PITA Targets

Is the 2 hole verses 3 hole a big issue for PITA shooters?

Did they just change their rules when the ATA did?

How did the membership respond.

Thanks

 

Does the PITA do anything different that the ATA could learn from?
Is the PITA membership growing or declining?

 

The PITA is a lot smaller organization than the ATA, as You don't have the sheer numbers of shooters in the West, like They have in the eastern half of the USA. Many rules that start out as ATA rules, become PITA rules, as there are quite a few shooters that shoot targets from each sanctioning body, the yardage reductions come to mind. You had to have a mechanism for ATA shooters that come to shoot PITA tournaments to be able to shoot the same yardage. I have never heard of a shooter bitching about 2 hole VS. 3 hole targets at any tournament that I have attended, but I don't get to as many as I'd like to. The executive secretary, (Sue Brewer), and her husband, (Rusty), attend a lot of shoots, and often times cashier the shoots, as a lot of clubs out here are smaller. They are great people, and really do a great job of making PITA shooters feel welcome. I think the PITA's smaller stature lends itself well to this. I'm not sure if the organization is growing or not but suspect it is pretty stable. Jim R could comment on this stuff a lot better than I could. I see there is quite a bit of curiosity about possible PITA tournaments in the East on here. Give it up boys, it ain't gonn'a happen. The logistics would be massive, and I don't think that it would get the desired effect. The grass is not always greener in that other pasture! p.s. I have never heard or seen a club out here that conducts PITA shoots that did not have a scorer/puller at each trap. Cannot imagine this happening at any ATA sanctioned shoots either, but I guess it does. I too am very surprised that the Grand American handicap champ was not stripped of His title, as it sounds like there was possible cheating going on. I don't think that this would fly out here in the West. My 2 cents.

 

Sockeye thanks for the response.

Anybody else?

Any chance the PITA would lead the way with bringing back 3 hole targets?

 

wishbone, in my opinion the answer is no. ATA has the membership and sets the standard with trap shooting. A lot of PITA members shoot both types of shoots with cross registration going both ways.

It seems to me and just my opinion only, ATA will never relent on making targets more difficult again. We've had far too many changes to what our game once was and the most important question that should be asked, has it helped our sport grow?

In a very limited way it did cause more targets to be shot by a select few for sure! Did it attract more new members that stick around long enough to hook themselves on our sport? Nope. Even considering all those changes, ATA has never had a problem attracting new possible members, we do have a real problem keeping enough of them around long to say our sport is growing as a direct result.

Several years back, Trap&Field published an article that trap shooting was the fastest growing single participant sport in the nation and one of the safest too! Of course there are multiple reasons we're where we are today with less members and participation, target totals shot. It seems we've followed the sport of skeet in making the game easier and that was a mistake made by the skeet leaders and ATA. Skeet top shots now have a totally different game to settle their ties that resemble the original game? There are a lot of perfect scores shot there also.

Both organizations through change toward an easier to hit target have destroyed the once held perception one didn't have to shoot a perfect score to at least stand a chance of placing near the top on a shooters ""HOT"" day. In ATA shooting today at most of the larger shoots, HOT days alone are a thing of the past as all ties in singles/doubles are carried over to the next like event a day or two later. That favors which shooter more?, the better averaged one of course. Is it any wonder we lose potential members once the realization sets in for such a long haul to become almost perfect in the game? I think not.

HAP

 

Thanks Hap

That makes a lot of sense.

 

Well said Hap.