Pistol Silhouette National Matches. According to the NRA website these matches are gone, done , finished. The reason is lack of participation.
Please read this and think. If we do not use and attend these kinds of national matches they will be GONE. High Power Rifle Silhouette and Smallbore Rifle Silhouette are next on the list.
So instead of complaining about the rain, the wind, Greg, the target setters, driving east, driving west, shooting down hill or uphill or whatever. Close your negative mind and open the positive side. Be glad you can feel the wind and rain and see the targets and hold a rifle. Come out and shoot, meet new people, see old ones, get new ideas, look at old ones. Look at guns look at people and knock down some targets. Be happy for the person that shoots better than you and be happy for the person that does not. Be a participant.
Yankee aka Chad Stamm

Chad, you forgot "too hot" and "too cold" as reasons not to shoot. Chad's post should be a sticky. Silhouette is a grassroots effort. We cannot rely on a sanctioning body to insure the longevity of Silhouette. We have to promote Silhouette ourselves. Nobody is going to do it for us. 2015 is the time to be active. When we moved out to a rural area a few years ago the property had a concrete and steel dog kennel. There was 60 meters between the concrete and our property line. We asked ourselves "What is the best use of this space? What will fit here?" The answer was Air Rifle Silhouette. Scrubbed and wet mopped the Dog Kennel. Already had targets. Already had a outdoor rifle rack. Formally organized a shooting club. Sanctioned the club as a NRA Club. Sent the green form and program schedule to Greg Connor. Ran two or three matches the first year as a test to see if this was going to work. The E-mail group for our Air Rifle group began to grow. Ran full schedule the next year with 2 matches per month scheduled during the good weather months. Sold 10 scorebooks for 2014 and sold them quickly. Ordered 15 scorebooks for 2015. Got two more sets of targets that need to be built. At least one family put a Smallbore rig together after starting with us in Air Rifle. One secret to our success is that we did not try to draw seasoned shooters from long drives away the cost of fuel being what it is. Instead, we worked on developing new shooters that live within a five mile radius. We let them borrow rifles until they shoot so much that they feel guilty and buy their own. The result was that shooters are driving almost 3 hours one way because we run good matches with no drama. I post this long reply to encourage others to think outside of the box to promote Silhouette. Look at the folks in Houston. They have super matches in a flood plain. Look at Baton Rouge. They held Air Rifle Silhouette matches in a person's backyard that resulted in a facility that holds a National Event. Look at Team Hatch in Louisiana. The Hatch family saw that they had the distance inside a farm building to hold a Match and they are starting out with a NRA Regional. The list goes on and on.

I'm sorry but without a sanctioning body the game has no unified legitimacy. Range insurance for organized shooting events all ask for the sanctioning body to determine rates. Without the standards provided by a sanctioning body its just a carnival. The Silhouette department needs a tune up. Chad will confirm that over time the Nationals have deteriorated because of mismanagement ....for example, last year Greg insisted on resets on banks of 5 although the match could have run more efficiently by assigning two bays ....10 targets with a 30 second delay between each 5. Plus no effort is made to hustle giveaways or prizes....Greg needs help or maybe we need a new director before its too late

I'm retired on a fixed LOW income, others in our group, are working with a family[blue color], some with other interests to spend their money. Nationals are furthest from their minds, but I still post. With the price of .22LR continuing on the rise + hard to find the past 2 years, might be a contributing factor why we did not have 3 new shoorters return in 2014. Or decided they did not like the sport. I' working to keep SB rifle alive with NRA tournaments in our region of the country.

Some clubs are now shooting for the fun of it. Directors to run NRA tournaments are retiring with no one who what's to fill the responsibility and commitment it takes. That has happened a to two clubs in our area or hours drive of each other, including us. One club has 25 weekly shooters, put $5.00 in the pot, and have a banquet at the end of the season. Their former director keeps track of the scores and have never been able to get an answer from him why no more NRA Tournaments.

Yes, it would be nice to attend the Nationals or the Southern, but my wife is not into that sort of thing. If I go anywhere, it is with her too. The next time SB rifle is out west, my wife would stay with friends in Phoenix. We have talked about that.

At one time SB and HP Nationals were at different locales. Raton and Ridgeway for HP . But SB moved around the country...so folks with limited availability got a chance to compete in a Nationals when one was little closer to home. We should go back to that...it brought in a lot of new faces to National competition

Is there any reason why we (the NRA members) can't select a club to hold this year's Pistol Silhouette National matches ?

I didn't think so.

Or better yet, let's coordinate on 1 day when a club in each region all hold a shoot at the same time. Then combine our results. Yes, weather and wind conditions may be different, but, that's no different than a morning (dead calm air) vs an afternoon shoot (wind gusts pick up) at the same range. We would need 1 club from: East Coast, South, Midwest, Western, heck, how about 1 from our Aussie friends too?

This would be grass roots (the core of the NRA charge) effort at it's finest.

You need a club to offer/bid for the Pistol Nationals. I bet all sorts of clubs would bid for the SB nationals but for the policy to keep SB and HP at the same club

You should contact Jason about the NRA and national. Remember the NRA has the belief that they (Greg C) and company have to attend the nationals. They feel that if the numbers are less than the magic 50 then it is not warranted to hold a nationals. Jason was able to bypass this and hold the airgun nationals. Precedence is set do not see why this could not apply for Pistol SIlhouette.

You will just have to keep in mind the finances of running such a match with less than 50. I have always said for Silhouette the first round down range costs a club 1,000. Target setters, sanctioning fees, etc. And the 1,000 does not include prizes or trophies.

So, how much do all thoes reward points cost?

Biggest expense for the nationals is greg and his camp followers right after the real trophys..

I still don't understand why donations from suppliers can't be used. You know, like at Pe Ell.

Jerry,

It is my belief it is simply economics. If you own a business to you give your product away or develop product for a shooting sport that have 50 shooters at nationals or one that has a larger draw? An area USPSA match in Houston draws over 200 shooters, one of the IDPA monthly matches her draw 80+ shooters.

Greg

I agree with the economics analysis but ex[lain why a bench rest regional with 40 shooters gets give away barrels, scopes, dies and all manner of bullets and powder? You think somebody isn't hustling for goodies? Mark my words talk up the donors(when you get them) buy their goods. For example Sierra and Lapua's Adam Braverman are the absolute greatest. Ditto for Redding......Berger not at all. And Midway is stand up. Hornady doesn't respond nor Nosler...forget about Leupold. If silhouette drew sponsors we'd get a boost in attendance.....conversely if you got a whole bunch of competitors you draw donors with little or no effort,.

Snake,

How about when a benchers shooter purchases barrels they purchase a dozen. Also keep in mind all the state, regionals, and nationals hit up the shooting industry for prizes. I also disagree that prize table equal shooters. My feeling we are an amateur shooting sport and should want to shoot for the enjoyment not just the prize. Also, I have also financed several guns for Rob Leatham over the years. I like good, enjoyable matches, at a responsible price. Not an expensive match that I am going to finish in the same place I do expensive or not, and the person who wins is still going to win.

Short note: I emailed the Silhouette Tournament Operations Mgr, Tournament Resources Dept, Ms. Chin, and indirectly to Greg as to holding the Silhouette Nationals at different locations for others to participate and be a shorter distance for them....etc. Perhaps they could send feelers out to clubs that might want to host in 2016.....etc. Also, reach out to the club Directors for input and get them involved...etc. I think it was last Friday that I sent myNRA e-mail and did not save in my send box. I don't expect a reply and can only hope have planted some food for thought.

Director of Competition Shooting: [email protected] Chin ad Dennis Willing
Tournament Resources Dept: [email protected] Tonia Forte
Mgr Tournament Operations: tournoprns@nrahq. org Shelly Cramer
Competitive Shooting Division [email protected] Greg and company for distribution.

Perhaps there are others to express opinions/suggestions and write them with your thoughts on Nationals participation by others through out the country. If there was a club in Missouri, KY, TN, IA, Midwest region, I would drive to those locations from So, WI for Nationals. We can talk all we want, but we need to flood the NRA with how they can make improvements to attract more particpants and perhaps be more fun at the same time.

Please add to my NRA contacts list that should be added. Jon

The 10 shooting stations for each animal knocks many out but the killer is being able to hold SB and HP matches back to back. Oh, did I mention is must be held in the summer when school is out? That is the killer for Ben Avery. I couldn't believe all the whining I heard there at the last nationals they hosted.

I have not participated in the forum for several reasons and mainly because some have said that since I do not participate any longer as a competitive shooter or a match director, I just need to quietly fade away. I will; however, reply to this thread and say that Chad is right on. i would say that Bobby, aka Atomicbrh, has really great ideas although he does not see eye to eye with me all the time. There are many individuals making a tremendous effort to support and even try to grow the sport, but there are several reasons for the diminishing turnout, etc. Number one on my list would be Greg Connor and he is not going anywhere. After that I cannot even reply and be politically correct so I will just say that Bobby in Mississippi is doing a great job promoting the sport as well as the Hatch family here and also the group in Baton Rouge.

That being said I will say that the 22 plus years that WGC held the Southern Nationals was really enjoyable and we made many great friends and a few enemies by being very upfront and honest. I think that the main reason for the slow demise of our sport is due to the governing body not listening to the participants. Regardless of what some nay-sayers will comment about us, we were successful because Jerry and I listened to everyone regardless of whether we agreed and made out decision based upon us calling and talking to many shooters and competitors. If you have thin skin, then you do not need to run a match or a tournament. It all boils down to MARKETING and the NRA has done a poor job of this. The sport is NOT dead but needs some tweaking and think outside the box, which the successful matches have done.

I know that I said that I would not post any more since some individuals resent me responding since I do not participate anymore in matches, but Jerry and I along with the Winnsboro Gun Club know a little about how to run successful matches. If anyone wants some advice, please PM me and then the individuals that do not want me to post in this forum will not have to read my posts. I have retired from running ANY matches and ALL competitive shooting venues so have at it if you want to tell me that I do not need to respond here. You will NOT bait me into any of my older type of rants and rages as I am too old but can offer some guidance if asked. Jerry and I do know something about marketing and running successful matches and will definitely give advice if asked. We stole every good idea we had from some individual, club or other shooting venue and did NOT invent anything other than how to piss off a few people.

I sincerely hope that this sport starts to grow as I know that many clubs in our area and on the right track.

David