Targets: Group analysis software

[Chris]

I found reference to this recently in an article by Dan Lynch, Mt. Molds, regarding evaluating bullet lubes. It was in "The Fouling Shot" magazine but I'll be darned if I can lay my hands on it to provide date of issue.

http://taran.ptosis.ch/taran.html

I have been experimenting with the online version and find it interesting, and overall it's useful for my needs/interests. I don't think everyone will want to use it, particularly in analyzing groups shot with familiar rifles and loads. Experience can provide an adequate analysis in many cases, for example if I try a new powder in an accurate rifle and the first 3 shots are all over the paper I don't need software to tell me to save my money and time.

I think the primary value is in that the software uses each shot as a data point in reference to target or group center. This can be revealing to identify more subtle load changes, i.e. bullet lubes, seating depth, minor alloy changes as examples. Also a great way to compare two loads that superficially appear to shoot equally.

There's a potentially interesting discussion to be had regarding various methods of measuring groups and comparisons of statistical methods.

Edited for spelling, spell Czech let me down once again.

 

[Chris]

The way this works is that you scan or take a photo of the target(s) and place a scale on it. The software has you locate the target center and then lets you place markers over each bullet hole. When complete it feeds you group size and a bunch of interesting statistics, the latter being what this is really about. It takes a bunch of shots, at least from my rifles, to get a fair level of confidence in the results. On average at least five 5-shot groups, often more.

For my need, I make the target center the same as group center, I am more interested in precision than accuracy.

You can combine multiple targets onto one for analysis and also save results for later viewing.

 

[fiver]

there is an app out there that counts the individual holes and specifies pattern percentages for shotguns as well.
it will give you an average percentage and an overall percentage, as well as the core diameter etc..
all you do is take a picture of each shot and let it do the rest.

 

[popper]

I use OnTarget free version. Mostly for my records, counts holes (you mark them), Mark POA, place for notes on load, alloy, gun, etc. Allows scaling of targets. Then stuff that works goes into my Excel reloading DB. Thought about making it linkable to Excel, just never pursued it.