Marking.......

[Private Marker]

I'm an NRA trained marker. I did my training in March, started the following week and have never let the office down. I'm told that I'm good, regularly getting compliments and tips, always gratefully received! :)
I wondered what the general opinion of markers was, and did a little search of the forum.
I found this
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17701&hilit=Butt+markers
Its an old thread but I think a lot of what's said is still said today.
We are not all the same!
Any questions?

[JohnASmith97]

I'm an NRA trained marker. I did my training in March, started the following week and have never let the office down. I'm told that I'm good, regularly getting compliments and tips, always gratefully received! :)
I wondered what the general opinion of markers was, and did a little search of the forum.
I found this
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17701&hilit=Butt+markers
Its an old thread but I think a lot of what's said is still said today.
We are not all the same!
Any questions?

Don't forget that this is very much a situation where confirmation bias will affect what kind of opinions you hear significantly. I think that the issue is that when everything is fine nothing goes wrong and it's not in your mind while you're shooting, but when the marking isn't so good it gets distracting and you remember it. It's unfortunately far too easy to forget that it's actually a human doing the marking, as when you're at the fun end you're just watching a magic machine do its thing (sometimes not all that well, which is when the annoyance starts). I haven't shot all that much with hired markers; being from a uni club we normally save a bit of cash and do it ourselves, and that does give you an appreciation for how much of a pain it can be. But you forget it far too quickly when you start shooting and you're dealing with the (sometimes temperamental) magic machine again.

I will try and remember to show appreciation for good marking in the future though!

[Private Marker]

Trust me, the kids we call the under fives annoy the mature markers too! How can you efficiently mark a target if you sit down and stare at your phone in between shots??
Don't get me started! I will have to ask for access to the Grumpy old men forum :)

[Pete]

We used to use humans until the electronics arrived...............they were excellent, generally, which we appreciated appropriately.
And a crap marker certainly can turn a great day out into a frustrating and expensive waste of time.........

Pete

[20series]

Sadly we had numerous occasions of crap marking in the past I'll only book the electronic targets now.

Cheers Alan

[Alpha1]

I guess this is a Bisley thing living in the Northeast of England I have never had anybody outside of the Club mark for us. Its common practice for clubs in the North East to split into two groups one group marks and the other shoots then we swop round.

[RDC]

I guess this is a Bisley thing living in the Northeast of England I have never had anybody outside of the Club mark for us. Its common practice for clubs in the North East to split into two groups one group marks and the other shoots then we swop round.

Yeah, it's pretty much a Bisley thing. Necessary on the Stickledown range where they can't leave the butts until shooting has stopped (if I recall correctly) and suitable transport and transfer of bodies has taken place.

[rox]

I had manual markers on Saturday and electronics on Sunday for a team training weekend.

One of the manual markers was very slow. On another target I watched the shot-holes appear at 600x, then the spotting discs coming-up at a completely different location - twice in succession.
While using the Intarso electronics on Sunday we had to abandon one target which stopped recording shots. This is before you even consider the accuracy of the things. Would the people who are happy using them still be happy if they knew how accurately (or inaccurately) the shot positions were being indicated?

..

[Mattnall]

I guess this is a Bisley thing living in the Northeast of England I have never had anybody outside of the Club mark for us. Its common practice for clubs in the North East to split into two groups one group marks and the other shoots then we swop round.

That is one thing that used to wind me up about one of my clubs - a dozen or more would book a couple of targets for a club fun day at Bisley and then proceed to book markers, even with 3 shooting on the point the majority of them stood around talking bs for most of the day. Everytime I suggested splitting into two groups, one marking and one shooting saving the members some money on range fees I was shot down (pun intended ).

I go with other clubs now, still have a chat but it's cheaper and you can get more consistent marking if the markers also are the shooters and know the practices being conducted.

However, in response to Private Marker when I'm load developing or there's just the two or three of us zeroing on one target the NRA markers have been very good.

[Mattnall]

Would the people who are happy using them still be happy if they knew how accurately (or inaccurately) the shot positions were being indicated?

..

I think many club shooters wouldn't realise if their shots were marked back inaccurately.