TargetTalk

I just got through talking with the NRA and I guess tentatively the NRA and CMP are combining their 3P competitions. The NRA has basically acquiesced to the CMP and so their will no longer be an open competition. There will be a qualification score. The competition will start off with sporter rifle the first part of July and I think on the 11-13th the precision rifle will occur.

If we are trying to get more kids involved in the sport it seems to me we are doing the opposite to encourage kids into the sport which puzzles me. I find it a contradiction in their organizations missions in promoting the sport. The opened the qualification competition for the Olympic Trials and it hasn't hurt the competition one bit. The cream of the crop will always rise to the top regardless. The NRA says that after looking at the scores from the match last year that all the teams will have no trouble meeting the qualification scores. I don't know if they have lowered the qualification score standards for this upcoming competition or are using the CMP qualification standards. I would suspect that they are using the CMP standards, in which case I know of several teams that would have never been there. It was my perception that the second relay was starting to thin and by the third it looked like the relay was half empty, so I don't think it is because participation has gone up. I would suspect that the cost of attending these competitions are rising that it will be difficult to justify for many teams especially from the western states.

The NRA representative at our banquet even told us that that amount of youth participating in competition shooting is dropping to the point that this country is within two generations of starting to lose support for the shooting sports.

Actually I think it is a good idea to combine. I just wish there would be more combining for Nat'l Championships.

It gets to be a logistic and financial problem for shooters to enter, travel, housing, etc.

Another issue is it seems that during the school year many matchs are held during the week meaning the student needs to take time off from school. Some schools make it very difficult to get off without having their grades affected.

The CMP (3P Air Rifle Council) made some major changes this year. We'll see how it works.
TM

Tom the changes CMP has made are purely for the benefit of themselves ... from my perspective that are not about growing the sport ... they are happy with the numbers now and are not interested in spending money to make 3-P air bigger.

They listened to an idea about having a Western JROTC championship, and instead of putting it in a place where most of the teams are, the decided to put it in Salt Lake where EVERYONE (but 2 teams) has to travel 13-15 hours and stay multiple nights (missing 3-4 days of school) and then following up with the service nationals in Anniston for another 3-4 days out of school.
The only way this would be fair is to have all the eastern teams that are in the north go to Anniston (HEY! 12-13 hours) and all the southeastern teams hit Perry (ANOTHER 12-13 hours for them).

Rather than going to a spot in the west (ABQ, DEN, CSPR, or Las Vegas .... easy to get to) All the western teams must travel 700-900 miles in FEBRUARY to UTAH ... Has anyone really thought of the roads in Utah in Feb .... no obviously not .... but there is good skiing there after the match, right? And no no team is rich enough here to try and fly and avoid the roads ... it'll be buses, most probably on ice or snow.

And I'm not yet irritated enough to post how they are trying to screw up our state match.

Randy, I hope the state jr directors let them have it at the meeting in a few weeks. Do I think anything will change? Nope, they'll just regret calling you all together, but they'll get to tour the SHOT show.

Well I got some further clarification and it seems both the CMP and NRA are hold separate qualification matches. It seems that each of them will have at least two avenues for a team to attend the match at Anniston. They will each pick the top 15 teams and five top individuals from each of their qualification matches and combine the two 15 teams together along with the top five individuals, which means that our state will probably unable to field a team this year or for the forcible future. Although there are no qualification scores it will have a negative affect on the lower population centers from competing at the competition. The NRA and CMP are creating regulation monster with the rules they are trying to setup for getting to this match at Anniston. They both must have taken lessons from the government. One of the paths is to be one of the top 15 teams at the regional, which means a team has to travel once to the regional and then onto Anniston. It is hard enough to be traveling to Anniston with a team let alone to two locations.

We have trouble getting enough kids that like to participate in the sport let alone getting enough to qualify for the team. We just don't have population density to compete with many of the eastern states and west coast teams. We have some individuals that could be on a team from another club, but they are from small towns that don't have a club and CMP rules forbid them from joining other teams.

randy1952

You may want to check about kids from another area joining your team. The rule was set up to avoid "all star" teams.

Many years ago I had a shooter from 110 miles away join our club to shoot Precision 3P Air. There were other, closer, clubs, but they only shot Sporter. I got the okay from CMP for him to join us 9this was in WY). In four years I don't think he missed five practices (real dedication from him and his folks).

Pat ... Randy's teams come from the entire southern part of ID.
The kids that come to his practices, have to drive, and drive, and drive.......