Because the "H" in IHMSA stands for handgun. There are plenty of rifle sports out there now. It's not like a bunch of .22 riflemen are wondering around trying to find someplace to shoot. Sure, we can all try to get new people interested in shooting sports, but it's up to those individuals to decide what is right for them. Adding rifle classes won't bring us new IHMSA members.

These discussions are an interesting study in human behavior. All of us who love IHMSA can plainly see our sport whither as more and more people drift towards the tactical games. We all wonder "How can this happen? Why can't more people see how much fun this is". We then start looking for ways to abate the bleeding.
This is the point where people say "We've got to try SOMETHING". I agree, but a careful, well thoughtout examination of what the real root cause of the dwindle is will show that most of the "SOMETHING" ideas that have been offered won't work. The "somethings" are just clutching at straws. A classic example is the Practical Hunter idea. When that discussion first started, I honestly thought hard about it and I never believed it would help grow IHMSA. It was just not an idea that addressed the real root problem we face. There comes a time when intelligent people can see the writing on the wall. IHMSA will never, ever, see the membership numbers and popularity we enjoyed in the 80s. "It ain't gonna happen". What we should be focused on is keeping at least a minimal presence going forward. How can we circle the wagons and keep IHMSA alive for those of us who do enjoy it. Keeping an official association is vital to that goal. Lately, we have been making moves to an all volunteer administrative IHMSA. That's a good idea for as long as we have people willing to volunteer. This is a good step. We have to find a way for IHMSA to reduce expenditures. We have to stop throwing money at anything that does not fully support itself. You can read between the lines on that statement. Just like in budgeting for each of our homes, if you can't afford it, DON'T BUY IT. If IHMSA becomes insolvent, it all goes away anyway. What will we do then? I just don't see any meaningful growth potential. We don't have the money for an ad program. So I ask this.
Do we just barrel ahead full speed and run the tank till it's empty and then just park it on the side of the road? Or do we find ways to cut back and live within our means.........for as long as we can?

So get rid of the H if that is the hang up. It is the "silhouette" aspect that is the attraction for this sport. If we are going to continue to hang our hat on a handgun sport in which most of the guns used either aren't in production any more or are crazy expensive, then I'm not sure how we expect to see a significant growth of the sport. There are a lot more people out there that have a .22 rifle laying around that would be adequate for silhouette than happen to have a similar pistol.

Remember IHMSA is INCORPORATED!!!! There would probably be huge legal issues just to remove the "H". Those legal issues would surely drain our remaining assets. Getting more people into our sport is key to us growing in the future. We have a great base of people now but speaking for myself, I'm getting a little "long in the tooth" to be here for many more years. At least I'm hoping to be here many more years!!!!!!! We need junior shooters and young people so they can become as crazy about our sport as us old timers. Cutting costs will help us maintain our status quo but we also need to grow our shooter base. I would hope that some well managed ad campaign and trying to get some periodicals to write up our sport would at least bring more attention to IHMSA. Too bad some of the early writers didn't maintain the same passion for silhouettes as the rest of us. At least they would have written articles every so often about our sport.

260 Striker wrote:Remember IHMSA is INCORPORATED!!!! There would probably be huge legal issues just to remove the "H".

I was using that as a hyperbole… sorry that wasn't apparent. I wasn't trying to add to the confusion.

If we are wanting to get youth involved, most youth start out shooting with a rifle, I would guess. They are easier to shoot, and safer. Some of those will then trickle down over to handguns.

KickBass wrote:So get rid of the H if that is the hang up. It is the "silhouette" aspect that is the attraction for this sport. If we are going to continue to hang our hat on a handgun sport in which most of the guns used either aren't in production any more or are crazy expensive, then I'm not sure how we expect to see a significant growth of the sport. There are a lot more people out there that have a .22 rifle laying around that would be adequate for silhouette than happen to have a similar pistol.

I hear what you are saying, and I understand your point. In response, I can only relate how much this would help based on my personal experience here. In south Louisiana there is a locally based internet forum which caters to the shooting sports and firearms in general. I have maintained an active presence there for nearly 5 years. At any given moment when I visit that site, and I look at the number of people currently visiting that site at that particular time, it is staggering. They have a LOT of forum members and activity on that forum is massive. I have promoted IHMSA there from day one. I have offered free entries to any first time shooter. I have offered to let them shoot 22 rifles as well, just please come out and try the game. I have published an article in the official monthly newsletter of the Louisiana Shooters Association with photos. And the result............NOT A SINGLE NEW ACTIVE SHOOTER. I did get one new occasional handgun shooter. It's not the availability of a suitable gun that keeps people away, it's our format........too slow paced--too precision oriented....to suit today's shooter. It is what it is.

I have said this time and time again. Our society has changed, and we can't fix that. We just have to accept that and find a way to keep our ship afloat in a changing sea.

Kickbass, with all due respect - if someone is interested in shooting rifle silhouette, they will shoot NRA sanctioned matches. Why do we want to compete with a shooting discipline that already exists - and has been fairly successful ? I have an idea - why don't we approach the NRA rifle shooters and see if they will sanction handguns at their matches. WAIT - NRA offers that also ! I am sorry, but what you are suggesting will probably alienate some of the existing shooters. And also, most shooters can only afford to attend "X" matches a month, and those that want to shoot competitively will gravitate to where the competition is. For a rifle silhouette shooter that would be the NRA program. My opinion is this, we should not deviate from the intended purpose of our founders - that is to shoot silhouette targets with a HANDGUN ! If you remove the "H" from IHMSA - you will destroy the sport ! Adding rifles to local matches might help clubs on the local level - it will do NOTHING to grow IHMSA ! I will not comment further on this subject - I have my opinion, and I am steadfast in my support of IHMSA as it was originally intended. I disagree with those that think that we need to "reinvent" our sport in order for it to survive, but I respect your right to think that it will help. Personally, I think that you are mistaken !

KickBass wrote:So get rid of the H if that is the hang up. It is the "silhouette" aspect that is the attraction for this sport. If we are going to continue to hang our hat on a handgun sport in which most of the guns used either aren't in production any more or are crazy expensive, then I'm not sure how we expect to see a significant growth of the sport. There are a lot more people out there that have a .22 rifle laying around that would be adequate for silhouette than happen to have a similar pistol.

The "H" isn't the hangup. The silhouette aspect attracts both rifle and handgun shooters, each having their own disciplines and rules. The lot more people out there with .22 rifles laying around are just not interested in our sport. I would never go to a rifle silhouette match and demand that I be allowed to shoot my handguns there, and, oh, can you move the targets closer for me, and let me shoot 35 shots as fast as I can, and run around awhile if I feel like it? It's juts not going to happen. As Charlie said, today's youth don't care about precision. For them, it's all about speed and maximum rounds fired.

As far as most of the guns we use being expensive or out of production, their owners have determined those are the best they can obtain to take advantage of the skill of the individual shooter, and his preference for top quality. There are plenty of guns of all types that can be used for this sport. You are not competing against a Freedom Arms, you are competing against a shooter with similar abilities as you have. You will start out in one of the lower classes if you don't hit a lot of targets, and those others in that same class will also most likely have similar firearms as yours. As your skills progress, and your guns become a limiting factor, you will probably want to upgrade them, and you'll be right there with the same folks doing the same thing.

You think our guns are expensive, see what a match-grade 1911 for the speed shooters goes for, or the $4000 you need to spend for Cowboy Action guns just to start with. Where's the complaints about the trap and skeet shooters using $10,000 + Perazzi's ?

You can try what Philip, Charlie, Greg, Steve, myself and a host of others have done in the past. Volunteer to run silhouette matches, try your ideas, and see what results you can get.

IHMSA80x80 wrote:

KickBass wrote:
You can try what Philip, Charlie, Greg, Steve, myself and a host of others have done in the past. Volunteer to run silhouette matches, try your ideas, and see what results you can get.

I have my view because it has been successful out here. One of our ranges has monthly two-day shoots for handgun, and then rifle shoots, so every other weekend there is a shoot to attend. The owner has said the rifle shoots has really helped to make the club make its budget (it is a privately owned range).

Cheyenne, WY has added monthly rifle silhouette shoots this year, after a couple of trial shoots last year. I attended this first shoot, and there were 24-25 shooters, which is about 3 times the amount of IHMSA shooters at a typical match. In talking to those folks, many of them were former IHMSA shooters who still had some of their old guns, and so we'll see what happens. Bottom line though is that there is going to be more people out their shooting silhouette of some sort than there was prior to the rifle shoots.

While I'm not a match director, I do volunteer time at two silhouette ranges with general work, running the line, etc. because we all know how much our match directors do for this sport. I also just recently volunteered to take over the editor position of the IHMSA News, so please send anything ideas, news-worthy items, or just articles you think would be of interest to ihmsaeditorjoe@gmail.com because we have so many assets out there just in the great people and experienced shooters, it would be great to get articles from a larger variety of people. I think that on the forum there are sometimes some great conversations and dialogue that come up, but are only seen by a few people because I don't know how many people really use this forum. So please send ideas for articles in so we can get it to all IHMSA members.

Here are my thoughts for what they are worth. I wish I could attend two matches a month and ONLY spend $50.00 for fuel. To attend a match costs (315 miles divided by 15 multiplied by $3.30 per gallon) For you math challenged folks (and how many are you who are math challenged in a sport we have all determined is a "Precision" game) that is $69.00. To attend the matches in Gonzales it is more like $113.00, so to attend two matches per month that is a nice fat $182,00 not counting food or any other expense. It hurts. Getting up at 3:00 in the morning to drive four to five hours isn't much fun either. Imposing on friends is just something I don't like to do on a regular basis since I already do so far too much already.

Hopefully, our Miata will come back on line and the costs will go down.

I like to shoot silhouettes. If IHMSA goes away I might likely go into black powder silhouette while I still have the age to compete, though I don't think it would be nearly as much fun as shooting the XP's. (and talk about EXPENSIVE)

My Point. As it is currently run by most match directors, safety is their main concern. That is good. Rare is the day when I have seen anyone cheat and match directors having to concern themselves with that issue. I know it happens but by and large, most shooters are well within the spirit as well as the letter of the rules. If a practice range can be arranged, why not consider postal (Internet?) matches. Scores would be counted on swinger targets. (or paper silhouettes if one prefers) With the cost of paper, it would surly be too expensive and difficult to make paper targets that are overly large.

Would it be exact or perfect, no. However, it would be something. Something is better than nothing.

As it is planned, I would like to shoot at least four to five matches this year, maybe more, but folks, $200.00 a month is a far stretch for my retirement check.