How many people do you know is quitting or cutting back on any ATA shooting? With aging shooters and difficulty getting reloading components, it's making it easier to stay home...especially this time of the year. My practice has cut back to almost zero.... not fun to shoot in cold weather. Just curious..
Age is the key factor and in Fl , the driving distances are prohibitive for shooting, how well can you shoot after a 3 hour drive the closest range to me that throws registered targets is 48 miles; however the owner likes to shutdown @ 11;00 AM
Most registered shooters I know already cut back last year and plan on doing the same again this year. Cost was the main reason, just too expensive to shoot and stay competitive.
I quit shooting ATA trap a year and a half ago. Getting old and can't do the driving anymore. Just the local club 50 bird shoots now.
90% of my clients are aging out. eyes, back, travel....all reasons they are not coming. shame to see my nice club go unused. all my clients are friends, not customers. so its a double wammy. no shooting, but no visiting either. I could use a new crowd, but snapping pics of their butts and posting it on the net seems to be the new sport in young America these days. im convinced that if I offered a free match, they STILL wouldn't come.
Kind of reminds me of when I was in business, if I said "I do it for nothing" some cheap bastard would say "too much"
well....i was only able to draw 4 shooters to my spring shoot. and they were the same 4 people from last year. what does that tell ya? im slowly shutting down. this will be my last 2 day shoot next week. next oct is a 1 day shoot. if the same 4 show up for next apr, i will make my shoot an annual shoot. if still no improvement, im canceling my shoot and going back to range cards and just call to come shoot. if that doesnt work, im going back east and will fade out there. at least i can go to 4 different ranges within my home on a sunday. conn. is small and it pays off.
4 maybe? im 1.5 from springfield. its 100 miles to tulsa from joplin. id come up 44 and cut off the rt360 link to 60e. thru lower springfield, to mt grove. s on 95 to w to ah. wife went to college in tulsa. come see the running discussion on the shoot here........ https://www.americantrapshooter.com...otgun-event-14-15-apr-2023.19720/#post-151044 weather is the main issue sat. we are trying to avoid a sat mudfest. might shoot on friday and save shootoff for sat morn to miss afternoon rain. its all up in the air with such a small crowd, im not even cutting the grass. its not worth it.
my 5th shooter is now coming friday. shooting starts noon friday. all 5 are now shooting the match and shootoffs friday to beat the rain. sat will be practice extra birds only, until it rains. 1pm is calling for a 42% chance. another reason many toss in the towel. weather.
im posting all this to show others why many are tossing in the towel from a range owners perspective. its a lot of planning for such little return. i can only imagine how the big guys must be pulling out their hair trying to put on a good shoot and no one comes or those that do, complain. im too old to deal with struggles. im sure others are too.
bobski, Have you tried starting a league. Are there any medium to large companies near you. WHEN WINCHESTER STARTED BUILDING THEIR CLUBS THEY HAD A REP CALL ON THE COMPANIES IN THE AREA TO SEE IF THEY COULD GET THE EMPLOYEES INTERESTED IN SHOOTING. IT WORKED, THE LEAGUE SOON BECAME REGISTERED TRAP SHOOTERS. They called it a learn to shoot class, they urged women to come also, any thing is worth a try. Call me if you want to 1 623 935 2581 Roger C.
no one is willing to travel to the boondocks for a podunk shoot and big time promoters wont support a small operation. i tried them. no dice. heck white flyer wont even deliver. its too far out of their way for such a small load. and i get scalped. thats my biggest problem. location location location. seriously, its 30 miles to the nearest town with gas. you got to remember, this range was built for private use. even though nssa granted them smallest succesful range 1995, and built a 2nd skeet range, the average match had 7. they sold and i bought it to gin internet interest off of websites. it worked, but the new generation isnt interested in websites anymore. forums are going out of style too. its a hard sell. so im now going for older clients who know their way around a course. ata and nssa. one trap is fine. if i had shooters, i could keep it hopping, but all guys around here want to do is talk cattle, complain about grain costs and do farming....only to unwind friday night and sleep it off saturday (shoot day). all work and no play is alive and well here in the ozarks. population 150, where shotguns are only designed to shoot coyotes and critters.
what i am trying to do is get a ct travelers concept going. at least id get shooters who know how to shoot and would just shoot and move on. we got rover s&t, top of the ozarks gc, rockville, and big piney near by. its a start. i just cant give it much time since im only here so little. i care for my aging mother in ct and commute back and forth to mo via va to check on the wife. clays has taken back seat...which is the other reason i may have call it quits.
when i first opened back in 2010, i offered a tradtional skeet/trap range league schedule. i also offered traditional monthly fun shoots 1st weekend of every month. being honest, no one came. lol. why? location location location. no one could justify driving the extra distance to the boondocks, just to do what they could do at their local ranges. r.scott use to open on a phone call and sometimes 1 or 2 guys would come by. he had to stop what he was fixing, open up the fields, pull....and then the guys would just shoot 2 games and leave. 2-3 hours of work and prep for 10-20 bucks? again...im faced with the fact that its not worth the time and effort. most clubs around here have been reduced to collecting memberships and giving keys to members so they can shoot when its convenient, bypassing the traditional social aspect of the sport. so, i dont really have high hopes with being a traditional range in the future. i wont reduce myself to the level of a 7/11 thats open all day and night offering a customer what they want when they want it by issuing keys to its clients. im holding fast to the american tradition of being a community sport. it was meant to be similar to home town softball, bowling, or pony league games on summer nights at the park, where everyone had a hot dog and loosened up for a short moment in a busy life. the ONLY way anything at vanzant will work is, to kick bushes and find shooters willing to do this. the challenge is doing that today in (such a busy world.) its close to impossible. we have to try. vanzant was giving invites on 25 websites. im down to 1. all the rest have members more interested in what they ate for breakfast, what the prez just did, and how much they love their lawnmowers. THE INTERNET IS BASICALLY DEAD. i need to find whats left of the old americans in america, who want to travel, meet others, and want to shoot. roadside vegetables are always sweeter and fresher than store bought. support the local small ranges.
I think the key is to get other veteran shooters to bring new ones. I know sounds easy and like common sense. Reason I say this is I started trap shooting about 4 years ago at 56, wish I would’ve started sooner, did a lot more pistol, even that was only 4 years earlier, all for fun, didn’t know trap existed. Living in NYC and NJ my whole life, not a lot of gun related sports or hunting growing up. A friend took me and I was hooked, bought a used 870 pump then a cheap but good O/U. Now I have 3, nothing crazy expensive. Even with the cost I try to go every weekend and do min. 4 boxes. Took my boys now they are going more and more. My boys asked if they could bring a friend, I said yes, if they got their dads ok and then invited him, got a few interested. It’s slow, but I enjoy introducing them to the sport. Hopefully the young ones stay in
This may be off base for a trap discussion, but. . . . . . . The club grounds where I shoot is owned by the state trap shooting association. They hold the state trap shoot there every July. No other registered trap targets are thrown during the year. The trap ranges are used on occasion by casual shooters but there are practically always fields to be had if you want to shoot. Same holds true for the skeet ranges. There are 6 skeet ranges but there are no registered events held during the year. There is, however, a sporting clays range that is well used by casual shooters and serious shooters on a frequent basis. The state sporting clays tournament will be held there this year and sign up is almost full - at least for the main event. The club operator, who rents the building and grounds from the state association, has recently hired someone to promote corporate events on the sporting clays range. So far this year they already have 60 corporate events scheduled. There are an average of 100 shooters at these corporate events and it is not uncommon to have 200+ shooters such as when a large electrical union or similar group shows up. Further, they just set up a five stand "course"and that seems to be getting good use as well. None of these activities are necessarily inexpensive. Trap and skeet are $6 per round for members and $9 per round for non members. Sporting clays is priced at $36 per hundred for members and $45 per round for non members. I don't shoot sporting clays tournaments, but I checked and the minimum entry fee for a 100 bird sporting clays event (registered) is $75 for basically targets only. There are added fees for class, long run, etc. And. . . . . there are multiple additional events such as super sporting, sub gauge, FITASC, etc. So . . . it ain't necessarily cheap to shoot these tournaments. Still, people seem to be willing to pay the price. Apparently not so for weekend trap shoots. The owner of one area club that was holding regular registered events just passed away and all shooting has s ceased there until the estate is settled. The point I am trying to make is there seems to be people who are willing to spend money for shooting registered and non registered events. . . . . . but it's not true for trap shooting. Cite all the reasons you want - age, cost, driving distance, lack of payouts, and on and on. Yet, the truth is trap and skeet, at least registered in my state, are dying. Last year the state skeet shoot only attracted 22 four gun shooters. And a B class shooter posted the only 100 straight in the 12 ga event. The state trap shoot is still pretty well attended and there is a large participation from the high school teams - but I'm not sure if attendance for the state shoot is up or down over the past several years. How to attract more shooters to registered trap and skeet events ? I'm not sure there is a solution - but so far no mine has come up with it.
Trap and skeet are both managed by men of no vision. we need a whole new class of people running both of them. OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW. We have a new class of competitor that wants more challanging targets and what do they get more fluff and all money moved to the top score. Roger C.
i like bowling. bowling is old. im not going to buy balls that glitter as they go down lanes under black lights...to attract bowlers. why? bowling is bowling, no matter how much you spruce it up. and in the long run, its just a way to get people to swallow something they hate, by just putting sugar on it. even that gets old after a while. its called a fad/gimmick. that my friends is not vision. visionaries lead, they dont (follow) trends. s.clays was a visionary move. they hit pay dirt. they are marketing hunters and the majority of people who dont mind missing and dont throw a tantrum if they do. they go out to have good time, like a bowling night with the guys and gals. trap? traps draw has become nothing more than a vehicle for the youth to get college scholarships. once achieved, trap goes away and the shooters reap the benefits of a degree. the goal for most isnt to be a life long shooter, rather to get something for their talent and move on. trap becomes nothing more than a car rental from point a to point b. skeet? 4 gun competitions are just plain too expensive for anyone except those left who can afford it. and kids dont like things that require hard work, let alone go up against seasoned gladiators of the sport, waiting to take their entry fees. its not the kids fault the sport is failing. they follow their parents advice. if the parent truly enjoys the sport and the children enjoy it too, its a win win. but if all the parent is interested in is achieving an ulterior motive by using it, (usury,) the sport gains nothing. to make matters worse, trends show less people are pursuing college degrees due to avoiding the left wings influence in classrooms. employers are keen to this and are now encouraging employment of cheaper h/s grads willing to learn on the job. america is too top heavy and finally focus is being placed back on the backbone of america, the middle working class. if anything needs to be addressed, it would be this......the big shooting venues better start realizing they are going to go the way of the dinosaurs once the wealthy shooters who aren't effected by economics, die off. then the wheel will come around full circle. a plea will go out to the middle class to come shoot, cheaper guns will come back, ammo prices will go down, and matches will be cheaper....to accommodate the new crowd. history will repeat itself again. this is why i focus on working class matches and small venues. im trying to keep the sport alive thru the middle class. lose them and you will lose any hope of it coming back. smaller is better. make america great again.
DO NOT BLAME IT ON THE KIDS. The blame lies on the people that run the organizations not knowing how to get people interested in a sport, and not being interested in trying to learn. Trap and Skeet started off by not doing what the membership wanted. Then the made the sport easier thinking that would bring in new members, that didn't work so Trap went against the vote of the members and moved to a gun hating state. We all know that has been a cluster funk of great proportions. Skeet has been on life support beginning in the 80's. It is less of a challenge than trap. and they shoot for little pins, WOW . Trap needs a resurgence, and the present ATA is not capable of the challenge to implament it, we are a doomed sport. Sad but true. Roger C.
Shot for 55 years -- Lost my local club 15 year-ago.- Joined.three other clubs within 30 miles to support and shoot -I feel supporting from the bottom up not the top down --My money will do a lot more good.
rrisum, The ATA members have been supporting the organization, where do you think the $20,000,000 piggy bank came from. The EC thumbed their noses at the members and would not listen to them. After all they were the smartest men in the room. They were also self serving, now you see the results. Roger C.
