Sharing a note....

[Wilbur]

First an explanation and then the note. I recently mailed a question to four hundred of the most recent NBRSA members that did not renew their membership. The purpose is to feed the responses to the membership committee and the question was simply "Why didn't you renew?"

The number of responses has not been overwhelming but adequate for the purpose. The note I'm sharing answered my question but also answered the opposing question of "Why did you renew?" Here it is:


__________________

Dear Wilbur,

This was one of XXXX's favorite things to do, going to an NBRSA shoot. He learned about benchrest while we worked as volunteers as Ben Avery in the wintertime. If you can set up a range in heaven he will be the first on the list to join. XXXX died in February at his home after a long illness.

Thanks for the many happy hours he spent with his fellow shooters.

Signed by his wife

___________________

In a philosophical sense, that just about covers it.

 

[crb]

I knew I had reached adulthood the day I said to my wife "I have got to buy a black suit".

 

[4Mesh]

After seeing your thread I grabbed a piece of paper to make a list and came up with 8 such cases at the range where I shoot, and I'm only going back 5 years from memory. I know I'm missing several more but if I looked at a list of names a while, I'm not sure I want to know the numbers.

 

[David Halblom]

That is a problem

After seeing your thread I grabbed a piece of paper to make a list and came up with 8 such cases at the range where I shoot, and I'm only going back 5 years from memory. I know I'm missing several more but if I looked at a list of names a while, I'm not sure I want to know the numbers.

most of us are avoiding, due the morbid nature. One "solution" is to get younger participants involved. Kids, grandkids, young neighbors, ANYONE who is under the age of 50 ( arbitrary #).

Look around you next time you attend a match. How many people under the age of 60 do you see? I am not that far under that # and find myself to be the KID a lot of matches. That is a scary proposition. We are "graying" ourselves right out of a sport.

I know there is a HUGE investment involved in participating in the sport we love. That is a VERY high bar for a person w/ a young family to be able to justify. So why are you not sucking it up and acting as a mentor to that person and letting them use your backup rifle and your wife's rest that is gathering dust? If they only have to put up for some powder, bullets and primers, they may well be able to swing the costs for a couple of years to get infected w/ the bug.......and start another generation of BR shooters.

There are more posibilities than just this one. THINK ABOUT THEM!!!!!!!

 

[David Halblom]

Geez, I did not intend for this to be a dead end discussion. Or was it too close to the mark?

 

[Rustystud]

A little off topic..

All shooting sports are "Graying". This is seen not just at the ranges but in the hunting field too. Our young culture is not being exposed to hunting and shooting as they were decades ago. They are being exposed to homicides, gang violence, and military actions, that all depict violent uses of firearms. The good aspects of firearms use gets very little attention in our media. The obtaining of firearms, ammunition and a safe place to shoot is dwindling on a daily basis.

When I started out as a hunting safety instructor the North Carolina population was about 10% having hunting license, about 6% opposed to sport hunting and 84% did not have an opinion. Today about 6% have hunting license, about 10% are opposed and 84% dont have an opinion. But the opposed group is still growing and the licensed hunters is shrinking.

In North Carolina your hunting license allows for the taking of 6 deer. If one fills all of his/her tags they can now apply for more tags on a daily basis (two more, then a deer a day). The state is considering extending the season next year because the deer population is growing faster that the current level of licensed hunters can harvest. One in every 24 car accidents in North Carolina involves a deer. Crop harvest, and urban shrubery loss is at an all time level. Deer hunting leases are at an all time high price. Farmers can make more money leasing their land for deer hunting that to raise crops on them.

When I first started deer hunting in North Carolina (1960s) the deer population was estimated at 71,000 animals. Last year (2007) it was estimated at 1.3 million animals and growing. The resident population of humans in North Carolina in 1960 was 1.3 million and today it is about 9 million.

Face it America is changing and the speed in which it is changing is going to excellerate exponentionally if Obama and Biden get elected.

We as shooters have alot more than "Graying" going against us. Open your eyes we are being regulated, taxed, financially squeezed out of our shooting sports.
Nat Lambeth

 

[Doug Kennedy]

Nat (Rustystud) That was a very good and true post! What you are experencing in NC is that same as we are in IL. Except for maybe the southern part of the state. My how times have changed

 

[turmite]

All shooting sports are "Graying". This is seen not just at the ranges but in the hunting field too. Our young culture is not being exposed to hunting and shooting as they were decades ago. They are being exposed to homicides, gang violence, and military actions, that all depict violent uses of firearms. The good aspects of firearms use gets very little attention in our media. The obtaining of firearms, ammunition and a safe place to shoot is dwindling on a daily basis.

Nat Lambeth

Ahhh....not necessarily true Nat,

I have a grandson who just last year got involved in trap shooting through a Arkansas Game and Fish program called Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program AYSSP. The program is only two years old. It started with expectations of having 3-500 youth and the first year it had 1200. The second year the mark was 1500 and the actual number of shooters was something over 2200. This year they are anticipating 4000 shooting youth, all 12th grade or below. I spent a lot of time on the ph with the director of the program asking him in there were some way we could expand this into rifle and pistol shooting. He said that ultimately that was the goal of the AGF, but they had to choose the one they thought they could get the most participation with. One of his statements " everyone has one or two of grandad's old shotguns laying around gathering dust, so the cost to participate is reduced right from the beginning"!

The AYSSP is modeled after the Scholastic Clay Target Program SCTP sponsored by the NSSF and now the ATA and is closely associated with schools.

It can be done, but it is going to cost to get it done. Action makers, barrel makers, bullet makers, shooters as coaches, major manufacturers stepping up with cash and this same thing could be done with bench, rimfire bench or any other type shooting sport. The kids are starved to death for this and for the attention of adults that will take an interest in teaching.

Mike

(new trap shooting coach)

 

[Rustystud]

Doom and Gloom for the shooting Sports

Mike, I only wish you were right. But the stats don't support your case. I have been a hunter safety instructor for over 20 years. I am a federally licensed type 01 Dealer. I get the Shooting Retailer, and the NSSF magazine. Both of which tell of the new programs to get youth involved in the shooting sports. In my humble opinion it is a little to late. Our culture has changed here in North Carolina. It is not just Football, basketball, baseball and hunting and fishing. It is computer games, soccer, lacross, paint ball, riding ATVs, etc.

Agriculture is no longer the number one industry in our state. We have become an urban society here in North Carolina. Our legislature is passing laws to protect shooting ranges and to encourage hunting. But the youth are just not interested like they were 50 years ago.
Rustystud

 

[turmite]

If I implied that we did not have problems, I apologize, because I know for a fact we do. The point I was trying to make, is that with effort from a wide cross section of our industry, I believe it can still be turned around. Remember, that shooters in general are a very small portion of the general population, and has always been that way. In my opinion what we have to do is keep the portion we have now, and then by doing like the ARK Game and Fish and other such orginations, build on our current numbers.

I can tell you that I would never have believed the numbers of youth I saw shooting at the trap events that I attended with my grandson had I not seen those kids with my own eyes. The way this is set up is great and I really think it would work on other venues as well as it has no trap, but someone has to step up to the plate. Now that may be an area that is it too late in!

Mike