As the 2026 shooting season is winding down for at least me, I have some pluses and minus to report from my position as a chronographer. In the last 5 weeks I have worked 4 matches including two Nationals and two Level 2 state matches. I also worked the Area 5 match, Northern Illinois Sectional match and the Buckeye Blast. Here are some common things I observed while working these matches.
Pluses:
- Over the last year I have seen fewer people get into equipment problems at matches. Yes, every once and a while someone still has a magazine that is too long, overweight gun or an inoperative external safety, but it is less common than in the past. Maybe, clubs have made a point of letting their competitors know the rules and give good advice.
- I also have observed fewer people trying to tip-toe around the power factor limits. The increasing use of the Certified Ammo program and the tighter quality standards by cutting the wiggle room to 5 power factor has made a significant difference. I will discuss one of the weird things I have seen in the minus section.
- The massive increase in the use of 9 mm because of the move to either Carry Optics or Limited Optics has influenced the number of competitors who shoot a caliber other than 9 mm. I see this as both a good thing and a worrying trend with some of our other divisions.
- With the advent of radar chronographs from different manufacturers which are reasonably priced and simple to set-up, a local club match can offer their competitors who are traveling to a major match the ability to check their velocities. Even if you do not run a true chronograph stage (and why wouldn’t you?), it provides a service to your club members. And it doesn’t take much more to get all the gear for a full chrono stage. Gun scales are relatively cheap, the one I use is only $25.00 or so in Amazon. To weigh bullets, most folks who reload already have a powder scale that can be used. The EGW mag gauge ($35) is easy to find and personally I think having one available at your monthly matches is cheap insurance. The USPSA box for Single Stack and Production can be ordered from Shockbottle ($89, contact them when it’s out of stock) and to provide one is also a great service for your competitors.
Minuses:
- I decry the loss of major power factor except in Open Divisions. I worked matches where you could count the number of .40 S&W and .45 ACP rounds seen at chronograph on the fingers of one hand. The last match I worked, the Wisconsin Sectional had one .45 competitor, one. There were only 3 Single Stack shooters in the match. It was refreshing to see the 2026 Single Stack champion was shooting major power factor, .40 S&W.
- We did have a couple of people get into trouble with magazines with extended magazine base pads that failed the USPSA box. In those cases, the mixture of high fixed rear sights and an extended magazine base pad is a formula for shooting in Open Division. The other things we saw were several people with either large ambidextrous thumb safeties or in one case a large fixed “thumb rest” on a production gun fail.
- We had several issues with bullet weights. I remember at least three situations where the competitor was shooting what I call “mixed grill”. In these cases, we weighed a bullet which weighed lighter than expected, 114.9 grains, and the velocities did not match the required velocities to make minor. In one case over 6 rounds the competitor’s velocities were two in the 1120 range and 4 in the 870 range. When asked what they expected the bullets to weigh, they stated the box said 147 grains. We then pulled the last round, and it weighed 147.0 and they easily passed. The key here is that was not just one odd velocity. It happened several times. In many cases it might have taken 4-5 rounds to make minimum power factor, so it did not come down to the nitty gritty of the last round. In another case the competitor was convinced they were shooting 147 grain bullets and found out they were shooting 125 grain bullets. The sad thing is the velocities they got would have been fine with the 147s. Right powder load, wrong bullet weight happens more often than expected. So how do you prevent that from happening. First, if possible, when you get a delivery of either bullets to be reloaded by yourself or from your supplier, check the weights. It is not unheard of that ammunition or bullets are mis-marked. Besides, if you come to chronograph and the RO reads off the bullet weight and it is not what you expected, ask them to re-weigh the bullet right away. It only takes a second. However, if it was correctly weighed, it might be time to check-in upstairs and hope things go your way.
- Broken guns of all types. I can tell what type of match I am working by looking at the number of gun change requests I get at chronograph. Of course, all Open guns tend to be a bit finicky, but I have seen Limited Optics and Carry Optics guns end up with both functional issues and optics going bad – intermittent or more commonly loose. Thankfully, using an optic like a giant peep sight is simple enough if the berm is tall enough and we can still test the guns at chronograph.
- Finally various reloading errors. I had the joy of having a full house open gun detonate on the third round at the IPSC Nationals. It was bit of excitement I did not need, but good eye protection and frankly experience allowed the issue to be as resolved as safely as possible. I have had case failures in the past as both a chronographer and as a RO/RM running stages. The key is to try to clear the firearm and if you are unable to break the gun open, make sure there is no live round in the chamber. In all cases, the RM needs to be involved. It will be their call on how the firearm will be dealt with at that point. In this case we worked with the firearm’s owner and could not get the firearm open after multiple attempts. It was unloaded and no live round was in the chamber based on measurements. They bagged the firearm and it will be up to their gunsmith to deal with it.
In conclusion, 2026 was a pretty good year. I was able to work with some great people at the various matches. I enjoy running as stress-free a chronograph stage as possible. Frankly, it is up to you as the competitor to prepare ahead of time. If you go to the local gun store to buy ammo for a match, your phone has a calculator-built in. A 115-grain bullet going 1050 FPS as marked on the side of the box is not going to make minor (120 PF, see formula below). So don’t bring it to the match and expect to be happy with outcome.
