I LIKE SHOOTING ATA TRAP. Can we still be friends?

Yeah, I know 3-hole, 50 yard targets used to be the rule in ATA and now the targets are easier.

Yeah, I know it wasn’t uncommon in the old days to win a new car at an ATA shoot and now you might win a plastic trophy made in China.

Yeah, I know Vandalia was a sacred place and it sucked that the Grand got moved to a place without enough hotel rooms or shade and they don’t always kill all the dandelions.

Yeah I know a lot more people used to earn a living shooting trap.

Yeah, I know 1250 FPS shells weren’t allowed back in the day.

Yeah, I know the EC has said and done some incredibly stupid things.

Yeah, I know it’s outrageous that the ATA let an 18-yard blatant cheater steal their most coveted title and still didn’t have the sense to eliminate 18 yard “handicap.”

Yeah, I know that Brad Dysinger, who I like and whose honesty admire, now hates the ATA for what he perceives -- rightly in many ways – that the EC has done to his beloved sport. I totally get that. I respect it.

So I’ve shot Calcuttas and non-registered shoots and leagues and I tried buddy shooting. But still -- NOTHING in trap excites me as much as going to a big, beautiful venue and going up against 500-1000 other shooters knowing that if I have my best day I might get in a shoot-off with some of the best shooters in the country. That's fun to me.

How else can I experience this if I don’t shoot ATA?

If we all boycott the ATA do you really believe a new organization is going to magically pop up and it’s suddenly going to be 1965 again? I’m truly sorry you older guys got your world screwed up by poor ATA decisions and the demographic, cultural and economic changes that occurred during your lives but I’m no spring chicken myself so please let me enjoy what’s left of my trapshooting “career” and what good still remains of the ATA. After all, your predecessors who shot side-by-sides with field stocks and inconsistent shells with fiber wads probably didn’t appreciate your fancy over-unders and Model 12s either (not to mention adjustable combs and release triggers). But they didn't moan about it constantly and try to shame you into abandoning the ATA, did they?

Be nice to other shooters and try to enjoy life. We'll all be dead soon.

Respectfully,

Gary

 

I still shoot registered. I do not shoot much registered. My grand never left Ohio. It would never have been in Illinois. Only the Jeff Wagners of the ATA world thought that would succeed.

The EC destroyed the name "Grand". They have destroyed a part my sport. They have not destroyed trap shooting.

The ATA is what it is by design.

Jeff Wagner will be a hundred before I chase ATA points at the shoot in Sparta. Good grief.....ATA points.

 

That reminds me -- some day I'm going to make it to Sparta and if it's nice and I have fun I'm going to say so.

-Gary, the shameless traitor

 

Wagner thinks we are chasing ATA points. If they really cared about the ATA the whole lot would resign. Until then I will enjoy my game as I choose. I register a few but I do not need to register targets to shoot trap. Isn't that what the site is about?

I actually shoot more now. The ATA doesn't get as much $$$$. Aint chasing ATA points.

 

I for one hope you make it there. Have a great time and have the best day you ever had on the BIG day.
I would like nothing better than to hear you were the GAH champ that year. NO BS!

If ATA targets are what you still want to shoot then I am not going to tell you not to. It is your money. You earned it. You spend it anyway you like.

I might sign back up and shoot some this summer myself. Just to see if I can run a hundred and tell the rest of the guys that it really isn't as hard as it used to be.

Flyersarebest, But I'm still a Trap shooter.

 

Gary,
We left the ATA a lonnng time ago. I shoot trap. Not ATA targets.

 

They ATA left us!

Flyersarebest

 

Sounds reasonable Gary,

I hope you make it to Sparta this year, and do well there. The first time you see the 3 1/2 miles of trapfields, I think you will be impressed.

Have a good evening, John.

 

Gary no they didn't, but they loved those Ithaca 4Es and 5Es, Purdys, and grabbed them up when they came out. They still kept the rules the same when they took away the Glass Balls, and introduced Clay Targets, They kept the rules the same when they took out the Hand Cocked Kline Pull Machines, They kept the rules the same when to started using Smokeless Powder, They kept the rules the same for those first 80 years, until Neil became the ATA delegate and worked his way in to the presidency, and led the EC down the Rosy path to destruction of the Sport of Trapshooting. as Paul Harvey would say, AND THAT'S THE REST OF THE STORY!

 

Geeze L'shot, you seem to have some pent up ill feelings about the A.T.A.. Why don't you get it off your chest and tell us how you feel. LOL. Bulge.

 

I shoot ATA some non-registered money shoots but I do both for the camaraderie of it all. After I retired from a Director’s position with my state association I still volunteer to help at our state shoot. Because I LOVE the game of shooting. I am active at my home club with what ever they would like me to do. I’m also not one of the “Big Dog” shooters. I’m the average shooter type guy. Break some good score and have a slump. I just keep coming back. I will be a friend to most and help where ever I am able to. I now have my Grandson shooting some. That’s me makes me happy. One of the best times was this past year at my home club annual team shoot when my son and my Grandson joined me on a team. Three generations on one team. Stuff like that keeps me coming back. So,GW22, yes we can be friends. In the photo (I'm in the middle)

 

why sure we can be friends, we might even meet up someday at a shoot and have a great time. Rick

 

It's too bad Sparta didn't replicate and improve the Vandalia shooting complex. Ahhhh, Vandalia at Sparta. Bulge.

 

I have been to Sparta, have not been to the Shooting facility there but looking forward to a visit and hope to meet up with a few people I consider to be friends there ... I do not feel any desire or need to shoot in Sparta but if that changes between now and then I will ... To be honest I am more excited about and hopeing to see the new facility in Wisconsin and the Cardinal Center in Ohio ... I will have many friends there, hope I can find them without to much trouble ... Somethings change for the better, others for the worse thats the way it is and will stay weather we like it or not ... wpt ... (yac) ...

 

This post moved to a separate thread:

http://americantrapshooter.com/inde...tion-has-fallen-can-you-handle-the-truth.258/

-Gary

 

I shot Side-By-Sides and am now moving up to a "Y" Model 12 Winchester. Man am I lucky, 75 years old and shoting in the high 90's. Love it.

Carry On

 

When we vote GOOD Delagates in to make changes they say they will make, they get taken aside and brought into the CLAN, told they are in line for a new expensive gun, if you vote with us, they become one of the GOOD OLE boys club.

What needs to be done an INTERNET CONFERENCE WITH A GROUP WHO HAVE THE BEST INTEREST OF THE ATA IN MIND AND MAKE THE NECESSARY RULES CHANGES TO BRING BACK THIS SPORT TO WHAT IT USED TO BE, ONE PAST PRESIDENT WHOM I FEEL WILL HELP DO THIS IS NEIL CRAUSABY, MAYBE HE KNOWS OTHER PAST PRESIDENTS WHO WILL HELP, ALONG WITH SOME OTHERS, LIKE BRAD DYSINGER, DAVE BERLET, HARLAN CAMPBELL, RICHARD MARSHALL TO NAME A FEW.

With them and GOD'S help we can obtain a miracle, it's going to take a miracle or the ATA is going to HELL, the BOTTOM.
May God Bless the ATA, and the SPORT of Trapshooting I love.
Dr.longshot

 

Excuse my newness, but Harlan and Ricky seem to be doing just fine in the current system?

 

Garry

Remember there are more than 60 delegates elected to represent the shooters

And remember only one gun is given per year to the retiring president.

Are you sure all these honest men are corrupted for a gun they will likely never receive?

Most of the delegates I have met can afford any gun they want.

Not everyone who disagrees with you is dishonest.

 

We like to shoot at ATA targets, in fact, we love the Big 50s.

Greta and Jack

Pa shooters, except in the winter!

 

Good for you, Greta & Jack.

Despite what some on here would have you believe, the ATA is not the devil. They're just struggling to deal with the warp-speed segmentation of the sports/leisure/entertainment market, and the aging baby boomer issue, just like so many other organizations.

That, plus the sticky situation of inadvertently letting a blatant cheater steal their most sacred title.

-Gary

 

Always great to hear from some of PA's finest. See ya's next month at the SD!

 

Fifty-three years later, a different type of shooting, sounds like the same old stuff.
If I closed my eyes I'd think it was 1962 at the Lackland AFB Tx. pistol range.

 

so many on here would state that the ATA/EC decisions have been the demise of ATA shooting. I'm sure in some circles it has had an impact, especially after the move to Sparta.

My question is how has PITA faired in that same time period? Some argue that the economic conditions of 2008 and after has had as much, if not more, impact on the participation than anything else.

If PITA shooting declined as much as ATA shooting then I'd have to agree that the economy is the overwhelming factor.

Did PITA follow the ATA with respects to angles, shells, etc? Do they have the same earned yardage process?

We have some people that believe if nothing had changed with respect to the rules we'd still be enjoying participation levels of the 60s and 70s.

In my opinion there are so many factors that have caused the shift in ATA numbers and all the BS about targets/shells is so far down the list it really doesn't matter.

 

Iowa Guy
Excellent post.

 

Nah, I'm pretty sure it was the switch away from glass target balls that did us in. Before Neil Winston outlawed the glass, Trapshooting was at the top of the sports page. Now it's only mentioned in the obituaries.

Let's go back to those good ol' old days when men were men!! ...and sheep were nervous.

-Dr. Glassballs

 

I have a feeling the PITA is in the same boat as the ATA but it would be great to hear from the rank and file.