diff --git a/houston/src/pages/Report.tsx b/houston/src/pages/Report.tsx
index 0556df9..97c15e9 100644
--- a/houston/src/pages/Report.tsx
+++ b/houston/src/pages/Report.tsx
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import L from 'leaflet';
 import Button from '@mui/material-next/Button';
 import { red, blue, green, yellow, purple, grey } from '@mui/material/colors';
 import { post_targets, pull_targets } from "../utilities/pull_targets.ts";
-import { MatchedTarget, IdentifiedTarget, Bottle, ODLCColor, ODLCShape, GPSCoord, oDLCShapeToJSON, oDLCColorToJSON, BottleDropIndex, bottleDropIndexToJSON } from '../protos/obc.pb';
+import { MatchedTarget, IdentifiedTarget, Bottle, ODLCColor, ODLCShape, GPSCoord, oDLCShapeToJSON, oDLCColorToJSON, BottleDropIndex } from '../protos/obc.pb';
 
 type UpdateItemFunction = () => void;
 
@@ -41,26 +41,64 @@ function Image({item, matchedItems, updateMatched}: ImageProps) {
         if (value !== null) {
             bottleIndex = value;
         }
+
+        console.log('start bottleIndex', bottleIndex);
         
         const tempMatched = matchedItems;
 
+        console.log('start tempMatched', tempMatched)
+
         const removeItemIndex = matchedItems.findIndex((itemX) => itemX.Target?.id === item.id);
 
-        const updateTargetIndex = matchedItems.findIndex((itemX) => itemX.Bottle?.Index ? bottleDropIndexToJSON(itemX.Bottle.Index) === bottleIndex : null);
+        console.log('start removeItemIndex', removeItemIndex)
+
+        const updateTargetIndex = matchedItems.findIndex((itemX) => {
+            if (itemX.Bottle === undefined) {
+                return false;
+            }
+
+            console.log("itemX", itemX.Bottle.Index);
 
-        if (updateTargetIndex != removeItemIndex) {
-            console.log("updateTargetIndex", updateTargetIndex);
-            console.log("tempMatched2", tempMatched);
-            const temp = tempMatched[updateTargetIndex].Target;
-            tempMatched[updateTargetIndex].Target = item;
+            // hack because for some reason the indices are being sent as letters as they are in the enum
+            // instead of the 1-5 values
 
-            // console.log("tempMatched1", tempMatched[removeItemIndex].Target);
-            console.log("tempMatched", tempMatched[updateTargetIndex]);
-            if (removeItemIndex !== -1){
-                tempMatched[removeItemIndex].Target = temp;
+            // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
+            return ((itemX.Bottle.Index as any) == bottleIndex);
+        });
+
+        console.log('start updateTargetIndex', updateTargetIndex);
+
+        // this mess is so bad but at every point it made sense to add a tiny little hack
+        // so it would just work
+        if (updateTargetIndex == -1) {
+            if (bottleIndex >= 'A' && bottleIndex <= 'F') {
+                const target = {
+                    "Bottle": {
+                        "Index": bottleIndex
+                    }
+                // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
+                } as any; // love typescript
+                tempMatched.push(target as MatchedTarget);
+            } else {
+                alert("cannot find a bottle with that index");
+                return;
+            }
+        } else {
+            if (updateTargetIndex != removeItemIndex) {
+                console.log("updateTargetIndex", updateTargetIndex);
+                console.log("tempMatched2", tempMatched);
+                const temp = tempMatched[updateTargetIndex].Target;
+                tempMatched[updateTargetIndex].Target = item;
+
+                // console.log("tempMatched1", tempMatched[removeItemIndex].Target);
+                console.log("tempMatched", tempMatched[updateTargetIndex]);
+                if (removeItemIndex !== -1){
+                    tempMatched[removeItemIndex].Target = temp;
+                }
             }
         }
 
+
         const res = await post_targets(tempMatched);
         
         if (res) {
diff --git a/houston/src/utilities/pull_targets.ts b/houston/src/utilities/pull_targets.ts
index 5148b46..364529f 100644
--- a/houston/src/utilities/pull_targets.ts
+++ b/houston/src/utilities/pull_targets.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { BottleDropIndex, IdentifiedTarget, ManualTargetMatch, MatchedTarget } from '../protos/obc.pb';
+import { IdentifiedTarget, ManualTargetMatch, MatchedTarget } from '../protos/obc.pb';
 
 /**
  * 
@@ -54,20 +54,22 @@ export async function post_targets(targets: MatchedTarget[]) {
     };
 
     targets.forEach((target) => {
-        switch (target.Bottle?.Index) {
-            case BottleDropIndex.A:
+        // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
+        switch (target.Bottle?.Index as any) {
+            // hack because these are strings instead of num values for some reason
+            case "A":
                 matchings.bottleAId = target.Target?.id || -1;
                 break;
-            case BottleDropIndex.B:
+            case "B":
                 matchings.bottleBId = target.Target?.id || -1;
                 break;
-            case BottleDropIndex.C:
+            case "C":
                 matchings.bottleCId = target.Target?.id || -1;
                 break;
-            case BottleDropIndex.D:
+            case "D":
                 matchings.bottleDId = target.Target?.id || -1;
                 break;
-            case BottleDropIndex.E:
+            case "E":
                 matchings.bottleEId = target.Target?.id || -1;
                 break;
             default:
@@ -75,6 +77,16 @@ export async function post_targets(targets: MatchedTarget[]) {
         }
     });
 
+    // -1 value gets set to 0 because 0 is the null value, but 0 is a real value we want to
+    // send, so we artificially increment by 1.
+    // that way when the OBC sees 1 it knows it is actually referring to target 0, and if it
+    // sees 0 then it knows that it was referring to a target you aren't rematching
+    matchings.bottleAId++;
+    matchings.bottleBId++;
+    matchings.bottleCId++;
+    matchings.bottleDId++;
+    matchings.bottleEId++;
+
     const data = await fetch('/api/targets/matched', {
         method: 'POST',
         headers: {