You just answered your own question.
Possible Skeet Field For Sherwood Park
- Thread starter stubblejumper
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You just answered your own question.
BattleRife
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I do not agree with the sentiments here about "old guard" and trying to sell the idea to people who care for nothing but trap. It's not an open vote; you don't have to convince anybody but the executive committee, and I don't think anybody in that room was against having a skeet range, per se. They were against spending that much club money to build a skeet range when there is no real proof that there is any demand to shoot skeet.
So how would a person prove whether a skeet field would be utilized? The vast majority of the membership are probably unaware that a skeet field was even being considered. As to the sentiments of the executive, I was present on site when the CFO came out, as well as being present when a skeet field was being talked about at other locations, and while several executive members were very open minded and willing to consider the proposal, I overheard at least a couple of them immediately declare that they had no interest in skeet, and that nobody would utilize it. It was clear from the first time that it was mentioned that certain people were against the idea from the start. When you have even a couple of influential members that are against an idea, that idea is usually doomed from the start. In any case, at this point it isn't going to happen, and there is no point discussing it further at this time.
BattleRife
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A past president of the Edmonton Gun Club is a friend of mine, I spoke to him about the regional demand for skeet as part of our diligence for making this decision. He is convinced there is no demand. Their skeet field crumbled due to neglect over several years, any efforts to revive it were made by only a couple of people and were never sustained. Several components of the skeet setup were retasked to the 5-stand layout, and he claims virtually no one misses skeet.
And at our local club, there are always people shooting skeet whenever the range is open, but there is virtually no interest in trap. Most times nobody bothers to even open up the trap house. In most cases, the amount of interest for a given discipline depends greatly on who is looking after that particular discipline. If the key people are interested in trap, then trap will end up the predominant discipline at that club, and if the key people are more interested in skeet, then skeet will be the predominate discipline at that club.
the spank
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This exactly!! Which is the reason at my old home club the executive was setup to not just have a Pres, Vice Pres, Secretary/Treasurer and 4 directors but to have 4 directors each of whom was elected to represent and be responsible for the promotion and maintenance of each discipline such as trap, skeet etc.. It worked very well as each turned in financial reports etc. to be weighed for allocation of funds for improvements etc. and saved any infighting. I know here in Lloyd the skeet field is busy when it is working properly. Nobody in charge would have it repaired the past two seasons and it sat empty most of this season. When it was working there were squads always waiting their turn. The local sporting clays enthusiasts always said they enjoyed it because it was much closer to town than the sporting clays course and much cheaper to shoot. They said they appreciated both those things between visits to the sporting clays club. The one thing I noticed and a few have eluded to is that trap is a much tougher discipline for them than either sporting clays or skeet. Many have told me the trap field gives them fits trying to figure out how they can shoot such "awful" scores in their opinion and I can say watching a few they do seem to struggle at it but being a long time trapshooter I can recognize the suttle differences in shooting styles that cause issues going from the instinctive style of sporting clays to the fixed position style of American trap.
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Yes, I offered to put brand new machines in the fields and set everything up to run at no cost to the club. i was told the power didn't work.
I offered to set up 12v and was told there was no interest.
I guaranteed 20,000 targets a year (prepaid) and was told.... no. we dont want skeet here.
So, i guess I got my answer.
Having said that, that Alberta International Skeet Shooting Association could be approached to provide funding if there was intent to build/resurrect a skeet field in Alberta.
Lastly, the skeet field at BHSC is only 'international' when i go and set it up to train for a hour or two. I always put it back when i'm finished.... but I dont think it is checked for nasa 'legal' targets on a regular basis.
the spank
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Come build it at our club facility in Lloyd. We'd be tickled to death to have it. Even the old felia's in charge wouldn't say no to that!!
That doesn't sound like a case of no interest by the members, but rather someone running the club simply doesn't like skeet for some reason.
the spank
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BINGO!! We have quite a number who want to shoot skeet but because the range is down with issues are shooting trap just to have something to shoot but they are not enjoying it 1/10th as much and I don't blame them. We all have our preferred choice of interest. In fact we have had many non returning shooters this past year because of the lack of skeet. Shooting revenue was halved!! A club doesn't survive that way.
I like both trap and skeet. Skeet is my fun game and trap is my serious(competitive) game.
We set Beaverhill Skeet range to international skeet speeds only when we get there to shoot international skeet. Otherwise they are set to NSSA speeds. You can buy membership from Beavershill and shoot skeet as much as you want.
I am a member at Beaverhill, but I am not going to pay sporting clays prices to shoot skeet. Our range in Camrose is back in operation, so I can shoot 10 minutes from my house for $5 per round.
