Pendulum is the cleanest stage in Steel Challenge and the most honest one. Four plates in a straight line, all at the same distance, evenly spaced, and a stop plate close in on the center line. There is no clever route and nothing to figure out. It measures exactly one thing: how fast you move the gun between targets and stop it where you meant to.
Two 10-inch plates, two 12-inch plates and one 12-inch stop plate. One 3′×3′ box. Five strings, best four counted.
Our own scale plan of SC-106 · Pendulum, drawn from the dimensions published in Appendix B of the SCSA Competition Rules, edition 2026-03. Distances are measured from the shooting box; offsets are from the center line; heights are to the top of the target.
| Target | Size | Distance from the box | Offset from center | Height to top |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round plate | 10 or 12 inches | 54 ft | 12 ft left | 6 ft |
| Round plate | 10 or 12 inches | 54 ft | 6 ft left | 5 ft |
| Round plate | 10 or 12 inches | 54 ft | 6 ft right | 5 ft |
| Round plate | 10 or 12 inches | 54 ft | 12 ft right | 6 ft |
| 12″ stop plate | 12 inches | 30 ft | on the center line | 5 ft |
Pendulum is the one stage where the standard targets sit at two different heights: the outer pair is set to 6 feet to the top and the inner pair to 5 feet (rule 2.1). The rulebook diagram does not label which of the four positions carries the 10-inch plates and which carries the 12-inch, so we have not guessed.
The stage peak is the aggregate of your 4 counted strings. Divide it by 4 and you get a par time you can set on a shot timer today.
| Division | Stage peak | Per string |
|---|---|---|
| Rimfire Rifle Optics | 9 s | 2.25 s |
| Rimfire Pistol Optics | 9.5 s | 2.38 s |
| PCC Optics | 9 s | 2.25 s |
| Open | 11.25 s | 2.81 s |
| Carry Optics | 12.75 s | 3.19 s |
| Production | 13 s | 3.25 s |
| Single Stack | 13.5 s | 3.38 s |
| Iron Sight Revolver | 14.25 s | 3.56 s |
Peak times verified against SCSA’s live classification system on September 8, 2026. The full 16-division table is on our peak times page.
Rule 2.1 says every round target in Steel Challenge is 5 feet to the top — except on Pendulum, where two of the round targets are set to 6 feet. That is the only height exception in the whole rulebook, and it is why the stage does not feel as flat as it looks on paper. Your gun is not just swinging left to right, it is stepping up and down a foot at each end.
Range crews get a two-inch tolerance on target height, so expect small variation club to club.
Everything is at 54 feet. There is no near target to be easy and no far target to be hard. Every plate is the same shot. That means your stage time is almost entirely transition time, and Pendulum is the best diagnostic on the calendar: if your Pendulum percentage is well below your other stages, your problem is not marksmanship, it is how you move the gun.
Six feet of lateral movement between adjacent plates at 54 feet is roughly a 6-degree swing. Do it four times and add a 30-foot drop back to center.
Same five targets, eight different problems. The full set, plus the data behind them:
Sources
SCSA Competition Rules, edition 2026-03, effective March 1, 2026 — Appendix B (stage diagrams), rule 2.1 (target height) and the chapters cited inline. Peak times from SCSA’s live classification system, retrieved September 8, 2026. The diagram above is our own drawing made from the published dimensions. If a measurement here does not match the stage as your club sets it, the rulebook and your match director are the authority — and we would like to know about it.
The date under the headline is the last time we checked this page against its sources — not the day it was first written. Rulebooks get amended, regulations change and season dates move, so we review these guides on a regular cycle and re-stamp the date whenever we revise one. If you find something here that has changed before we caught it, email [email protected] or tell us at the counter; we will verify it against the source and correct it.
We write these because people ask us at the counter. Everything in them we either sell, service, or shoot ourselves — and if you'd rather talk it through than read about it, come in.
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