how to make shooting sports flourish?
- Thread starter bangbang
- Start date
This may be true in your area or specifically your club, but here in Ottawa our club is growing. Membership has grown and targets thrown are up. We also have several new shooters that have joined the NSSA and are participating in registered shoots.
We have 5 fields that can be used for skeet, five stand or wobble. Our NSSA skeet fields are at capacity on many Sundays. We also have a five stand setup that is booming and we are starting to see a decent amount of action on our trap field.
In the next month we will also be setting up a skeet field as an "international" skeet field on an experimental basis to give our shooters a chance to see what the international game is about.
I was down in Waterford on the weekend and that club seems to be in great shape also.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
How to make shooting sports flourish?
Replace all the provincial CFOs who have a hate on for our recreational sports and continue to pile on, a never-ending deluge of 'safety' requirements for our ranges.
Replace all the provincial CFOs who have a hate on for our recreational sports and continue to pile on, a never-ending deluge of 'safety' requirements for our ranges.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
The future of the shooting sports is with the younger shooters. Not only do we need to encourage younger shooters, we need to take steps to make shooting more affordable. As far as clubs go, in Alberta I do not remember the last new club but I can think if many that have closed down and land given up for other use. Very little land is being approved for the start of clubs. We have to support the existing clubs and get out and shoot and encourage like minded to do the same. Next time, try to think of a newbie that may like to join you.
Exactly. Very important to welcome and encourage shooters as young as we can. Getting new shooters that will wade through the hoops put up by older members out here is brutal.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Within Alberta a considerable stumbling block is government bureaucracy constantly niggling at our club funds. Landscaping does not come cheap and those berms are consistantly too low at every inspection. One never seems to get to a point where pistol/rifle range improvements are no longer needed. They are nickel & diming us currently.
Not yet. Have you ever been told you can't shoot lead anymore?
There is no doubt that the local CFOs and the public in general are going to do whatever they can do to make gun club life difficult.
Most if not all clubs have been tagged by the CFO for something or another. Many have lost parts of facilities due to this. You are right, the environment sucks from an regulatory side.
We all have challenges. You can work through them or you can just quit.
I am currently reaping the benefits of a crapload of work one of my organizations has put into a Junior Program. Kids are coming out and having fun together (and the little buggers are shooting really well too).
Q: How can we turn this around?
A: What are you willing to do?
Brad.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I have plenty of volunteer hours invested in my club. I just notice from the sidelines the perpetual list of range 'improvements' handed to our executive board every time we have an inspection. The massive s@cking of club funds has to end sometime right?? The word unreasonable comes to mind. Regarding lead this is old news here as we do not shoot shotguns over water. The base skeet range had to shut down but that was sometime in the 1990s because the range extended over a stream.
It's not my intention to discount what you've done, nor the ridiculous BS that has been downloaded from the regulatory bodies.
If you get caught up in it all, it is easy to throw your hands up and quit. That means they win. You need to work through it, and/or look past it. Let's not dwell on our lost battles.
To the answer the original question, we need to keep actively working to keep the shooting sports flourishing. It does work. It does pay off.
Brad.
Increase Demand.
New shooters, volunteer time to fix up your range and keep it attractive and up to spec.
Local PR. Charity shoots, newbie introductory days. Scouts/Cubs/Guides/Brownies (all this requires volunteer ROs)
Sight-in your hunting rifle days.
Media shoots (as shooters, not targets).
New shooters, volunteer time to fix up your range and keep it attractive and up to spec.
Local PR. Charity shoots, newbie introductory days. Scouts/Cubs/Guides/Brownies (all this requires volunteer ROs)
Sight-in your hunting rifle days.
Media shoots (as shooters, not targets).
If it dies it is because WE haven't invited enough new shooters out to experience the fun you can have. Every time I bring out new shooters, they love it. But, we need to set the hook in them. Keep inviting them out, don't just wait for them to phone you.
Avalonthas
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toronto ON
PAL Licenses and Firearm ownership continue to go up
While our facilities to shoot (ranges, and equally crown land) continue to diminish, hence the perception the sport is dwindling
More folks need to obtain range membership, invite folks out and get them into the sports, and it will naturally grow as new shooters speak out, mobilize, and organize to have our land and clubs returned
While our facilities to shoot (ranges, and equally crown land) continue to diminish, hence the perception the sport is dwindling
More folks need to obtain range membership, invite folks out and get them into the sports, and it will naturally grow as new shooters speak out, mobilize, and organize to have our land and clubs returned
Prohibitive cost to shoot is one reason (even for members) Example - I am a member at Waterford but my kid is not, so I pay one rate and he has to pay about $1.50 a round more. How does that encourage young shooters? Would it not be better to let mebers kids shoot at member rates?
I am a member at another club and members kids under 18 shoot free. Guess where I go to take my kid shooting?
We have tried to advertise club results (for example of league Trap shoots) but there are members who didnt want their name in the paper (paranoid about theft)
Th future of target shooting (clays/skeet/trap) lies with the young, and until we come up with ways to get them interested it is not going to flourish.
I am a member at another club and members kids under 18 shoot free. Guess where I go to take my kid shooting?
We have tried to advertise club results (for example of league Trap shoots) but there are members who didnt want their name in the paper (paranoid about theft)
Th future of target shooting (clays/skeet/trap) lies with the young, and until we come up with ways to get them interested it is not going to flourish.
It is my understanding that Waterford has a fantastic Junior Shooer program. I can't speak to membership rates, but I understand that Junior shooters do shoot at a discount, and perhaps some other perks.
Brad.
