Can't help but think the ATA is sinking into oblivion

I hope I'm wrong but I can't help think the ATA is slowly sinking into oblivion.

 

That sinking may depend where you are standing. The Cardinal Center is doing great! Most major shoots in the mecca areas of trapshooting are doing ok as far as ATA goes. That would include the eastern part of the Midwest. OH, PA, MD areas.

Just because ATA is down doesn't mean trapshooting is down. Like Dysinger pointed out on another thread trap seems to be booming in NW Ohio.

If you would only consider Sparta's attendance the future might look dark. Ohio, MD, and PA big shoots are doing OK. The Cardinal Center is limited to 800 campsites or it would do better. Fortunately for the CC there are cheap motels nearby.

 

ATA is a game of perfection offering nothing for the casual or weekend shooter.

 

Interesting observation, but I think that can be said for almost any scenario these days ...

It is what you make it. Not all of us are destined to be great shooters, but the vast majority just like to shoot. I like to shoot and at the end of a bad day, score wise, I still want to come back and do it again. I like to see the friends I have made. We solve all the worlds problems between events. Occasionally, travel to some of the bigger shoots and meet some of the folks that I have gotten to know, but never met.

Almost all of the major organizations that we all grew up knowing and being involved in, are shrinking. Churches, Boy Scouts, service clubs to name a few. The ATA is one of them. Can we change that? Maybe ... Someone wrote on the message board at my club ... "You can be part of the problem or part of the solution". You choose. One person at the top of an organization cannot affect change, it takes a concerted effort by most of the members.

 

And herein lies the problem - your observations and comments are from a completely different demographic than new or younger shooters. The old-timers love the sport, love to hang out with the boys, etc. New shooters want to have fun too, but have to get home, take the wife somewhere (she's working full-time too ya know?), take care of the house, the kids and do the chores; and that's why all the old time fraternal stuff is going down in membership.

 

You are correct ... but where do you see any new YOUNG shooters in any numbers. My children don't have the time or money to shoot, in fact, they don't have the money (because jobs like I had don't pay them much) or the time (because they have two part time jobs) and kids to raise. IMHO, we need the folks that are 35 years and older that have disposable income, if we want to see the sport grow and prosper again. The young folks, will hopefully join us later in life when they have the time and disposable income. Until then, they will hopefully join a club and shoot 50 practice targets periodically.

 

User 1

What do you think about Moultrie having 127 shooters competing for a few pieces of meat in NW Ohio on New Years Day? It seems they were competing with bowl games as well and had a very mixed crowd. Is it merely proof that trapshooting is strong in the area or getting stronger overall.

 

"who thought they could win something "

And this is an issue - When you get that brand new, excited D 20 D Class shooter to enter an ATA event don't forget to tell him "by the way, we know D Class is 88 and below but you're going to have to shoot in the mid to upper 90s to even be remotely competitive and if you shoot a 96 in caps you can get a 1/2 yd punch but you won't win squat." Fun, eh?

 

Maybe "executive orders" are what is needed to make changes. LOL, I surely hope not.

 

It was never intended to be a game of perfection, it started working that way when Neil and his cronies, waiting in line for their Trapgun,He took the ATA to a max speed shell of ! 1/8th oz to 1290fps max+ or- 90fps on top of that from our old std. Std load 3 dram 1200fps, to back up my story it is in 32 pages of the ATA Minutes, look em up, That's a fact. And then the narrower 2 hole angle target, that added so many Grand Slams when all they had left to make that Grand Slam was a 100 from the 27yd line. That was the start of the decline,the beginning of the end, I know I got jumped on/climbed on at on the other site/ bumped off for not backing down on N on his x to me and to the .com crowd, de deleted his statement but I had a copy if it to prove it. But that is a moot point now, not water under the bridge, that bridge can't be crossed. I stand for 3 hole targets and 3 dram 1200fps 1 1/8th oz shells, and a 50-52 yard target like it used to be. God Bless America and Trapshooting the way it is supposed to be, as set forth by our Trapshooting Forefathers.
Dr.longshot

 

If you throw them they will come.

At our local club, every Thursday, from the first decent weather in the spring until it is just too d%^& cold in the winter we get between 20 to 30 guys shooting Annies. I myself quit that 20 degree stuff years ago.

It is $2.00 each and no buy back. We can't back up past the 27 because we would be in the parking lot and years ago the BOD didn't want guns and cars in the same area. So be it, no big deal. Since most of these guys have been doing it for years and more than half of them also shoot Annies Tuesday nights at another club they are all pretty good shots. At that club they end up on the porch. WAY past the 27. WAY past!

When it gets down to the last 2 guys Thursday nights they split the pot. WHY you ask. Well, imagine 2 GOOD shooters going at it from only the 27. Instead of shooting 20 or 25 Annies a night you would only have time for maybe half that number.
The last 2 split and it's "line em up" lets go. Of course you knock the other 2 out when it gets down to the last three and you win it all.

The puller has a counter/clicker and we pay the club 10 cents a target. We round it UP when its an odd number. No change involved, just folding money. If we shoot say 80 targets the club gets $8.00. Shoot 90 the club gets $10

25 guys equals $50.00
80 targets equals $8.00
winners split $42.00

You split ONE Annie and you get $21.00 a little more, a little less depending on how many targets are used. You split two and you got around $40-48 in your pocket. You split two and win one by yourself and it could be around $80

You shoot 20 Annies , cost you $40. You shoot well enough you get all your money back for the night. You get hot and you make a few bucks. I've seen guys clear $75-$95 for the night. Hit one 30 man Annie by yourself and you got $50 right there. We do shoot one $3.00, one winner, per night. $90 in the pot. Less $10-$12 for targets. $80.00 in your pocket.

They started a "green bird" pot. They randomly load a handful of lime green birds in the turret. You pay $2.00 per week and if you break the green bird on the third shot you win that pot. That's $2 per man per week. You miss any weeks and it hasn't been hit, you pay the back money to stay in. The last one I heard about the winner got $400.00 It went 7 weeks before everything worked out just right. It would have gone sooner but the guy that did hit it wasn't in the pot. Funny thing was the way it did work out. Only 3 shooters left in the $3.00 one winner. Out comes the green bird, first and second guys miss, the third guy doesn't. Hit the big Annie by himself and ALSO hits the green bird pot. Probably around $480.00 for just that round.

Yeah, over $400.00 + on a Thursday night shoot.

That's what it is all about. A chance to win something when the "playing field is level". Everybody at the same distance.

Take a ride to the next local registered shoot, IF you can find one, and let me know how much you can win. NOT bashing the registered shooters. I might go and shoot a few hundred this year just to see the boys that still do it around here. I always had a good time. Lived for the weekends and the ATA shoots. Things change.

My point is, If you throw them they WILL come.

Flyersarebest

 

"Since most of these guys have been doing it for years and more than half of them shoot Annies Tuesday nights at another club they are all pretty good shots. At that club they end up on the porch. WAY past the 27. WAY past!"

How old are these guys?

 

LOL, 60+, more than a few in their 70's, one guy in mid 80's. Probably 10 or 12 used to shoot registered targets all the time. I mean thousands of registered targets per year. I can't think of one that still does.

There are also a bunch in there 40's-5o's Not too many young guys. The newer shooters try it a few times and then seem to back off. If someones son or grandson wants to try it we usually dump the target so they can stay in. After they get the hang of it and they start knocking people out themselves that stops.

I had a kid about 15 on my right one night with his 1100. When I told him "don't miss", he just smiled. Yep, second target I called for I'm sitting on the bench. He didn't get anymore free rides.

I forgot to say in that book I wrote earlier this morning that we shoot Thursdays on a WOUND UP wobble trap. There are no 50 yard targets shot on that trap. I typed it in red because it's just plain scary how far they throw them.

Flyersarebest

 

I THINK I know what you mean. But it's not only the games that are drawing people. The Christmas shoot brought in a few. They had over 50 hams for the Christmas shoot. Over 100 shooters. Guys with there sons. One guy alone brings 4 or 5 grandkids. They all shoot. That's what registered shooting used to look like around here. A LOT of those people used to be registered shooters. And they weren't as old as dirt like the rest of us.


Flyersarebest

 

What ALWAYS gets lost in the 'conversation' ..... is the adrenaline-rush of completing the task. Live-birds, clay-birds, or anything that if you can take it to the end, the big pay-day is there. Once you feel that you get addicted.

Age, income, time, or whatever becomes unimportant when looking for that next rush.

Without that it becomes easy to find Trapshooting a boring "old-man's" game.

 

Flyersarebest: Do you shoot that here in Ohio?
Dr.longshot

 

In SW PA Gary.


Flyersarebest

 

Wow I am gonna have to go over there and try that out this Spring
Dr.longshot

 

Shooters can get pretty inventive with the games and how they are played ... We used to shoot the first go round of the Annies from the 27 yardline, then back up to about 30 yards, then 35 until we had a winner in each game, then capped off the nights shooting with a game we called 5 for $5.00 from about 45/50 yards(?) ... It was always a great time and I do not recall there ever being anyone complain ... Before we started the games every Friday evening we would have a Steak fry or Cat fish and the shooters and or familys could get a great meal for $6.00/$7.00 ... We always had a full line (30 + shooters) and we all got a kick out of watching some of the newbies win and get their share from time to time and many time embaress (kidding) some of the long time shooters ... The shooters didn't care as much about the games as they did about having some fun and shooting the bull with some like minded people ... Good games are hard to find anymore, with any kind of luck maybe one day they will fire up again and get some of the older shooters back who looked forward to those games ... wpt ...(yac) ...

 

I think the point someone was trying to make was that the age of shooters shooting games is similar to those shooting ATA. Do you think a new shooter stands a chance at a games shoot when he has to compete against veteran game shooters like LS. I never saw at the limited games shoots I went to up north any young or new shooters.

I think shooting sports as a whole are way down, like many other venues, the main culprit is money and jobs. There isn't the extra money to do things like there used to be. It also depends what area of the country you live in. One sport may be up and another down in your area or all have gone down or vanished. It's always easy to blame management, just like in the real world, whether it be the local club or a national organization when the real culprit is economics.

You point out a club that had 127 shooters on New Years in NW Ohio and I heard of a club not to far away that had similar numbers for over 20 yrs on New Years that was canceled.

I wish it would be as easy to turn shooting sports around as some of you think it would.

Just another senile opinion.

Lefty