"All standing... sticks!"

[OnaginOffagin]

Being on the dark side of eighty, I no longer shoot regular silhouette much anymore. While I can pop an occasional 20+, missing the little steel suckers so much breaks my heart. Recently an airgun field target program opened up 10 miles from my front door, and me and my relatively new AA TX200 MKIII became instantly addicted; and mainly because in hunter class, I can shoot off a 5 gallon bucket over a tall bipod.... and, while I am older than dirt, sometimes I hit the things and they do fall down! Much joy!

This season, the Brits, who invented this game, established a new class called "All Standing With Sticks." They, too, have a lot of older shooters and they are making a real effort to keep them on the line. They shoot all targets standing up, using a non-attached tripod for the front hand only. I've begun practicing with my air rifle this way, and it's a heckuva lot harder than it sounds... but old guys can do it!

I would plead that match directors would let us old, grey-haired wienies show up on their firing lines with our neglected 1712s and Remington 540s and our tripods... and let us shoot with you. You wouldn't have to change your course of fire, just squad us with everyone else, and give us a separate class... but I wouldn't even need that. The joy of hanging out with real shooters again and actually watching some steel fall off once in awhile would please me enough! Remember, you may not believe this, but someday, you'll be too old to shoot offhand, too.... if you're lucky enough!

Please consider?

[acorneau]

We do offer that at our club matches.

We had one guy with a bad back that shot standing with a tripod until we got our benchrest/F-class spots on the line. Now he shoots the benchrest silhouette with six or seven other guys. While they are shooting at the left end of the firing line, we are all shooting at the same time, hanging out together, eating lunch together, and they get their own awards.

Along the same lines, if a new person shows up or if someone wants to shoot open-sights we set up the half-scale animals at the normal smallbore distances. Same thing if someone showed up to one of our air rifle matches; we'll put out 1/5 scale swingers at air rifle distances.

Whatever gets more people out to shoot is ok with us!

[chickenhater]

Sounds like a good idea to me. A class should be created to allow those older shooters a steadying aid. I have a few friends who have aged out, but wouldve stayed in the game were this an option.

[Kujones]

It's really good club. We've had a shooter show up with no rifle and we set him up. One of our top Master Class shooters took time to show him NPA, etc.

[Hawkeye7br]

I'm glad to hear how other clubs respond to an aging demographic. It helps me present ideas to our aging shooters as well as challenges to younger people. Many thanks!

Yesterday, I introduced our version of the benchrest silhouette game described on the NASSA Silhouette site. Mixed reviews from participants, which I interpret as "willing to try but not sure if I want to commit". But that's still a step forward.