Raton Dates announcement

[BML]

Hi guys...

I will be driving up from ABQ on the 26th to check things out. I noticed that the 26th is listed as a “registration” day. Unfortunately, I will be working all of the other days during the shoot, so this will be the only day I can make it. I wanted to know if anyone would be shooting on the 26th? I’ve been a long-time “lurker” of this forum, and would love to meet some of you guys. After about 6 years of waiting/wanting, I put my name in for a Shiloh last March. A former co-worker of mine has been exceptionally nice in letting me shoot his Shiloh, as well as a rolling block he built, which has really given me the BPCR/TR bug.

Take care.

BML

[BFD]

Almost certainly, I and half or more of the competitors will be shooting.

[Woody]

Me too.

Woody

[BML]

Perfect. I am looking forward to it.

BML

[jackrabbit]

I thought this might be relevant again,

Unfortunately, comments and thoughts often come across as nasty here on the forum. I don't ever intend for mine to sound that way, but I suspect they often do. If we were talking in person, one would hear my voice deflection and see the flash of a smile. I would encourage readers to assume the best when reading posts. Thank you to Jim for a bit of bright light in reminding us that we are all on the same side. He is right, we all want the sport to grow and the national's to flourish. That is why there are so many strong feelings! If we didn't care, nothing would be said. That being said, if the powers that be truly care, I have four things that absolutely must be corrected in order for the nationals to grow. I will leave out any controversial discussion on dates, schedule, etc.

1)As Brian said, the Nationals have to be promoted. A tent at the Q, print, facebook, emails, forums, all that you can. There has been nothing done for years by the powers that be. I would like to remind you, Jeanie, that you are the ONLY paid match director any of us will ever encounter. Many, many match directors do what you do, and a lot more year around for free. Most of us also put in a lot of our personal money as well as all the time. We are all working our butts off promoting the sport, you guys need to take the ball and run. A strong national match will only make our job easier.

2) I have encouraged everyone I know to go to the nationals, and have been embarrassed to have sent several new guys. All of you reunioners take for granted that everyone knows how things go. I am telling you, it is intimidating and confusing for a first time shooter to figure where to go and what to do, especially if they are only shooting one match. This must be corrected. One happy and fun person that would head up the new shooters would be great start. They would help them through sign up, be available to answer questions throughout the week, maybe have a sack of goodies, tee shirt, coupons, whatever just for the new guys. You can choose to believe it or not, but new shooters have not felt welcomed and this must be fixed.

3) As I look at the shooters I know, most of them have been to the nationals, got fed up and won't go back. Something must be done to prove to these guys that things have changed, and then dang sure don't disappoint them if they try it again. It is a competitive world, and only the best matches will be supported. People are not going to support the nationals out of a sense of duty, or just because they should. The matches have to be good for people to come, and judging by those that vote by coming or not, it appears they have not been too great. We can all argue about what makes a great match, but among the most agreed on is great organization, great prizes, great range, great food, and the most important is a staff that tries hard, cares, wants to improve, and makes everyone feel welcome and wanted. Without dragging up a bunch of crap, I am sure we can all think of examples of the "don't care" attitude. I know there are several that I have a hard time not still being pissed off about.... I know that after every one of our matches, 4 or 5 of us that are active in putting it on sit around directly after the match and talk about what went well, what needs improved, what we can do different, etc. I can tell you we are quite critical of ourselves and we get a lot of pleasure out of trying to improve each time. It is also important to continually add some new things to keep the match interesting and folks coming back.

4) You guys have got to get on board with some kind of post match reporting. Match reports must be written and distributed, and I am not talking about a tabulation of the scores. Several pages of written information, stories, facts, and anything else talking about what is going on and how much fun folks are having is what we need. If there is no one on staff to do that, it must be hired out. Lots of free lance writers would gladly take the job for a few hundred bucks. These forums, ASSRA, cast boolits, and other forums as well as facebook and an email list are all free! The only excuse for not doing it is laziness. Updates during the matches and live video feeds would also be great. You have got to get people interested in the Nationals and following what is going on. I have found people will read about it for several years sometimes before actually going. I am reminded of what we were told during science lab projects. That is, if you don't record what you are doing, you are just screwing around. If we don't record and circulate what happens at these matches, they didn't happen. We were just screwing around....

We will know how much the powers that be truly care by how many of these steps are taken.
Respectully, Cody Smith

[SSShooter]

Unfortunately, Brian Chilson will not be 'joining in the fun' this nationals. Just read that he broke his leg above the knee and also broke his wrist.
Debbie said the Docs say he'll recover. For those who don't know, Brian is an owner of a roofing company. May have fallen off a roof. Let's hope for the best for Brian.

[Woody]

That sucks. I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Woody

[BFD]

That does suck indeed, but that must have been a heck of a fall. Good to know it wasn't worse and that he will recover okay. Busting bones is never fun.

Hang in there Brian. The chickens will breathe easier now, but maybe we can sneak up on a few more and catch them by surprise.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Cody,

That was one well thought out post. Not only a productive post, but a very provocative post. It sums up everything.

Back in the day, for months before the actual match, the director Joe Cashwell ran monthly adds in the single shot exchange, and one in the BPCR News, spring edition. That was in 1996 for a midrange event, plus an 800 tryout for a Creedmoor event. I know, I was there. In 1997 I brought Jimbo with me. A good many years went by, then Bryan tagged along.

The NRA, has since relied on word of mouth I guess, to promote BPTR. A certain match director arbitrarily decides to no longer give out awards in scope, military, women classes, even so it was in the match program, a few years back and we lost all the ground work that had reversed the falling attendance numbers in a single year, he single handedly gutted the target rifle matches. Ask past national midrange champions Terry York or Joe Garcia why they quit coming. Past women Champions also.

In 2017 a Member of the NRA board of directors came to the BPTR Nationals and admitted that we had suffered from benign neglect, his words straight from the top. He urged us to not give up and stay the course help was coming. I truly believed he was being honest, and for his outspokenness, he was subsequently shitcanned from all the committees.

We now suffer no longer from benign neglect, but now we suffer from malignant negligence, in the form of canceled midrange, no positive leadership from the NRA, very late and screwed up on line signing up, not in the least bit user friendly. And finally the cancellation of Creedmoor, the final death blow.

Coming so very late to the game, and being critical of honest and truthful accounts of where and how and it being the Shooters at fault isn’t winning any friends. As many of you know I have a lot of passion for the BPTR sport, and done my share to promote and bring shooters to the game, for years I did it. I put on a traditional Creedmoor match for many years, to expose shooters to the game, to encourage them to come to Raton to shoot.

Unfortunately the NRA has let me down on multiple occasions, I won’t even go into the details, suffice to say they have Never held up their side of the relationship. And it was NRA employees that failed, be it a competition director to the match directors. Multiple requests for material that previous NRA employees had lost or misplaced, it goes on.

Last year I went out of my way, multiple times to thank the young lady from the NRA who was drafted at the last minute to run the NRA BPTR matches.

We had a good chance, a damn good one, with our new match director at the helm, of starting to turn it around, but now due to the NRA officials canceled the event we are never going to know......Are we?

I see reference to sayings about kisses and or such, all fine and good. I agree to some extent, but I am not looking for a date from the NRA, I am looking to them to do a proper job, of running our matches in a competent manner. We have sayings too, in the oil patch and the coal mines which I have worked in since the age of 14, “Don’t piss on my leg or boot top and tell me it’s raining.”

I trained LEO in rifle shooting for years, on the M14 and M16, and have observed a peculiar trait common to them, they almost all in fact have a Us vrs Civilian mindset/mentality, especially long term ones, that includes sheriff to highway patrol to game wardens. Anything or anyone with a contrary to their point of view position, is considered an enemy/criminal and not worthy of consideration or to have a valid point of view. I am not a perpetrator, I am a National Championship competitive shooter since 1992, it is hubris to discount the many truthful accounts of the inability and neglect the NRA has done to date, and to brush them off and blame the shooters as I have seen in this thread.

How to fix it?

As passionate as I am about this sport, and as a historian on the Creedmoor matches, I only see history repeat itself, the NRA did exactly the same thing in 1881. Frankly I don’t want them to fix it, anymore. They cannot or will not give it the proper attention. This second Golden Era of BP target rifle competition under the NRA control lasted 23 years, 3 times that of the original era. Come shoot 23 years in my boots as a BPTR competitor, before giving me an option on this sport.

I am deeply saddened by this turn of events, the blame lies on the ground, as to who is at fault, it isn’t all the NRA’s, it’s also ours for not holding them accountable for their actions.

Long live the BPTRA and the 22BPCRA.

Two associations that realize that the Shooter is their customer, and not an inconvenience.

Kenny Wasserburger.