Save The NBRSA?
- Thread starter Jim Andress
- Start date
Jim Andress
River Bend Gun Club
Fun at matches
The four-day (registered) match we just help helped me clarify some of the thinking that had me start this thread. No doubt, common rules and records are required, but so is scheduling; not just local matches but regional and national matches as well. Otherwise, it's just every man (or club) for itself. But fun? It depends on each person's definition of what makes a match fun. Personally, a Benchrest match is 30% shooting and 70% people. I'm sure everyone has their own similar scale, with personal values. In my opinion, those that are too wrapped up in number of wins, world records, SOY points, and so forth, are missing out on the best part of the sport, but that is their right to their own values. Most of the people I talked to this past week indicated they could have just as much fun at a unregistered match, but many felt there was probably tighter competition at registered matches. Also, being registered gets you on a schedule managed by the regional directors to prevent too much competition between matches.
The four-day (registered) match we just help helped me clarify some of the thinking that had me start this thread. No doubt, common rules and records are required, but so is scheduling; not just local matches but regional and national matches as well. Otherwise, it's just every man (or club) for itself. But fun? It depends on each person's definition of what makes a match fun. Personally, a Benchrest match is 30% shooting and 70% people. I'm sure everyone has their own similar scale, with personal values. In my opinion, those that are too wrapped up in number of wins, world records, SOY points, and so forth, are missing out on the best part of the sport, but that is their right to their own values. Most of the people I talked to this past week indicated they could have just as much fun at a unregistered match, but many felt there was probably tighter competition at registered matches. Also, being registered gets you on a schedule managed by the regional directors to prevent too much competition between matches.
jackie schmidt
New member
Jim, we in the Gulf Coast Region have had the same discussions. Many of our Registered Match Shooters participate in Non Registered Matches, which are Score or longer range Claybreak events. I do not know of any Club that shoots Non Registered Group Matches.
We do have many shooters who shoot Non Registered Score Matches who will not shoot Registered Group or Score Matches. I really don't know why. These shooters have to shoot against us in Club Matches.
The truth is, many shooters attitude toward Registered Matches and their prestige centers around the Moving Backer. The general attitude is, if you shooting Group without a moving backer, it simply does not count. People will argue that the "honor system" is good enough. That's BS in my opinion.
Which leads to something I brought up in another thread. If a Club does not have a moving backer system, or the one that they do have is in such disrepair that no one is willing to work on it, the Club will simply shoot Varmint for Score.
That's not good for Group Shooting. But it's not bad for the NBRSA because the majority of the VFS Matches we attend are Registered. So the organization does not suffer.
The answer of course is to get more shooters involved in putting on Matches and help maintaining the target frames moving backer system. Sometimes I get the feeling that shooters come to Matches and just assume all of the work will be done by someone else.
When nobody is willing, nobody shoots.
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Mike Bryant
Active member
Any match that I attend, I have to drive anywhere from 180 to 350 miles plus to attend. I'm not going to drive 200 miles to shoot a one day club match especially if it's shot on Sunday. There aren't any registered matches in either the GC region or the Mid Continent region that are just one day matches any longer after Okie Shooters went to weekend matches. I've heard of club matches that weren't registered where they shot group matches and didn't use moving backers. You'll have people in any sport that will do whatever it takes to win and that's unfortunate. A place around Dallas used to have unregistered matches with no moving backers. One person frequently won, but strangely couldn't win at clubs that had moving backers. The guy was caught shooting into the dirt under his target when he'd get three shots into his target. Moving backers aren't flawless though as I've received a couple of penalties when not all of the shots could be counted on the backer. This happens when the group is flat and the backer is moving slowly. Two bullets hitting side by side can cut the same hole in the moving backer. Used to be an inch a minute was the normal rate of travel of a moving backer. If I'm going to take the time and spend the money to shoot group matches, it's going to be a registered match with moving backers.
If I could drive 30 to 40 miles to shoot a score match, I'd probably do it, but I'm not going to drive the distance that I'd have to drive to shoot score. It's not a snob type of thing, but a preference. If I had the time in the summer and wanted to spend the money to do it, I'm sure I could shoot a registered match just about every weekend from the first of April until the end of August. That's not going to happen. I have to pick the matches that I want to attend.
The agg that Gary O'Cock shot at Visalia with his rail gun is a good example of shooting at an unregistered match. If that match would have been a registered match and if the measuring was even close, his agg would have eclipsed the former 100 yard 5 shot UL agg record by a long way in either IBS or NBRSA. As it is, it was a great agg and that's about all you can say about it. No record, but it could have been. Most of us have never even come close to shooting a record. It's nice to have the chance though whether you ever do it or not and the only way to do that is for the match to be registered with either the IBS or NBRSA. I doubt if the IBS or the NBRSA will ever join into one organization and there are certainly not enough benchrest shooters for there ever to be a third organization.
If I could drive 30 to 40 miles to shoot a score match, I'd probably do it, but I'm not going to drive the distance that I'd have to drive to shoot score. It's not a snob type of thing, but a preference. If I had the time in the summer and wanted to spend the money to do it, I'm sure I could shoot a registered match just about every weekend from the first of April until the end of August. That's not going to happen. I have to pick the matches that I want to attend.
The agg that Gary O'Cock shot at Visalia with his rail gun is a good example of shooting at an unregistered match. If that match would have been a registered match and if the measuring was even close, his agg would have eclipsed the former 100 yard 5 shot UL agg record by a long way in either IBS or NBRSA. As it is, it was a great agg and that's about all you can say about it. No record, but it could have been. Most of us have never even come close to shooting a record. It's nice to have the chance though whether you ever do it or not and the only way to do that is for the match to be registered with either the IBS or NBRSA. I doubt if the IBS or the NBRSA will ever join into one organization and there are certainly not enough benchrest shooters for there ever to be a third organization.
Save the NBRSA
I have always said, bring back the Fun.
The attached Video reminds me of what the NBRSA used to be like, when I first came on the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhGfjlomJ4k:)
Glenn
I have always said, bring back the Fun.
The attached Video reminds me of what the NBRSA used to be like, when I first came on the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhGfjlomJ4k:)
Glenn
Mike Bryant
Active member
Wilbur, if there is ever a match that would be on my bucket list, it would be to go shoot at Visalia sometime. I am so glad that I had the chance and was able to shoot at Rachel's Glenn the year that Mickey took my rifle and equipment home with him from the Nationals in Kansas City. Brady Knight as range officer singing "In the Pines" as well as Mickey's hospitality will be forever burned into the memory of my brain. Those memories like that and all the friendships I've made over the the years is why I keep on shooting benchrest. The plaques you occasionally pick up are incidental.