Past IHMSA membership

[LOCKHART]

I joined IHMSA in 1980, shot my first matches in 1981. My issued IHMSA number was, and is, 16689. There were plenty of
shooters at matches when I started, not so many now. Does anyone know what the peak number was, back in the day? I have been told by match directors that there is around 300 of us world-wide. From the attendance I see at our matches in New Braunfels, Texas, I think that might be a very optimistic number. Anyone know what our peak membership was?

[braud357]

I hate to accuse people that cannot defend themselves, but I have always felt that EG manipulated the membership numbers to make us look bigger than we really were. My brother and I both joined in 1980. Charlie joined in April and his IHMSA # is 11568. I joined less than a month later and my # is 13794. I find it hard to believe that over 2200 members were signed in less that a month ! Add to that the almost 4000 count between mine and yours. I do not know the answer to your question, but I can say that the first Internationals we attended was Fortville in 1982. That, my friends - was a BIG match ! Only 4 big-bore categories were contested, with 20 banks of targets used. The firing line was full ALL WEEK !! I remember the annual dinner was held is a HUGE room, and we were packed wall to wall ! Sadly, we are but a mere shell of what we used to be. The matches that I attended in Louisiana and Mississippi in the early 1980's were always packed with shooters - where did they all go ??

[JACKIE40X40]

I joined IHMSA in 1980, shot my first matches in 1981. My issued IHMSA number was, and is, 16689. There were plenty of
shooters at matches when I started, not so many now. Does anyone know what the peak number was, back in the day? I have been told by match directors that there is around 300 of us world-wide. From the attendance I see at our matches in New Braunfels, Texas, I think that might be a very optimistic number. Anyone know what our peak membership was?

I also joined in March,1980.I do know it was Usually crowded at Tri City gun club,if you wanted to shoot with us,you had to make reservations a month in advance! We face straight East,with the sun in our face,no way could you shoot before 8:00 am.
We had 15 targets setters all with their own vehicles.(A local exprlorer scouts group) We guaranteed them $300.00 per match.
We run nonstop past dark,usually we had the trophy presentation using car headlights.
Just on a regular match not a State or Regional,We had 155 shooters go through.
Lockhart you know about IHMSA in Texas,Y’all had dozens of clubs,and now just a few. Sadly we have one club left,out of eight.

[WA_SHTR+44M]

I feel as though the numbers are on the low side but that still does not discourage me from playing the Silhouette sport as long as I can and as long as there is a place that will have the range(s) to shoot at. In WA state we did have a few places back in the day of the early eighties. When I joined in 1996 there were still a handful of places and now that it is 2020 I believe that we only have 2 places that hold matches. Needless to say I still drive my 3 hours trip to Puyallup WA so that I can continue to enjoy the sport and the good friendship of sharing conversation throughout the day.

There is about 60+ of the membership that ordered and recieved the flash drive that I made up of the 40 years of IHMSA and within those copies there is the yearly Internationals or now called The World Championships - People could look into the number of entries that have been posted in the write-ups and see for themselves what the attendance was to get a comparison of then and now.

Also if you scan through the pages you could see how many people attended the matches and how many places there were within the USA - State by State. Definitely a significant difference from back then to now.

When I joined in 1996 my original number was 53717 (shortly thereafter I requested it to be changed to my current number 7771) -- So that would mean from 1980 to 1996 there is 37,000 members over the course of 16 years which could mean just by the numbers that membership grew at a rate of 2,300 per year ????? To me that seems odd as well. Myself I too would like to know what the current membership might be even if there is a general number without going into super fine detail.

Steve 7771

[i26963]

My official joining of IHMSA was 12/31/82,my number is 26963, although I shot for 3 or 4 months before joining. My first match was in a Charlotte, NC. At the Charlotte Rifle and Pistol Club.
Line was full all day. You had to put your shooting box down to keep a place in line for chickens.
I know there were these matches in NC: Charlotte, Salisbury, Conover, Sanford, Wilmington, maybe one more I can’t think of.
Melvin