NRA

[DeadEye]

Time to make some popcorn.

Paul

[45bpcr]

Or some bacon wrapped wings

[45bpcr]

But seriously.

How many ranges / clubs require an NRA membership to be a member?
Every one I pay membership dues to does.

You guys gonna kick your memberships to the curb, start your own club and legislative body

Is new new BPCRBPTR club going to be the new leading NRA?

[jackrabbit]

Nobody thinks for even a moment a new BPCR organization would be a lobbying/legislative action group. It would purely to support BPCR shooting. Track scores, establish standard rules, be a center point for information on shooting dates, run national matches, you know all those things the NRA is supposed to be doing.

[JonnyV]

Exactly Cody… we need a body that concerns itself with the needs and betterment of its members. Lower hanging fruit first.

It would be nice if the nra was concerned with those things. The political action is badly needed, but they aren’t even doing that. Fighting for the cause long ago ceased to be important to Wayne and his cronies.

[desert deuce]

I am starting to hear some familiar suggestions, some that have been tried before and I don't see any of them still with us. In fact some of them were used to divide and conquer us not too long ago, as mentioned earlier on another thread. How soon we forget.

Some of these new ideas here that have NOT BEEN heard before may require some consideration. If you build it they will come applies to baseball in movies. We are constrained to existing structures. Sorry, military bases don't fit either.

A serious consideration is usually target security and storage between matches for both silhouette & target.

Talking about BPTR you have initial & recurring lumber costs, (try finding straight 1x4's or 2x4's), cardboard costs (if you can get it have tripled), some targets are hard to find and expensive, if you need 10 you have to buy 50 or 100, and secure storage is a premium, good pasters are expensive and hard to find, target shot spotters and value markers take a beating from .45 caliber bullets as do target frames and target holders. On some ranges target holders have to be replaced before BPTR shoots and at the end of their shoot, .45 caliber bullets again. It is VOLUNTEER intensive and usually a strain on the host range/club. I heard one competitor opine that it is just as much trouble to put on a long range match for 5 as it is for 25. I have not found that to be the case.

Those competitors that show up just in time to shoot and leave before the tables are cleared at the awards ceremony are special.

With this said, I hope we are not seeing another Bad Moon Arising.

[semtav]

It seems to me, there are at least three distinct issues.

1. Forming a functional organization

2. Ranges

3. Developing a following for the sport.


Putting the BPCR and BPTR together is fine but currently, BPCR would be carrying most of the water.

I personally don't think there was anything wrong with Roberts organization except one person was trying to run it all, and he had few actual sanctioned matches.

With the current design of the targets/ranges, how do you get enough local matches scattered all over the country to develop interest to build the sport.

Without 2 you can't have 3 and without 3, 1 is pointless.

[jackrabbit]

It's the old chicken and egg thing. I don't know which one God made first but I do know that if you want to make an egg, you have to have a chicken. Sitting around hoping an egg is going to fall out of the sky will never accomplish anything. I promise.

First find or build ranges. Two match directors start holding some regular local matches. 3 match directors and shooters form and support an organization

[jackrabbit]

My hope with having some kind of organization is two fold. One is that it would hopefully have some kind of succession ability built in so that if one guy wants to quit the whole deal won't end. Secondly, it would be really nice if people running the larger matches could rotate around some. Maybe one year you run the match and then the next you get to just come shoot. I am not sure if enough credit is given to these guys running the matches. It is much harder to shoot well and run the match. Anyway, just some thoughts

[DeadEye]

In the news this morning and it's not good.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstor ... 68e3&ei=28

Paul

[desert deuce]

SEMTAV enumerates some essential points. Something like Reagan's three legged stool.

Lec Walensa/Walesa apparently/reportedly won an important struggle against Communism in Poland in the last century through SOLIDARITY. Some say he won a battle but not the war. Others say, well, you have to start somewhere. Today, it looks like Lec was on the correct track.

The Communist movement and generally any ruling class movement (1861) to disarm/disenfranchise/defeat the opposing community is divide and conquer. As long as the community is fighting among themselves they cannot successfully fight the traitors and tyrants. (1871)

Separatist movements are vulnerable because of small leadership base that is easily compromised, one way or another. Perhaps self defeating?

NRA successfully used divide and conquer before against Black Powder Competition because we did not make any effort to form SOLIDARITY. We did not form SOLIDARITY then, does anyone see any effort to do so today? Or are we once again experiencing division?

History proves factions (note the plural) are "unsuccessful" against an organized determined tyrannical front.

Many say those that are ignorant of history are more likely to repeat mistakes of history. Is this where we are today?

[semtav]

Some years back when it looked like BPTR was on a downhill slide, I suggested the need for a lot more local ranges, and was severely slammed because of the high cost to build concrete pits, and target structures.

So I set out to build a range suitable for local matches.
I set up the NRA legal size target and marked out the range for 800, 900, and 1000 yds. Then shot it by myself to see if it was feasible.
Unfortunately by spring my business model changed and I never got back to it.
My brother cleared the sagebrush off so one could shoot prone, and dug out the spot for the scorers hut this fall with hopes I could finish it before winter. Unfortunately that never happened.
I know of at least 3 others here, and probably more that would love to shoot this type match.

This could be happening a lot of places. But as long as we cling to the idea that all ranges have to have concrete pits and wood framed paper targets that go up and down it isn't going to happen.

[semtav]

My hope with having some kind of organization is two fold. One is that it would hopefully have some kind of succession ability built in so that if one guy wants to quit the whole deal won't end.

I agree. I'm not arguing against one cause it is going to take a good organization to make 2 and 3 happen.

[RK]

Sometimes I think we're all our worst enemy

If you're a Biden voter, then you've voted for the demise of our sport.
Hope you're happy with your vote

Maybe you could vote harder next time and defend our rights.

Seems like everyone here wants to encourage participation in our sport.
And then, on the flip side, when a different venue is proposed, frequent posters spout words of wisdom about why it's wrong.

You all going to start the BPCR NRA?

Craig

You are right, Craig. Would I count on the Biden, Feinstein, Schumer types, showing mercy on us gun owners. Certainly not! There’s an old saying about rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

[Ray Newman]

Colleagues: speaking a new BP rifle organization, whatever happened to the Wyoming Schuetzen Union? If I recall correctly it was established because of some of the same problems with the NRA about scheduling, record keeping, etc.

Wasn't Steve Garbe affiliated with it?