SHOT Show and F Class?

[dgeesaman]

PRS nerds understand marketing and hype. It's the crossfit of the shooting world.

Are they doing ice baths after each relay yet?

David

 

[6.5 forever]

Yeah, without a doubt. I win a national level match and get a certificate for some free Sierra bullets and 50 bucks but someone can win a national level PRS match and go home with a check for $20,000. There’s way more money in PRS than most of the other rifle disciplines.

At a air gun benchrest match last year in Utah, my buddy took second place and won 10k. His son took first and won 20k.

 

[6.5 forever]

They'll be selling tactical grape smugglers and matching nipple rings soon.

OK, that was mean. I would probably participate in PRS if I were 20 years younger. I may even do a match at some point but I barely have the time required for F Class, Sporting Clays and fishing.

At my age F class would challenge my ability to get up off the ground. Getting on the ground isn't hard, sometimes I get there without thinking about it....

 

[VA_XTC_Shooter]

Hmmm. I wonder why? I mean not to pick what you said, but more money doesn't mean more popular (as in number of shooters).

I have almost zero PRS shooters as customers.

But they do love to spend that money. Fo sho.

Are most of your customers Fclass shooters?

 

[Kracken McGraw]

At a air gun benchrest match last year in Utah, my buddy took second place and won 10k. His son took first and won 20k.

Where does the money come from?

 

[jthor]

Is Prs really that popular?

Just a few prize tables from the 2023 PRS finale.

 

[jthor]

Once the PRS season reallllllly kicks off there are 1-2 2 day national matches every weekend from March to the end of October with low 100s to 200+ shooters per match. So there’s a lot of money in it.
Having shot service rifle and PRS, lessons and skills learned in PRS are incredibly applicable in the field. More so than traditional target sports.
- Target Acquisition
- finding a good shooting position in the situation your placed in
- the ability to problem solve methods of getting solid support such as tripod rear
- wind reading
- adjusting to misses on the spot
and the list goes on.

 

[DHuffman]

I've watched the airgun stuff on TV and the prize money is mind boggling. Corporate sponsorship (sorry I can't remember specific sponsors ) was putting up the money.
Seems like there was a lot of diversity/inclusiveness in the shows I watched.

PRS, even out here in the rural western Dakotas a PRS match will draw 50+ shooters. One such match I shot last fall had a deep enough prize table that everyone got a second trip. I think the biggest cash payout was $300 but there were certificates there of higher value.
The upcoming NightForce steel event in WY sold out in 12 hours and most of the bigger PRS matches do as well.

In comparison a 600 yard IBS match in SE SD within 20 miles of Sioux Falls struggled to get enough shooters to fill 1 relay (15 shooters) last season.
A 600 yard steel match in western ND fills up in hours.

Wish I could remember the airgun sponsors but cannot at the moment.

The fact almost no one at Shot Show knows what F Class is speaks volumes

 

[Jvance513]

I was that creeper guy at SHOT show. I wanted to stop and say hey but you guys were engaged in what looked like an important conversation with the zero compromise guys. But to your original question. No. Most people don’t have a clue. I’m a competitive long range benchrest shooter with quite a few GBA records. It’s harder and harder every year for us to get stuff for our prize tables. I’ve won 3 nationals between 600 and 1000 benchrest and collectively I’ve won roughly 600 dollars and a few capstone certs. If you want to make money in shooting, get into some sort of PRS. It doesn’t matter if it’s 22 or centerfire.

 

[davidjoe]

John, that was an entertaining poll. So here’s the zinger, if you were to explain what we do to each one of those guys in two concise sentences, their expressions would not change, assuming they were even still listening after the first sentence.

You could show them a picture of our guns on the line, but that would just draw smirks. Are we old, - well, our guns do look like, to the uninitiated, a catalog of contrived ADA accommodations, made for a rifle. F-Class was actually created for the aged. But young guys were drawn to it, lazy ones I guess , because we all know sling is a real thing, you know, that one we all love to avoid.

F-Open rifles propped up with their rests with long handles terminating in a ball (for our safety?) are a little analogous to the purpose of those folding walkers old folks whip out, you know, those contraptions we don’t like to make eye contact with. Words never uttered on this planet, “hey that’s a really good looking walker, can I try it?”

Do little kids run around the neighborhood saying to each other, let’s go play F-Class now. If the climax of an old western is the stare down and a blink of the eye holster draw with an instinctively placed hip shot, then F-Class resides at the exact opposite end of the spectrum; we are the credits rolling, but in slow motion, without the music.

On a list of all sports and activities that can be watched, shooting has been ranked by women as the least sexy, and I believe board games were included on the list. We will get an Olympic event right after Spelling Bee’s do. So other shooters want to say we in f-Class don’t rate. Hilarious, we are all from the same barrel of cane pole pond fishing.

I’m good with that; I don’t care, I love our tempest in a teapot.

 

[jthor]

Note, FClass John and I are friends. I was responding to the is there really money in PRS and the CrossFit comment. Lol There’s something useful to be learned in every shooting sport. Whether it’s the loading room or shooting.

 

[moondog]

While I've shot quite a few PRS matches or the offshoots of it. It's just not my thing. I admire the guys that do well at it. It is definitely a different skill set, both physically, and mentally. Tons of sponsors who donate to the prize tables. I also don't shoot F Class or Benchrest I admire the guys that do it,, super talented. I've learned a ton from this site and I'd like to think I've contributed some. F Class appeals to me, so maybe some day. I'm not a Fan of the Typer Snipers either. I see the name calling, chest thumping tough guys on that site and don't get it. But, what they don't do, is make fun of the F Class, Benchrest shooters. I don't get it guy's. We're all buying hardware and components from the manufacturers that meet your needs for whatever discipline you pursue. I belong to this site to gain more knowledge in MY pursuit of reloading, maintenance, and gear. Met and talked to some great people over the years here. I've noticed a shift.
Could be my age though.

 

[DHuffman]

The fact that probably almost everyone has some type of idea of what Benchrest shooting is yet it struggles for participation speaks even louder LOL

 

[LVLAaron]

The fact that probably almost everyone has some type of idea of what Benchrest shooting is yet it struggles for participation speaks even louder LOL

High cost of entry. Little information online.

 

[JoeDuke]

Just to ask the question again.
1. Where does the prize money come from? Entry fees?

2. How do you draw that level of vendor support to load up all those tables?

 

[moondog]

Just to ask the question again.
1. Where does the prize money come from? Entry fees?

2. How do you draw that level of vendor support to load up all those tables?

I think the match Directors do an incredible job getting Vendors to donate to the prize tables. And, the incredible generosity of the Vendors to donate! I picked up a cert. for a free Krieger at Nightforce last year. I wasn't in the top 10!

 

[urbanrifleman]

PRS nerds understand marketing and hype. It's the crossfit of the shooting world.

It's funny you should say that. I hesitate it to even throw my hat into the ring with the PRS / sniper crowd. That crowd seems to be the crowd that's on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, etc etc. They seem to be incredibly "influenced".

When I taught disc golf online. I started a Facebook group that grew to 5,000 people. My teaching innovated disc golf. But then I realized the younger kids we're really much more into who was teaching than what was being taught. Eventually people just started stealing my teachings and reproducing them in their own videos, not giving me any credit. So I just retired from it and took myself off of all social media. This is the only place I post now. I have no interest in going back to advertising myself on social media so I can attract people. That being the case, the PRS crowd really hasn't even heard of me.

It's not a complaint or anything like that, I was just commenting on what I saw.

 

[jthor]

Just to ask the question again.
1. Where does the prize money come from? Entry fees?

2. How do you draw that level of vendor support to load up all those tables?

Good question for Ken Wheeler. Lol

Locally my PRS club gives the monthly match winner a $300 gift certificate to Scheels. So my local Scheels in Colorado Springs helps with the winners prize and in turn lots of folks go shop there. We have 40-60 every month for a local 1 day match.

Lots of the companies who produce products for PRS are also very active in the community both shooting matches and ROing
- Phil Cashin of Masterpiece arms
- John Kyle Truit of Foundation stocks
- Dave Preston of Gray Ops CNC
- Matthew Findlay of AMP comes a few times a year to shoot
- MDT Gang is at every match
All great people

The list really does go on. This year the PRS moved to being officially international also.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Are most of your customers Fclass shooters?

Yes to a degree. Some form of benchrest shooting. Be it on a bench or on the ground. Most people are shooting in their clubs at reduced distances. Not everybody can be in a club that has 600 and a thousand yard range. People genuinely enjoy shooting at their clubs multiple times a month against people that they know. I think that's really the heart of shooting are the guys who belong to a club and shoot their local competitions. I do have some more serious guys that's for sure, but like in all things the serious competition guys are more of a minority.

And varmint shooters.

 

[Dimner]

Are they doing ice baths after each relay yet?

David

any hyperbaric chambers?