TargetTalk

I wanted to share with you some fantastic news. For the last four years I have been working on starting a college shooting team at SUNY Plattsburgh. We came very close about 3 years ago to getting it done. Well this time we finally closed the deal. I met with the athletic department (Intramural sports director ) and received the final approval to start a Marksmanship Club at SUNY Plattsburgh. The club/team will compete in the MAC Rifle Conference next school year, in both smallbore and air rifle. They will of course enter a team or two in the National Rifle League. The students will also compete in the various NRA matches that my own club hosts during the winter. They will practice at the Plattsburgh Rod & Gun Club (http://www.PlattsburghRodandGun.com ) and use the same equipment that my juniors use. Finance wise we will be on a very small budget, I have no idea what it will be a few thousand dollars at the very most, likely a lot less than that and zero for this semester. My hope is to keep any costs that would be charged to the students as small as possible. I think this is a great opportunity to pass on the sport to another generation of shooters. While I have no delusion of this being an amazing team or program, (especially since I am coaching), I think it will serve its purpose, introducing the sport to new shooters and it will also give the opportunity for current junior shooters who are not quite at that elite level to be able to still compete on a college team.


Of course one issue with any new program (with no budget) is equipment and funding. If your own club or organization has any spare equipment that you would like to donate to a new program, we will take it. I would love a few more target rifles or air rifles, but I think that's asking a bit much. However its possible you may have a few spare decent shooting jackets, slings, gloves, kneeling rolls, spotting scopes, offhand stands, even targets or pellets, anything would help. I am even short a prone matt. If you would like to make a financial donation, heck we would take that too.


We will have our first meeting on February 6th ( Information, registration and safety talk) and our first actual shooting will take place February 13th. You can follow us on facebook, "SUNY Plattsburgh Marksmanship Club", I will be sure to post some photos.


Please pass on this amazing news, please reach out to any junior shooters, especially the non scholarship types. For those living in NY State this is a great chance to go to school and receive in state tuition rates.

Good luck to those shooting in week 3 of the National Rifle League

Peter Visconti 518-534-1730

Congratulation on starting a program! One easy way to raise funds is through Amazon's smile program. Identical prices but if people use the smile site you get a percentage of the sale. It can add up if you can get purchasing folks at your university to use it.

Chip

FONRA grants, Midway Scholastic Shooting Trust, and National Shooting Sports Foundation are good starting points for funds. Good luck with the team.

Thanks for the advice, I was planning to apply for the grant through the National Youth Shooting Sports Foundation, however it appears I need to wait until the grant period opens for 2017 whenever that is.
My club has an account through Midway (for my junior shooting program) however we only have about 1K in funds available, I know the intent is good with this program but it since you can only draw down like 5% a year its an awful lot of paperwork for $50 a year. Its not that easy for a club my size to be able to sell enough tickets to really participate. The other problem since this involves students and the campus has a very strict no firearms policy I have to be very careful what we decide to raffle to avoid offending anyone on the liberal left, I am lucky to get the program started I don't want to rock the boat at all. It would not take much to shut us down. Remember this is NYS. I would imagine someone would have a fit if we started to sell something like that on campus. Plus their fear would be if a student won. Anyway once we get started, I am still dealing with a lot of paperwork and logistics at this point, almost a little overwhelmed, I look into various ways to raise cash.

I will presume you are organizing a club team???

Can you comment on the rule book you will be using, this will
help define the kind of equipment you can use.

Club levels are much looser than Division 1, for example, which
uses strict ISU rules.


Sincerely,

Steven Kern
University of Michigan
Club Rifle Team, Asst. Coach

Yes we are an organized club team. We began practice a few weeks ago, and plan to compete on a regular basis next fall. The plan is to shoot in two leagues. The National Rifle League that follows NRA rules, this is mostly to allow all of our shooters a chance to compete since its a postal league. (38 teams across the country)

But our main purpose and venue will be to shoot in the

MAC Rifle Conference, you can go to their web site at www.mac-rifle.org its a mixture of both club and NCAA teams.

I cut and pasted a portion of their By-Laws below.

Unfortunately we are basically competing with a bunch of old donated equipment and rifles. My goal is to be as close to ISU rules as possible. I think we should be okay for all our starters, (everyone will be sharing gear), I do have a few non-compliant jackets 20-30 years old that some of my lesser skilled shooters may use to shoot the National Rifle League.

I would love to organized a postal match against you next fall. Also I invite you to check out the National Rifle League www.National.RifleLeague.com you might find it something your club may be interested in next season

THanks

Peter Visconti



ARTICLE II
Rules of Play
Section 1: The USA Shooting Rulebook, with exceptions noted via NCAA communications, which is in force at the beginning of the season, shall apply to all MAC Smallbore and Air Rifle competition. The NRA Smallbore Rifle Rulebook may apply to Club Teams only.

ARTICLE III
Equipment
Section 1: The USA Shooting Rulebook and NCAA Rifle Rules pertaining to the shooting jacket shall only be applicable with respect to the following:
A.
The type of closure
B.
The manner in which the jacket fits the wearer
C.
Artificial support devices
D.
The length of the sleeve to which the sling is attached.
Regarding the thickness of the shooting jacket, any easily recognizable and current accepted type of jacket is allowed in MAC competition.
Section 2: The USA Shooting Rulebook and NCAA Rifle Rules applying to gloves, rifles, kneeling rolls, slings, shoes, and other items of equipment shall be enforced in MAC competition. Rifles used in MAC smallbore competition shall conform to the definition of “Free Rifle” found in the USA Shooting Rulebook (7.4.5). Only normal personal undergarments or spandex-type training clothing may be worn underneath shooting pants. Clothing that immobilizes or unduly reduces the movement of a shooter’s legs is prohibited. This includes ordinary trousers and jeans. A shooter may wear only a belt or suspenders to support his or her pants. Both may not be worn together.
Section 3: The host team will be responsible for inspecting all