Gee Wiz John, must be nice not go to shoots, reminisce about how great the old days were, tell everyone running matches today they should be doing it according to your wishes, and then likely still not go to their shoot! All it takes to grow this sport is for people to get off their butt and organize an event. Sadly most would rather sit on the sidelines and tell everyone else what to do. Including an apparent complete rewrite of the National Tournament format by a guy who by his own addmission shoots very little in the last 10 years!
Shooting registered group shoots will never be all things to all people. It will never be cheap enough, it will never be easy enough, it will never be short enough, or long enough, it will never be convenient enough. Stop trying to dumb down this game, there is no need to do that. This is the top fuel of the shooting world, Let’s respect that and play off the notion that this is the highest level of competition. This will attract those seeking that level of competition.
It is not about which sanctioning bodies are in use, it is about people organizing events.
We have had great success at our club by raising the performance bar, by running schools, by helping newbies, by raising entry fees to cover paid target and scoring crews, by paying the club for using the range, by giving competitors a path to national or world level competition. BR has a rich tradition of helping the new guys, make sure that hasn’t been lost.
No need to overthink this. If you want it to be like the old days, get out there and organize an event. It is that easy. No need to wait for the other guy to do it. Promote it like crazy, you would be surprised how many people will get on board. Use the Internet and Social media, it works for stuff like this!
BR is still the best kept secret in the shooting disciplines. Do something to change that. F class and prs are very well marketed to the shooting masses, and the turnout shows it, and their tournaments have more expensive gear, and just as long or longer tournaments!
I notice Finland had 50 shooters at their group shoot last weekend. Naturally they had lots of non Finnish people there, however kudos to them, this is amazing in a country of 5-6 million people. Something is working there.
A lot of food for thought.
Rick
Very few people know why we have 2 main bodies of benchrest, NBRSA and IBS, yet it still remains divided. There are not that many shooters that there had or has to be 2 governing bodies. But we are still split and it probably will not change. We hang on to the past even if it is to our detriment.
It used to be a big advantage to have a HV as the 3 lbs was a big advantage. It isn,t a big deal anymore. You can shoot 3 classes at the nationals with 1 gun and not be at a disadvantage, which makes the varmint/ sporter classes redundant for most except to hang onto the past.
A single varmint class and an unlimited would be very viable. With the size of some ranges you can even use half the range for 100 and the other half at 200. Just switch the moving backer drive. The varmint class could be as simple as a 12 lb hv and all the varmint rules apply and the shoot would be on one day. For those wanting a second event start a 200 unlimited the second day and finish at 100. Volunteers are there already and if they want to compete in the afternoon than help change over at noon. Everyone should help! Just make sure they have the extra time. Unlimited could run 5 shot groups to keep it simple for non national events.
Do we really want to change and keep it interesting and viable or do we want to just keep going the way they have been.
As a disclaimer, I have to admit that I have competed very little in the last 10 years. I used to live and breathe benchrest both score and group but as my kids got older and things got to the point I was just a part time shooter without any possible trophies or prizes, I went to shooting trap with my kids, Will probably never make it to the big leagues in trap but it has been a ton of fun. Always come back to this sight as I was always more a rifle shooter and have still shot some local matches when time has allowed me. I still remember all the stories Stan Buchtel, George Kelbly, Vic Swindlehurst, Warner Hail told and standing by Walt and Eunice Berger and Glen Newick at my first Super Shoot and talking with Bill Forester till we realized he had just missed his relay. But time has moved on.
The problem is that unless most are onboard we will just divide things up more and it will further break things apart. We do not need another governing body in Benchrest.
Even though I have rambled on a bit, I hope it helps.
