It would be nice if Silhouette received an equal amount of prize money, attention and promotion. See the link.
I cannot find the entry fee for this trap shoot anywhere. I wonder how much it is?
https://files.constantcontact.com/6b6df ... f20667.pdf

It would if it could draw an equal amount of people... Money follows money.

It is the old analogy of which came first? The chicken or the egg.
In this case, which comes first? Promotion of the event as in advertising and prizes or the participants. There has to be promotion for people to know an event is taking place and something to motivate people to participate. Never got a fancy e-mail like this from the Whittington Center promoting a silhouette match.

It is almost enough to make me want to abandon silhouette for shotgun sports.
Not to worry, I have too much SK on hand to just give it away and buy a shotgun reloading press.

atomicbrh wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2019 4:59 am It is the old analogy of which came first? The chicken or the egg.
In this case, which comes first? Promotion of the event as in advertising and prizes or the participants. There has to be promotion for people to know an event is taking place and something to motivate people to participate. Never got a fancy e-mail like this from the Whittington Center promoting a silhouette match.

I live in the Houston area. The "greater Houston area" is huge, think LA.

I know of at least 3 private, HUGE shotgun clubs (ran for a profit I am sure) in the area. There is no private silhouette range... Doubt there is one in the country. I know they have them in Mexico. It is what it is... I work in a small business and I know we would never advertise for "possible" clients in hopes that it would pay out.

We have a private indoor air rifle silhouette range. We’ve built it. Few come. They do not attend for the prizes. Those that come really enjoy it. These are die hard Silhouette Shooters. They attend purely for the event, not for what they expect in return. We realize that if we improved our prizes that attendance would grow. We then could take that attendance to leverage for sponsorship for better prizes for better attendance, and so on.
Build it and they will come? Not so in our case. But we are not complaining. Our wagons are loaded as is with current attendance. But really, deep down, an increase in attendance would make us very happy and we would rise to the challenge.

Having shot American skeet briefly and as cheaply as possible from 1980 to 1982, I do not understand the current popularity of the shotgun sports unless it is the prizes. Friends tell me that skeet, trap and sporting clays are very expensive compared to silhouette.

I have been running matches and shooting mostly NRA silhouette and airgun field target and have tried to figure all of this out. I certainly don't know what the secret is for getting participation but I have some GENERAL observations.

1. No bad mouthing here, however, shotgunners are different than rifle shooters. Those that do both or are around'em know.
2. Prize money may draw some rifle shooters but most couldn't care less about prizes.
3. Some rifle shooters actually don't think money should be given as a prize. I have been all over the place with prizes and now give a little cash for a first place and pins for second and third if participation warrants it. Some still object to even $10. or $20. as a prize.
4. Prizes raise attendance slightly but really attendance raises attendance. Bigger matches attract more shooters regardless of prizes. Examples are the Pyrymid Air Cup( I know I can't spell it right) that has lots of prizes and is big, but hey Ridgway Rifle Club runs big matches, and LOTS of them with no big prizes.
5. Matches open to all are better attended than club member only stuff.
6. Multi-tiered match fees stink but shooters will come anyway, sometimes.
7. Well run matches are better attended, sometimes.
8. Matches on Sunday's seem to work better than Saturdays.
9. Some shooters come to every match but mostly different shooters come to each match

Personally I don't understand why there are not massive traffic jams getting to matches but there certainly are not! If anyone has a secret formula please, please share it with us. Thanks.

Most shotgun shooters are also golfers. Just saying...

The last couple of years the Whittington has gotten much more progressive in improving and expanding some ranges. In particular the sporting clays range now is not only the old one below the east campground, they added 2 more over by competitor housing. Not sure what groups were involved, but they held a sporting clays match this year with the 3 ranges, and it is said it was the largest sporting clays ever held west of the Mississippi with somewhere north of 250 competitors and are anticipating almost double that number next year.
Someone within the NRA has all of a sudden discovered what a great and fantastic facility it is, these were the words of Carolyn Meadows and both the vp and first vp as they addressed those of us in attendance at the Discover the Whittington Weekend this past labor day. It was also the first time any of the three had actually set foot on the property.
So you put the resurgent interest in shotgun sports together with the drive by the NRA, NRAWC, ATA, the New Mexico trap association and we'll be seeing a bunch more of this sort of thing. Not to mention the political climate in some states that have made it near impossible for some one to travel their to shoot a trap match.
Most of the diehard trap shooters I know don't reload, they can put their guns in the trunk of the car and pickup along their way a case or two of their favored trap loads as they travel.

richard wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:41 pm 1. No bad mouthing here, however, shotgunners are different than rifle shooters. Those that do both or are around'em know.
2. Prize money may draw some rifle shooters but most couldn't care less about prizes.
3. Some rifle shooters actually don't think money should be given as a prize. I have been all over the place with prizes and now give a little cash for a first place and pins for second and third if participation warrants it. Some still object to even $10. or $20. as a prize.
4. Prizes raise attendance slightly but really attendance raises attendance. Bigger matches attract more shooters regardless of prizes. Examples are the Pyrymid Air Cup( I know I can't spell it right) that has lots of prizes and is big, but hey Ridgway Rifle Club runs big matches, and LOTS of them with no big prizes.
5. Matches open to all are better attended than club member only stuff.
6. Multi-tiered match fees stink but shooters will come anyway, sometimes.
7. Well run matches are better attended, sometimes.
8. Matches on Sunday's seem to work better than Saturdays.
9. Some shooters come to every match but mostly different shooters come to each match

I would agree with that list 100%. I shoot a lot of Silhouette in my area. Would like to shoot more but I still have to mow the yard on the occasional weekend and the wife enjoys going to do something other then silhouette every once in a while....

Someone who wants to shoot does so. Baubles be damned. I do know there are those that want to shoot AND enjoy baubles so I try to incorporate that into my matches.

Shotgunners are a completely different breed. I know some that do both but it's about as different as 3 gunners....

Another Dang 9 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2019 1:39 pm Most shotgun shooters are also golfers. Just saying...

Very accurate.

"bad mouthing" "What's in it for me?"
ME, ME, ME.......
Seems to be a common thread on this forum.
I highly doubt it's the NRA that puts up $20,000 in prizes, more likely it's the sponsors who see some value in their sponsorship.
If they had 250 shooters last year and expect double that this time I can see that sponsors would definitely see it as worthwhile.
Maybe shot-gunners are more thankful than silhouette shooters?
I have heard that in the past a major sponsor who used to donate trophy rifles to a National silhouette match, had one of their rifles
called "a piece of crap" by the recipient at the presentation.
I was present a couple of years ago when, after a lot of hard work by the match director to get the same rifle manufacturer
to again donate a rifle as a prize, the winner of the rifle, ( who was sitting next to me ), stated that he didn't want or rate the rifle and called it a piece of crap.
That's not how you encourage sponsorship.
I will state now, that these rifles are of the highest quality and people gladly wait an average of 2 years to get one built.
Maybe instead of criticising the sport and those that are trying to get the best out of it, silhouette shooters need to look at themselves and ask the question, "what am I doing to better the sport?".

Taps, nobody that replied on this subject is a Me! ME! type person who worries about "what prizes are in it for them" but instead merely wish to discuss methods of promoting the silhouette sport and attracting shooters to matches. There has never been an elaborate advertisement like this one distributed by this facility for a Silhouette match. Maybe if they advertised their silhouette matches with the same gusto that they use for trap we would have the same attendance. If you consider demanding respect and equal treatment for our silhouette sport "bad mouthing" then so be it.

I can't speak for others but myself I'm not in it for trinkets. Its more of a bonus when it happens. A new rifle would be an awesome award though. Anyone who is handed a NEW gun for FREE and then takes a dump on it should maybe take up golf or badminton. If Winchester, Uberti or Henry were handing out some of their wares as a prize I would gladly take it. How do we get them to do that? You ask them kindly. JM.02