P.A.T. Revealed!

P.A.T.T. Mk I

Why P.A.T.?

P.A.T. stands for: Practical Accuracy Test. The intention of P.A.T. is to determine a Nerf Blasters accuracy at any distance on a human size stationary target. The P.A.T. scoring system is broken into a few sub sets. Read on for detailed breakdown:

P.A.T.%: # of hits on target/number of shots fired

P.A.T.T says: "Eye pro, always!"

A-P.A.T.: scored on a points system of 1-3. 3 is the best hit an means your shot was on target, 2 means main body and 1 means a hit but not on main body or center. The number of shots will determine your baseline of total points. Example would be a 10 shot group has maximum of 30 points for that group. After shooting add up the points scored and you have your basic A-P.A.T. score.  EX: my Stryfe was able to hit 7 out of 10 shots and the points from those 7 hits were 16. My A-P.A.T. score for this test is 16/30 or 53%. 

Dart Score Per Hit (DSPH) can also be extracted from this data:

The Stryfe above had 16 points out of 10 shots. The points/group size will give you this data point. The closer to 3 the better and it's just another way to measure accuracy but determine nuances between Blasters.

I want to go over a full stat sheet for reference, we will use my Custom “Silver Savior” blaster

Blaster	Silver Savior
Mods	5KG OMW Spring/Wide Barrel
Dart Type	Koosh (BW12 Pre-Glue/Unused)
Chrono Data	Average FPS 89/Spread 5
Range	30FT
Group Size	10
PAT%	80%
A-PAT%	73%
Raw A-Pat	22

The "Silver Savior"

So here is what we can learn about my blaster.

From 30FT I can hit a target 8 of 10 times and when I do hit it will be often where I aimed the shot.  So if I'm playing a game where my ammo is limited I might want to give old Silver here a shot.

Let's see what happens 20FT farther away: 

Blaster	Silver Savior
Mods	5KG OMW Spring/Wide Barrel
Dart Type	Koosh (BW12 Pre-Glue/Unused)
Chrono Data	Average FPS 89/Spread 5
Range	50FT
Group Size	10
PAT%	60%
A-PAT%	53%
Raw A-Pat	16

Having a center mass target helps.

Now it appears that we are reaching the limits for this blaster to be effective as I see it. I like my Blasters to have at least a 50% chance to score a hit so we are cutting it close here but I still think I can make it work. 

 I hope these examples help anyone interested in using P.A.T. or a variation of P.A.T. 

Disclaimer: I am not saying this is going to be the end all be all for measuring a Blasters accuracy and effective engagement  distance. The system has been tested tweaked and re-tested again. My hope is that from this start we get great accuracy tests to use along with other data such as Chrono and Dart weights ect. Please feel free to lend your brains to improving this method of testing any input is greatly appreciated.