Lots of good points here - and I'll try to address them.
First, we do need more ARS club matches, and the how-to on that question is the natural next step. For the purposes of this poll, I asked everyone to assume there is an ARS match close to them.
Running an ARS club match is super simple. All you need is 45 yards and some targets. We used to run a weekly club match at night from the back porch of a house in a subdivision. If there are folks interested in shooting, setting up a club match is cake.
As for ARS championship matches, the only ones in the country are in Louisiana and Texas, and there are only 4 - Nationals, Chicken Coop Shoot, Texas state and Winnsboro regional - Winnsboro in no more so this year there are only 3. I think the answer to more ARS championship matches is to tack them on to existing state and regional SB and HP matches like was done at Winnsboro. After this year, we plan to have an ARS state championship in conjunction with the Louisiana SB state championship.
Jason wrote:For personal preferences, I have no interest in owning a springer for a competition.
I agree. If I didn't have to have a spring gun to shoot Sporter, I wouldn't own one or ever shoot one. They are a complete pain and having to buy one and maintain it is a big drawback of ARS in my opinion.
Jason wrote:For attendance at a national championship, I also think having two rifle classes would be better. Two rifles can be carried in the same case just like with smallbore and highpower rifles, and ammo for them definitely can be carried easily. Flying with three rifles starts to get very expensive, though. I would also be more likely to travel to a big match where I could shoot more matches. A familiar and attractive weekend format for me would be to have a target rifle match each morning and an open rifle match each afternoon (when there is likely to be more wind), with rifle classification awards and aggregate awards given at the end of the fourth match. It would also be fine with me, and might fit into a few more people's schedules, if there were two matches for target rifle on Saturday and two matches for open rifle on Sunday, with rifle classification awards given after that rifle's matches were done and aggregates given after the second day's matches were done.
The nationals currently solves this problem by having the complete national championship for Sporter on Friday, Open on Saturday and Target on Sunday (60 shot matches every morning and afternoon for 120-shot national match course in every rifle). There is no grand aggregate so if anyone wants to travel to just shoot one or two rifles, that is available. The national championship will always provide a championship for each air rifles that is contemplated by the rules.
SqHunter wrote:I find it interesting that both Cowboy and Air Rifle require more equipement and more money than smallbore.... and smallbore is supposed to be the "race" class that so many people throw off on.
I agree. The "equipment race" in silhouette is an illusion. When you have to stand and shoot unsupported at little targets, you cant buy your way to doing it well.
shooterer wrote:I would vote for 2 classes:
Factory - Stock rifle, fixed stock with no OUTSIDE modifications and any sights, 13 lbs weight. Rifle specs would follow small-bore rifle rules for comb, toe, sight height etc.
Open - anything goes with iron sights only (so I can use my 10m rifle)
I think that fewer restrictions are always better. Weight limits and stock restrictions only make it harder for shooters to affordably get rifles and it makes basically no difference in score. I'd say any air rifle that doesn't damage targets is legal. Maybe require that the scope be in line with the bore and no more than two inches high if we want to avoid chin guns.
We've thought about doing an iron sight airgun match for 10m guns with the targets in closer (at club matches) but there are already way too many ARS rifles.
glen ring wrote: We would certainly buy one very nice open or target air rifle IF there were matches to go to.
This is what we are wondering. Assuming club matches are available, would folks get into ARS if only one rifle was needed to fully compete at any championship match?? Thanks for the comment.
atomicbrh wrote:Why are the 2017 Air Rifle National matches not listed on the back of the 2017 Silhouette Scorebooks?
Don't know. Some years they include it and some years they don't.
atomicbrh wrote:Why are the 2017 Air Rifle National matches not listed in the USA Shooting sports coming events section as other non-silhouette National matches are prominently listed?
Good question. I don't know.
atomicbrh wrote:Why is there no mention of these National matches in a article in the NRA publications(print and online) promoting how great these national matches are before they happen?
Because the NRA doesn't promote silhouette and doesn't plan to promote silhouette.
atomicbrh wrote:Why is there no after action match article with the results and human interest stories like the other national matches?
There are. This is last year's
https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2016/6/2 ... p-results/
atomicbrh wrote:Why does BB Pelletier as in Pyramid Air not feel the need to promote these National matches in his blogs or on the Pyramid Air website in some fashion as he does many other events?
We have tried to get Pyramid Air to sponsor the matches. They say that an event that only draws 40-50 people is not big enough. I hope that will change in the future. We will stay on them and keep asking. I think that the only way to make ARS big is to have the airgun industry take it over.
acorneau wrote:So what can be done to increase participation in air rifle silhouette (ARS)? For me that questions needs to be asked in two ways... "What can we do to increase participation?" -and- "What can the NRA do to increase participation?"
We are looking at what we can do. The NRA will do nothing except possibly support a rule change. We have been told countless times that it's not the NRA's job to promote silhouette.
acorneau wrote:Has anyone gotten any positive response from other air rifle shooters like the Field Target crowd or the 10m USAS/ISSF people? One of our SB/AR guys runs our club's 3-P program but I have yet to see anyone of those folks show up to one of our ARS matches.
We get a few field target guys out to shoot sometimes. I even invented a "field target silhouette" game to be shot along side us at our club matches where the chickens are forced-position kneeling, the pigs are forced-position standing, and the turkeys and rams are freestyle. Haven't had a FT shooter show up yet...
acorneau wrote:On the flip side, the NRA should be looking at what they can do to help clubs make these matches available to clubs across the country such as: using their industry connections to provide subsidized/discounted resettable targets, helping to procure club rifles to borrow, getting distributors to provide discounted pellets to clubs, maybe even having an ARS ambassador travel the country hosting introductory ARS matches for clubs, etc.
The NRA says this is our job as the silhouette community.
acorneau wrote:In the end I think just getting more people to participate in ARS across the country will yield the greatest increase of people at ARS nationals, more than any other rule/equipment changes.
You're right that we need more people. The question is whether the rules and equipment are a hindering factor to getting those people.
Dustin