Trying to make it interesting

[icecold]

Hi guys/gals.
So our club has a very small following of trap shooters, ( same 4 or 5 guys) seems there is a lot of interest or at least folks talk it up about coming out to a evening of trap, but consistent showing is not happening.
We usually shoot 4 rounds of 25 which most agree that that is enough. We have fun, we all get along, we all pitch in to set up and clean up.
I was thinking if there was some way we could entice more shooters to play more often. Something like a score board that shows progress, rewards for improvements, high scores etc, but geared toward the novice shooters.
Any thoughts on how I could structure this concept?
Thanks

 

[Bigbubba]

Something we did a long time ago was have buddy shoots.
You and your buddy both stand side by side as do all the others (at say 23yds, but we did 27)
Person 1 calls for the bird and shoots. If they hit, Person 2 does not shoot. If P2 shoots at a dead bird it is a loss
If P1 misses, P2 shoots. It is either dead or not.

Then the next pair shoot, same rotation as regular trap
Shoot 5 birds from each station (each person might not shoot 25 shots)

The next time it is Pair 1's turn to shoot, P2 calls for the bird - so they alternate

Draw for buddies, so the teams are not stacked, or put a Novice with a Frank the Spank calibre shooter....
Maybe put in 2 bucks each and the winners get half, club gets half..

 

[bdft]

Hold a turkey shoot and give away frozen turkeys for prizes. Include events like the buddy shoot, Annie Oakley etc. Have a hidden score, that is, draw the winning score from a hat. That encourages new shooters to compete with the pros. Who knows what the winning score will be. We shoot poker hands. For every bird you hit, you get a card. Best poker hand wins. We also shoot a round of trap and then your score becomes your handicap. If you're good you shoot from the 25. The biggest thing is to advertise the hell out of it and emphasize that people can bring any shotgun. Many people stay away because they think they need an expensive competition gun. You have to make it easy for people. It is a long uphill battle to get more trap shooters.

 

[the spank]

18194814[/URL]]Something we did a long time ago was have buddy shoots.
You and your buddy both stand side by side as do all the others (at say 23yds, but we did 27)
Person 1 calls for the bird and shoots. If they hit, Person 2 does not shoot. If P2 shoots at a dead bird it is a loss
If P1 misses, P2 shoots. It is either dead or not.

Then the next pair shoot, same rotation as regular trap
Shoot 5 birds from each station (each person might not shoot 25 shots)

The next time it is Pair 1's turn to shoot, P2 calls for the bird - so they alternate

Draw for buddies, so the teams are not stacked, or put a Novice with a Frank the Spank calibre shooter....
Maybe put in 2 bucks each and the winners get half, club gets half..

We used to the same quite often. We'd put in $5 per shooter and pair five novices with 5 seasoned shooters. There was $50 in the pot from the 10 shooters. We shot in turn until each pair shot two targets per station. We would alternate first shooter and back-up shooter each taking a turn on each station. The club got $20 for the targets and the winning team split $30 so $15 per shooter. We also did the same thing with turkeys handing out two turkeys to the winning team. We also did miss and out shoots. $5 per shooter. Each shooter took a shot in turn from station 3 starting at 19 yards. If you miss you are out. If you hit it you advanced to the next shot which was then shot from the 21 yard then 23-25-27 and kept going two yards back until we ran out of room or a winner was determined. The winner got half the pot, $25 and the club retained the other half. It was alot of fun and the club made good $ on a few targets which was a great way to donate to repairs, projects, upcoming shoot prizes etc. We also did monthly fun leagues team shoots combined with a breakfast or supper. Once a month over a three to four month span.

 

[the spank]

18194920[/URL]]Hold a turkey shoot and give away frozen turkeys for prizes. Include events like the buddy shoot, Annie Oakley etc. Have a hidden score, that is, draw the winning score from a hat. That encourages new shooters to compete with the pros. Who knows what the winning score will be. We shoot poker hands. For every bird you hit, you get a card. Best poker hand wins. We also shoot a round of trap and then your score becomes your handicap. If you're good you shoot from the 25. The biggest thing is to advertise the hell out of it and emphasize that people can bring any shotgun. Many people stay away because they think they need an expensive competition gun. You have to make it easy for people. It is a long uphill battle to get more trap shooters.

We did all those things too at the clubs I belonged to in North Bay and Powassan and drew good numbers.

 

[icecold]

Hold a turkey shoot and give away frozen turkeys for prizes. Include events like the buddy shoot, Annie Oakley etc. Have a hidden score, that is, draw the winning score from a hat. That encourages new shooters to compete with the pros. Who knows what the winning score will be. We shoot poker hands. For every bird you hit, you get a card. Best poker hand wins. We also shoot a round of trap and then your score becomes your handicap. If you're good you shoot from the 25. The biggest thing is to advertise the hell out of it and emphasize that people can bring any shotgun. Many people stay away because they think they need an expensive competition gun. You have to make it easy for people. It is a long uphill battle to get more trap shooters.

Yes, we do have three turkey shoots a year. Mostly doing the hidden score so that everyone stands a chance to win. We have reasonable turn outs, but what we don’t have is decent turnouts for the regular trap nights/Sunday mornings.

 

[icecold]

It just occured to me that someone mentioned that a bbq/trap day. That may garner interest, but I know that would just put us few to work as well….may be wortha try.

 

[the spank]

18195149[/URL]]It just occured to me that someone mentioned that a bbq/trap day. That may garner interest, but I know that would just put us few to work as well….may be wortha try.

It's been 43 years since my introduction to shooting clays. I've been involved in clubs since my late teens and one constant always rings true. 99% of the work is performed by a few key members. You'll get fed up hitting your head against a wall trying to get new people out to take part. You have to enjoy taking on the work load to make it happen or just say to heck with it and do what you have to for your core nucleus of shooters and not beat yourself up trying to garner interest from those who don't share your passion. If one were to keep a graph of the interest in taking part at a club from year to year with the most participation to least it would look like a series of capital W's connected together. Lol

 

[Gatehouse]

Team trap worked well for our club.

First trap shoot of the season shooters got ranked 1 2 3 4.

Then made all the teams up of differing skill levels so even if you were low skill your team could win. The better skilled shooters could coach their team members. Nobody would personally come last.

 

[bdft]

Yes, we do have three turkey shoots a year. Mostly doing the hidden score so that everyone stands a chance to win. We have reasonable turn outs, but what we don’t have is decent turnouts for the regular trap nights/Sunday mornings.

That's a tough one. We need to get people thinking of trap/skeet/sporting clays like they do golf. The idea that they can go out for a round of trap on Sunday morning.
However, if the government regulated golf like they do firearms, it might not be so popular.