (240) to check for re-classification.

The next set of scores are from a weekend where Joe shot 130 shots and had a total score of 1220. The NRA now takes this tournament (130 shots), starts to go backwards in time and adds the only previous tournament (80 shots). This brings the total of most recent tournaments to 210 (130+80). Since 210 is still not enough for a re-classification check nothing is done.

Joe keeps attending matches and trying his best. The NRA now receives another set of tournament scores. In this one Joe shot 50 shots with a score of 468. NRA tournament reporting again starts adding shots starting with the most recent tournament received. 50+130+80=260. Since 260 is greater than 240, we now have enough shots to do a re-classification check. The NRA adds the scores for these 260 shots and finds the equivalent %. 468+1220+750=2438. Averaged over 260 shots we get 93.77%. This is close to the 94.00% needed for Master but not quite enough. At this point Joe still remains an Expert.

Sometime later the NRA receives yet another set of scores from a tournament that Joe shot in. Joe shot 100 shots with a score of 946. Once again the addition of the most recent shots begins (100+50+130=280). Since we pass the 240 shot threshold with the most recent three tournaments, any tournament before this point (the 80 shot one in our example) is no longer used to compute Joe Highpowershooter's average. The scores for these 280 shots is 946+468+1220=2534 for an average of 94.07%. Joe will now be re-classified as a Master and receive his new card in the mail. If the NRA receives subsequent tournament results for Joe, these will not be combined with any matches he fired before he became a Master. All calculations will begin anew.

Competitors should also keep in mind that the NRA may receive tournament scores in a different order than people shoot them. Some tournament personnel send in their scores faster than others. League scores are turned in when the league has completed shooting and may possibly not get sent in until months after the first league match was fired. While most highpower competitions are sanctioned by the NRA, not all of them are. CMP "Leg" match scores are not used for NRA classification. Also, some matches are run by a local club using NRA rules but without NRA sanction. This is usually at the discretion of the tournament sponsor.

Trying to keep track of your classification scores is a hit-or-miss proposition at best. Shooters are really at the mercy of the efficiency of tournament sponsors. The best method is to keep attending different matches and trying your best.