Were they really?

[Don McDowell]

Often times we see someone say how much better the ODG's were than todays shooters.. Ok, but were they really?
If you take a look at the plots from their targets in Creedmoor, and then translate the hits into the targets we shoot today, I'm not convinced they were that much if any better than what we see today. Keeping in mind their targets were huge by comparison to what we shoot today. The bullseye was 36 inches in diameter, which is almost the 9 ring in todays targets. The centers went to 54 inches, which is just short of todays 7 ring. Outers went to 6 ft, which is where our targets today end with a score of six.
Granted they shot 15 rounds, no sighters and no spotter/coach, but when you start breaking things down we're looking at scores somewhere around the equivalent to mainly 70's and 80's and occasional 90 (rare then and now)in todays 10 shot matches, or something around 120-130 in todays occasional but really rare 15 round relay.