Bob,
You are getting the same problem that at least four other match directors I know of. It is past time for somebody in NRA management to take notice and do something that fixes this problem.

Hang in there Bud!
Mary

I'm good with them. Been a month. But................

I may be the odd man out here, but . . .

I send in an email for my tournament reports to: tournrpts <at> nrahq <dot> org
They go straight to Mrs Chin.
In fact, this last time I asked a rules clarification question and got a return email the next day (business day). I was contacted later that same day by Greg Connor himself - called at home and I was at work. Then called me the next day at work and we discussed the question/answer on the phone.

Maybe give the email a try. If THAT still does not work, at least you did not waste some money or a stamp!

Good luck,
ShootingStar

We have 4 new participants with classification books and 3 of them from IL., who say are spreading the word in their region. One of them seems to have every firearm available or knows about every firearm produced and shoots a Kimber 82 at our matches. 10 of us had a great time last evening and wish I had the time to be more involved with conversations, but running and calling the match takes away from some of that. I am pretty excited and we should have 13 at our State Championship August 25, most ever in 15 years I am told and looking back at old records. One fellow near Chicago, e-mailed me after seeing our state championship date in Shooter Sports USA last week. He is going to try and make it. That would be almost 2 hour drive for him. The way things are looking the past couple of months, adding four more steady participants to the roster sure makes it more merrier along with their enthusiasm. 2012 is much better than expected going back 3 months when our season opened. This time, when all come to our State Championship, I will make sure I have everyone's email addresses.

Thanks Shooting star, I will try an attempt at this email report for my "missing"July match when I get home Monday afternoon. Did you just report the number of shooters,no accidents, etc. and the date held , club number and location in the content? Right now I am in Missouri for the HP regional starting tomorrow.

Bob,

Apologies for not getting back sooner.

That's all I did -- report what was requested on the cards...plus a CC to my BOD as there had been a couple of letters to the club advising that I hadn't responded to notices that I was behind on reports. (Yup! I had re-sent the reports each time that I received 'failure to file' notices...and the re-sends didn't get through! When I got notices through the club BOD, I decided to call and tell tournament reporting that it was email or nothing.)

I've almost always had excellent responses from Greg and others at NRA when I had questions or issues. Tournament reporting was the exception.

teetertotter wrote:We have 4 new participants with classification books and 3 of them from IL., who say are spreading the word in their region. One of them seems to have every firearm available or knows about every firearm produced and shoots a Kimber 82 at our matches. 10 of us had a great time last evening and wish I had the time to be more involved with conversations, but running and calling the match takes away from some of that. I am pretty excited and we should have 13 at our State Championship August 25, most ever in 15 years I am told and looking back at old records. One fellow near Chicago, e-mailed me after seeing our state championship date in Shooter Sports USA last week. He is going to try and make it. That would be almost 2 hour drive for him. The way things are looking the past couple of months, adding four more steady participants to the roster sure makes it more merrier along with their enthusiasm. 2012 is much better than expected going back 3 months when our season opened. This time, when all come to our State Championship, I will make sure I have everyone's email addresses.

This Illinois shooter should be there next weekend Jon. It's our last match of the year at our club that same day but our chikens are so beat up that I think I'd rather drive up and shoot with you guys. It was the same situation last month. Our club's match fell on the same day as yours. As it turned out, I had an aunt pass away that week and with everything else going I completely forgot to check the match schedule. I was getting ready to mow my lawn on Saturday morning when I realized that I missed out on both matches. Doh! I look forward to those matches and I was really kicking myself for missing out. What can you do?

I plan to come up for your match in September too. Now that I think about it, I may even drive up for your Thursday night match this week to get a little silo shooting in before the WI state match. Although, that'll depend on my work load and the family schedule. I plan to practice on paper and my swingers at our club on Tuesday night too. So coming up on Thursday won't be a do or die thing.

Thanks Daddio!! We have missed you this year and understand as you did state earlier this year there would be some conflict of interest. I should be home tomorrow afternoon from Louisville in time for our match tomorrow night. We went to the KY State Fair and what not. We are good to go on Saturday. I'm hoping Waldo, our only valid Master Class, will make it. Said he won't know until last minute due to possible hay bailing conflict. He is so laid back and quiet and a neat and giving person. See Ya!! Jon

Found this thread a very interesting read ,

In South Africa in the 80's 90's Silhouette Shooting was at its most popular compared to now. Shooting Sports in general were "socially accepted' and promoted

Most High Schools were Supplied with 24x Brand New Anschutz mod 64 Match Rifles ( .22lr single shot) in 1986 and Target Shooting Was a normal sport like Rugby / Hockey/Tennis

The nice thing about the Anschutz rifles were they were way better than the older generation BSA martini actions that preceded them.

3 Teams of 6 members 6xJuniors ( grade8/9) 6x Girls ( grade 8-12) 6x Seniors ( Grade 10-12).

Inter School competitions , Ammo Supplied by the Defence Force . Looking back very fortunate to have been a part of that. Because this was part of the School Culture and part of growing up a rifle was a tool of Skill - a dangerous tool that had to be respected.

Then Enters the Television generation and many Moralists and Bunny huggers that see all sorts of Subliminal messages in a rifle and the use there off and the Infamous Model 64 was doomed weapons of mass destruction and promoting violence . In 1999 Target Shooting was excluded from the Sport Curriculum and
most of these rifles were shipped back to collection points in each province and ultimately destroyed by melting them up in a Foundry together with many illegal
AK 47's /Shotguns and revolvers nobody knows exactly how many of these rifles were destroyed but rumour has it it was between 50 000 to 60 000 units.

Our Minister of Police was very happy with his drive of destroying / taking all these bad objects out of Circulation. To Say that people were a tad pissed off is a slight understatement.

From 2004 until 2007 shooting Sports were at its lowest point as no new arms were sold or bought and many ammo shortages etc - As I am a re-loader it did not affect me as much with powder/primers being the critical components. In 2006 they reviewed the whole debacle and it was felt that Shooting as a Sport was necessary and gave the OK for Schools to endorse Air Rifle Target Shooting - ever since then that is what is used. I have no real understanding of air rifle target shooting but hey it works and slowly gaining popularity again as there are no licencing on air rifles that makes it more accessable.

Now what we have here is a generation gap between Young and Older Shooter - going from .22lr target shooting to Silhouette is a Natural Movement going to Small bore pistol is interesting and going to high power rifles is a adaptation to the small bore rifle.

I do not know how to relate or make rimfire /centrefire attractive to a shooter that is used to a 15yd indoor range ?

For a Novice all these complicated Rifles , Jargon and Technicalities seems very intimidating and loose their interest to other hobbies.

So for Silhouette Shooting to have a Healthy future one should find a way to connect to the younger generation or at least in my part of the world.

Some archive pics of what a Shooting team looked like in the 70's sporting BSA Martini's and some Annies going into the pot combined with various other guns.

My opinion YES silhouette is dying a slow death, the same as bullseye pistol, nra pistol silhouette, highpower cross the course, nra action pistol, and many more. The same argument made above (lets make it cheap) and everyone will shoot the sport is just wrong IMHO. I have heard this discussion way too many times, and do not today believe it anymore than before. As long as the rules make sense, are fair then shooters will make the decision to shoot or not.

I mean today you can purchase many rilfes for less than 500 that are accurate for this game, a 300 dollar scope and you have a firearm that can win. Look back on this form, and there is a member who was reporting great groups with the $269 dollar ruger american. Money is NOT THE ISSUE OR THE PROBLEM.

The NRA sports are hard and not the it sports. People see 3 gun, and the action sports as alot more fun. I agree, they are like plinking and who does not like plinking. I recognize how much skill it take to shoot but to me it is like watching paint dry.

Sorry the best we can do is advertise silhouette exists, be friendly, be nice, and try to prompt the shooting sports.

Greg

GregG wrote:Sorry the best we can do is advertise silhouette exists, be friendly, be nice, and try to prompt the shooting sports.

I'm new to this sport last year so maybe my input is valid here. I started shooting this after I realized it existed and saw a match at my club. I think advertising that it exists would obviously help. But I don't view this as a 'serious' shooting competition. I view it more like golf with a handicap system in place. I only compete against me. Maybe when I get better I'll want to win bad enough to consider it. But if we let people know what fun it is, that there is no pressure, that they can do this like they golf, that anyone can compete and have fun. What was I saying? When I tell my friends I'm shooting in a match they ask questions like I'm on the Olympic paper punching team. I guess what I'm getting at is to emphasize the fun. The animals flying. The camaraderie. Oh, and it is a competition.

I know it takes all types but I'd sure like the sport to continue. As it is now all I hear is how many people used to shoot and how few there are now.

This arguement has been going on since the mid 80s.

I think the problem is most outdoor families are way too bussy on the weekends to give up a weekend camping trip for a couple hours at the range. You might consider shooting on a week night and see what kind of turn out you get. In IF before we lost our indoor range we had a winter league and had as many as 70 shooters turn out. IF had a population of about 50 to 60 thousand. Just a thought.

Yeah I hear we have a winter postal league too. Too bad no one told me about it last year. Talk about needing advertising!

The picture posted by African Villager portrays the way life should be: The school rifle team is so important that you put on a suit and tie to make the team picture. Marksmanship with a rifle is essential to a proper upbringing. America has lost all common sense but other countries have not. Example: We attended a Church a few years ago where we met a female interpreter in a Eastern European country(former Soviet Bloc country recently in the news) Seminary that trained ministers. She would spend a few weeks in America each Summer to report on the progress of the seminary. Our minster took her and her husband out to a farm to shoot a Rimfire rifle with open sights. He thought that would be something unusual for them that they did not get to do at home. He said that he put up a paper target a reasonable distance away but she was not hitting the paper. Then he realized that she was shooting the stems off of wild flowers at a great distance in the standing position. When he asked her about this she said that the paper target was way too close for her because every child in her part of the World is taught to shoot just like any other school course and that you better learn to shoot well or you will not earn a passing grade. She said that each school child was expected to compete on a sports team and that when her daughter was injured during gymnastics she was immediately transferred to the pistol team. Much different from America.

I've heard this same debate in every shooting club I've ever participated in. In my Highpower club, you look back at club records from the sixties and it wasn't unusual to see two hundred shooters show up for a local match. Now, they consider it a good turnout if ten of the club regulars show up. Schutzen and Benchrest are the same. The only clubs that seem to be growing are Skeet/Sporting Clays and USPSA/IDPA. Action sports that don't require highly specialized equipment, and have formats that allow lots of time for socialization. The other observation I've made is club structure. Every club has a handful of active core members that do all the work. These guys often get very frustrated with the club members who just show up, pay their fee, and leave when the match is over. This frustration often leads to conflict. The truth is, for a club to flourish, it takes both kinds of members. The club doesn't have the means to put on a good match without the scores of people who just show up, pay their fee, shoot the match, and leave, and their wouldn't be a match without those core members who do all the work. Club leadership has to "Recognise, Accept, and Appreciate" both kinds of members for who they are, and what they mean to the club. Hope this helps!