TargetTalk

1813benny wrote:. . . . . . to start the process to eliminate smallbore.

Is that what you see coming, Benny; no more smallbore rifle? If so, is it because of too much work for the NRA wihout available volunteers, because of participatation levels dropping, or other reasons?
Thanks!
Ben

Now I don't run National Matches but I have run a State Championship or two, and a few other matches as well, so I think I know a little about this. Back in the 1970s, smallbore was so popular that shooters would be turned away from 100-shot offhand matches and the State Championship would have to run two weekends to accomodate everyone. Would that this were still so! A State Championship today might attract 30 shooters total, and a third of those would be Juniors. It's good to have Juniors, of course, but the point is that adult smallbore shooters are fading away. (This is true of Perry, too: The 3P event is practically a Junior championship with an Open division.) It's undeniable -- look at the participation at the Open Indoor Sectionals. This is a national championship that allows the competitors to fire locally, but fewer and fewer adults come and this trend has been consistent for over a decade.

Adult smallbore isn't dying because of what NRA is doing; in fact, I think NRA is trying to breath life into the game. The best change in years was removing the membership requirement to compete in Registered matches. I've heard belly-aching that if a person doesn't care enough about NRA to join then that person should be excluded, to which I say, "Horse apples!" Were I a parson I would first want the sinner's butt in my pews; I'd save their soul later.

But back to the NRA, changes to competitons and the loss of adult smallbore shooters. I'd like to see NRA communicate with the broad smallbore community more, and it seems as if they are using electronic communication to do that. I'd urge them to be more timely when they make changes like eliminating the 50-yard matches, and to allow for feedback that they actually listen to rather than solicit but ignore. I think shorter tournaments (like 1-day Regionals and a shorter Prone phase at Perry) are a recognition that long, expensive, and physically demanding tournaments keep shooters away.

Smallbore is an ideal target sport using firearms (rather than air guns.) It's an Olympic event, it does not require lots of space (heck, it can be done indoors!), it doesn't make a tremendous amount of noise, .22 rounds don't scare the public like "sniper rifles" do, ammo costs are reasonable -- I could go on and on. But it's going to require an increasing number of shooters to keep the ranges open and keep the game going. So let's get more shooters on the ranges. Make it easy to attend a match. Once the numbers return, then I can worry about whether we need 640 rounds to determine a national prone campion.