Jeff,

There are two major organizations that sanction 3D events on the national level. IBO and ASA. Both use different scoring rings. In the IBO, they use an 11, 10, 8, 5, 0 scoring system. That 11 ring is perfectly in the middle of the 10 ring in the IBO.

ASA uses 14, 12, 10, 8, 5, 0 scoring rings, and the targets you are shooting sound like ASA scoring rings.

For the record, I do not shoot the same bow setup I use for hunting, but I do shoot in hunter class. For accessories I use an 11.5" stabilizer, 4 pin sight, trophy taker spring steel rest, and arrows that use screw in points with 4" vanes (Gold Tip Pro 22's). Not really a whole lot different from my hunting setup except I use a whisker biscuit to hunt with and the same sight with slightly larger .019 pins. The guys that are shooting lenses and long stablizers in open class also have to shoot from a LOT further away than you do in HC, in IBO their max is 50ish yards and in ASA max is 45ish yards.

When shooting ASA, I will shoot at some 12 rings. The only event I shot last year for ASA (NY state championship) did not use targets that had 14 rings, they did have 12's though. I did shoot for 12's on a lot of targets, however I did it in a certain way. If that target was 25 yards or closer, and it was a large to mid size target I aimed for the 12. If it was a smaller target (turkey, rock critter of some sort, etc) I would simply aim for 10's. Now if I knew the yardage and it was out there a bit (30-35 yards) and I was able to actually glass the target and could see the 12 through my binocs, I would aim for the 11 oclock position of that 12 ring. If I shot a bit low, I hit solid 12, if I hit a bit high, solid 10, either way not a problem. Now if it was a target I couldn't see the 12 ring on, or only part of the 10 ring, or if I wasn't confident that I picked the right yardage number I would absolutely shoot for a strong dead center 10 ring.

Even at the national level, you will still see guys shoot an 8 from time to time, but on those targets that are close and if you have the confidence in your shooting ability you can really put some distance between other guys and yourself by nailing some 12's and 14's. I will be shooting the NY and VT ASA state championships this year and do plan to shoot for quite a few 12's and some 14's as well. Last year I was a bit conservative on this and did manage to win the event in NY but could have really shot a higher score if I was a bit more confident in my abilities and shot for more 12's.