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.