Hello,
I'm getting back into pistol shooting after a long hiatus. I live in Nevada, so I'm looking for chances to compete anywhere in the west coast (meaning anywhere west of the Rockies) since this style of shooting is non-existent where I live. When I check the USA Shooting web site, I see nothing for months on my end of the country except for two matches (I was able to make the Palo Alto shoot today, and will try to get to Salt Lake City in November). However, when I dig deeper on google and look at local websites, I see that there is a regional in Southern California in two weeks (What???), and monthly PTOs in Arizona (OMG????). What is going on here? Why are these events not advertised on the USA Shooting website, since they are advertised as being sanctioned by USAS? How would someone like me ever know about them otherwise? Am I just dumb and not looking in the right places? Am I using the site wrong? Help, please!
David
Problem with USAS
Moderators: pilkguns, m1963, David Levene, Spencer, Richard H
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redschietti
- Posts: 386
- Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:31 pm
Re: Problem with USAS
Shooting as a whole is poorly advertised! We shot several matches a year in our state for several years before discovering a couple other clubs that hold matches. Our club was tiny, about 10 kids started every year. We advertised modestly this year and have 60 bright shiny new jr shooters.
Re: Problem with USAS
1st question ... did you get into Railstation? (Events|Find a match tabs on the website?)
Next Railstation is poorly run, and poorly administered. It is an event scheduling site for a sport like ice hockey that has been kludged into our sport website. Supposedly it is being replaced, but the last time the replacement took place (bringing in Railstation) it took about 8 months to get all the bugs out. (some would say, correctly, there are still some there)
And don't even try to make sense of he national ranking system built into it. The age old saying garbage in, garbage out applys. If data from USAS gets put in, (except in the case of the small clubs) it is put in months late, or just forgotten about.
Word of mouth is still the best bet.....
Next Railstation is poorly run, and poorly administered. It is an event scheduling site for a sport like ice hockey that has been kludged into our sport website. Supposedly it is being replaced, but the last time the replacement took place (bringing in Railstation) it took about 8 months to get all the bugs out. (some would say, correctly, there are still some there)
And don't even try to make sense of he national ranking system built into it. The age old saying garbage in, garbage out applys. If data from USAS gets put in, (except in the case of the small clubs) it is put in months late, or just forgotten about.
Word of mouth is still the best bet.....
Re: Problem with USAS
I feel your pain. I'm in S.C. and there's no information available on anything nearby. Your absolute best bet is to find people who do postal competitions. The CMP does a postal competition every quarter. It's a great way to get started. Also, some forum members here do postal competitions as well. It's a cheap, effective way of keeping the sport alive.RyanA wrote:Hello,
I'm getting back into pistol shooting after a long hiatus. I live in Nevada, so I'm looking for chances to compete anywhere in the west coast (meaning anywhere west of the Rockies) since this style of shooting is non-existent where I live. When I check the USA Shooting web site, I see nothing for months on my end of the country except for two matches (I was able to make the Palo Alto shoot today, and will try to get to Salt Lake City in November). However, when I dig deeper on google and look at local websites, I see that there is a regional in Southern California in two weeks (What???), and monthly PTOs in Arizona (OMG????). What is going on here? Why are these events not advertised on the USA Shooting website, since they are advertised as being sanctioned by USAS? How would someone like me ever know about them otherwise? Am I just dumb and not looking in the right places? Am I using the site wrong? Help, please!
David
Sure, it's got everyone on the honor code but to be honest if you're cheating you're just doing a disservice to yourself.
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TenMetrePeter
- Posts: 603
- Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2016 10:59 am
Re: Problem with USAS
Beauty of postal leagues is you could be 1000 miles away. Many use email. If they put you in a division suited to your average you can still win with a lousy average!
Re: Problem with USAS
1. Almost without exception shooting web sites, including vendors, clubs, governing bodies, ect. are crap.
2. If you want a match have one yourself and convince your friends at other clubs to do it too. Soon you will have a match every weekend to shoot in somewhere.
3. The state of international pistol in America is worse that the condition of the web sites I referenced above. It was never great because of the emphasis on 3 gun bullseye pistol which drew thousands of shooters around the country. Now the people who would be doing that are doing matches with Glocks running around like cowboys shooting at steel plates.
If you go to the ISSF web site and check the results for the National Championship this summer at Ft Benning the attendance would shock you. There were 115 womens air rifle shooters, 81 mens free rifle, 91 mens prone. In contrast there were 14 rapid fire pistol entries, 26 free pistol, and 3 center fire pistol. That's right THREE for center fire. That is an ISSF event that can take you to the World Championships but America can only field 3 competitors in the event. And one of those, Emil Milev is a transplant from Bulgaria. Millions of pistols in safes in America but only 3 people want to shoot a match.
4. In some sort of Byzantine power grab competitive shooting has been split into at least 3 "governing bodies". NRA, CMP, and USAS. NRA has basically written off smallbore rifle and is trying to do the same with pistol from what I hear.
And don't even get me started on the politics. I jut want to crawl in a hole and pull the cover over for the next 4 years. I understand its so bad in the Democratic Peoples Republic of California you can't even buy, or soon wont be able to buy .22 ammo to shoot in your $10,000 Bleiker or $4,000 Pardini.
2. If you want a match have one yourself and convince your friends at other clubs to do it too. Soon you will have a match every weekend to shoot in somewhere.
3. The state of international pistol in America is worse that the condition of the web sites I referenced above. It was never great because of the emphasis on 3 gun bullseye pistol which drew thousands of shooters around the country. Now the people who would be doing that are doing matches with Glocks running around like cowboys shooting at steel plates.
If you go to the ISSF web site and check the results for the National Championship this summer at Ft Benning the attendance would shock you. There were 115 womens air rifle shooters, 81 mens free rifle, 91 mens prone. In contrast there were 14 rapid fire pistol entries, 26 free pistol, and 3 center fire pistol. That's right THREE for center fire. That is an ISSF event that can take you to the World Championships but America can only field 3 competitors in the event. And one of those, Emil Milev is a transplant from Bulgaria. Millions of pistols in safes in America but only 3 people want to shoot a match.
4. In some sort of Byzantine power grab competitive shooting has been split into at least 3 "governing bodies". NRA, CMP, and USAS. NRA has basically written off smallbore rifle and is trying to do the same with pistol from what I hear.
And don't even get me started on the politics. I jut want to crawl in a hole and pull the cover over for the next 4 years. I understand its so bad in the Democratic Peoples Republic of California you can't even buy, or soon wont be able to buy .22 ammo to shoot in your $10,000 Bleiker or $4,000 Pardini.
Re: Problem with USAS
Phoenix Rod and Gun does have monthly PTO matches, sometimes twice!! Send me a message if you are interested in shooting with us. No membership fee to shoot but we want to make sure the event is still on the schedule. I will email you the current calendar.
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NetCompetitor
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2015 5:31 pm
- Location: Sandpoint, ID
- Contact:
Re: Problem with USAS
These issues sound very familiar and make perfect sense. We've been putting together a site to address some of these very problems. It's a work in progress, more is coming and we'd really like to have more input as to the needs of the community. We started with postal matches and we're hosting one this November if you want to join in and shoot with us.
We're also the home of 3 postal leagues coming up in January, which are now hosted with us every year. IER&PA (97yr old postal and pistol is the largest event), VT Winter / National Rifle League and ISRPA (includes pistol also). They're all open for registration, subject to their restrictions. Our goal is to help people make competitions like this available to connect shooters with events they want to compete in.
We're planning to add a club & event listing feature in November and lots of others in the future. We'll be doing our best not to suck. :) http://www.netcompetitor.com
Let me know if you have any questions -- Alissa
We're also the home of 3 postal leagues coming up in January, which are now hosted with us every year. IER&PA (97yr old postal and pistol is the largest event), VT Winter / National Rifle League and ISRPA (includes pistol also). They're all open for registration, subject to their restrictions. Our goal is to help people make competitions like this available to connect shooters with events they want to compete in.
We're planning to add a club & event listing feature in November and lots of others in the future. We'll be doing our best not to suck. :) http://www.netcompetitor.com
Let me know if you have any questions -- Alissa
We Connect Competitive Shooting Athletes.