From: "jim.craig", [EMAIL PROTECTED] Since the discussion seems to be centering round how to attract people into the sport, I'd like to expand a bit on the suggestion from a previous correspondent about the use of airguns. Today's airguns are a far cry from the toy-like guns you may remember from the days of your spotty youth and with bolt-action repeating pre-charged pneumatic rifles and mega-mag scopes to play with most clubs could easily hold open days with non-FAC weapons to bring people in the door and give them a taste of shooting. Outdoors, any range suitable for firearms could be used (50m is pretty well the maximum distance for a 12 ftl lbs air rifle) and since, in terms of trajectory, an airgun pellet will do pretty much the same sort of thing over 50m as a fullbore rifle round will do over 500m, you can see that interesting and challenging courses of fire could easily be established. With reactive targets (knock-downs, chalk discs, even electronic wonders that go bleep when you hit the right spot) a bit of imagination is all that is required. The same is true indoors and at even shorter ranges, with CO2 pistols and rifles fitted with red dot sights and again reactive targets just think of the fun folks could have without the hassle of the legalities associated with firearms use. Believe me if they enjoy themselves, they'll be back and it will be only a matter of time before they show an interest in the other shooting disciplines available and in the meantime having an activeairgun section can be of benefit to the club in many ways other than just attracting new members for other disciplines. As I've said in other postings, airgunners are by far the most numerous of any shooters and it will do the sport nought but good to try and bring them into clubs and associations where they can both enjoy their sport and be part of the fight to defend it. So who'll be the first first firearms club to form an airgun section and use it as a positive recruitment tool and campaigning aide for the sport? Jim Craig Dechmont Airgun Club GLASGOW -- Air pistols have come a long way of late but air rifles don't seem to me to be much different than they did 20 years ago, though I'm not "in" to this sport in that great a detail. Unless of course you splash out for a Walther or Hammerli but obviously a new shooter won't. I often start new shooters off on something like the Walther CP88 at 10 metres (hits at short range breed confidence) the only problem is that there is a bit of a logical disconnect now that handguns are banned. There is no particular reason why a club cannot have a minature rifle range and use .22 rimfires on it, without all the hassle of club probationary periods and so on. I have noticed that .22 rifle shooting is extremely popular on the Isle of Man, I think they won a silver at the last Commonwealth Games. If an island with a population of 70,000 can turn out top class shooters and have an active club league, we should easily be able to get new shooters into it by comparison. We have definitely got to make an effort to get more people shooting. Frankly it's the perfect sport for the couch potato population being raised at present. Steve. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
