TargetTalk

highschool sophomore wants to start competing in .22 smallbore. there is no rifle program in the area, except for 4H and want to compete on a higher level for an opportunity to get to a collegiate rifle team.

Need to know where and when, contacts for nearby competitions are; state competitions even nationals.
live in Kentucky. Willing to travel some but hope to stay near KY, Tenn, IN, Ohio.

Appreciate any and all direction, input, advice.

There should be competitions at the Univeristy of Akron or Ohio State. I know there is a Junior Club at Akron. Check the NRA, CMP or USA Shooting websites for a list of clubs.

If your shooters are really want to get into smallbore you might want to go to some college match's you can shoot air and smallbore. I'm planing on going to at least 3 between Oct and Nov.
I believe that UK is going to have an open match this year, also Tenn Tech has a match so does Memphis. If you are willing to go to memphis then you might as well try to go to Ole miss its about an hour away from memphis and the two schools have there matchs on the same weekends so you can do both.

-Brian

Murray State (in KY) also should have matches. For match listings, subscribe to Shooting sports USA (NRA publication that lists NRA matches) and get a membership to USA Shooting for their newsletter with match listings. ALso see if your state has a CMP Director, and if they know about matches.

I was going to suggest, as others have, that you look at the NRA web-site. However, after looking at it I see that there really isn't a heck of a lot in your area.

Where have all the competitions and shooters gone?

http://www.nrapublications.org/sh.%20sp ... erifle.asp

Where have all the competitions and shooters gone?

My $0.02:
On_SoapBox {

If you have seen a match run, or have coached or helped in a match, if you feel there are not enough matches, host your own.

Yeah, it's work, but someone has to do it.

If it seems too daunting, host a postal first .... have the targets sent to you so that you get practice scoring them.

The folks that were running the matches when we were kids are now in their 70's and 80's or gone .... the 30-65 crowd now has to pick up the torch for the youth.

Here in NM, specifically in Air Rifle and Smallbore Rifle, there are only about 5-6 of us that run/host youth matches.

I look up in Colorado, and see the tremendous efforts that Charlie Reed and the parents do for the kids there.

More are needed to step up to the plate

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I suppose we're getting a bit off topic here, but I agree with jhmartin. I would add, RUN OPEN MATCHES. Sure, you get a few more shooters if the match is open, but you keep some of those Juniors (which eventually become adults, amazing!) in the sport when they get older. In my opinion, by keeping matches open, you increase the pool of people that remain in the sport and therefore increase the number of Junior shooters (children of active shooters). Plus, it shows the Juniors that shooting truly is a life long sport.

I started running some matches here in Massachusetts because most of the matches in my area were restricted to Juniors. I think it's great that there are people willing to run a Junior match, but I've yet to hear a compelling argument why MOST--yet, not all--NRA Registered matches should not be run as Open.

Dan Holmes
http://foliagematch.com
http://pronematch.com

Also, after you have run a match, it gives you a whole new appreciation for the amount of time and energy that goes into running an event.

Good point Dan ....

I know that our NRA Air Rifle INTL Sectional has Junior and Open divisions.
(Fired in a gymnasium)
I'll send out a feeler to see if anyone (above JR) would want to shoot in the indoor sectional... Thx

On our smallbore shoot, the only range I have to run these events on is a 6 lane range, so I tend to concentrate on the juniors. (I'm a 4-H proj leader). We here in NM do have quite a few open (outdoor) matches, mostly up at Whittington.

Space is definitely a consideration, especially for indoor matches. I can see the argument for restricting a match to Juniors when you've got 6 firing positions.

I guess I'm speaking more of outdoor matches where range capacity tends to be larger. I've seen outdoor Junior matches with 30 shooters split over 2 relays because the range has 25 positions. That's a situation that is begging for some Open shooters because there are so many empty positions. Plus, it's more revenue for the match.

I think it helps to have Opens where the juniors can see that this sport they are doing is not just meant for kids like they are. They & parents can see that it is indeed a lifetime sport. A lot of good habits & info can be gained by "rubbing elbows" with the older shooters, & sometimes we old-timers even pick up some new concepts from the whippersnappers! :^)

Next problem - how can you tempt the Sporter shooters to come out of their niche and shoot along with the rest of us? There's a big bunch of shooters that keep away from Intl Air as if they are scared of it. While some of them would actually be winning their age groups, they way they shoot so well.

To add to your comment about learning from rubbing elbows with the older shooters:

When I was 12 years old I went to Camp Perry for the first time. I had the benefit of shooting next to Fred Cole during 3P-- he was probably in his early 60s at the time. I learned so much just from shooting next to Fred, and he was so kind and helpful. And most importantly, I came away thinking "Wow, I really can participate in this sport for life!"

Wouldn't it be cool to someday shoot a match where you were elbow to elbow with your children and grandchildren?

Next problem - how can you tempt the Sporter shooters to come out of their niche and shoot along with the rest of us? There's a big bunch of shooters that keep away from Intl Air as if they are scared of it.

One of the things that I thought USAS was going to try and implement this year is a separate division for sporter AR.

You have to admit that the sporter guns, along with clothing limitations have no chance of any awards when firing side by side with precision guns. Basically, any awards for sporter category must be supplied by the hosing organization.

My 4-H kids who are USAS members that fire in the INTL JO's with sporter guns know that they are "cannon fodder" for the P-guns. We are very fortunate that the hosing club is willing to give out sporter awards.

Joel
(Yes there is a reason for the mis-spelling ... ;-) )