TargetTalk

There was a thread back in September that indicated a landslide towards Sporter air rifle and away from Precision. Does anyone have good numbers on this? Is it 2 to 1 or 10 to 1?

Kelly,

Nothing could be further from the truth in the Southeast anyway. The only thing dying faster than Sporter Air Rifle, is Air Pistol. We're making a concerted effort to get Sporter Air Rifle and Smallbore going again, but it's a tough sell here in Georgia. The JROTCs have Sporters, but very few (we have 119 High School Varsity Rifle Teams in Georgia) use them for anything other than familiarization... We're trying to introduce Sporter in 4H, but Air Rifle is strictly a Senior event for 4H (which is a crime, and another topic for another time) so they almost all shoot Precision.

I'd like to see some good numbers too, I'd use them to prod 4H...

Roy McClain
Vice President
Georgia Sport Shooting Association
(678) 772-8185 cell / (770) 412-6604 home

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years,
educate children." -- Confucius

Hi

For Sedgwick County in Wichita KS, it's 8-10 Sporter, 2 BB Gun, and two Precision shooters. I'm never REALLY sure how many Sporter shooters we have. One girl quit, one guy hasn't been for weeks and suddenly showed up..

I still enormously jealous of a state that has more than 1 Varsity Rifle Team.

Mike
Wichita KS

In Virginia's 4-H shooting education program we have almost all sporter shooters, with hardly anyone shooting precision (even though we have an event for each in our state championship). Our American Legion propgram is by rule all sporter and the participation is up so much that last year we had to have regional qualifiers for the A.L. state championship.

Thanks Roy!

Looks like it may vary depending on the individuals in a local area. If the lead person is promoting one area that is what is being done? It is interesting that air rifle is only a senior event in Georgia, in Alaska all the Shooting sports are open to ages 8 and up as long as the child can handle it physically and mentally. My looking at the Lovenia-21 air pistol was motivated by the little in stature due to its light weight compared to a 7x7 Daisy AP. With a little imagination many of the physical barriers can be dealt with, we find mental "age" is the most important factor and some 8 and 9 year olds are more grown up than some teens ;~). While the Precision area here has fewer participants they seem to stay longer in the program.

Atlanta Guest wrote:Kelly,

Nothing could be further from the truth in the Southeast anyway. The only thing dying faster than Sporter Air Rifle, is Air Pistol. We're making a concerted effort to get Sporter Air Rifle and Smallbore going again, but it's a tough sell here in Georgia. The JROTCs have Sporters, but very few (we have 119 High School Varsity Rifle Teams in Georgia) use them for anything other than familiarization... We're trying to introduce Sporter in 4H, but Air Rifle is strictly a Senior event for 4H (which is a crime, and another topic for another time) so they almost all shoot Precision.

I'd like to see some good numbers too, I'd use them to prod 4H...

Roy McClain
Vice President
Georgia Sport Shooting Association
(678) 772-8185 cell / (770) 412-6604 home

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years,
educate children." -- Confucius

http://www.georgia4h.org/public/edops/safe/

Georgia 4-H Project S.A.F.E.
Shooting, Awareness, Fun and Education

Air Rifle Competition
updated 3/04

Competition Guidelines:
All air rifle matches will be individual & team competition for senior 4-H'ers only. Teams are composed of four members with the team score being determined by the top four shooters on the team.

Shooters will use the CMP 3-Position Air Rifle Rules, latest addition.
The contest will follow the rules and guidelines of the CMP Program. These are found at the CMP Website
*************************************************************
There isn't any rhyme or reason, other than it's just an attempt to keep kids from leaving BB...

Roy McClain
Vice President
Georgia Sport Shooting Association
(678) 772-8185 cell / (770) 412-6604 home

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years,
educate children." -- Confucius

THE SPORTER VS. PRECISION IN NORTHERN CA . IS ALMOST BALANCED.
WE HAVE ABOUT 40 KIDS THAT SHOOT PRECISION AND MAYBE 45 TO 50 THAT SHOOT SPORTER WITH ALL OF THE CLUBS AND SCHOOLS UP HERE.
ONE OF THE SCHOOLS IS GOING TO ADD PRECISION MAYBE NEXT YEAR ,
THEY HAVE APPLIED FOR A GRANT

This is quite different from the info that was related starting back in September claiming Sporter was decimating Precision.

My take on it is that any shooting sport is better than none and the best one is the one you (or a youth) is interested in. I have my favorites but that doesn't take away from someone elses choice. Sporter should be more affordable to get into, while either is about the same getting into and then getting out of (more to get into Precision but you get most of it back if you sell it when getting out). Here in the Great Land we mainly need more places to do the activity and then let the people know they can participate. Getting the jrs. is not a problem but getting them to and from the events can be (not enough parent involvement like most youth activities). Being covered in snow Biathlon is a potential as well and we are getting ready to hold our first one soon. Lots of work compared to the amount of shooting, but it does put the range to use in a normally slow period. We'll be holding a sporter version of this as well since few have a "real" Biathlon type .22

A.R. JAYNES wrote:THE SPORTER VS. PRECISION IN NORTHERN CA . IS ALMOST BALANCED.
WE HAVE ABOUT 40 KIDS THAT SHOOT PRECISION AND MAYBE 45 TO 50 THAT SHOOT SPORTER WITH ALL OF THE CLUBS AND SCHOOLS UP HERE.
ONE OF THE SCHOOLS IS GOING TO ADD PRECISION MAYBE NEXT YEAR ,
THEY HAVE APPLIED FOR A GRANT

I'm new to the 4-H sporter, but here in Dist-5 (central) in NM we do indeed have a sporter rifle even for JRs & Novices. They only shoot the 3-P air rifle event, but we had about 40 young shooters ... note that this is just the district ... not the whole state.

I've never seen anyone shooting a Precision rifle ... just not here.

In my county, Air Pistol is the biggie in the SRs. I've just taken over the Air Rifle (no one seemed to want to run the program). We have a great JR coach/leader, but she does not have time (desire?) to deal with the SRs.

I think the main deal is the AP coach has pistols that the kids can use, while most of the Air Rifles are personally owned ... and these are mostly 1000fps Wal-Mart specials. The JRs/Novices that use the coaches borrowed rifles are using Crosman 2000's.

I'm picking up some new rifles for my girls, but at $240 each, there goes my refund check! I was seriously considering the 853's, but after chatting with a bunch of folks online, for the long-run in 3-P the 888's seem to be a better choice.
(our 4-H county is not yet affiliated with CMP)

CMP is stipulating that only 12 gram cylinders are allowed in the silhouette portion so the XS40 and the 888's won't be allowed (4-H has allowed a 2 year changeout ... after 2006), so I'll get a 853 for that.

Even though the cost of these rifles are "low", here in a rural county they are considered expensive. The only hope is to get a program going that can pick up accurate rifles at a good cost and have them available to the kids.