Target Price Sticker Shock

Recently, I returned to the club where I shoot during the winter months. I began shooting at this club about seven years ago when the price of trap/skeet was $6.00 per round. Then, a couple of years ago, the club raised the price of targets to $7.00. Last week when I purchased targets I was informed that target prices had been raised again to $8.50 per round.

I’m curious if other clubs are seeing the need to raise prices this much this fast? The reason I ask is because the club I belong to up north threw $4.00 targets for at least the last ten years and has only recently raised their target prices to $4.50.

The other aggravating factor (at least for me) is that the winter club decided not to raise prices on their youth programs (who shoot for less than half price) because “the parents might not be able to afford for their kids to shoot.” To this I say “Then buy your kid a baseball, bat and glove. Shooting is an expensive sport and its not up to me and the other members to subsidize your kid’s shooting.” Not to mention the fact that once the kids age out of the youth programs and mom and dad quit paying the bills, we never see the kids again!

That’s my rant for today. Maybe I’ve just turned into an old curmudgeon.

 

And I'll add to the above rant, if junior is shooting a Perazzi, Krieghoff, Blazer & high end factory ammo , he doesn't need a leg up, he already has a golden step stool.

 

Jack……

It is cute that you pretend you care.

I assume you shoot some registered targets. Didn’t your ATA Delegate help keep the voting secret? Did you complain about that? Did your delegate bring up lowering the target costs? Has your delegate approached the EC to change the targets in a way to make shooting cheaper? Do you know your delegate’s name?

Face it Jack. You really don’t care that much. You can’t even show how your delegate voted. Great to hear you bitch. Keep paying for those targets!

 

The kids at our club shoot next to nothing and don't help much at all.
When the free stuff is done there gone.

 

I didn't know that ATA delegates were clothed in such immense power. By God, I'll give him a call post haste!

 

For every kid with a K, P or B gun there's three with camo 870's, Dads rabbit gun or whatever you can think of. If we don't keep the kids shooting the game is done boys.

 

I don't believe jack ever mentioned shooting registered targets. I believe he was just talking about shooting at his local winter club. so why in the hell would he care about a ATA delegate. since when does the ATA delegate set target prices at local gun clubs?

 

Jack….. you are tripping over your ignorance.

Did you not know the Delegates make up the Board of Directors for the ATA?

Didn’t you know the Delegates set the standards for registered target manufacture?

Your delegate had the chance as a member of the BOD to set a standard for a less costly target. They have the power to demand targets that are easier to ship.

Did you know much of the cost for targets is in shipping? Imagine a target that is 30% cheaper to ship. Or a target that costs 20% less to manufacture. The local clubs would be using those targets for practice.

Did your delegate even ask for a roll call vote on anything? Stay clueless Jack. Keep bitching about target prices. It’s more fun than contacting your delegate.

And btw. The kids aren’t the problem!

 

Wonder if my delegate can also lower my property taxes? Maybe help with male pattern baldness?

 

Jack….ask your delegate to buy you a clue. I am betting you don’t know who your delegate is.

 

Why is ATA even in this? Poor guy was talking about prices at his local club.

 

Typing slower….

The ATA Delegates determine what shape size etc the targets are. Those targets would be the targets that are used at all clubs. The ATA has not addressed making targets cheaper. The delegates lack the vision to tackle such a project.

 

A long time ago there was a shortage of live pigeons. Due to that prices were too high for competition.

They then trapped winter birds in Florida and brought them north. FYI. Winter Birds was slang for Chickadees.

The smaller birds were cheaper and presented a new problem, choke selection. I do not recall anyone blaming kids. Could be I missed that.

 

Maybe you should become a delegate?

 

See I missed the part where the ATA controls the price of clay/chemicals/labor/diesel/paint. Thanks for pointing that out. Since Smithy is clearly light years ahead of the rest of us. Even if they shrink the target or change the compound, what makes you think White Flyer etc has any interest is making new tooling for the new target? Or are you suggesting they go to a sporting clay target? How then are the struggling local clubs to pay for adjusting their throwing arms or buying new traps all together?

Now if you wanted the delegates to shrink the events to 75 birds, that makes sense to me.

 

Trapshooters would rather whine about the cost of targets than adjust to a different target. The sporting trapshooters have left the game. The younger kids get bored with the same old presentations. The old farts that can’t adjust need to get out of the game.

The game that was once a sport is no longer a challenge. Now it is designed for whimps.

 

Went to a local sporting clays field that has one trap field, there were 300 cars filled with sporting shooters, I was the only one on the trap field--our sport is dying , maybe the problem is it takes 45 minutes for a squad to shoot 100 targets on one field--sporting shooters are on the course for close to 2 hrs.

 

The big shoots are youth events. The SCTP National shoot had more participants than the grand in Illinois.

There was a shoot in MN that was bigger. The vendors don’t care who buys their wares. The youth aren’t complaining about target settings. Who knows what the ATA goals are? I see most of their effort going to support an unwanted venue.

 

As someone that shot trap until the age of 15 then took 30 years off and just got back into it a year ago. The age of shooter at all the old local clubs has greatly increased. There are very few 30, 40, 50yo old shooters. These high school kids are the future of our sport. I don't mind my club allowing them to shoot at a discount if it helps them out. Most of the kids by us are shooting 870's, bt99 or tri-stars. They aren't shooting Perazzi or K-guns. I know alot of these kids will move past the sport after high school, but some will stick with it. If your worried about a kid getting a discount on trap, take your AARP card somewhere else and get a new hobby.

 

Kids getting a discount is the last problem the ATA or a local club needs to address.

 

I started shooting trap as a senior in high school and i received no discounts on anything. It did motivate me to get a real job to support my clay busting addiction. i did take a brief sabbatical to coach my kids sports teams and pay there way through college. I am pushing 60 now and still shooting. I think it is a bunch of crap that shooters have to support these kids who can't even find the time to help out at the club that supports them. tell me what are we teaching these kids by letting them skate through.

 

You’re right, we should teach them that the sport is too expensive and they should pick another hobby, there’s too many people at shoots these days anyway.

 

Your worried about kids at the club getting a discount on targets? that it wont teach them the value of money? But you paid the way for your kids through college? Little hypocritical isn't it? I bet your kids would have gotten more out of their education if they had to earn the money to pay for it. But what do I know. I wasn't smart enough to get my folks to pay for my college.

 

I never said my kids didn't work to help pay it. both kids had jobs and helped pay there way. And i'm very proud to say that if they wanted to shoot they could pay there own way.

 

One overlooked beneficial effect of the youth programs is that while we may not get a large percentage of life long trapshooters it is highly likely that we have educated a segment of the population that guns are not evil and can be used in a positive way. In the near future I fear that we will need every one of these young people who have a degree of firearms knowledge to hopefully help preserve our rights.

 

So its not ok for a club to subsidize a kids targets? But it was ok for you to subsidize your kids college education? By your logic if your kids wanted to go to college bad enough they would have figured out how to pay their own way. There is more than a few kids at our club that are on the high school team, that have parents that don't shoot. But God bless those parents for bringing their kids out every week. And quite a few of those kids can only afford to shoot 1 or 2 rounds a week of practice. These aren't kids with silver spoons in their mouths. How else do you see this sport every growing? or at least not dying off? I bet you are all for a senior member discount on club memberships though. Maybe we shouldn't be just looking at these high school shooters as the next generation, but trying to pull their parents into the sport. They are the people that are coming to the age of looking for hobbies once their kids leave the house.

 

Aparently you have not paid for a college education lately. And in case you have not noticed these kids don't come back to the clubs that " subsidize " there shooting and they don't buy club memberships either. I do not know about your club but the clubs i belong to do not have a special senior membership fee. in case you haven't noticed most of the members here have managed to shoot there entire lives and never had the benefit of being subsidized when they were kids. but yet they still managed to learn the safe use of firearms.

 

And i would also like to point out that my kids are mine. they are family. they are not complete strangers that i have no association with. do you treat complete strangers like family? when you go to a restaurant do you pay for everyones meal? because it sounds like that is your logic.

 

I haven't paid for a college education lately. But I did pay for 100% of my own college education 25yrs ago. Mommy and daddy didn't subsidize it. I've also started 2 successful business 100% on my own. But I also feel that giving back to your community is not a bad thing. Some day some time you may need a stranger to go out of their way to help you. Whether it's being broke down in the middle of the night and needing a tow truck or a cold January day when your furnace goes out. I'm sure when you try to reach that tow driver or service tech after hours you will be pretty happy that they answer their phone. But why should they take your call? They aren't your family. If you don't treat the kids coming to your club as part of your shooter community/family is it a surprise that they don't stick around? My trap shooting career start out at 12yo setting trap at our club and earning enough money to shoot a round or 2 at the end of the day. There were no discounted targets for me. I left shooting at 16yo, once I had a drivers license life took over and i didn't have time for shooting. But if there had been a high school program I probably would have stuck with it. I returned to trap shooting about a year ago after a 30yr absence. And it's pretty shocking to see that there isn't many shooters under the age of 65. I'll give you one more example, then i'm getting off my soap box. I'm a member at 2 clubs, they are 10 miles apart. Both have trap, skeet and rifle ranges. Club #1 is your kind of place, no senior discount, no youth discount, no high school team. It has about 35-40 members left and its easier to get a card game going than a full squad for trap. Club #2 offers a senior discount on membership, kids shoot at a discount and a local youth team shoots there. Club #2 has over 500 members and probably shoots at least 6 times as many targets a week as club #1. When I shot 25yr ago these 2 clubs were both growing and improving their facilities and had a similar number of shooters/members. Which club do you think will be around in another 10years? Oh by the way, last Sunday I was out for breakfast and saw a gentleman with a Vietnam Vets hat on eating with a young man. I assume his grandson. I had the waitress put their meal on my ticket. Just because someone isn't your family doesn't mean they don't deserve a kind gesture.

 

Kids shooting half price targets are simply paying around the actual price of those targets with no profit to the club. That said, 99% of those kids will no longer participate when mommy and daddy stop paying the freight. The finest All-American junior trapshooters disappear as well and part of it might be burnout from the huge target totals needed to qualify. Not many kids have the financial ability to continue ATA trapshooting after turning 18 yo either. Sure, it's nice to see all those kids showing up at trapshoots but don't expect them to make Trapshooting a lifelong commitment. We're still waiting for kids from the 1960's to return.

 

Once someone leaves the sport, it’s hard to get them back. If you really get into shooting, it’s a huge commitment of time and money- which seem to be limited commodities for most people these days. If a kid leaves shooting once they start working or college, they need to establish themselves in the world and learn there’s life outside of trapshooting. I left ATA shooting for a while, came back, and quit again. I started shooting sporting clays, which is an even bigger money pit and just as much of a time commitment, but it’s different and holding my interest for now. I wish there were some more options to win in that game, but oh well- I’m still going to work on Monday after the shoot regardless.

 

Ever since we started this discussion all you have did is toot your own horn about how you had to pay for your own college and how you started 2 businesses and how you are so generous and payed for a veterans dinner. good for you. I have served my country for over 30 years I have earned my right to voice my opinions. I have also coached high school varsity girls fastpitch for several years and never took a dime for it. That is not including the little league and pony league teams. also i received not a penny but spent my own money paying for ice cream and other treats for the teams. I can also say my kids are both in the health profession in the Grand rapids area. I looked up your Illustrious shooting career with the ATA and see you are from Michigan. Maybe someday they will receive a call at 2 AM to save your life. and like the tow truck driver you mentioned in the previous post they will show up to do it but it won't be for free. It will be because it's there job and duty to do so. I also know a Big 10 education costs a hell of alot more now than it did 25 years ago. and if you stayed at home with your mom and dad and went to community college well that would not cost much at all 25 years ago. now let's get to the real point of this conversation my club has had a I believe S.C.T.P skeet youth program since the very beginning of the program and we have had hundreds of kids come through since the start and so far this year 1 of these participants is a member of our club. now even such a wise business man as you can see that is not a smart move financially. I am done with this conversation and I hope you got better grades in school than you did trap scores.

 

Boiler….. how many of those kids that you coached kept playing softball after the age of 30?

 

Where do I even start. One I've never bragged about my shooting ability. This topic was about you complaining kids are getting discounted targets. Now if you want to turn this into personal attacks you key board cowboy kindly post your real name and state you live in. Which I assume is Indiana. If you are pushing 60yo you didn't just pay for college at todays prices. You put them through school 15 years ago. I didn't go to a big 10 school but I do have a bachelors from WMU. But what in the heck does the price of mine or your kids college education have to do with kids getting a break on targets. It just shows how self centered you are. You say you spent 30yrs serving our country. But my guess is it wasn't in the military. More than likely your local sanitation dept. I also see that maybe you should have spent a little of that money you put towards your kids education on yourself. FYI its not "payed", it is paid. But i've asked you more than once how do you see this sport growing and not dying off, and all I have gotten out of you is personal attacks on me. I've asked if you tried to mentor any of those kids at your club and your response is about you coaching softball and little league. Oh by the way, don't most schools have athletic boosters that help subsidize the cost of those sports? You said you coached for free. Shouldn't a man of your worldly knowledge be getting paid his hourly rate even if its after hours? So did the kids on your son's little league team that weren't your family have to pay you for your services? By your logic its not right for those kids to get a free ride at little league. What is it going to teach those kids? I'm sorry, what was I thinking. You put your kids through college at a big ten college. So that automatically makes your smarter and better than me. I bet you have a better ATA handicap than me too. But at the end of the day your just a sour old man that is pissed off about a 16yo kid getting discounted targets.

 

Be careful children, BOTH of you.

Flyersarebest
The nice Mod

 

Flyersarebest, you do a great job.

 

If the bottom line is making a profit and loyalty to the corporation then the kids are a bad investment. Sounds like a view Neil would have had.

Another person might point out there is no reason for us to entertain kids when there are so many abandoned houses in the area.