Bench-Talk

 I just received a email from a gentlemen who made a good point. His question basically was what am I, we, us,  doing to promote the shooting sport and bringing in the yournger crowd. One concern of his was it is becoming the "sport for Kings". Ok.. lets hear some opinions on how to fix it. Or, is this not a growning problem ? 

 

Stan 

 

every year at buckcreek KY we have 2 big shoot's the Bluegrass Balloon Bust aka(BBB) and KY top gun.

at both shoot's we have a FREE youth class with trouphy's for 1st 2end 3erd.

it go's over real big. most all of us watch and root for all of them !  

as a matter of fact a young man by the name shawn harris (danny hensly's son). won the Iron man trouphy for best score at 200-300-400 yards beat all the old guy's !

Stan Ware:

 I just received a email from a gentlemen who made a good point. His question basically was what am I, we, us,  doing to promote the shooting sport and bringing in the yournger crowd. One concern of his was it is becoming the "sport for Kings". Ok.. lets hear some opinions on how to fix it. Or, is this not a growning problem ? 

 

Stan 

But, since I got involved in BR shooting, recruitment, especially of YOUNG people, has been a "issue". I began shooting in registered tournaments in 1977 - for many years, at most tournaments, I was the kid. My son and daughter grew up with competitive shooting - both were very good with a rifle . . . but neither was interested in competitive shooting - I now believe that, for most people - especially those under thirty, there are more exciting/interesting activities - I was a freak  . . . and so was my long-time pal, Terry Meyer ! ;) For many seasons, to no avail, I recruited non-stop  . . . for the last decade I have taken to lying on the bank, waiting for the horse to come to water . . . then, provide access to sugar water !  Lying in wait has proven the more effective method: I believe one or, both of my kids will come to BR - someday, when THEY are READY. ;) RG

George,

  What you and others do at Buck Creek for the "up and coming" youth of our sport is GREAT!  One thing I see that is special and different about the "BBB" and "Top Gun" is the targets are "reactive"......something "breaks" or "explodes" (as in water ballons) as a result of a "good" shot and the match moves along at pretty fast pace. I think this type format is a lot of "fun", exhibits instant "scoring" and creates a lot of excitment ..... something that even brings out the "kid" in us older fellers (Just look at Jimmy C.!).....

I think kids are drawn more to this type of shooting event (maybe you could call  it "precision plinking".;>)..) and tend to enjoy this type of match better than shooting at non-reactive paper targets....I know by your reports of these matches that you have a pretty good turnout of yourng shooters that appears to grow every year.......I feel once a young shooter has a "fun" experience with a shooting sport, they will be more likely to be "drawn" back to it.....Keep up the good work George!

-H

In my area there are a few "non-affiliated" small clubs that have the egg, paintball, sucker, varmint, aspirin, matches that are alot of fun for the young and old alike. I have started to attend many of these to keep my boys actively shooting as well as keep what little skill I have tuned in, but to also do some recruiting for the "next level" matches. It seems to be working,......slowly. I have found that if you wait until a shooter, young or old, gets "bored" with scrambling eggs, thats when you set the hook.

 In my/our case, the boys are very involved with wrestling year round and have become very dedicated. All of the equipment is here for them when they are ready to begin shooting again on a regular basis. This is not to say that if we are on our way to a wrestling event that we won't be popping in at a match or two this summer to shoot,.......I hear that a couple states west of here that they might have a few kids that would be lookin' for a good wrasslin' match,......

There will be a $100 cash award given to the Junior shooter with the highest Grand Agg score at the Score Nationals this year. The award is from an anonymous donator, to promote young shooters into the benchrest game.

In the past few years, Francis has been running the postal matches.  Which is a perfect oportunity to get the young ones involved in the privacy of your own club or your own range at your own time.  We, Francis and I had my son Eric envolved, not only for the Postals, but also at registered and non registered matches such as Harrison and Iosco.  Francis was very good at trying to get prizes for the Postal matches from supporters of our sport, some of which were just for the juniors.  What was really strange was that the only other junior shooter that I remember even turning in a set of Postal Targets was LW Moore's son Jimmy.  Eric enjoyed the Postal Matches and it helped him learn Safety, Loading, Cleaning, Bench technique, Wind and Mirrage, Time management, and Various other Competitive Edges that some of which can help him not only in Benchrest, but in a lot of life's situations.  I hope he can continue Benchrest if he chooses and keep at it for a good long while, I know we've done our part to get him started.  The shame is that not so many juniors were involved in the Postals.

 Paul

 

i think thats the key hope..reactive targets ! kids and adults love it and new shooter's figger out after awile that the better thay are on paper the better thay can hit a balloon !..so you end up doing alot of parper punch'n to get ready for the match.

and the better one get's the more better one wants to be ....and ya end up in the BR game.

My friend Ron has a spare 30-44 that I am going to put my 13 yo on this year.  He has gone prairie dog shooting and deer hunting and is interested in shooting.  He has also shot in our fun match ran like a HBR match and finished 5th, all others were adults.

 

Mike

Hi folks. I´m probably one of those younger shooters you are talking about. I´m born in the middle 80´s. We have the same problem here in Sweden, most of the shooters are in the "upper middle age", with a few shooters just below.

 Seriusly, I see why. Firstly, there are so many other things for young people to do, as drinking beer, watch TV, sitting in front of the computer, or running after ladies...

 Secondly, most young people don´t have very much money... Even if the sport would attract younger people, most would be unable to aford competing. BR equipment is a bit cheeper in the US than here, but if you want to travell for some larger competitions, you will need quite alot of money. I try not to keep track on all the money I spend on shooting, but I spent quite a bit more than 10K$ last year just on equipment and travellexpenses. That´s quite a bit of money, even if you have a good paying job.

 Hope you all understood what I wrote..

 Regards,

Peter Ericson

Sweden  

 No problem understanding you at all, Peter.  Welcome to the site, glad to have you here.

I wish there was an easy answer. It is difficult to compete with all the things that they have for our youth to do today. As my son grew up I worked to get him involved in shooting sports and hunting. In fact when he was 2 years old I purchased 2 new Winchester M-70 rifles for him. At 4 years we found that he was a southpaw! Well so much for that idea, I ended up selling them when he was about 10. At about 8 years we started working with a rimfire, cartoons and gameboys were more interesting, guess he didn’t have the desire. At 12 years I purchased for him a brand new rimfire for his birthday, he didn’t seem to have any desire to use my 22’s. Now hoping that it would have some affect, told him to let me know when he wanted to go shooting, (his birthday is Dec. 21). From that point I would say, hey Scott I’m going to the range to shoot, wanta go??? No some other time. Ok, we got him through hunter safety and did manage to get him out bird hunting a few times. At 16 years, I found a real nice Remington 1100 Trap Left Hand, real nice wood, 2 barrels and some other stuff. Took him to the club to shoot trap, he loved it! I loaded about 12 boxes of shells and taught him how to load. Well he shot all 12 boxes and loaded about 3 more, I told him that if he wanted to shoot he would have to load his own. I told him I would take him anytime he wanted, and that the only requirement was he had to load his own shells. Well trap ended that fall and all winter I would say, hey Scott, better get those shells loaded for spring league or you won’t be ready when the time comes. Well this year he turns 24, 4 years of collage and has a job working for a Firm in Minnesota, and those %(*@* shells still aren’t loaded! This is the Readers Digest condensed version; my point is if the desire isn’t there, or they don’t have an attraction to it, it probably won’t happen. My daughter is a worse story, I couldn’t even get her to take hunter safety, I even pleaded with her, you may have a boyfriend that loves hunting and want to do the things he does. I offered to pay her to take it and that didn’t work. I look around me as I write this and wonder why, what did I do wrong, my whole life has been centered around hunting, fishing and shooting. I have had a love for guns since the age of 5. Hunted pheasants at 14, deer at 17, tying flies and fly-fishing at 16, started shooting trap at 18 and grew deeper by the day after that. Well that is the way things are, can’t change it. My local club doesn’t help much either, oh yes they hold hunter safety but that is about all! I hear at meetings about we need to get the youth involved. The truth is that none and I mean none of the membership to speak of is active in any shooting sports. 3-4 members shoot clays and some archery but that is about it. We have become a raffle club! They depend on ticket sales to support our club, and it has done well. The trade-off was the loss of members that were active in the shooting sports. We lost all of our pistol shooters, all high-power shooters and the ranges are falling apart. The trap range is working and up-grades have been made but the rest has went buy the wayside. Speaking out like this is likely to get me expelled from the club, they removed some already for the same reason, it’s like a dictatorship. Oh, I overheard someone talking to another prospective member saying we are more of a social club than a shooting club. I would say that probably 90% of them I don’t care to socialize with and the others are questionable. Why do I stay, I am a life member and it is only 5 miles from my house. The people that I would socialize with have either been pushed out in some fashion or other, or they have left. If and that is a big if, I had my own range I would have been gone long ago. I do not enjoy gambling, I think it is down right stupid, and now they are talking about holding Vegas nights to raise money. Well I have vented enough, probably said too much but I feel better.. Rick Boy, I hope I didn't offend anyone, this is my first post.

Rick, I can sure relate to this! :) When it came to fishing and shooting, my Daughter, "gifted" at both, following unbelievable successes, simply asked, "Dad, is this ALL there is to it" ? At least she's not an anti-gun nut! :) My son, it seems, had better things to do - with his pals. He did do a little archery hunting during his high school years - but he was more picky than his father ! He shot a few BR tournaments, but rifle shootin' wasn't his passion. Once he graduated from college, he did take up killing defenseless birds - turkeys, ducks geese, pheasants and the like - always accompanied by his labs. He never cared to get involved in deer, fox, or coyote hunting . . then, three years ago, in his mid-thirties, out of the proverbial blue, he began hunting white-tails, using both a muzzle-loader and shotgun . . . someday, he'll want to shoot the BR rigs again. ;)

Peter, well, and clearly, stated! :) RG

 I know James and I couldn't shoot if we couldn't trade barrels for most of the stuff we use such as bullets, powder, stocks and actions and luckily we make our own barrels with the cost of gas and everything else we just couldn't do it, I'm 35 and he is 28 and we are the youngest at the shoots 99% of the time. We would be willing to donate barrels for the younger shooters if it helps get them started and be competitive. 

 P.S.  I'm sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas cause we can't fly back in to Milwaukee due to 20" of snow Just finished 4 days at the Shot Show.

 

 

 

Paul Tolvstad:

 I know James and I couldn't shoot if we couldn't trade barrels for most of the stuff we use such as bullets, powder, stocks and actions and luckily we make our own barrels with the cost of gas and everything else we just couldn't do it, I'm 35 and he is 28 and we are the youngest at the shoots 99% of the time. We would be willing to donate barrels for the younger shooters if it helps get them started and be competitive. 

 P.S.  I'm sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas cause we can't fly back in to Milwaukee due to 20" of snow Just finished 4 days at the Shot Show.

Paul, I can relate to THAT too - as I stated earlier, Terry and I were whippersnappers (an affectionate 'Gabby Hays" term) for a LONG time! ;)  Enjoy the scenery in Vagas - it's cold, white and deep back here!

Hey, Stan and/or Ryan - if you're reading this, where did the edit feature go??? My view suddenly quit provining a edit option . . .  :( RG

Ryan & Stan, forget that gripe - it (the edit option) came back! :)