I received a phone call two days ago to inform me that the Chattanooga Rifle Club's board of directors has chosen to not allow both versions smallbore, smallbore CLA, & PCCLA for 2017. I'm sure there will be blame and accusations all around locally for this decision. I can't speak to those reasons and motivations. I can say that this club with north of 1000 members has a core leadership that seems to be bereft of vision and clueless as to how the program was viewed by the silhouette community in the Southeastern U.S.
It's with a bit of frustration and significant sadness that I share this. I'll naively hold out hope this might change.

I live near Philadelphia, PA but very sorry to hear your news. Several years ago a club that I belonged to for around 45 years decided to bag both air rifle and smallbore silhouette notwithstanding having a dedicated range for each. The smallbore issue was that they did not generate enough profit! How one can support the shooting sports by NOT running matches is beyond me. When we have non trigger pullers running our clubs that's the kind of thing that happens however that is no longer my club. The club I belong to now supports ALL shooting sports.
Richard

Boyd, you have received some misinformation the board would like to have matches. Because of the calendar and when it gets printed replacement match directors could not be placed. Please consider the source. The Chattanooga Rifle Club has always supported the silhouette matches. Shooters please do not give up maybe someone will step up and get things back on track in the future.

shooterxtc wrote:Boyd, you have received some misinformation the board would like to have matches. Because of the calendar and when it gets printed replacement match directors could not be placed. Please consider the source. The Chattanooga Rifle Club has always supported the silhouette matches. Shooters please do not give up maybe someone will step up and get things back on track in the future.

The information is wrong about the intentions of the board? But it's correct information that there is no plan to host matches this year?

No silhouette at all? That is sad news, they were just getting the Cowboy silhouette going well.

Hopefully they will find some shooters to step up to be Director[s] and assistant Director[s]. Time will tell.

The program was begun with from scratch and presented a 2006 State Championship with only 2 Tennessee residents to having 18 Tennessee residents in 2016. The 2015 Tennessee State Championship Tournament had 59 entries in Smallbore Rifle Silhouette (60 is range capacity) and 49 in 2016.
An incident occurred at the State Championships this August, involving a failure of the gate controller that resulted in a competitor’s vehicle being hit by the gate closing prematurely. Management attempted to put some of the blame on my wife who was sitting at the gate letting pre-registered competitors enter. Based on the “spy cameras” that management was watching, they were saying she was blocking the entry thus being somewhat responsible for the event. Simply BS We have been letting competitors in this way for the past eleven years, with no problem since we already know who is coming in, until lightning struck the gate a day earlier and the gate closing delays were damaged and malfunctioned.
In my discussion with the club President, he would not back off from including my wife as part of the problem and not admitting the problem was a result of the club’s equipment failure. There appears to be no resolution of the problem possible, since they will not accept responsibility for the accident and move on, but persist in including my wife in the problem. This leaves me no recourse except my deciding to cease serving as Match Director.
Dale, besides being very helpful to this project, began the Cowboy Rifle Silhouette a couple years ago and in 2016 and had 24 competitors competing in the 2016 Cowboy Rifle Silhouette State Championships with plans to expand next year to handle additional competitors..
For some reason, Dale was not allowed to continue conducting the matches. The fact that he would not be allowed to conduct matches on his own was conveyed to me by more than one Board member several times since I met him some 6 or 7 years ago. I felt because of the way Dale had demonstrated his attention to following the rules and his attention to safety, this might have changed. Evidently not ! I have to believe the reason is personal since having worked with him for several years in various venues both at the CRC as well as others; his willingness to be a team player and help, in addition to his attention to safety and following rules is exceptional in my opinion. Obviously, my opinion doesn’t matter.
Guess all things have to come to an end. Thanks to all the good friends and competitors who have supported this effort for the past eleven years.
BTW – The comment by shooterxtc to “consider the source” is a direct, cheap shot at Dale and is representative of an undercurrent of tension that has been ongoing thorughout the past year.
Best Regards
Ed (Gator) Jones

Things like this are why my wife and I will never run a match at a public or "almost" public club type range ever again. Good people blamed for something they could not control like a damaged gate from a lightning strike. When we started holding matches on our own property everything changed for the better. No one to answer to but ourselves makes for efficient, quiet, great matches.

atomicbrh wrote:Things like this are why my wife and I will never run a match at a public or "almost" public club type range ever again. Good people blamed for something they could not control like a damaged gate from a lightning strike. When we started holding matches on our own property everything changed for the better. No one to answer to but ourselves makes for efficient, quiet, great matches.

With that said...... who would want to resume the discipline[s]?

Gator and Dale,come on up to Pa and shoot.Just find a place locally to practice and come up and shoot our bigger matches maybe once a month.You folks fit in with our crowd.suggest Als spring fling at Montoursville(Williamsport)April,Bradfords tentative 4 th July match,and Ridgway for Nationals AND yet to be known CLA Match.You maybe able to squeeze in a SB or hp along with CLA if you pick the right weekends
I learned long ago that sometimes it's better to put time and gas in the car and go where the best matches are instead of fighting the system.

SqHunter wrote:No silhouette at all? That is sad news, they were just getting the Cowboy silhouette going well.

Yes Rex, that's my understanding. After watching Green River Gun Club near Bowling Green die from a lack of club member interest and participation and now CRC, it appears that the only smallbore silhouette in or around Kentucky and Tennessee is the new match that has been talked about near Jackson, Tennessee. There's a pistol match near Lawrenceburg, Kentucky that's been held for at least 30 years. I guess I'll have to chase ground squirrels and clean the cobwebs out of my T/C Contenders. I guess it will be traveling to the occasional state match in the South and Southeast.

Well... this sucks.

Tennessee State Champ. Match was a great event. You even got some guys from up north to show up.
Here is my hope: that the event finds a new venue even if in another State. What the heck, it's a 5-1/2 hour drive anyway just a little more drive time.

Y'all come to North Louisiana at Top Shot Shooting Facility. It's a small club. Starting in March we will be shooting small bore on First Saturday and then on Third Saturday we shoot all three Lever Action silhouette rifles along with pistol silhouette. We don't squabble.

Boyd L. wrote:

SqHunter wrote:No silhouette at all? That is sad news, they were just getting the Cowboy silhouette going well.

Yes Rex, that's my understanding. After watching Green River Gun Club near Bowling Green die from a lack of club member interest and participation and now CRC, it appears that the only smallbore silhouette in or around Kentucky and Tennessee is the new match that has been talked about near Jackson, Tennessee. There's a pistol match near Lawrenceburg, Kentucky that's been held for at least 30 years. I guess I'll have to chase ground squirrels and clean the cobwebs out of my T/C Contenders. I guess it will be traveling to the occasional state match in the South and Southeast.

The match in North Carolina might be the closest to you. There is supposed to be a match in North Georgia too but I don't know where it is.

Lots of driving this year!

There will be matches at the Chatuge Range in Hiawassee Georgia next year as far as I know. Carol Rosenqvist has been running them for years and at this time there are plans to continue. They are usually on the 4th Saturdays beginning in April or so and going through November this year.
Also probably matches in Asheville next year?