Stepping up their Game, IHMSA style.

[jaymoore]

What killed silhouette? Was it all the different classes and categories made a match too long and complicated?

There may be little more to it than there's no points for being close. The various paper and cardboard targets don't advertise your misses or your peripheral hits, and generally you can spray away at the steel in other games until it goes down. Kinda odd to think the binary scoring is less popular than the rather more "warm and fuzzy" math of many of the other shooting sports in the digital age. (Shotgunning i guess is "fuzzy" shooting with binary scoring.)

 

[M29since14]

...(Shotgunning i guess is "fuzzy" shooting with binary scoring.)

Hey!

 

[Kiwi cop]

I think Met. Sil. just doesn't hold the interest of the younger video game crowd. Too slow and plodding, similar to Bullseye. They like the run and gun games like USPSA and IDPA, etc. Lots of movement and fast shooting is what is popular now.

Back when I started pistol shooting (1991) we still had to learn on the old UIT (now ISSF) style of target shooting. I just missed the era when you had to shoot a score of 70/100 or better to qualify for your pistol endorsement ). But even back then the "run and scoot" crowd was gaining in popularity.

Even 20 years ago at my club 10 - 12 shooters would be there every Sunday shooting formal target shooting, including the new shooters. Today there is no formal target shooting. Even our annual Club Champs struggle to get shooters along.

Now new shooters go straight into either CAS or IPSC shooting. ISSF is fading away. Once the old timers who shoot Black Powder stop shooting it'll die out at my club completely. And the ability to hit targets is suffering. Most shooters struggle beyond the 15 - 20 meter mark. (At our IPSC Nationals last weekend there were four steel discs (8") at 30 and 35 meters shot strong hand only that many shooters left standing).

Still we have one bright spot on our horizon. We have a Service Match, a 90 shot version of PPC/1500 shot at 50, 25, 10 and 7 yards, that a number of clubs are now using as training for new shooters. We also have four Classic Pistol 48 round matches shot a 3 - 25 yards. It develops the ability to shoot fast but accurately.

 

[6string]

Back when I started pistol shooting (1991) we still had to learn on the old UIT (now ISSF) style of target shooting. I just missed the era when you had to shoot a score of 70/100 or better to qualify for your pistol endorsement ). But even back then the "run and scoot" crowd was gaining in popularity.

Even 20 years ago at my club 10 - 12 shooters would be there every Sunday shooting formal target shooting, including the new shooters. Today there is no formal target shooting. Even our annual Club Champs struggle to get shooters along.

Now new shooters go straight into either CAS or IPSC shooting. ISSF is fading away. Once the old timers who shoot Black Powder stop shooting it'll die out at my club completely. And the ability to hit targets is suffering. Most shooters struggle beyond the 15 - 20 meter mark. (At our IPSC Nationals last weekend there were four steel discs (8") at 30 and 35 meters shot strong hand only that many shooters left standing).

Still we have one bright spot on our horizon. We have a Service Match, a 90 shot version of PPC/1500 shot at 50, 25, 10 and 7 yards, that a number of clubs are now using as training for new shooters. We also have four Classic Pistol 48 round matches shot a 3 - 25 yards. It develops the ability to shoot fast but accurately.

Sounds like NZ is/was similar to Canada. You needed to join a club to get the pistol permit. Some clubs were bullseye only. The old Hart House club on the University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto (long gone now!) was like that. Many members of the Canadian Olympic team shot there. Other clubs did have silhouette including large bore IHMSA out to 200M.

IHMSA is great fun, and I enjoyed their matches a bit more than NRA silhouette. That was years ago.

I think the fall off in all the precision pistol matches with many (not all) shooters under a certain age is symptomatic of other, bigger problems. One of those is being failure-adverse. I see it in so many disciplines and skill based activities. They don't want to work their way up the ladder. They just want instant gratification, some kind of novelty stimulation, and no risk of feeling bad for not doing well.

Jim

 

[75Vette]

Sounds like NZ is/was similar to Canada. You needed to join a club to get the pistol permit. Some clubs were bullseye only. The old Hart House club on the University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto (long gone now!) was like that. Many members of the Canadian Olympic team shot there. Other clubs did have silhouette including large bore IHMSA out to 200M.

IHMSA is great fun, and I enjoyed their matches a bit more than NRA silhouette. That was years ago.

I think the fall off in all the precision pistol matches with many (not all) shooters under a certain age is symptomatic of other, bigger problems. One of those is being failure-adverse. I see it in so many disciplines and skill based activities. They don't want to work their way up the ladder. They just want instant gratification, some kind of novelty stimulation, and no risk of feeling bad for not doing well.

Jim

If you think you should start at the top of the ladder and can't take failure then IHMSA isn't for you. You are correct as to how the younger kids want instant gratification. I just got involved 3 years ago and LOVE it but while it can be very gratifying it can also be VERY frustrating. But that's the whole point of trying to better yourself. I felt on top of the world when I shot my first 20 in field pistol and before last season ended I'd shot back to back 22s. Woo hoo!! But now I want to better those scores. Naturally I hope to keep improving and enjoying this sport. We need to find some young blood that still has older values.