ihmsa forums

The 2016 IHMSA season in Louisiana was concluded last weekend, and I wanted to personally thank my brother, Charlie Braud, for personally keeping IHMSA alive in Louisiana. Charlie is personally running 3 IHMSA matches, with little or no help. Our membership and participation has dwindled to almost nothing, but we are determined to keep IHMSA alive in Louisiana. To ease the workload at these matches we are planning to institute some fairly radical changes. With inspiration from Dave Neutzel and the shooters in Pensacola, FL, we plan to start using "ringer" targets with impact sensors. These sensors will trigger a LED lamp when the target is hit, and will reset after about 10 seconds. This way, we can spare our aging bodies the strain of many trips downrange to pick up steel. We realize that with this system we will lose what , to most shooters, is the initial appeal of metallic silhouette shooting - seeing the targets fall ! But, with our current situation we are left with no other option. Charlie plans to use this system at all matches in Louisiana. Our cousin Lanny Blake is helping with the electronic side of this project. Charlie tried out the prototype the other day and said that it worked perfectly. Hopefully when implemented, this system will remove the heavy labor that we are seeing at our matches. We would have loved to go with auto-reset targets, but 2 of the ranges that we shoot at will not allow any permanent installation of target systems. The cost and mobility of such systems make them impractical as well. If your travels bring you to Louisiana, we would love to have you join us at a match. We are looking forward to a better 2017 ! -- Philip Braud IHMSA #13794 Louisiana Director