Just to offer another perspective to this topic. I run the Benchrest, as well as several other club matches, at the Iosco Sportsmens Club in East Tawas, Michigan. We are located on the shores of Lake Huron and the County is mostly comprised of State and National Forrest land. We see a large variety of fun activities.
As far as Benchrest shooting being too expensive for those with young families, I just can't see it. In the winter the forrests are full of young families running the trails on snow machines. When they arrive in town they are pulling trailors with several snow machines. These are not cheap by a long shot. If the snow conditions are not to their liking, driving another 150-200 miles to get to Michigans upper peninsula is not a deterrent. In the summer months they are on the lakes and rivers with jet skis, jet boats, and pontoons. The forrests are also full of people running the trails on quads and dirt bikes.
As far as shooting at the clubs matches, I try to encourage as many people as I can to participate. We get a lot of people who have no interest in competition. The pistol ranges are full on weekends with those who bring a lot of ammo to shoot up. When I talk to the rifle shooters they have several cases with AR style rifles and seem more intersted in going through a case of ammo and are less concerned with accuracy.
I certainly don't have any answers to the problem, but I just do what I can to accomodate everybody that shows up to shoot my matches.
won the Shamrock a number of years ago, something I've never done. I see him shoot small groups on a regular basis but it's really hard to put five consecutive small groups together to win an agg. Striving to do that is why we compete.
