The Future of IHMSA

[jbolt]

Cupertino is not that far for me. Right now I am driving to Avenal (about 3 hours drive) just to do load testing! My main problem is that I work saturdays, so can only make a sunday match.

you are lucky in that your club has an FFL. all my friends that had an FFL either moved out of state or gave them up. so, I have to use the gun shops and they are the ones giving me the problems with buying one.

Bummer about having to drive to Avenal just to test. I occasionally make it out there for the long range match. If I recall there is a range in Livermore but they went no blue sky? I used to belong to the Diablo club in Concord until they went mental and closed the rifle and pistol ranges. I miss the 200 yd multipurpose range and the lever gun matches.

Every second Wednesday we have our lever action / hunters pistol match. We alternate months with small bore on odd months and pistol cartridge on even months. Very casual. Setup and practice starts around 6-6:30 and we are usually done by 8.

I'm curious what excuses you have gotten for not bringing in a single shot pistol? It seems odd for a fire arm that is exempt and has been clearly defined by the BATFE but then again we are in CA.

You might try calling Eddy's Shooting Sports in Mountain View. I would be surprised if he wouldn't bring an Encore or Contender.

Jay

[35isit]

Ky has the problem of good ranges and no shooters. The range in the banner at the top is Crittenden Ky. It looks a lot better now. The state came in and done a lot of improvements. Lawrenceburg has a great range. It has hosted several regionals and the first two ECC matches. Both ranges have mechanical resets. Recorded timing systems. Everything it takes to make it easy to run a match. Most of the clubs in the WORLD would love to have our setups. But alas we suffer from lackofshooteritis. In the tr-city area Cincinnati, Lexington and Louisville. There must be at least one million people. It's an easy trip to any of the two ranges. Crittenden has two matches a month and offers everything. Not just small bore one weekend and big bore the next. So we should be run over with shooters but we aren't. But the few of us that are left keep trying.

[smalltimer]

4H shooting sports is the only youth oriented shooting organization that has any real participation in my neck-of-the-woods. I wonder if the 4H organization offered silhouette, could start a grass roots movement through the youth. Just a thought.

[35isit]

4H shooting sports is the only youth oriented shooting organization that has any real participation in my neck-of-the-woods. I wonder if the 4H organization offered silhouette, could start a grass roots movement through the youth. Just a thought.

In my estimation no. 4H uses our club every week during the school year. They shoot trap, archery and .22 rifles. All the children and their parents have been invited to our matches. In fact they use our reset chickens for their .22 rifles. They shoot it every two weeks I believe. Not one parent or child has came to a match.

[2whlgeezer]

Interesting. We have held semi formal rifle youth programs the past 2 years. The last day of both we held a "mock" .22 rimfire shoot using our smallbore animals. All the kids (and parents) said they had a great time. We invited them all to shoot at our monthly match, offering to provide gun and ammo for their 1st round . None have ever returned.

[aggshooter]

Have been teaching 4h for 15 years. On & off success. We get kids with the ability to shoot, but school sports takes priority. Have had several try our long range shoot, only one is somewhat regular. On 4h nights, the younger kids just aren't up to the skill level, and we have precious little time for the older kids to shoot a match. We change the methodology every year in search of the right path, but without parents that actively shoot, it is a tough road.

Otoh, our Monday night air rifle league in Jan-Feb has lots of youth. Perhaps it's just off-season, perhaps it's higher frequency.

Still searching for the answer....

[jcunclejoe]

Hello everyone, this is probably the most difficult problem to address. I started 21 years ago and I just turned 52. I spent almost all of those years trying to get new shooters involved.
I have tried everything I could think of for many years to get people out and shooting. I offered Shoot For Free days, Ladies Days, even invited the Cowboy shooters over to try it out once. (Wow long story there, but herding cats would have been infinitely easier). Cross discipline invitations, range open house days and for the past couple of years our Range has the new member orientation on one of our match days. So I get to pitch our sport to about 50 people each month with almost no success.
I very clearly explain to the new people to bring what they have and give it an honest try, IF they like it they can slowly begin to acquire appropriate silhouette guns. I started with a Ruger single six and a contender in 35 rem. I tell them it took me 10 years to build my silhouette collection but only after I decided this was going to be my sport.

For a couple of years I posted on about 5 different websites for people to shoot for free, anywhere in the country, we would provide the guns, ammo, coaching and the first time was a free entry. I posted on 24 hourcampfire, castboolits, Greybeard Outdoors, Accurate reloading, specialtypistols and perhaps a couple of others.
I had very little response. While I could not personally travel the whole country to provide this offer I would certainly find someone close to the interested party and make the arrangements. Because we do have the greatest people in the world in this sport and every one of them would be happy to share an entry with a new shooter. It is why I love it so much.
I am now self employed and do not have the time for the website blitz anymore, but perhaps, if someone would be interested in giving it a try, I would be happy to help get you started.

I wish the best of luck to everyone and I will gladly brainstorm anytime.

Thank you
Joe