Practical Hunter

[19 Turkeys]

No, I do not believe so. The reason is that I received my new Life membership card a few days ago. A card was enclosed stating that no new rule book would be printed in 2013 as there were no rule changes to the 2012 rule book that were substantive.

Steve W.

[encore22]

I don't think the Board voted on it yet. Hopefully it will be soon. If it passes, we who would shoot it would probably get a seperate card like the air shooters. My opinion.

[encore22]

As we wait for a decision from the Board, I would suggest that we keep on shooting PH entries so they can see that it is a viable category.

[19 Turkeys]

The March issue of the paper will have the year end 2012 financials. You will see how many PH entries were shot last year. Those numbers will tell you how viable it is.

Question: How many entries in a year do you think you would like to see to call it "viable"?

Steve W.

[high standard 40]

I'm kinda in agreement with Steve. The way I understand it, PH was proposed to encourage new shooters, not give older shooters more options.
Our range can be taken as an example. We offer Smallbore, Fifth Scale, and Field Pistol. That's 10 different categories to choose from, five of which allow optics. If you add PH that's three more categories. Just how many entries can one person shoot in a day? Plus, you can shoot re-entries. I'm not being negative, I'm merely being practical. We have plenty of categories for any new shooter without adding PH. We don't need new categories, we need new shooters.

[encore22]

Under this Rules heading I posted a comment TRY IT YOU'LL LIKE IT. That spells out my feelings on the PH category. We do need new shooters and we also have to keep the ones we have. By having a category that a shooter, coming back after a long lay off can shoot and compete in, will keep him/her around this time. Entries are what feed the treasury and my belief is if we can provide a category that a shooter can hit targets they will come back for more.

[high standard 40]

I still fail to see how this can coax an older, one time IHMSA shooter back into the sport and hold them. You have to look at this logically. The only real difference between PH and UAS is the tripod or sandbags that are allowed for first time shooters and A -AA class. If an old time shooter returns to try the new category, how long do you think it will take him to advance above AA class (26 or better)........then he has to shoot without the bags or pod........and you have UAS. We have that now. If that shooter has to have the bags or pod to shoot AAA scores, and he can't have them anymore, he'll quite again out of frustration. I'm all for encouraging new and old shooters. At my matches I allow any new shooter to use any gun from any position they feel comfortable with. I don't enforce IHMSA rules on first time shooters (except safety of course). I even allow rifles, just to get them "in the door" so to speak.

I'll say this again. Society has changed. When looking at the shooting public at large, interest in our game is miniscule compared to the action, tactical, scenario games. It's reflected also by the fact that firearms manufacturers no longer produce the XP100, Contender, Striker, Etc, Etc, Etc. There is a reason for that. They don't sell these guns in large enough volume to be profitable. Our game just does not appeal to today's sport shooter. Sad, but just the facts.

[encore22]

Any shooter trying our sport for the first time will look at the cost of equipment. If we have a category that they can compete in with minimal cost I believe they will try it. The PH category will fill that bill. A Contender or Encore frame and a couple of barrels and their ready to go. Most previous members have those guns sitting in their safes. If you have a stock XP you might fit in under the 21" rule, but I haven't seen one in a while. There could be a safe queen that might fit, but put a scope one it and I think it would be doubtful.
We could go on and on about the pro's and con's of the PH category. Our leaders will eventually make the decision and we will abide by their ruling and continue trying to make our membership grow. Amen

[19 Turkeys]

The semi annual financials posted last August I believe showed only 54 entries shot worldwide. Several of them were my club only 1 shooter (current member) who put a scope on an FA for load testing purposes. I entered him in PH to give him a shot at a new gun.

As a match director using Orchid Software which is not upgradeable to include PH, you are adding to my workload.

Give me the facts. How many new members did PH bring in by itself? Lets not knee jerk this decision without some facts behind it. How many people do you know it brought in or kept? At my club, AIR is where the growth has been.

Steve W.

[encore22]

As I have said before, ENTRIES are what feeds the treasury, Air entries have really boosted the amount of money IHMSA has made since it started. The reason is, Air is usually shot as a match by itself and does not compete with BB SB and FP. Some places even had Air matches every week. If 5 shooters shoot 3 guns apeice every week thats $60.00 a month going to IHMSA. On a financial report that looks real good. The only thing is those shooters are the ones that shoot BB, SB, and FP once a month and may only account for $20.00 going in for entry fees. Just because Air brings in a lot of entry money does not mean it bring that much growth in the way of membership. I'm not saying it hasn't brought in new members, you can't say dollars in the kitty means growth in members.
I really liked it when I had the choice of shooting BB one week and SB and FP the next. I could get between 6-8 entries a month. I was happy shooting and IHMSA got more in entry fees than it does now that I shoot only once a month.
I don't think a financial report tells the whole story.