Lack of interest?

[kg4tyr]

I have been out of the game for so long, I may not be qualified to add my .02, but here it is anyway. When I shot many years ago you shot P, S, R, or U, (24 separate categories), and obviously shot against people of your own skill level (A, AA, AAA, etc.) It seems now with all of the extra classes (FP, HS, FS, AS, etc.) everything has been diluted too much If I figured correctly, 53 separate categories. Times all of these by 2 to include SB. This doesn't include the proposed "Practical Hunter Class". The only one that I see beneficial is AS, for us older shooters that can't focus on open sights anymore. I guess some people are good enough to warrant the smaller targets (HS, FS), and get bored with shooting 40x40's all of the time, but I feel at the majority of the monthly matches, a lot of people are shooting alone in their class so there is no competition (mostly lower classes) and get bored with that aspect of it. Add to that there is nothing to shoot for, except your score, people lose interest. In MI, where I am from, I could shoot in a match every weekend of the month and never drive more than an hour from home. These were always 2 day matches, and never shot in any class without some competition. Plus there was something to shoot for, 5 and 10 pins for cleaning your banks the first time. plaques or trophies for winning your class. Nothing expensive but something to show for your effort. (see below). One last thing is todays economy, the cost of living has gotten totally out of control, I make WAY more money that I used to, and only shoot SB because I can't afford the guns, reloading equipment, and components to play that part of the game. I know I am kind of rambling here, but I feel the bottom line is IHMSA has IMHO tried to make too many people happy with all of these extra classes and made it boring for the vast majority of shooters out there.

[braud357]

David, your post was excellent - much validity in what you have said !

[35isit]

David's post is spot on.

The backbone of our sport is the local match. If it was about making money for our clubs most of us are kidding ourselves. We have everything on some kind of mechanical reset in Lawrenceburg. From Air Pistol to Bigbore and everything in between. We use one target painter to help setup and tear down. Shooting 20 guns a month and paying her there is little money left. For us that's ok. But for some clubs it's not.

A dialogue has to be opened. The officers and directors as well as the regular members need to come to terms on this. I feel we can not keep the status quo. Changes will have to be made. Those changes will have to come from all of us even the industry. If someone suggest something it should be considered on its merits and not dismissed out of hand. As I stated in a previous post, the apathy towards the delegates meeting is horrendous. I am guilty also. I did not attend the last two in TUSCO. Yes you can flame me, but when I arrived in 2006? and Mike Stimson said there probably wouldn't be a quorum, why bother. I now see I was wrong and should have attended them all. It's also important for us long time shooters not to take our ball and go home if a decision doesn't go the way we want it to.

This post may be a moot point. The delegates meeting is tonight or was last night. Perhaps with Nancy's proposals we are on the right track. I certainly hope so.

[Richard Pickering]

Greg and interested others: Our idea of fun offers a certain appeal to those who are attracted to precision shooting and other precision activities. We should examine what activities are attractive to shooters in general and handgun shooters in particular. We should look at social trends, disposable income, proximity to ranges and any other identifiable factors that affect decisions that either include or exclude consideration of IHMSA.
Last Feb. the Griffin Ga Gun Club hosted a Glock match. Glock matches are open to Glock owners. The courses of fire are typically fast and short distance. One match offered 30 shots in three stages. The shooter engages five torso shaped targets, two shots each. It's generally completed in 6 to 15 seconds per stage. Just over 600 entries were shot in two days. It was the second highest attended match. The highest addended was held at another Georgia range last fall. See www.glocktalk.com for discussions of all things Glock.
The basic attraction is the match emphasizes use of the Glock you bought for concealed carry, although there is an ''open'' category for '''race guns''. Concealed carry is popular. Women are becoming involved in CC. A good thing in my opinion. The distance is short. The guns dont recoil heavily. It is an individual effort; no spotter is needed. Scoring is simple and quick with the time component.
We market recreation. We should look at it that way. There are many facets to this discussion. Richard

[high standard 40]

Richard's post reinforces what I said earlier. The popularity of the Glock matches reflects the trend in our culture and the current interests of the average shooter today. In my opinion there is little chance of us changing that trend.....certainly not in the short term and possibly not in the long term. The people that are interested in precision, long range handgun shooting are a very small segment of gun owners in general.

So how do we get more people interested in our sport?

1: I believe we have gone as far as we can possibly go as far as adding categories to encourage participation. Some will say we have gone too far already. Adding more categories won't help.

2: Then you could consider restructuring the basic game itself to appeal to the majority of today's shooters......different targets, closer distances, faster pace, etc. If you do that, you will loose the base we have now. If you change the structure of our matches, we loose the soul and essence of the sport we all came to enjoy. So then all we accomplish is that we become the newest combat game. I for one have no interest whatsoever in going that way. If I wanted to shoot combat, I can do that now, and a lot of people do. I don't think anyone is suggesting we move in that direction.

3: Marketing.......and I am not so foolish to think that even this will give us any large or long term increase in membership or participation. It can help to some extent but I keep going back to my original statement about cultural changes that we have little hope of turning around. Take a look at what the firearms manufacturers are marketing and producing today. Let's face it, they are savvy enough to produce what sells and generates the most sales volume. How many "silhouette ready" guns can you buy today from the main stream manufacturers?

Again, I have racked my brain for years over this issue and I don't see a solution. Hopefully somebody smarter than me can come up with a plan that will work.

[KickBass]

I agree with the point that there are too many classifications. Even at some state shoots, some classes may just have one or two people in it. But the biggest problem/solution I see has to involve marketing. How many people outside of IHMSA even know what it is or have ever heard of it? Darn few. So the productive conversation would revolve around that topic, brainstorming effective ways to create an awareness out there of what IHMSA is and what is is about, instead of wasting our time listening to people like tonedaddy go on about how there aren't any do'ers out there in IHMSA, which is incredibly ridiculous and outright rude considering all this is done on a volunteer basis, and then turning around and telling all the great things he does, as if he is the only one out there that does anything. And this person is the editor? Now I'm starting to see where the problem lies...

So as far as getting the word out for our sport, here is a couple of ideas I have--and some clubs probably already do these things, because any idea that comes out of my head probably has been done by plenty of other people.

1. Prior to the beginning of each season, submit an article to the local newspaper which explains what the sport is, tells the location of the local range, and who to contact for more information. Newspapers, particularly smaller ones, almost always publish any reasonable article submitted.
2. Report results from monthly matches to the local paper, with a small summary of the match--could just take the ones published in the IHMSA news and submit it to the local paper, so there wouldn't really be any extra work at all since the match directors already have those written up.
3. Design an IHMSA poster which could be placed in gun shops, pawn shops, etc. that has the IHMSA logo (which actually stands out and is kind of catchy), has a inquiry-type of headline such as "Looking for a place to shoot in Town X?", and then briefly describes the shoots, has dates and location, and contact information.

Those are just a few ideas, I have a few more but if I sit to long the ol' hemorroids start to flair up, which probably takes me out of the running for being the next IHMSA editor, but if ayone else has any more ideas to get the word out on our sport, please post them!

[Justin Cider]

The arrogance of this editor guy on here is annoying. Maybe having people like that representing IHMSA aren't helping. But of course, I'm guessing this won't get posted if he is the one doing the editing.

[Boomer]

KickBass & Justin I have allowed your posts because I abhor censorship & since Craig is entitled to his unapologetic opinion then so are you; HOWEVER I will not allow this thread to degenerate into a petty squabble.

Those of us that volunteer our time understand it is an often thankless job & at times the duties our position require run counter to what we want to do or what we have time to do & yet they must be done anyway.

Tread lightly when criticizing what one of us is doing unless you are willing to take up the yoke & do it yourself.

[Boomer]

I have spent a fair amount of time pondering the chemistry necessarily to once again make IHMSA great & I have come to some conclusions. None of them are ground breaking but I don't know what they have ever been overtly stated.

1st off if you want to see what IHMSA SHOULD be you neednt look much further than the WCC but what makes the WCC so great?? Obviously leadership is a big part, Steve does a fantastic job organizing & promoting this event but IMO that is just a small part of the equation. You see... I think it is about community. Sure they come together to shoot & while i have not asked this question (but I am now) I would wager that if they decided for next year they werent going to shoot, just show up & spend the week together his numbers of attendees would not drop drastically...
Hows that for dedication? Not to a sport but to each other. The sport is nothing more than the vehicle by which they gather.

Take my own situation for example. My wife has never gone to a IHMSA match with me. She has no interest in the sport & the idea of spending a couple hours watching me shoot has no allure to her. She is however a social butterfly (as I would wager many women are) so if instead of coming to the range & watch me shoot for a couple hours (spot) she instead is making a dish to bring to the picnic/cookout after the match weeellll I would bet significant money that she would be interested.
That simple move could be the catalyst for a movement. The newly involved wives tell their girlfriends about the good time they had & say "hey doesnt your husband hunt/shoot/own a gun? Come on out with us!". Far fetched? Maybe but I also firmly believe the above scenario would play out.

I guess the problem is there are to many A.S.S. shooters out there (Arrive, Shoot, Split). I just think while promoting the shooting aspect we should also be pushing the communal aspect as well.

[19 Turkeys]

Bob,

You have described the essence of the WCC. It is a family thing. The ladies have their events (shopping, Crater Lake, etc) while the boys play with guns. The evenings are spent enjoying food, adult beverages & good fellowship.

I have submitted a plan to build IHMSA to the Board & I wait to hear from my Region Director the outcome of the Board's discussion of my plan. More on that after I hear from Joe.

Steve W.