Low Attedance

[GregG]

I should probably withdraw that. I've only tried it once. I found it to be easier than silhouette.

Dustin, I think you have missed a couple of points to the IDPA sport. Yes it is easier to hit the targets than other sports but a beginner is just as far down the pack as a new silhouette shooter. Both sports are very difficult if you want to perform at top levels. But the sports such as IPDA, IPSC, 4gun all are more like plinking than silhouette. They also as good spectator sports there are a least 3 TV shows dedicated to these sports. Many can be shot competitively with a stock pistol and many require the pistol to be stock.

Please do not take this as I am saying silhouette is too expensive, because you can spend just as much or more on a pistol as a silhouette rifle.

I stopped holding Highpower Silhouette matches here because I could only attract about 4-6 shooters. There we always valid reasons for not showing up, from I forgot; to its too hot, etc. I can also agree that in the south Texas sun in summer it is no fun to hump 55 pound rams all day. I really think down here is it just a mater of the age of the shooters.

I am sick that there is not highpower with in a reasonable distance of my house. I have not answers.

Greg

[Snake]

About 40 minutes from my house is the site of the trap mega facility where the Grand is held yearly. Over 10k competitors show for it and their shotguns are in the 5 figures...Bench Rest firearms are in the thousands and our club will host the World and Nationals where 300 shooters will show....its not cost, its not components...I'm thinking its a prevailing assumption in each competitor that they aren't necessary or wanted.....well...I will now have one less match next year...

[malinois]

Hopefully I can find the componants I need and switch to the other weekends...then I can make a few matches...although after checking the scheds for some clubs I can see most stop shooting in the summer..and wont start shooting again til Sep at leaast the one in my travel range of about 350 miles for a club match.

[atomicbrh]

Dustin is right. I cannot see the rear sight very well on a handgun. I can just show up at a local Steel Challenge match or any Action type Pistol Match with no practice and finish in the top half of the pack in Production. At the normal monthly local USPSA Match there will be around 160 competitors. I shoot a CZ Factory Custom Shadow built by Angus Hobdell's folks in a DOH holster. If I got the proper set up to see the rear sight better and actually practiced my draws I think I could be a contender for the win in local Production matches. If this is so easy why have I not shot a Pistol Match in almost two years? It is because Rifle Silhouette whether it be Air Rifle or Smallbore is more fun for me. In the Action Pistol sports there are hours and hours of standing around, scoring, pasting, painting, RSO or setting up and tearing down the stages while other people are shooting. Action Pistol sports are too much work for what is a few seconds of fun shooting. I am bored except for those few seconds shooting the course of fire. I have never been bored shooting a Rifle Silhouette match. Spotting and shooting make Silhouette non-stop action. There is no down time at most Silhouette matches while the action handgun stuff is 99% non-shooting time. The range set-up time for Rifle Silhouette is very short compared to the Action Handgun sports. I have to practice Silhouette daily or I cannot hit anything on Match day. Dustin is right. No matter what anybody says Silhouette is much more difficult than Action Pistol Sports. In the Action Pistol sports everyone hits every target or shoots until they run out of magazines on their belt. No one misses a target because they shoot all the ammo they can carry or until every steel target is down. In Silhouette one shot per target. When you miss a Silhouette target, the target is standing up there for all the World to see your miss. That is why there are not 160 people at a monthly Silhouette Match. Rifle Silhouette is "too hard" for this instant gratification, everybody gets a trophy society. Most people mentally cannot take leaving all those targets up when they first try Silhouette. We have to keep Rifle Silhouette going in whatever form we can in the current ammo and component crisis. This Sport, one of the few sports that emphasizes true, raw, standing marksmanship is too important to die. We must promote Rifle Silhouette and make it grow in every way possible.

[GregG]

The last post has confused me very much....

I will agree probably silhouette is one of the hardest games to play. However, I do not think the average shooter can just show up and win any action sport. At top levels they are just as hard or harder to win. In fact the "great one" who no one could tought for years cannot win at most USPSA match today (Rob Leatham); as age has got him. To win at a top match you must it seems be 30 or under. In silhouette this does not seem to be the case top shooters are in their 60s.

The difference between most top shooters and the bottom shooters in either sport is the same to ....

As for waiting, I will have to agree a local match there is less down time but at the national level, waiting an hour to shoot for a total of 5 minutes is alot too. Both have down time, is is just how you want to spend it.

I shoot both, enjoy both.

[dustinflint]

I will often set up half scale targets for kids and beginners to shoot at our match. It gets very difficult to do because we have fifth scale resettable's and it's a lot of work to set up rails for the bigger targets. I hear stories of one of the clubs close by that used to set 3/8 scale Targets for anyone to shoot if they want to. The whole point was to get shooters hitting more targets and having more fun. From what I hear a lot of people showed up to the match with the bigger targets, but I also hear stories of 40 and 50 people at a local match before Katrina when everyone just decided to pack up all their hobbies and quit.

Last year, I had the idea that a handicapped silhouette game (similar to golf) might help make the game more popular around here. So, we set up a handicapping system and did a year-long club championship with each match shot with handicaps. Basically we took the average of everyone's previous five scores from standard and from Hunter And gave everyone a handicap (adding to the match score the number needed to get their average to 40). The club championship is decided by match placings over the course of the year and really awards participation and shooting good scores. Plus, we have about eight shoot offs at every local match, which is really cool. The format makes it almost impossible for a master shooter to win the club championship and really benefits the mid-level shooters with higher handicaps but the ability to shoot good scores on occasion. I even donated a $300 Visa gift card and a trophy for the club champion. Even with all that at stake and the fact that literally anyone could win due to the handicaps, it did not increase participation. Our local hard-core guys continue to show up and they enjoyed the game But in the end I ended up winning mostly because the guys that were leading the competition didn't show up to matches at the end of the year. We are doing the same thing this year and it's about the same result. The hard-core guys show up but no one else really pays it much attention.

Also, the younger shooters are hard to get out to the range. Around here, our younger shooters are at the mercy of their parents to bring them to the range and when they can finally come out by themselves, they are just as interested in text messaging and playing on Facebook on a Saturday as they are coming to the range.

I really feel like a handicapping system such as beginners shooting bigger targets or having a numerical handicap and adjusted score is the way to keep new folks in the game until they are good enough to shoot straight up with the best shooters. However, the real challenge is promoting the game and letting people know about it. I was looking at the website of the new professional sporting clays tour that's starting out this year. It has 60 pro-tour shooters that have to qualify to get a tour card each year and they have nine nationally televised events coming up. Silhouette and sporting clays are very similar in that they're both difficult and they both have reactionary targets. The big difference is that if you walk up to a random person and tell them that you are going to go shoot skeet, they know what you mean. If you walk up to a random person and tell them you are going to go shoot silhouette, there is a good chance that they have no idea what you're talking about. Our game needs to be promoted better. The leadership at the silhouette department is severely lacking in this regard. The NRA needs to be in the business of promoting silhouette, not putting on matches and receiving little cards telling them that 12 people showed up to a local match. Until this game gets promoted much better and more people know that it's out there, we are going to continue to lose potential competitors and participation to other things, be them shooting sports or other hobbies that people actually know about.

I started shooting silhouette three years ago because I happened upon something about it on the Internet. I had no idea that it existed before that. It was a complete accident that I found the game and decided to try it. That lack of exposure is no way to grow a sport!

Dustin

[Jerry G]

In most shooting sports a newbee can shoot a decent score. In silhouette most newbees shoot somewhere between 3 and 8. That is a real blow to an ego.

I shot at an indoor silhouette league that was handicaped. One winter we had 70 shooters and had to run 2 different nights. Come spring some of the guys would show up to shoot outdoors and quit after one match because they could only muster 10 to 15. We were lucky to get 8 shooters for our outdoor matches. There are a lot of people can't stand still for 2 1/2 minutes let alone hit anything offhand.

[cedestech]

I started shooting silhouette three years ago because I happened upon something about it on the Internet. I had no idea that it existed before that. It was a complete accident that I found the game and decided to try it. That lack of exposure is no way to grow a sport!

Dustin

Yup, same here. No idea it existed till a few years ago and the first match I saw was the first match I competed in. In the intervening 3-4 years I have seen pleanty of people show up once or just a hand full of matches then quit. It is hella hard and if you don't have control of your ego and thrive with challenge it is definately not the sport for you. It's very much like golf in that respect. You are competing against yourself, the other people around are just there to jack with you.... (Steiger...)

[Snake]

The first match I shot was in 1983 and I used my hunting rifle in 270 with a 3 x 9 scope ...it was a pre-64 Model 70. I shot an 8 and didn't know whether that was good or bad until one of the standard rifle guys commented "not bad".....a lot of 5s and 6s followed until a got a standard rifle in 308 and went to double digits. I actually shot the Nationals in Raton in 1984 in B class.....Our sport is rather public...everybody can see what you hit or didn't hit...most other disciplines have a less public scoring....Its takes a while to realize that no one but you cares about your score

[GregG]

I started shooting silhouette three years ago because I happened upon something about it on the Internet. I had no idea that it existed before that. It was a complete accident that I found the game and decided to try it. That lack of exposure is no way to grow a sport!

Dustin

Yup, same here. No idea it existed till a few years ago and the first match I saw was the first match I competed in. In the intervening 3-4 years I have seen pleanty of people show up once or just a hand full of matches then quit. It is hella hard and if you don't have control of your ego and thrive with challenge it is definately not the sport for you. It's very much like golf in that respect. You are competing against yourself, the other people around are just there to jack with you.... (Steiger...)

Yes but I remember the day you though $200 for a rifle and scope was way too much

[Dee]

That damn hole in the legs of the pig is enough to make you want to wrap your rifle around a pole at times. What other shooting sport has HOLES in the targets?

What would have be a 7 or 8 score on a paper target is a ZERO is silhouette. I think people have a hard time with that.

Dee

[cedestech]

[ very much like golf in that respect. You are competing against yourself, the other people around are just there to jack with you.... (Steiger...)

[/quote]


Yes but I remember the day you though $200 for a rifle and scope was way too much [/quote]


Could not FATHOM a $3K .22 rifle.... still hard but when I shoot more common fare it feels yuky....

[pistolero45]

Snake - I was at the Columbia match, and we had a good turnout. Even had four new shooters, two of whom fired high AA scores! It is unfortunate that the St. Louis and Columbia matches fell on the same date. I would suggest the match directors at Columbia, St. Louis, and Paris, MO communicate prior to setting the yearly schedule.

We are very fortunate to have three silhouette ranges within an hours drive from each other.

And you are right about St. Louis Bench Rest Club having one of the finest ranges in the country!

And BTW, Columbia, MO is having it's May match this weekend (Mothers Day!).

[malinois]

I have this week end off, so I think I will drive up to Camp sumpter for thier smallbore match...

[Snake]

For pete's sake, Paris and Bench Rest are cool,,,but who would pick a rimfire match over high power????? Really.....? My matches are on the net by January....rimfire is great but come on,,,the big gun is what its all about! Bench Rest had its rimfire match last weekend... a whopping 12 showed for that!!!! Fear not I won't pick on you (much).....load up that thunder stick and shoot the man's game Holy smoke pole.....is the recoil getting too much or what? Go to the gym and develop those arms ...don't be scared....I'm AAA and I shoot like crap...you can too and all you got to do is show up...and I take care of everything...even the ridicule No wonder I have such a heck of a time getting sponsors (goodies) for the Regional. Gentlemen and ladies you all are better with a high power rifle that 99% of the folks out there even on your worst day...use those talents