Par timer vs. shot timer: what's the difference?

Updated 22 October 2026 · 3 min read

Search for a par timer app and you'll find plenty that beep on time. Fewer of them listen. The difference decides what a rep tells you: whether you beat the beep, or exactly how fast you were.

The short answer

A par timer gives a start beep and a second beep when your time is up, and that's all: it doesn't listen. A shot timer hears your shots and records when each one happened, so you see your first shot and every split. Most shot timers have a par mode too, so a shot timer can do everything a par timer does, but not the other way round.

What a par timer does

A par time is a time limit for a task: draw and fire one shot, reload, or engage two targets. You set it on the timer and press start, and after a start delay the first beep tells you to go. When the par time is up, a second beep sounds. If you finished before it, you're on par.

A par timer can't tell whether you did. You judge each rep yourself: done before the beep, with a sight picture you'd accept? Many par timers repeat the cycle with a rest in between, so you can run ten reps without touching the phone. That also makes a par timer a handy interval timer for dry-fire reps.

What a shot timer does

A shot timer listens. It gives the start beep, hears each shot through its microphone and stores the time of every one. When you stop, it shows your total time, the time to your first shot and the split between each pair of shots.

That's how IPSC, USPSA and IDPA stages are timed: the range officer says “make ready” and “stand by”, the beep starts the clock, and your last shot stops it. Dedicated shot timers almost always have a par mode as well, with one or more par beeps.

When a par timer is enough

In dry fire there is no bang. A click is too quiet for most timers to hear reliably, and you don't need the numbers: the par beep tells you whether the rep was fast enough. For dry fire, a par timer is all you need.

Par work also exposes a flinch. If the front sight dips as you press the trigger to beat the beep, the par is too fast for clean technique. Add a tenth or two until the press stays clean, then work it back down. The dry-fire par drills have starting par times for five classic drills.

When you want shot detection

On the range, the numbers are the point. A par timer only tells you whether you beat the beep; a shot timer tells you by how much, and where the time went: a slow draw, a long first split, a reload that cost a second.

Detection also means you don't have to guess a par. Shoot the drill a few times, look at your splits, and set your next par from what you actually ran.

One app for both

Many par timer apps only beep, and some say so in their description. That's fine if all you do is dry fire. If you also want splits on the range, pick an app that hears your shots. Free shot timer apps compared shows which ones do.

Simple Shot Timer does both, free on Android and iPhone. Choose Settings → Drill mode → Par and set the Duration, the Repeat count and the Interval between beeps (the rest between reps). Shots are detected in Par mode too, so the review shows the splits of every cycle. For quiet practice at home, set the Volume to 0 and train on the screen flash (keep Visual flash on beep switched on).