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Smith & Wesson Competitive Shooting All aspects of competitive shooting using Smith and Wesson Firearms. Including: IPSC, IDPA, Silhouette, Bullseye.


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Old 10-02-2018, 08:29 PM
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Default A change in direction

What is to follow will not be new to many who are active in their shooting clubs. To others hopefully it may be a wake up call.

My club has just over 70 members. For the last decade the committee has been "static" with one person in particular holding five different club positions. The club ones it's ranges, buildings and other assets outright, which has only been possible by the efforts of the club committee in the 20 years since we bought the land from the local council (previously we paid an annual "peppercorn" rental). The only way the club has achieved this is through holding competitions.

We regularly hold two - three IPSC competitions a year, including the Nationals every two years, while the CAS sections also hold two open competitions annually.

Of our members less than 25 are affiliated to IPSC. less than half of these shoot anything above our club Level I matches, (which for reasons which will soon become clear are usually held as higher level competition warmups). Of those that do shoot Level II and above matches only 3 or 4 are involved in match preparation/running and set up.

There are approximately 30 CAS members in our club and they too have the same issues. Too much to do, too few members to help.

In the last five years I have stepped up to run monthly matches in Service (a 90 round 1500/PPC type course) and Classic Pistol (48 rounds using pre-1946 pistols at 10 and 25 yards). There is no-one else in the club outside the committee doing anything similar.

Since 2016 I have also become one of the regular set up assistants for IPSC matches and this year, I am proud to say, I have become a member of the club committee (Club Vice Captain. No actual responsibility but....) and have volunteered to be Match Director for a one day Level II match in March next year (Single Stack Classic).

To be blunt the mainstays of the club, some 3 or 4 members, are all getting to the point where they have had enough. One of the consequences of this is a slow, but steady, move away from IPSC towards Steel Challenge shooting.

We are currently developing what was a 100 meter rifle range and big sand hill inot 9 seperate ranges for shooting Steel Challenge, plus a 200 meter rifle range. Once set up (in the next few years) each Steel Challenge stage will have its own range and be permanently set up. The club mainstays leading this move intend to shoot steel only and start updating competitions to accommodate this discipline as there is much less work involved.

I can't blame those involved. For some time I was just one of he "regular Sunday shooters avoiding anything more" and when I did get involved further I was very surprised at the situation.

Hopefully there will still be enough support to hold IPSC competitions once the change is fully implemented (we are one of only a few ranges in the country able to hold a Nationals and one of only two clubs willing to do so). From my perspective I enjoy the challenge of shooting differently set up stages each competition. And for our recent North Island IPSC Championships we sought a club an hour and a half away without anything other than a .22 range to run the match, leasing our range to them for the weekend along with all our props. It was a very well run event, even though a learning curve for some in that club.

So to those of you who sit back on the club sidelines thinking these things simply "happen" how about giving some thought to what actually does take place to run a successful club and stepping forward to help out.

Even running one match a month for a club championship is a big help to those doing all the work.
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Old 10-03-2018, 09:58 AM
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This seems to be a common thread in clubs everywhere. A few do all the work, get burnt out and quit (can't blame them), then that match dies off. If there were mandatory participation of the shooters on a monthly rotation, all the work would be divided among many, instead of shouldered by the few. I'm sure there are other ways to get more help, but more people need to get involved in setup, running and tearing down if they want to keep shooting.
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Old 10-03-2018, 10:57 AM
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I agree with Toolguy. Even though I'm only three years into competitive shooting, I'm already a NROI certified RO and on the set-up crew for our monthly Level 1 USPSA match. Even among competitors, I see a large group of "just show up and shoot." I've also seen very involved folks suddenly disappear to find out later they were chasing another hobby that took all their time.

Like the OP, I enjoy competitive shooting because it challenges me. The stages that are designed are much more difficult than what I would set up for myself. I've tried and failed to get two family members involved and the complaint from both was that it was a lot of time for not much shooting. As my son-in-law says, "I can do that much shooting in an hour and be home doing something else with my Saturday."
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Old 10-03-2018, 11:15 AM
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FWIW..... I was active in our local clubs USPSA matches for about 5-6 years.... then the boys came along (3 years apart)...... after about a year I felt guilty leaving my wife with the boy(s) for most of two Sundays a month for 6 or 8 months a year.....plus Sat and Sun were the only 2 days when we could all be/ do stuff together.

A few years later the Boys got into Soccer........which continues to this day 18 years later...... w/ club games on Sat. or Sunday..... year round; outdoor and in.

Simply put ......for me it became "family first"......... so I'd suggest you assess the club members against this standard .......do they have young "Kids"!!!!!!!!


I really only got back into shooting when the youngest hit middle school and I could slip away for an hour or two to shoot by myself during the week.
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Old 10-03-2018, 05:04 PM
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Originally Posted by BAM-BAM View Post
FWIW..... I was active in our local clubs USPSA matches for about 5-6 years.... then the boys came along (3 years apart)...... after about a year I felt guilty leaving my wife with the boy(s) for most of two Sundays a month for 6 or 8 months a year.....plus Sat and Sun were the only 2 days when we could all be/ do stuff together.

A few years later the Boys got into Soccer........which continues to this day 18 years later...... w/ club games on Sat. or Sunday..... year round; outdoor and in.

Simply put ......for me it became "family first"......... so I'd suggest you assess the club members against this standard .......do they have young "Kids"!!!!!!!!


I really only got back into shooting when the youngest hit middle school and I could slip away for an hour or two to shoot by myself during the week.
Okay I get that family come first, and I have had more than my share of "family matters" that have pushed shooting into second, third and even lower priorities over the years. But I am not certain this is always a factor.

In this country pistols can only be fired as a member of a recognised club, and you must participate in club events 12 times a year. In my club during months that have five Sunday's the fifth Sunday is designated as a working bee. Repairs, range development and general tidying up get done and these are designated "club activities".

Historically only 10 - 15 people would turn up for these working bees, so the club introduced a membership levy of $80 a year, reducing by $20 for every working bee attended. If you cannot make a working bee due to work or other commitments then you can ask to be allocated a task to complete in your own time. Working bee participation is now above 90% for each and every working bee.

When I first transferred in to my club in 1997, every Sunday morning there would be 10-12 shooters on the ISSF range. When the member who set out the targets and ran the events decided it was too much for him to do it continually and sought assistance on alternate weekends, shooters would turn up, see no targets set out or anyone "in charge" and go home without even firing a shot.

And as I said, when, after a few years, I was told I was the only non committee member actually running a month event for our club champs I was very surprised. (In fact many of the club champs categories were not awarded last year and there are several shooters whose main shooting discipline is in those categories).

And as a side note we have two junior members on our committee. One is the 2018 EoT (US) Junior Champion and #7 overall at EoT this year. The other at 14 is a NROI certified R/O who has R/O'd at our Nationals, and she knows her stuff!. Both participate fully at committee meetings and put forward some great ideas that we "old fogeys" wouldn't think about.
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Old 10-03-2018, 06:37 PM
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Not justifying anything.... just pointing out what impacted me..... and suggested looking at the "family/kids" issue at your club!
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Old 10-04-2018, 11:44 AM
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I fully understand the situation. I have been down that road, starting the Rifle Division for our club, getting it certified with the DCM, and the state program, building the range, setting up the paperwork, calling the line, scoring the targets, sending out the bulletins, etc. Then the annual paperwork reporting to NRA and DCM. I was able to eventually turn it over to a few others, and due to some dedicated individuals the program has continued and grown, as far as building a 600 yard range with pits, (rather than the 100/200 yard range initially).

That left me time to begin a Bullseye division of the club, it started out well, and after a couple years got another to take it over, and then it started slowing down as the IPSC division became very active. Seems it was a lot more fun to sling lead real fast at a whole target rather than be concerned about putting as many as possible in precisely the middle of the target. The Bullseye Division is now gone.

In another club, indoor winter time only, 22RF bullseye club, I had started a winter league and ran it for 30 years, Secretary, treasurer and defacto Chairman. Club gets pretty active for about 3-4 months in the winter, and we shoot a 10 week league and have about 25 participants. I finally "retired" after 30 years and I'm very happy a few others have stepped up and keep it going. I still participate, but just can't produce the kind of scores I used to. (One of those aging things my Dr. keeps talking about).

Lets us all help especially with the younger shooters to keep active competition going, it's the future of our sport.
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Old 10-12-2018, 03:52 PM
MrDonivan MrDonivan is offline
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Family issues are rough,

I have 3 kids who are shooters, ages 17,13,8, and the two youngest are girls. I have had 1 range day alone in the past 2 years, and we shoot mulitple times a month. That 1 time was simply a fluke, and everyone had a sleepover/bday party/work thing happening so I took a day to do drills alone.

Some guys at the range try to pressure me to be an RO/SO, and I continue to tell them the same thing everytime, I will NOT be an RO/SO while I have a shooter under age 15/16. I will NOT ignore them at a gun range all day. I will absolutely run a shooter or two and give the RO/SO a break before his turn, but I will not be primary until such time that my kids are old enough or not shooting anymore.

Some of the guys dont like that answer and get pissy about it, and I fully realize that they are burnt, I am just not in a position to assist. Asking me to not bring the kids would not resolve the issue since I wont come then. I ensure that we show up early, that all the kids help with setup, I make sure they are pasting/painting/reseting targets. We stay late to ensure the teardown is handled. We participate and assist where we can, but RO/SOing is not an option I will do right now.

I almost took on an MatchDirector/Coach job for kids SASP, but it just didnt work with the other schedules of the family and frankly.... my kids desires for shooting disciplines. I SO'd a stage at our state championship match because my kids were not shootingthat day, they shot the day prior so they were working the match all day, with my wife, and 1 of them was my official score keeper.

It's rough, but I will also say, that I see alot of guys at the range, who have shooter aged kids that don't bring them to kid friendly events. Not just girls left at home, but lots of boys left at home too. I dont know why this is, and I'm sure many reasons are completely valid. But I also think there may be an unfortunate reality that bringing kids shooting can hurt your game performance, and the male competativeness doesnt always want that to happen. I know I dont really get 'focus time' on stages since I am constantly making sure my kids are prepped for their turn, and my runs suffer a bit, but I am perfectly ok with that. It is what it is. I just shoot for fun and dont really worry about 'competing' on my runs.

It might be that if 'families' got their kids out more, we might end up with more coaches, and more RO/SO's in the pipeline and eventually really make a dent in getting our Gun Culture back. But the shortage of RO/SO's at clubs seems to be across the board, and a difficult problem to solve. But then again, some kids prefer fake guns in Fortnite to real guns on the range under the sun - and we only have our own parenting habits to blame for that one.
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Old 10-12-2018, 03:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiwi cop View Post
Working bee participation is now above 90% for each and every working bee.
This is fantastic!
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Old 10-12-2018, 04:18 PM
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KC---IN EACH AND EVERY ORGANIZATION THAT I HAVE EVER BEEN AFFILIATED WITH, THERE HAS BEEN A CORE GROUP THAT HAS BEEN DEEPLY INVESTED IN THE MISSION, AND HAVE DONE THE BULK OF THE WORK. UNLESS FORCED TO CHIP IN A SET NUMBER OF HOURS, THE REST ARE CONTENT TO SIT BACK FOR A FREE RIDE........
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Old 10-12-2018, 07:35 PM
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I`m dealing with the lack of club participation but on a smaller scale.
Been running pin matches for 2 years with all too many on the side lines.
It does get old. Looks like the shoot I`m running this Sunday may be my last. I tried. Did the best I could do.
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Old 10-19-2018, 04:25 PM
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I think all clubs run like this. In fact all organizations run like this. About 10% do all the work for the other 90%. Why I have always gotten involved, because otherwise a lot doesn't get done or maybe worse, gets done wrong. All you can do is try & recruit to your side of things.
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Old 10-21-2018, 12:33 AM
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Our club has been around for 51 years. We own a piece of ground about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. With 150 or so members, we get about 15 or 20 who do most everything. in the 70s I was secretary for a few years, in the 90s President for 3, and was on the board for 4 of the last 5. One thing we did was to enroll new members as probationary for the first year. A log is kept of attendance and participation. Now, we only have shoots twice a year, and no competition to speak of, but newer members do seem to be more involved. As for the family thing, I went thru that, and then when I was traveling a lot for work, it was tough to tell Mrs. Ralj1 that after being gone all week, I was going to the farm for the day on the weekend.
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