St. Thomas June 8 Scores

In spite of the temptation to attend other matches these loyal and devoted shooters came to compete at St. Thomas on June 8. There were also two competitors in the junior class!!! Thanks and appreciation to everybody, staff, management and shooters!!

And here are the numbers:

 

One logical option for your match and the "other matches" is to coordinate schedules before the season begins. Then, the pool of local competitors can enjoy your match and the other matches with fewer conflicting dates. This would be a win-win for shooters and clubs.

 

That sounds all well and good but if you have ever tried to do it you would soon see that it will never work. I have tried for years and finally gave up. You get "well we always did it on these weekends and the next club does it on those weekends" so where do you try and compromise. I have learned to make my schedule to suit our range and our range rentals. There are only so many weekends per month and per summer.

FYI. I run the Mifflin Co. matches

 

"One logical option for your match and the "other matches" is to coordinate schedules before the season begins. Then, the pool of local competitors can enjoy your match and the other matches with fewer conflicting dates. This would be a win-win for shooters and clubs."

You make a valid point Jack but I don't believe competition from any "local" matches had much to do with the low attendance. It's getting to the point there are almost no other matches in the area other than Shippensburg which also has very low turnouts. The Hopewell Sportsmen match has gone out of business as I understand it and I heard there were only three shooters at the Mayberry match. I think shooters are kind of tired of the same ole thing. On top of that most of the guys who founded, organized, supported and to a fairly large extent funded the St Thomas match are either dead or in poor health. Except of course for Dick Murphy who shoots better now than he did when I met him almost 20 years ago. George Rill once crumpled up a dollar bill into a ball and stuffed it into Dick's sun shade and he never noticed it while he was shooting.

South Fork seems to draw a pretty good crowd and even dragged Joe Pellegrene out of retirement with the Peeking Groundhog match despite my hatred of that damn sado-masochistic target (thanks a lot Morton). The folks at St Thomas threatened to quit if George Rill managed to get that target adopted. Mifflin seems to be drawing a good crowd once again. Of course any match will need to adjust their schedule to avoid conflict with the Ridgeway shoot. If I was still active that's where I would go no matter what else was happening.

Gas is "cheap", lots of jobs, more money around, consumer confidence is high so guys don't hesitate to drive some distance to go to what they consider a better match. IBS SOY points encourage folks to go to distant matches even if there's one at their home club. The Tuesday "fun" shoots at St Thomas draw a bigger crowd than the Saturday matches. Ten years ago Tuesday was a handful of guys and as many as 120 guns at the Saturday matches.

Lots of reasons for the low attendance at St Thomas and conflicts is probably one of them but I don't think resolving it would really make much difference. I could be wrong yet again.

 

I agree with Dave about "boredom" setting in. In my case when Shippensburg stopped shooting 200/300/500 meters and went with 100/200/300 that was it for me.
Another reason is a lot of guys want to shoot more of a PRS/Tactical type of setup. That is bipod and rear bags not front rests and rear benchrest type bags. More of a challenge. That's Harris and or Atlas type bipods not the super wide super expensive bipods the F class guys use. A young guy can buy a Ruger Precision rifle for $800 bucks put a scope and a Harris on it and be competitive in club shoots but not against the full custom setups currently used in most of the Ground Hog matches. His $1300 setup won't compete with the $5000 plus customs that win Ground Hog Matches.
When Shippensburg rented out the range the other year for a PRS match they had over 100 shooters! They could have had many more but they had a cutoff for entries. My son and I went up to watch and the place was packed. I've never seen that kind of turnout for a ground Hog match. Signs of the times.
What can be done to help the Ground Hog attendance? Perhaps having a class for those types of rifles and increasing the distances to bring the challenge back. I don't know, just a suggestion.

Danny

 

I have tried it here in PA. and in Va., and if everyone stops being stubborn it can work.

FYI, I run the South Fork Peeking Groundhog Match.

Check out the website for attendance and my attempts at making a schedule "shooter-friendly" and not to simply suit our range rental. Yes, it made more work but I was willing to try it. http://southforkrifleclub.homestead.com/Peeking-Groundhog.html

The key word is "compromise". No one completely wins in a compromise.

Of course, it won't be perfect. However, even if each area club compromises just ONE date during the entire season, then the limited number of local competitors win via more matches and the clubs win via increased attendance. Where is it written that matches have to be exactly the second Sunday of each month? What is wrong with a Saturday, etc., etc.? I am sure you get the point.

Look, it is your match and you run it how you see fit. I have shot your match many times, and enjoy it. I remember years ago when there were 100+ shooters at St Thomas. However, I am not going to shoot St Thomas if there is a similar match closer to me on the SAME date. I think I speak for a lot of the LIMITED number of competitors in the area. Your 15 "loyal" shooters would have some company.

Jack Balon

 

Hello Dave. Hope you are doing well.

You are correct that competition from local matches is not the entire reason for low attendance at matches. You know all the other reasons as well as I do. We cannot control old age, the increasing cost of being benchrest competitive, and changing politics.

The point of my response to this thread was not to start a pissing contest. I just want to see ALL the local matches do well. We can all sit around and bitch about low attendance, or try to do something about it and attempt different changes.

My suggestion certainly is not the magic solution, but at least, it is an attempt at making a difference. In my case it does work well enough to get Joe and some others you know "out of retirement"....and competitors that are local to me and myself are now shooting Mifflin because of Jesse's schedule.

Take care,
Jack

 

Jack this is Jesse from Mifflin don't get excited. You know Mifflin has tried before and all I ever got back was "why doesn't Mifflin wait till we post our schedule and go around that." I tried for a couple years and gave up. Like you said just one compromise and we could make alot of things work. But I got tired of hearing wait for us and then schedule yours around it. If anyone wants to work with Mifflin I make our schedule in Dec for the next year. Its usually posted by mid Jan. Thats earlier than anyone else I know of.

 

PM sent to Jesse.

For the record, I apologize to Jesse. I did not read his post correctly, and thought I was responding to the OP at St Thomas. Jesse gets it, and I believe he will do whatever is needed to keep the Mifflin match growing. Mifflin is lucky to have him.

 

I for one have really enjoyed St Thomas and especially enjoyed a few "new" shooters there Saturday. I think these things run in cycles and many of us have benefited in the past from those like George Rill, Dave Berg, Rod Morton and others who donated and helped some of us new guys get started. The prize table at the end of the year also helped bring in shooters. I remember on one occasion at St Thomas having over 100 guns entered to compete. If I remember correctly George and Dave made personal donations to the prize table.
I think maybe it's time I give back a little. Maybe I can find a new shooter to help out like I've been helped.