Steel Challenge classification calculator

Your Steel Challenge class is set by a percentage: the published peak times for your division divided by your own total across the classifier stages. Enter your best stage totals and this returns that percentage, the class it falls in, and how many seconds have to come off to reach the next one. It also answers the part the published tables do not: how many seconds have to come off your current stage totals to reach the next class.

By Michael Minik. Sources are linked in the text if you want to check them yourself.

The peak times come from scsa.org/classification and the percentage is the aggregate SCSA publishes — total peak time divided by your total time. (New to steel? How Steel Challenge scoring works.)

Your calculator entries are remembered only in your own browser — no number you enter into these calculators is ever sent anywhere. A “Copy a link” button puts your entered numbers in the link itself, which is what makes a result shareable. Two things at the foot of this page DO send what you put in them, because that is what they are for: the “Spot a mistake?” box sends your message and, if you add one, your email address; the launch-list box sends your email address. What happens to either is on the privacy page.

What's my Steel Challenge class?

Pick your division, then enter your best stage time for each classifier stage you've shot — the stage total that counts (best 4 of 5 strings; Outer Limits is best 3 of 4). SCSA classifies you once at least 4 stages are on record. (New to steel? How Steel Challenge scoring works.)

Division

Classification · class—

Enter your best time for at least 4 stages.

Stage times

Stage 1 — RoundaboutDropped the slowest string (String 4)S1 2.13 · S2 2.44 · S3 3.14 · S4 3.50 · S5 2.3610.07s

A Steel stage from the sample log — five strings, the slowest dropped, the math done.

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Unofficial estimate. Your official percent comes only from SCSA-processed match results, using your best eligible time per stage against SCSA's published peak times (scsa.org is the authority on which scores are eligible) (as posted at scsa.org/classification, July 2026 — they can change). An earned class letter never goes down, even when the percent does.

FirearmLog logs every Steel match — strings, misses, and stage totals — and keeps your best times straight. Log yours in the web app →

The published peak times

Your Steel Challenge classification percentage is the total of the published peak times for the stages you have shot, divided by the total of your own times. These are those peak times — 16 divisions across the eight classifier stages, 128 figures in all — and the calculator above divides by these exact numbers. The table lists each division’s peak time for all eight stages, from 5 to Go through to Roundabout; it scrolls sideways on a narrow screen to reach the Roundabout column.

Steel Challenge peak times in seconds, by division and classifier stage
Division	5 to Go	Showdown	Smoke & Hope	Outer Limits	Accelerator	The Pendulum	Speed Option	Roundabout
Open	11.25	9.5	8.5	12.5	10.5	11.25	11.5	8.5
Limited	12.5	9.5	9.5	13.5	10.5	12.5	12.5	9.5
Limited Optics	12.25	9.5	9.5	13.5	10.75	12.25	12.25	9.5
Production	13	10	10	14	11.5	13	13	10
Single Stack	13.25	10.5	10.25	14.75	11.75	13.5	13.5	10.5
Carry Optics	12.5	9.75	10	13.75	11	12.75	13	9.75
Iron Sight Revolver	13.5	12	10.5	15.75	13	14.25	14	11
Optical Sight Revolver	12.25	10.5	10	14.25	12.75	13.5	12.75	10.5
PCC Optics	9.5	7	7	11.25	8.75	9	9.5	7.5
PCC Iron	10.75	8.5	7.75	12.25	9.5	10.5	11	8
Rimfire Pistol Optics	8.75	7.5	7	11.5	8.5	9.5	10	7.5
Rimfire Pistol Iron	10.5	9	8	13	9.25	11	11	8.25
Rimfire Rifle Optics	9.5	7	7	10.75	8.5	9	9	7
Rimfire Rifle Iron	9.75	7.5	7.5	12	9	9.75	10	7.5
Rimfire Revolver Optic	9.75	8.25	7.75	12.75	9.5	10.5	11	8.25
Rimfire Revolver Iron	11.5	10	9	14.25	10.25	12	12	9

All times in seconds, from scsa.org/classification. Outer Limits is a four-string, best-three stage; the other seven are best four of five — here are the eight stages and how each is shot.

Where these numbers come from

Nobody publishes this plainly, so: the peak times are not a committee’s estimate of a good time. Appendix A4 of the rulebook says they were built from real winning performances — “PST’s were created by taking an average of the 2014 and 2015 World Speed Shooting Championship (WSSC) stage winning times for each stage and division. Those numbers were then further reviewed and where appropriate, modified… The WSSC PST’s will be reviewed annually, and if appropriate, adjusted.” So 100% is, roughly, the pace that won a world championship stage a decade ago.

The arithmetic itself is the one thing that is not in the rulebook. Appendix A4 defines the peak time, its provenance and the class thresholds, but never states the formula; that appears only on the SCSA website, which puts it this way: “Your percentage is defined as total_peak_time/total_stage_time.” That is what the calculator above computes.

Why this table has 16 divisions and the rulebook has 11

Because they answer different questions. Appendix D of the rulebook lists eleven equipment divisions — what you are allowed to compete with. Classification uses sixteen, because five of those eleven (Rimfire Pistol, Rimfire Rifle, Rimfire Revolver, Revolver and Pistol Caliber Carbine) are each measured against separate peak times for an optics version and an iron-sighted version. Eleven plus those five splits is sixteen. Pick the row that matches your sights, not just your gun: choosing the optics row when you shot irons will overstate your percentage badly.

One naming wrinkle to expect on your result card. The rulebook (Appendix A2) and the peak-time table above both call these divisions Rimfire Pistol Optics and Rimfire Rifle Optics. The abbreviation key on SCSA’s own classification page is the outlier — it expands RFPO and RFRO as “Open” rather than “Optics”. Same division either way.

A maxed-out stage does not count

If every counted string on a stage ran to the 30-second limit — a stage total of 120 seconds, or 90 on Outer Limits — SCSA does not treat it as a very slow stage. It records it as a DNF and leaves it out: “Stages that have been assigned a default of 30 seconds per string (120 seconds on a 5 string stage, 90 on a 4 string stage) are considered DNFs and are not included in your classification calculation.” Enter one above and the calculator will say so and exclude it, the same way.

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Checked against the SCSA Rules, edition 2026-03, on 31 July 2026.

Spot a mistake?

Rules change and pages fall behind. I keep these as current as I can — if something here doesn't match the rulebook you're holding, tell me and I'll fix it.

— Michael Minik