Yep!
(All those medications for their emotional problems really add up!)
And, this from Engineer1911:
"At the local ranges; an indoor, an outdoor public, and a 'public' range [non-military or non-retired has to jump through hoops for access] at the local army base; a common characteristic is obvious. The typical gun owner today can't hit the target, shoots ONE box of ammo, goes home proudly carrying a target that does not have any discernable groups, and the only holes touching are when the target is folded in half --maybe. The total number of holes in the target is 70% of the number of bullets fired.

Rare is the shooter who asks, "How did you shoot that small group?" Also rare is the shooter who will listen to advice about raising their skill level when given in the politest way possible. For most shooters it is all about recoil and noise. Hitting the target is a distant goal. Sight alignment, 6-o'clock hold, or center of mass are 3 of life's great mysteries."
(Sounds like my range!)

Maybe it just comes down to a cultural divide?

Unfortunately, inattentive attitudes towards marksmanship are too often accompanied by inattentive attitudes towards range safety.
But, perhaps that's a digression into another topic?

I try not to judge why people of any generation want to do what they do. Change is constant, I can get over it, or gripe my way to the grave; which I really don't want to do.

The NRA is going where the people are, that's democracy.

You cannot miss fast enough to win.

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Five screws and 3-1/2 inches.

Perhaps the best way to measure the NRA's commitment to Precision Pistol is to compare what they have done to strengthen the program compared to what they committed to in their 2013 resolution committing to supporting competition programs.

The problem may be a lack of imagination. The NRA seems to have done nothing to integrate the interests of action pistol with precision pistol nor supported international pistol development programs. There seems to be little outreach or support to develop competitive programs in the Pacific Northwest. A few keep the flame alive but it is flickering for lack of NRA support.

IMHO, accurate shooting in Any Style is based on a Good Foundation. Meaning ,Safely handling of whatever firearm, Correct marksmanship resulting from Training and Practice: Developing a Stance, Learning a correct grip on pistol/ revolver, Developing correct breathing, Sight Alignment And Trigger Control. Once these have been obtained one Naturally uses them( or tries) when shooting in any form, National Match Course( several) or as in the military “ Leg Matches”.
The NRA used to have basic Marksmanship booklets that we gave to those we were instructing( in the 70’s), those booklets contained fundamentals of Basic Marksmanship. Have no clue what is taught these days as I only go to range to shoot and see a class or 2( most CCW).
Guess it’s the instant gratification wanted these days of just blasting away at whatever target. As for LEO’s., just read Any article regarding a shooting where 100’s or rounds are expended , where did all those rounds end up?
Again one needs a good foundation of training in Any Sport.

The only problem with that is that violent crime has actually been falling in the United States for quite some time.

From the FBI Statistics page:

"There were an estimated 366.7 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, a rate that dropped 1.0 percent when compared with the 2018 estimated violent crime rate and fell 9.3 percent from the 2010 estimate."

FBI — Violent Crime

But you are not alone in thinking it's getting worse. The media's infatuation with violent crime over-emphasises it and what I've come to call 'The Gunfighter Industrial Complex" exploits it.

Forty years ago when I started shooting you never even saw a human silhouette target on the range. It was mostly a bunch of guys interested in precision (if not formal bullseye) and the pistol range was 25 yards. Nowadays everybody is practicing killing people.

If you go look at the statistics, any ones you want massaged any way you want, you can only come to the conclusion that there's a 99%+ chance they'll never need the gun they're carrying. I'd venture a guess that negligent discharges are more likely. But they don't keep stats on that anywhere I can find.

Of course, that's in the aggregate and one's risk profile may be greater. But most of the people I know that always carry are probably well below the average risk.

Don't take this to mean that I'm opposed to concealed carry.

Gun Golf in all of its forms get boring since it becomes about who has the best lead slinger and that costs money. I much prefer outlaw matches between friends. One day it could be .22LR at 100 yards with washers taped to the target. The next it could be defensive scenarios with a BUG from cover.

In the end, we have fun.

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GOA FL Dir. & Nat. Spokesman

I doubt that the figures for 2019- 2024 will still show a decline. Murders in big cities are really climbing. But back to the topic. Precision pistol shooting has many more competing shooting sports than in the 50's and 60's. The NRA still hosts the "Nationals", but with interest in the sport waning, I wonder just how long they can justify it to the millions of NRA members who aren't interested. With the ammo and reloading crunch and sky high prices, the sport will lose more participants. I personally think that bullseye shooting is a worthwhile endeavor for anyone. I still think it is a good basis for learning basic marksmanship and safety. Having said that, the current trend is for close-up, self-defense training. That is where the interest lies.

I'm an old local area only bullseye shooter. We are lucky enough to have a 20 point rifle range in the basement of our old High School, that is still usable, I predate IPSC and IDPA. Every winter we had an adult club use the range, and had a 10 week league, a standard 30 round Gallery round bullseye match. We normally had enough shooters we had to have at least two lines for each stage. We shot on the 50 ft. target as that was our limited distance. This club has existed since the 1930's, the membership went up and down, but when we started the league in the late 70's, the membership grew. As time went by, and the big outdoor club was started, IPSC established, along with Metallic Silhouette, and High Power Rifle. Naturally IPSC grew, and later IDPA was added. We tried to establish outdoor Bullseye, but people complained it took too long, took all day to shoot a match. Eventually the Bullseye folded when only 3-4 would show up. But, when winter came, all the shooters returned to the indoor range to shoot that Gallery round and enjoyed it. Most expressed that in the spring time their IPSC scores had improved because they shot more accurately, (but they still wanted to go into hose mode).
I hope some form of Bullseye will continue to be available as it is a great learning tool.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Many good points have been made here.

I'm not a competitive shooter, but tried the combat stuff some years ago. Regarding handgun shooting - more than twenty years ago, I began shooting all handguns Bullseye style about 98% of the time. Weaver stance two-handed style shooting became quite dull after doing mostly that for thirty years or so.

When I mention Bullseye style shooting on this forum and shooting at 25 or 50 yards, I usually receive acerbic comments from those who live, eat, and breathe concealed carry theory and gunfighting fantasies. They see arguing as a competitive sport and won't pass up an opportunity to impart their "wisdom" and vast experience on those who enjoy precision shooting, and that's not many of us. They always bring up the tired "gunfights occur at close range" argument, certainly nothing more than an excuse not to learn to shoot well and the fact that they can't imagine any form of shooting that's not defense related.

Combat shooting sports and related gadgetry have certainly overtaken other forms of organized/ competitive shooting. However, there's still something to be said for other styles and disciplines of the shooting sports, even if success can't be quickly achieved. There's nothing quite like shooting small groups at 25 yards, at least for me, but I'm not about to try make converts at the range where virtually everyone shoots polymer pistols at 5-15 yards, just as fast as they can fire.

I can see why the NRA and AMERICAN RIFLEMAN are supportive of the current trend. There's always room for another 9mm pistol or Colt AR 15 facsimile that's cheap and not very accurate.

I understand everyone has their own “ wants” in shooting, bullseyes or one of combat types. Regardless, any shooter needs a basic foundation, Safety first then all the fundamentals that can not be brushed off as,” takes to long”. This is the reason for training first in bullseye, then on to whatever you enjoy. Long time friend and I used to shoot pistols and revolvers at up to 250 yards , and no, not a hit on the first shot( sometimes) but lots of fun. We also shot at closer distances at assorted types of targets, lots of fun too. Basics are very important.

A private range close to where I live used to have tactical matches in the spring - and they may still hold them. I stopped attending and while I was TDY to the twin cities for 8 months I let my membership lapse and never renewed.

I stopped because I got the impression I was discouraging participation. I.e I shot, with a combination of both bullseye practical pistol competition in my past, I shot a lot better than the other shooters who showed up.

I didn’t necessarily shoot faster, or that much faster but I got consistent A zone hits and hits win matches.

One particular stage that was set up at a match included two shots on a steel target placed about 80 yards down range to end the stage. Most shooters just popped off two shots to stop the clock and pretty much gave up any hope of scoring. The problem was the target was the bottom 24” of an 8” welding tank upended an mounted on a post. An 8” wide by 24” tall target at 80 yards is not hard to hit, it just takes an extra half second or so to refine the sight alignment and hold the front sight toward the top of the target, so a couple seconds longer, but points for two more solid hits in the stage.

However it occurred to me that from the perspective of someone who doesn’t regard pistol shooting at speed as an accuracy sport, shooting against someone who is both fast and accurate is intimidating and sucks the fun out of it. So I quit attending matches before it was just me and maybe two other shooters.

Everyone who watches ice skating sees the exciting stuff on the ice. However up until 1990 those skaters also competed in the compulsory figures portion of the event and until 1947 the compulsory figures counted for 60% of the total score.

Those figures focused on accurate circles and curves as well as edge to edge transition and change of foot transitions. To win the overall completion a skater had to also demonstrate mastery of the core skills.

Good coaches still work with skaters to master those compulsory skills, but the sport lost a lot when skaters no longer had to demonstrate the, in competition.

The same loss has occurred in practical pistol shooting.

I don't know anything about skating, but your point is well made. Very few nowadays with an interest in precision handgun shooting.

I still shoot in a winter indoor Bullseye league. First shoot in the early ‘70’s and it’s changed a lot. Last year Covid really hurt our league, all our matches were shot at our home range. Kind of a postal league.
It is probably a dying discipline, sad to say. Recruiting young shooters is key, but difficult because of the other more fast paced sports.
Our pistols are much cooler though. 😎

11C54D1B-0BED-487E-9D74-A108693AC05C.jpg Working on a Series 70 Govt. Mdl Colt, several trip to range shooting 3 different types of ammo, hand loaded 201 grn KT lead, hand loaded 225 grn JHP, and Federal jacketed SW match, just seeing where different round printed. By chance a real match would use 1911 A-1 match or S&W mdl 25-2 as have not determined which is best for me. Fun trying to find out!

My advice is to use the guns and loads the top shooters use. There is no shame in it and the "big guys" are happy to share.

I lean more toward the old school.

Bullseye came to dominate pistol competition when it was the only game in town. Todays shooters are looking for a more dynamic shooting experience.

Unfortunately, we seem to think that our discipline is the best. Take a look at how Doug Koenig, Rob Leatham, or Bruce Piat shoot. They are not spraying and praying. In the 90's when Alan Fulford went from Bullseye to NRA Action Pistol he did well, but did not dominate.

We should encourage all disciplines. The stronger all disciplines are, the stronger that shooting community as a whole is.

I didn't read through every single posting here, but can definitely relate to your passion and opinion. I'm not usually a quitter, but gave up High Power Service Rifle when confronted with the realization my open sights would have to compete against scopes/optics. Don't understand why they couldn't have had a separate classification...IMHO, some things should just be left alone.

Nice pistols. My bullseye pistol in the 70’s was a M41. Great pistol.
My Hammerli is 26 years old, so kind of old school, in a modern way. 😁
My FIL’s pistol in the 70’s was a High Standard, my son owns it now. I still shoot it occasionally, still greats it done.

I’ve wanted to join a bullseye league for several years, but wasn’t able to until this year for several reasons. League cost, ammo cost and availability, and time. Mostly time, I haven’t had a job with a schedule that had consistent nights off every week until a couple months ago, and I’m 38. And it’s hard to spend even more time out of the house with a family at home when you’re already working 50+ hour weeks.

Firearm availability was never an issue, at least to getting involved.

Maybe I should not have a say in this subject but here goes. I never fired a sanctioned Bullseye match, ever. I did qualify Expert in the Corps the seven times I was required to qualify for score. Also I shot the USMC version of an IPSC course of fire several times when working for the Security Force Battalion and shot Expert there too. Both disciplines require dedication and practice to do well in. Nowadays even the USMC is getting away from Bullseye courses of fire to something that is closer to what the Marines will see in combat. Both Bullseye and IPSC (and other courses of fire) come down to sight alignment and trigger control. I enjoy shooting Bullseye and I teach my Grandkids that discipline (the younger ones). The oldest (just got out of the Corps and fired Expert with a rifle twice during his tour) is a bit cocky and Gramps has to remind him from time to time that I can still shoot better than him despite my advanced age. I think for the younger folks shooting steel is more fun and gratifying due to the clang and bang when you hit the steel targets. I think that they are shooting at all ought to make us happy.........better then them playing video games. May help keep our sport alive in some form........Sorry to ramble on like this.

AJ

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

I suppose the thing that chaps my hide is the wannabes who put down Precision Pistol Shooting as not being relevant. Some of them do it because they could never muster the determination to even attempt to hit a target with a handgun at distances greater than 10 yards. All I know is my own experience. I started shooting a handgun while learning bullseye, now called Precision Pistol. The basics and safety gun handling I learned there, helped carry me through many other types of handgun qualifications, handgun hunting and other types of handgun match shooting. I had to learn reloading, two-handed shooting, double-action revolver shooting, clearing jams, etc. along the way, but I found the basic marksmanship fundamentals to be the same along the way. I don't have anything against anyone who just wants to be able to hit a man-sized silhouette at short distances, but I don't like the internet commandos who say not to strive to do better.

This is what I meant when I wrote :"Sight alignment and trigger control......."

AJ

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.