An explanation of CMP's National Service Rifle Ranking

The national ranking of a given shooter is based on two input factors:

1. Actual scores that shooter fired in CMP matches within the last two years.
2. The type of matches that those scores were fired in.


Below are descriptions of these two factors

Scores fired

Your actual scores fired in CMP matches over the last two years are converted into something called a post-match handicap. This post-match handicap is not a real average score but rather it is relative to how an average shooter would be expected to perform given the conditions. That typical shooter performance is based on handicapped averages of all other shooters except for the top 10%, the bottom 13%, and those that have not competed in the last two years.

There is an allowance for a bad day as the shooter's worst performance in the past two years is thrown out before the national ranking is calculated. But there is also a false match added to the shooters actual fired matches that pulls the shooter's performance toward that of an average shooter. This fictitious match means that to reach a high level on the national ranking you really have to be shooting at a level higher than most other shooters.

Matches fired

The match a shooter fires in will affect how that match is used to calculate their national ranking based on two things.

1. The more recently a match is fired will weigh more in the national ranking. A match fired one year ago is weighted at 60% of a match fired today. A match fired two years ago is weighted at 20% of a match fired today. Any matches fired more than two years ago are not counted towards national rankings.
2. A match with more importance (more good shooters competing) weighs more than one with less good shooters. The lowest importance match is one where none of the shooters has a rating value of greater than 1. There are probably about 250 shooters nationwide that have a rating number of greater than 1. The highest importance matches are typically the President's and NTI as many of the top shooters are competing.

Also, those that finish in the top 5 of the President's shootoff get a bonus which boosts their national ranking.

Note that not all CMP service rifle matches count toward national rankings. Generally, individual matches such as E-I-C matches, President's and NTI, and other select CMP sponsored matches count towards the ranking. An exception is the usage of the Hearst Trophy match. To my knowledge this is the only team match to count towards the national ranking.

The Bottom Line

While all of the above seems complicated, we can derive some lessons on how to improve your national ranking:

• Shoot the highest score you can in a match (That's pretty obvious)
• Shoot relatively better than others in difficult conditions
• Qualify and place highly in match finals. At present this only means making the top 5 of the President's 100
• Compete more often since your most recent performance counts more toward your national ranking
• Find matches that have tougher competition in the form of better shooters


That's a lot of detail but it should provide some insight into the complexity of CMP's national service rifle ranking system.