ihmsa forums

The introduction of Practical Hunter was a dismal failure, but it is actually a great idea. In my extensive travels, I found that very few match directors even knew the parameters and requirements for it, and this includes this year's Internationals. There was the Freedom Arms drawing and all that, but if people don't know about the actual category, then what would you expect? And that is how it worked out. But I know from personal experience, it brought a few people into IHMSA, and I remember Jerry Ray in LA saying the same at this year's annual meeting.

Besides the fact that it wasn't promoted very well at all, here is the problem with it. Shooters can use bags, tripods, etc. until they get to AA, then it basically becomes UAS. Instead of having new shooters have to then transfer to a very uncomfortable position such as the Creedmore--and I don't mean uncomfortable from the standpoint of flexibility, but from the view of that for newer shooters, the idea of having the end of a gun barrel inches from their leg is not natural at all. So here is my proposal--once you surpass AA status, you shoot at half scale (or 1/5 scale targets in the case of .22). After all, it is called Practical Hunter, and I've never shot from the Creedmore position in any field situation. After AA, you shoot at the small targets, and you are still shooting from a position in which you feel comfortable and safe, and you are still going to be knocking down targets and feeling success. Eventually it would become like BB UAS as far as shoot-offs are concerned, but you are going to have people doing it, and that doesn't seem to stop people from shooting their 80/80s and going to shoot offs in the UAS events. As it is now for the few people that know that Practical Hunter is out there, it would allow them to continue the challenge of the prone shooting position, which is the most practical position we have in the field. The only class that this wouldn't work for is the field pistol Practical Hunter, but those people could transfer to BB Practical Hunter.

I think this would not only help introduce people to this challenging sport, but keep them involved which will then over time have them get involved in other events. And that is the one thing we have to do--get them here and keep them here.

Good comments since that means you have been giving this lots of thought to bring more shooters to IHMSA. I have never tried this new category but thinking about the guns that are used and the current target sizes, hunting situations would pretty well match the target sizes the new hunter class would be encountering in the field. Think about a person shooting a course of fire with a big bore gun and the size of the game they would expect to hunt. Groundhogs would be close to a BB chicken, wild hogs would even be a bit larger than our BB pigs, turkeys would be about the same size and deer roughly the size of our BB rams. Our current target sizes are close to the size of game that would be hunted with a centerfire handgun. Same goes for SB since that hunter in the field would expect to hunt smaller targets with a .22lr. I guess comments from actual hunter class shooters would be better than my comments since I haven't tried that category yet. Glad to see good comments like this.

KickBass, this is what I have said in the past. No-one or club close offers it, or like you said, knows about it or the rules. I would shoot it or would like to try it or convert field pistol to some of its disciplines.