Scoring Applications

[Don Jorge]

I did not want to hijack the thread concerning CAS  scoring and the fee, specifically.

Is there a charge for using Practiscore?  Who is supporting Practiscore financially?

 

What is it worth, to a club, to use an electronic scoring program, vs paper (ugh!)

 

Someone has to pay for the development and maintenance of the program.  Who would do it for free?  I know that we all would want it for free, but that is impractical.  As I recall, ACES went away due to no financial support.  

 

It is my impression that the scoring program sold/promoted by SASS is not very popular, whereas both CAS Scoring (until now) and Practiscore are popular.  Perhaps we should consider some sort of cooperation between SASS (and its members) and one of the better scoring entities to have a platform we can use at a reasonable price..

[Gayle Lady T]

I believe practicescore is funded by clubs who use it for members to pay their annual dues and large USPSA matches. Of the 6 clubs I frequent monthly, 2 do not use practicescore, but it’s coming because shooters enjoy getting home and being able to see how they did. The way it generates reports with the touch of a finger speeds up the process for those that read reports after a match. One touch, and it can be sent to the web or emailed to everyone individually. I personally am disappointed when it sometimes takes a week to see a scoresheet

[Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L]

My understanding is that Practiscore is basically paid for by various industry partners.  By that I mean gun manufacturers, probably IPSC, IPDA, etc that want a consistent platform for their scoring, so basically it's paid for by advertisers.

 

Will there ever be a fee?  Maybe some day, but there are a lot of dollars being spent on the IPSC, IPDA, 3-Gun, etc matches, not to mention the guys selling the guns, so I expect there is plenty of money for this to be free for a while.

 

The SASS program is OK, it does the job, but it was designed more as a complete match management system (Reserving Camping spots, printing banquet tickets, registering shooters, etc.) and although it interfaces with tablets, it was not a trivial process and required another software package to run on the tablets that then would transfer the data to the SASS program form compiling and printing.  It did the job, but if all you want is scoring, then it was not the best choice for that.

 

For CAS, the two big programs are Practiscore and CAS Scoring.  CAS Scoring is written in Europe, and although I don't know the specifics, there is some prohibition about using Andriod devices (I think they just hate Google) so it's only available on Apple Devices.

 

I did look at both Practiscore and CAS Scoring before making my selection a few years ago, and between the two CAS Scoring is slightly better suited to Cowboy Action Shooting, but Practiscore is more than capable, and if they add a few tweaks, they would cover everything CAS Scoring does.  Practiscore seemed to have a slightly longer learning curve (for the Match Setup stuff) but the scoring aspect of the program was almost the same.

 

Again, just my $0.02, Cowboy Action is now a niche market shooting sport, at least when compared to the shooter numbers at IDPA, IPSC, Steel Challenge, etc matches.  Our best hope is that we can get a company like Practiscore to add a few tweaks to their software so we can hitch a ride on the back of the larger shooting sports.

 

 

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

I have been using Practiscore since it was first available for CAS.  It has come a long way in the last few years.

As stated above it is industry funded. The developer of A.C.E.S was on their software team.

I'd have to find it again, but there is a way to submit bugs and suggest improvements. They have a pretty good forum for asking questions and seeking help resolving issues.

 

The biggest selling point for me was that ability to run Practiscore on Amazon Fire 7 tablets. I can buy seven of the Fire 7 tablets for the price of one iPad and still have money left over.

 

The biggest complaint I currently have with Practiscore is that printing score sheets is a PITA. Both the Chromebook, and Android (Kindle Fire 7) versions will not print legibly. Doesn't matter if it is print to PDF or if you send it direct to the printer the font defaults to 6 pt pitch. I have a workaround however, at the moment, I don't remember how I did it.

 

One feature I really like is the audit trail. Once entered, any score that is modified it flagged in the software.

 

One thing to be aware of is that the Android, Chromebook, and Apple versions all have subtle differences. 

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

2 hours ago, Don Jorge said:

I did not want to hijack the thread concerning CAS  scoring and the fee, specifically.

Is there a charge for using Practiscore?  Who is supporting Practiscore financially?

 

What is it worth, to a club, to use an electronic scoring program, vs paper (ugh!)

 

Someone has to pay for the development and maintenance of the program.  Who would do it for free?  I know that we all would want it for free, but that is impractical.  As I recall, ACES went away due to no financial support.  

 

It is my impression that the scoring program sold/promoted by SASS is not very popular, whereas both CAS Scoring (until now) and Practiscore are popular.  Perhaps we should consider some sort of cooperation between SASS (and its members) and one of the better scoring entities to have a platform we can use at a reasonable price..

Practiscore is backed by Sig Sauer.  The application has advertising from vendors in the firearms industry.  For example, the Practiscore home page currently shows an ad for self-defense insurance from USCCA.  Persons visiting the Practiscore site are participants in recreational shooting sports.  Ads placed on Practiscore are targeted to likely customers.  More Practiscore users means more ad revenue.

[El Sobrante Kid]

Related to the use of tablets for scoring; has anyone found that one particular tablet is easier to use in bright sunshine? Some of the tablet screens are almost impossible to use in direct sunlight.

[Totes Magoats]

We use Practiscore on cheap Amazon Fire Tablets (~$49 each on PrimeDay).  We can get the scores out on Facebook before folks leave the parking lot from the match.  For the minor differences between CAS and Practiscore, I'll take free with the ability to use cheaper tablets.  

 

The market will determine if CAS is successful with a subscription model.

 

Totes

[El Chapo]

I never even knew there was a CAS app.  Practiscore has been the gold standard of scoring since 2011 or 2012 when I first used it, and I can't imagine why we would pay for a scoring app when we have Practiscore. 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

we use Practiscore with cheap tablets also

 

my one gripe is you can add categories but they go at the bottom of the list--this means you can't alphabetize them and with all the categories SASS shooters can up with, it's hard to find these club-added ones.

 

small gripe

[Uncle Ethan # 94321]

3 hours ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

my one gripe is you can add categories but they go at the bottom of the list--this means you can't alphabetize them and with all the categories SASS shooters can up with, it's hard to find these club-added ones.

 

small gripe

I have added this to my list also.

When you move to any new software program you compare it to the one you had been using.

CAS had a place to enter shooter's phone numbers. It also let you email the scores to the shooters in the match. Syncing was done with bluetooth, Practiscore use wi-fi.

I guess we don't need the phone numbers in the scoring software. We post the scores on our website, so shooters can go there. And lastly, I have an old router I can bring to the range. We have power there or we can use a hotspot in a cellphone.

 

[Totes Magoats]

14 hours ago, Uncle Ethan # 94321 said:

Practiscore use wi-fi.

 

We use the tiny TP-Link Nano router (~$30) and run it off a battery pack phone charger via USB cable.  No 'electricity' need at the range.  This will sync all the tablets with Practiscore and our scorekeepers phone running Practiscore to post the scores on Facebook and send out.  Quick and easy.

 

Totes

[Uncle Ethan # 94321]

I just checked using the hotspot from my phone. Worked okay

[Chief Rick]

On 5/12/2025 at 12:28 PM, El Sobrante Kid said:

Related to the use of tablets for scoring; has anyone found that one particular tablet is easier to use in bright sunshine? Some of the tablet screens are almost impossible to use in direct sunlight.

It's been my experience that the Kindle Fire tablets (currently using Fire HD 10) have no problems in bright light and also have good battery life.

 

You can also get the child friendly case with carry handle to protect it.

 

We have two tablets running PractiScore that are also sync'd to Bluetooth timers. TO still calls out time, but the score keeper only has to push a button to import the time directly from the shot timer. One less chance for an error.

Edited May 13 by Chief Rick

[Redleg Reilly, SASS #46372]

Our club uses Practiscore and I fought with the print options so I could post scores to our web site.  The solution I have that works well is to take a screenshot of the score page.  That produces a picture image that can be easily posted to the web and it is very clear and readable.

[Dusty Driver]

We have been using Practiscore for several years for Cowboy, Steel Challenge and IPSC.  We have 6 kindle tablets and other then a few, probably self inflicted hickups, they have worked flawlessly both indoors and outdoors. 

Personally, works on multiple platforms, for multiple disciplines, no major problems and free. What else do you want?

Edited May 15 by Dusty Driver

[Texas Maverick]

1 hour ago, Dusty Driver said:

We have been using Practiscore for several years for Cowboy, Steel Challenge and IPSC.  We have 6 kindle tablets and other then a few, probably self inflicted hickups, they have worked flawlessly both indoors and outdoors. 

Personally, works on multiple platforms, for multiple disciplines, no major problems and free. What else do you want?

Someone to pay me for using their app. LOL

 

You asked.

 

TM

[Houston CAS]

On 5/12/2025 at 12:28 PM, El Sobrante Kid said:

Related to the use of tablets for scoring; has anyone found that one particular tablet is easier to use in bright sunshine? Some of the tablet screens are almost impossible to use in direct sunlight.

Look for a matte screen protector to help with glare on your tablets.