From: "Tom Charnock", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Big prize money will get more NON shooters interested in taking up the
sport. But who will put up the money, and it will need to be for a few
years to get the numbers higher. It will get little TV etc in meantime.
A Negative thought, even our trade suppliers do not fancy making a BIG
splash on increasing rifle (pistol) shooting. Why? do they see the
potential for another Dunblane Hungerford as too big a downside?
Sadly I think business will only come in when it is BIG and they can see the
potential.
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On one of the US Newsgroups, a guy wanted to start a discipline that
combined PR shooting with running. He put a lot of effort into the course
of fire, safety etc. He even thought of how to handicap the ace runners to
make it more even (bit like golf). Thought that 22 was best round to use as
more locations available. Distance was MILES of running, which I said would
deter people (well me for sure). He was going to set up a couple of shoots
to check out and refine. Not heard recently of his progress.
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Great idea to target the graduate parent type, yes they effective in policy
and would help on the "we nice people" public relations front. But how do
you get to them?? You see lots of charity clay pigeon shooting events which
attract great support. Could you do the same with rifle shooting??
What about getting rifle shooting into the Corporate Entertainment arena??
Captains of Industry etc.
I feel that legislation is more against setting up this type of corporate /
charity event than it is for clay shooting. Anyone aware of specifics for
this??
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In the meantime ?? do what Practical Rifle has done...
After the self loaders went, the sport went into a nose dive. Efforts by
the clubs to keep it going were strained and shooters left the "scene". The
London Pract club held the Nationals each year (LPSC) and other clubs tried
to do their bit. No overall co-ordination between Clubs or focus and apart
from the Nationals little to aim for.
Along comes Steve Beard (E-mail Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
with his idea. Driven by the falling numbers of shooters he decided to start
his PR NEWSLETTER. This was based on a number of simple objectives
1) Circulate Newsletter to all shooters who subscribed (UK�5 per year).
Including a listing of all clubs, contacts, dates of competitions up to 3
months ahead, match results and reports.
2) Start up a "league table" for the shooters. Again simplicity key in
this. Just apply 20 points for a 1st place, and down to 1 point for a 20th
place. Show all cumulative scores in each newsletter for information to
shooters. At the end of the year, add up the 5 best scores for each shooter
over the year, and you have the Winner.
What happened?? well there are now up to, 2 or 3 competitions per MONTH,
the clubs try to not conflict with other matches. The number of shooters in
the League has almost tripled over 3 years. There are lots of new shooters
coming into the PR sport.
The match reports are sent in by any of the shooters, some humorous, others
"Times" style. There is a real sense of success in this sport now. (No
doubt those who like to complicate matters will now try and start to
interfere and make it more "government" like)
What else could be done?? it would be nice to have "open" days so that
"newbies" could come along and try out the sport. This is hard to do, not
just because of legislation, but someone has to let their rifle be used. As
every PR shooter is individually Range Officer supervised, personal
supervision / tuition is easy. But "open" days would likely be part of an
actual competition day, and time is tight to get through the courses of
fire. Could be done, but it would need the pro shooters to assist the
"newbies".
Pete Bloom (E-mail Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
has run special range days for PR shooters to improve on their technique and
skills. Maybe after an "open" day the "newbie" could be given a day session
with someone like Pete, which would give them the fuller confidence to come
fully into the sport
"Open" days would show to ANY shooter, that PR is not as hard as you think,
though getting high scores is.
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