TargetTalk

Announcement of a new American Smallbore Shooting Association.
February 20th 2017
With the current state of Conventional Smallbore Rifle Shooting a group of long time dedicated shooters decided to form an organization to focus on the sport we all love. ASSA Inc is a non-profit corporation formed in Cincinnati OH.

Times have changed, and it appears the governing body of conventional smallbore rifle shooting in the USA is not promoting the growth of the sport, and not listening to the membership. We don't know why. We only know it is a problem that needs a solution.

ASSA IS ONLY A STARTING POINT
This new organization has been created to focus only on conventional smallbore rifle competition as practiced in the USA. It is envisioned the ASSA become the governing body of conventional smallbore rifle target shooting.

National Championship
In late July of 2017 the ASSA will conduct its inaugural National Championship match at the Blue Trail Range in Wallingford CT. This match will consists of a conventional 3-Position 3x40 championship with irons, scope and teams conducted over a 3 day period. At the conclusion of the 3-Position phase, the next 5 days will be the Prone championship using the traditional Critchfield 6400 course of fire.

Our expectation is to run a first class tournament that will rival any conducted in recent history.

Please visit our web site to learn more about this organization and the championship.

http://www.americansmallbore.com

As a shooter who is just sort of on the fringes of competitive smallbore, I'm kind of surprised that no one is commenting on this.

I think its a great idea. I know Benyo and Gestl, and think they would have their ducks in a row when it comes to starting such an endevor. My daughter and I plan on joining and attending for sure.

We were actually a bit surprised by the underwhelming response on Target Talk as well. But the audience on TT leans more to the International variety, and with air pressure weapons to boot.
But on the day we made our announcement we tried to cover all of the forums where like minded individuals participate.

I'm a fan.

But Mike knew that already. ;)

Mike Carter wrote:We were actually a bit surprised by the underwhelming response on Target Talk as well. But the audience on TT leans more to the International variety, and with air pressure weapons to boot.
But on the day we made our announcement we tried to cover all of the forums where like minded individuals participate.

Some of us lived and suffered through the very messy NRA/USA Shooting divorce.

I wish you good luck, and more importantly, the $20 million+ in seed money that it will take to get you where you want to go.

john bickar wrote:
Some of us lived and suffered through the very messy NRA/USA Shooting divorce.

I wish you good luck, and more importantly, the $20 million+ in seed money that it will take to get you where you want to go.

John
Yes, some of us lived through that divorce - including two of the founding members of the ASSA. While USA Shooting has become the governing body for ISSF rifle competition in our country, the "conventional" smallbore side - including prone, 3-position and 4-position - has not fared as well. Under the current conventional smallbore governing body, the nationals have withered to a point of which it's future may be uncertain. A telling point was last year when prone - during a Roberts Team selection year - was less than 150 shooters. The downward trend in participation at the national matches in Bristol is worrisome to those who have a passionate interest in our sport.

The ASSA is an alternative to the current governing body for smallbore rifle conventional competition in the United States. The four founding members have in excess of 125 combined years of competition, coaching and match operations experience.

We are actively working to make the first ASSA National Smallbore Rifle Matches an exceptional event and part of that is actively gaining input from a wide cross-section of both prone and position participants. The conventional 3-position and prone championships will feature full 2400 and 6400 aggregate courses of fire, along with the tradition of shoulder to shoulder fired team matches. Additional details will be available shortly with the match program slated for release during the middle of March.

As the organization moves forward, we will continue to welcome input from all smallbore participants - coaches, athletes, match operations personnel and any others who want our sport to thrive.

Best Regards,
Ken

I don't see how they need a ton of seed money for this. USA Shooting needs money to represent the US in international competitions. Maintain a world class training facility. Coaches and athletes on the payroll. Ammo costs.

ASSA just needs to hold matches.

sureshot007 wrote:I don't see how they need a ton of seed money for this. USA Shooting needs money to represent the US in international competitions. Maintain a world class training facility. Coaches and athletes on the payroll. Ammo costs.

ASSA just needs to hold matches.

And create a rule book.

And hire staff (don't forget benefits!)

And recruit and train staff.

And pay rent on, or buy, an office.

And then recruit and train more staff, because turnover is inevitable when you try to run an organization on a shoestring.

And procure volunteers.

And pay volunteers' expenses.

And certify targets.

And procure targets.

And procure ranges.

And manage membership.

And market their activities.

Do you think that can be done for less than, say, $800K/year? Because that's 4% of $20 mil. If you know where I can get a guaranteed return of greater than 4% annually, please let me know.

Like I said, I wish them luck, but I lived and suffered through the messy NRA/USAS divorce. It took probably 20 years before USAS was financially sound. Also, the vast majority of USAS's revenue comes from the USOC and direct mail, neither of which will be available to ASSA.

I'm not trying to start an internet argument here, but I just want to point out that they don't *have* to do the same stuff that USAS did when they split.

I'm involved with a couple of other organizations that hold events that are regional and national championship level. Neither of those organizations have any expenditures beyond the cost of running the events. It's volunteer staffed. There are no offices. They rent the facilities that are used for the events. Entry fees pay for the event costs.

They don't *have* to have:
- people on the payroll
- an office
- pay volunteers
- pay for marketing events
- pay anything for a rulebook
- pay for "certifying" a target

They *could* just adopt the rules we already go by, and hold a match. That's pretty much all they have to do. If they can attract top tier shooters, the rest will follow.

Of course, I am not making the claim that they WILL do this. Just saying it's not required to spend a million dollars.

sureshot007 wrote:I'm not trying to start an internet argument here

Well, where the heck is the fun in that??? :D