Saturday shoot!

[Roger Fisher]

Only to mention that our club in E Pennsylvania shoots on Sundays March thru Dec./.

In Oct annually we have a Sat urday shoot then pay off and start anew Sunday!

The interest is lagging regards the Saturday shoot.  We shot today and had 8 shooters.  At 10:15 this morning there was 2 of us standing around there.  A 3rd guy came in and I said by @!*% we have three and we'll shoot regardless.  Ended up with 8.  Weather was beautiful, hope more shooters show up tomorrow.  Is our hobby on the fade?

[roundball]

Did most or all of the shooters have gray hair?
 


Here are some thoughts:

I got someone interested in Flintlocks year before last year, and last year he took his first Flintlock buck.

Got another interested earlier this year and as good of a general hunter that he is, he should get his first buck with a Flintlock this fall too.

But...besides letting the occasional interested guy at the range shoot my Flintlock, those are the only two I've known who have gotten into more traditional type of muzzleloading.

In General:

The 'drawing power' of the special or primitive ML seasons are gone...they've been overrun by modern MLs and the seasons are no longer 'special';

The 'drawing power' of the  old fashioned western and pioneer movies of the past are gone because the movies are gone;

There are virtually no local places for an existing shooter/hunter to walk into and pick up/handle/get interested in more traditionally oriented MLs...not even the modern mass produced ones like T/C Hawkens and Lymans are normally carried any more.

Every year there are less places to shoot.....less places to hunt;

Every year there are less people to pass on the interest & skills;

[Roger Fisher]

Yes, some bald and all greybeards!!

Sunday also a beautifull day and had 25 shooters although some regulars failed to show up!   Had  a good shoot!!

I sat back a bit while the scorers were finishing up and just listened to the laughter and conversation.   Its a good thing to hear.,  The folks were enjoying themselves.  Makes things seem much more worthwhile.!

[Jeff Peters]

Rodger
Thats good to hear you had a good turn out
Tough time of year with hunting season upon us

[Candle Snuffer]

The clubs I belonged to, have belonged to, and the one I run "The White River Brigade" have always held Sunday matches.  That is unless it was an NMLRA
Territorial, or State Match, then these were held over three and sometimes four
days, Thur., Fri., Sat., & Sun...

Funny thing is that these type of events at the time seemed to draw good over
the 3 & 4 day matches, but the club monthly shoots seem to do their best on a
Sunday for participation.  This is just what I've noticed.

I must put our monthly White River Brigade matches into prospective however.

We average 7 to 9 per month with some months (maybe 3 months out of our
shooting schedule) we will get 12 to 17.  Our schedule runs March through
September (we dropped October as many are hunting).

Now to put this into an overall prospective,,, where I live there are only (at the
most) 2500 to 3000 people within 625 square miles of me, (me being in the center).

I don't think we do to bad with as little of population that we have to work with and with prices of gas, powder, lead, and so forth - being what they are these days.

If I want to travel to the larger gatherings of monthly shoots where upwards of
50 or more attend I'd have to drive 6 to 9 hours and that just ain't going to happen but maybe once a year when I go to State Shoot.

I do believe we are loosing numbers each day in this sport, but I also believe we'll
eventually see a renewal in interest somewhere down the road.  When?  I don't know, but I do believe it'll happen someday and we'll see a revival of those good times when our shooting lines were packed.

P.S.  Just wanted to let you all know I had some computer problems and that's why I haven't been around for several weeks.  My computer is now fixed and I'm back!