At our range we have completed a 15 target setup (several spare frames as well) for ShotMaker. We built new frames of aluminum that mount in our existing very robust carriers and have also stiffened the bases of those up even more. The frames all measure within .4 mm of each other in all dimensions, most (12 of 17) are exactly the same to the 1/10th of a mm. To date we have put in excess of 6K rounds down range, including two approved NRA Matches, one XTC and one Mid-Range.
We have an XTC coming in a week, August 26th, followed by the State Championships XTC September 8-9. So far we have only had to deal with a few (less than 5 crossfires), no missing shots, although one unaccounted for extra shot (in Mid-Range Slow Fire - we believe we tracked that down to a plug that someone must have mishandled and stepped on - bending it, and we believe causing target #5 to have the upper right hand corner sensor drop in and out). We did have one shot registration that clearly was an error (the velocity was showing 3877 fps outside the 6 ring from a Service Rifle), the scorer showed no extra shots, nor were there any in either direction, two targets either side so it was deleted from the scorecard.
We did a lot of testing over the past few months prior to shooting the actual matches. We fortunately have a lot of young as well as older very experienced engineers (including EW/ECM as well as results and scoring operators and officials from Olympic Games and World Cups going back to 1995 - so Electronic Timing, Scoring and Judging is not something new to the core implementation team) and they have monitored very closely the "detailed data available from the all sensor events setting” and our only concern is avoiding issues in rapids, as everyone else rightfully is also focused. No one like re-fires (I’m sure there are exceptions, but that’s for another thread) In extensive conversations with Adam and in our own hand on experience, viewing the details, testing various baffling techniques, we are not seeing the system showing any performance issues we have not seen in the past with traditional targets (and frankly the disappearance of statistical errors in prone slow fire has been a pleasure). Having shot on other open sensor systems for many years, the increase in sensitivity and number of sensors is not causing the problem, in fact it is the solution - Shockwaves spread out across the range, from what we’ve seen so far, the accuracy of the sensors (and we believe in no small part the quality of the frames and their bracing), Shotmaker so far is scoring only those shots on the target, although the “deep detailed data” shows shockwaves from adjacent targets being “noted”, but discarded as off target. Higher sensitivity, not less is how you get the best accuracy and we think is contributing to the lack of dropped or extra shots on targets in rapids. Another thing we are in the process of doing this week is to double check firing point alignment with the targets - the more square to the target the shooter is the better the accuracy of the system - we found this to be the case by intentionally shooting several targets over and watching the data from the targets in between.
While we have been very successful so far on rapids, the detailed data does show the overlapping shockwaves in the detailed data. We have seen some very close overlapping waves, especially at 200yds. At 300yds the overlaps were weak enough that we see no reason to space out the shooters, but will try a new processes at match next weekend. We will shoot both 300 and 200 rapids dividing the relays into two groups, A & B. A will fire, then B will fire. It will provide a lot of additional data. We are also borrowing some very precise sensors from a nearby major defense weapons contractor to characterize in detail the shockwave patterns overtime on our range (in several events) and see if we can provide some additional useful data to Adam as well as create a visualization and empirical data that might help us isolate when and why (and we are sure we will) we do have a missing or extra shot. While the data will be specific to our range it should be useful to others. One final note: We’ve had fully functional ShotMaker Hospital Targets up for both testing and Matches, as well as empty positions on some relays - NONE have shown an errant shot that wasn’t a crossfire. We will continue to share our data with you, especially the outcome from the next two XTC matches. To repeat, we knew their was risk, but we believe it has been worth it. As ShotMaker continues to mature (although it’s dam good now) we expect the installation will service us well and have been a wise and valuable investment for our club and the sport.
