Gunfighter Rating System

Well, I rolled out the Gunfighter Rating System for the Pioneer monthly match with data being entered on 59 shooters. After some minor tweaking, it seems to work well.  Under the system the three dominant shooting characteristics are quantified, those being speed, accuracy and mental toughness. If you were rated 1.0 or higher you were in the top 10% of the shooters at the event. Of the top 6 competitors of the 59, speed was the main strength of 3 shooters, and accuracy was the main strength of 3 shooters. One of the accurate shooters dominated in mental toughness.

Accuracy factor:  This is the easiest factor to quantify.  It is simply the number of hits divided by the number of shots taken.

Speed factor:    This is also pretty simple.  The speed factor is 1 minus the fastest time that a shooter has shot during the event.  By subtracting from one, the quicker you are the larger that the speed number factor will be.  

Adding these two factors together you get a pretty good rating of who is a good gunfighter. For example, a .30 shooter hitting at 30% would have a rating of 1.0.  Likewise, a .70 shooter hitting at 70% would have a rating of 1.0.  But we all know if you matched these two shooters against each other, one would probably dominate. And what determines who would dominate depends on the third factor, mental toughness.

Mental Toughness factor:  How to quantify mental toughness took some experimenting.  But what I came up with is this.  If you win the matches you should win, there is no additions or deductions to your rating.  If you lose the matches that you should lose there is no additions or deduction to your rating.   BUT, if you lose to a slower shooter, 20 milliseconds will be deducted from your rating.  If you win against a quicker opponent, 20 milliseconds will be added to your rating. Additions and deductions are cumulative so over a 5 match event you could add or lose up 100 milliseconds to your rating.  Bye matches for rating purposes are considered as two matches. For additions or deductions and for ease of entry, quickness is determined at the time of the match.

At Pioneer, of 59 shooters the top rated gunslinger had a rating of 1.271161. The second rated shooter was 1.208.  The 6th shooter was .998556.  The final placings in the event somewhat mirrored the ratings but was not exactly the same. The fourth rated gunslinger (1.099333) was the winner, defeating the third rated shooter (1.1725) in the finals. 

What good is all this data? Well, I think it might be useful for a club to give awards for the most improved gunslinger.  It is a way to quantify who has truly improved as a gunfighter, not just speed or accuracy, but both. 

It also is a real motivating tool for those who are trying to improve their competitiveness.  My own personal goal is to be a 4 flat shooter at 80% with no mental toughness deductions.  That would be a rating of 1.40, and who is going beat me if I can do that?

My rating of .989667 reflected my poor accuracy shooting and motivates me to find the target more.  Many of the other quick shooters probably will a similar attitude towards the ratings for this shoot. "If only I had won that one match!" or "I gave that one away!"  One shooter (1.208), I am sure is saying "If only had I gone to my fast shot!"

We had one multi-champion who shot poorly during seeding rounds only to recover and win 6 shoot off matches to finish with a respectable .953857 rating.  I hope run the rating system through out the year, and I believe over the 12 months we will find the top shooters coming to the top of the ratings.  However, I think it will be a surprise as to who improves the most during the year.