I recently learned about and am intrigued by the software’s ability to analyze shot groups. I believe I’ve seen some of the products posted here, and it seems as though they could be valuable. The price of even the advanced version is low enough to try for the heck of it, but I’m curious about personal experiences.

When did you become a Benchrest shooter?

I've used it, but it's been years.

It's very easy to use and it does what it is supposed to.

If you take a picture from very close to the target, or with the target angled to the camera, there will be significant distortion that I don't recall the software being able to compensate for.

The way the software works, you basically draw a line on the target and tell the software how long the line is. If the line is 100 pixels long and you tell the software it's 1.5", then the software decides that for this target, 1 pixel = 0.015". Then for all the other stuff you're trying to measure on the target, it takes the size in pixels and multiplies by the scaling factor.

So, for example, if you take a picture where the top of the target is farther away from the camera than the bottom of the target, and your scale reference is at the bottom of the target, then things you measure at the top of the target will come out too small (they're farther away, so something of the same size takes up fewer pixels - but you're using a constant inches-per-pixel you already set).

Ideally you would either use a scanner to scan the target. Next best is taking a picture with a camera that is carefully centered on and perpendicular to the target, from as far away from the target as you can get and still have sufficient detail (to minimize distortion).

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
When did you become a Benchrest shooter?

I’ve been doing it for years, and return to it whenever I want to make myself feel bad.

Thanks, Maladat, for that. The web site doesn’t make the details clear. I do have a scanner, and that tip is definitely useful to know.

Also, I think they offer a free trial, so you can test it out and see if you like it.