Judging Turkey Shoot Targets

Fair and impartial judge

The Judge can own and run the shoot, be a member of the hunt club, but above all they need to be a person who can be fair and impartial, even if he or workers can shoot too. Their name or a workers name should appear on the 

sign-up sheet so their money is counted in the total purse if it's a money shoot. A Shooter Sign-Up Sheet can be downloaded or viewed on this PDF file. Usually one designated person receives phone calls from competitors who want to sign up early to get a special number or space on the rail. "What if I'm late can I still shoot?" This needs to be defined in the rules; my opinion is the more competitors the more money, now who can argue about that? "What if it gets late and I can't stay till the end of the shoot do I get some of my entry fee back"? It will come up, so stick to the rules of the shoot. Sometimes a shooter will let a friend finish out their rounds. You don't want to piss a shooter off who is a regular, now do you.

The target judging area

The judging area needs a counter that is large enough for the judge to be on one side and room for all the shooters who want to see the targets being judged can. The runner brings in the stack of shot cards, gives them to the judge and goes back out to hang a new round of turkey shoot targets. The judge declares a winner or ties which have to go back and repeat the process till a winner of that round is declared. A note on the sign-up sheet lists the winners of each round and special rounds.

The tools of the trade

The tools of the trade for the Judge are a swing arm magnifying light, locking dividers', and a good measuring ruler. Some shoots allow scopes so the shooters can pretty much see what damage they did to the turkey shoot target. Sometimes what looks like a big hole, only ends up being a fold back. If they can't shoot with a scope they will bring binoculars to get some idea of how they hit the target before it's judged.

How to run a shoot

Fair and Honest is the only way to run a shoot. If your shoot gets good marks from the shooters they will let others know about your shoot, if not you could lose shooters. Set the rules and gun restrictions, stick to them only making changes after discussing it with your shooters.