Well, I certainly care David
That whole thing about cost and availability is why I jumped over to airguns back in 2008. First, there is usually all the ammo (pellets) you want available all of the time. And, then, for that same $14.80 I can buy 500 top-of-the-line pellets, not 50 rounds. Plus, usually when you buy either 4 or 5 tins, depending on the dealer, that 4th or 5th comes to you at no charge bringing the overall price per tin down substantially. For instance, if you were to buy 9 tins (4500 pellets) you would get another 3 tins free making the total 6000 pellets for around $135.00, not the $1400 you'll now be spending for 5000 rounds of Eley. And if you bring the total spent up to $150.00 or over, the shipping is usually free.
Not that any of you care.
Dave Shattuck
BUT the lack of venues to play in is the big problem for me. America hasn't embraced Air Rifles the way they have .22's. If one wants to be able to compete in other than Postal stuff the travel is enormous. I have found a number of folks interested in the prospect of Airgun Benchrest and the rifles but most of them are people who don't compete. There is a big difference, as you know. I did have one fellow in Maine contact me interested in shooting benchrest and I think, had bought a rifle or two but there have been no others. A number of folks like to look at them and marvel at how well they shoot but none of them compete in Benchrest.
There is also the format of the Air Rifle org that, I believe, hinders us. With it's current structure, there isn't much shooting for someone who travels a long distance to compete. If the format was more like the RF formats, there might be more folks interested. For instance, for me to attend the closest venue to me, some 5 hours of driving, I must decide which class I want to shoot in and shoot one agg in it. If there was a better variety of formats and or, a promoter wanted to and could offer two aggs in one shooting day, that might help. I believe something more, format wise, must happen to entice more people.
I remain hopeful that Airgun Benchrest will, someday, be a viable game here in the US but I don't have that many years to wait, if you know what I mean. I think it is difficult to compete against established games like IR 50/50, ARA and the other orgs. I believe most of the folks who would be interested in actually competing have found homes, so to speak, in those organizations. Being able to be with old friends from afar sometimes, seems to be a sizeable part of these games and there are a lot of folks who have been at this for a long time and like the familiar, I believe. There also seems to be a bad taste, apparently still existing, from another attempt to make Air Rifles popular in benchrest.
Perhaps the cost of ammo will, eventually, push people out of Rimfire but I think many of those who do compete can afford to or will afford to as long as they can. One thing appears to be true, the Ammo Companies seem to be trying to find out where the top of the price range is.
Pete
