Why it matters: SilencerCo continues to build videos for its channel around competition formats, and this one applies hit factor scoring to a lever gun fed unknown loads. The results show how heavily that scoring system treats misses and no-shoots: at 25 yards, nearly every run came back as zero.
SilencerCo posted "10 Dudes. 2 Calibers. 1 Lever gun | Mad Pig Shootout at High Bar Homestead" to YouTube on November 3. The video runs about 12 minutes. According to its title and description, ten shooters take turns with one custom Mad Pig lever gun in a contest of speed and accuracy, and none of them knows which cartridge is coming next.
Mystery loads: .357 Magnum and .38 Special in one magazine
The premise is set up in the opening minutes. A participant named Simon secretly loads the rifle with some combination of three rounds: a 125-grain .357 Magnum and a couple of different .38 Special loads described as being "in the 158 grain range." The description says nobody knew whether the next shot would be .357 Magnum or .38 Special. A frame from the video shows the rifle wearing a suppressor and an optic; the narration does not identify either one.
How hit factor scoring worked in the lever gun challenge
Each run is five shots on a target. An alpha is worth five points, a charlie three and a mike zero. A white target underneath counts as a no-shoot, and a shot that lands there draws penalties for both the mike and the no-shoot. The hosts first set the par time at 10 seconds, and a run over par is disqualified.
One host describes hit factor as "time divided by the points," but the worked examples in the video divide points by time, which is also how the USPSA rulebook defines it. Six alphas on a two-second Bill Drill come out to a 15, the host says, and swapping one alpha for a charlie makes it a 14. The higher number wins. On par time, one participant says 10 seconds "feels like an eternity until you have a lever gun and a bunch of idiots behind you yelling."
Round one at 25 yards: one score above zero
The first round's runs land between about 5.20 and 8.25 seconds, and the targets repeatedly come back with misses, mikes and no-shoots. The narration calls one 5.99-second run "a formidable time for a lever gun at 25" and then reports its hit factor as "a humble 0.000." Another shooter is disqualified for exceeding par and asks whether there was a time limit at all. One participant says, "This game is rigged."
When the group finishes, the host reports that only one person logged a score other than zero: Scott Lookabaugh, with a score the host gives as "2. something." The host says the rules will change so that it is not "a one-man band out here and we're throwing a bunch of zeros."
“At 25 yards, one shooter logged a score above zero. At 15 yards, the highest figure reached 4.0636.”
Tess Marlowe, The ReticleThe change moves the shooters to 15 yards and cuts par to eight seconds. The host says par is dropping from 12 seconds, though the video gave it as 10 earlier.
Scores at 15 yards and the Simon vs. Caden bonus round
Zeros continue at the shorter distance, but positive scores follow. A 4.53-second run with one alpha, three charlies and a mike earns a 0.8830, which prompts, "We're on the board." The highest figure given for the round is a 4.0636, from four alphas and one charlie. Two runs with three alphas and two charlies show how time separates identical hits: 5.32 seconds scores 3.9474, and 6.49 seconds scores 3.235. Two alphas and three charlies in 5.95 seconds score 3.1933, and one alpha and four charlies score 2.3066.
The bonus round pairs Simon and Caden, with each loading the rifle for the other. The announced stakes are a joke: the loser shaves their head, the winner gets to shave their head, and the loser takes the host's job. A 4.86-second run is thrown out for a reshoot when the crew realizes the targets were not pasted. A 4.28-second run with one alpha, three charlies and a no-shoot scores zero, drawing the remark that "the zeros are neck and neck." Five charlies in 4.37 seconds score a 3.4325, which one participant says beat everyone "but Trevor and Mike, I think."
The video plays the contest for laughs throughout. Standings are described in terms of real estate, with one shooter losing a "living room" and another adding a "vacation home," and participants thank joke sponsors including a Bigfoot research organization. In the close, one speaker claims the win in the shorter-distance round and adds that it "pays to be the winner and also pays to bend the rules."
For context
- The USPSA rulebook defines hit factor as a competitor's points minus penalties, divided by total time recorded to two decimal places.
- Marlin sells a factory Mad Pig Customs Model 1894 in .357 Magnum with an eight-round tubular magazine, a threaded 16-inch barrel and a $2,999 MSRP; the video's description calls its rifle a "custom Mad Pig lever gun" and does not name a model.
- Firearms chambered in .357 Magnum can also fire .38 Special, which is what allows both cartridges to share one magazine in this format.
- SilencerCo's Rimfire Ruckus series, which debuted in September, also built its videos around a match, in that case a .22 LR event at High Bar in Wyoming.
Sourced from
10 Dudes. 2 Calibers. 1 Lever gun | Mad Pig Shootout at High Bar Homestead
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