The current climate of the shooting sports in MN

[farmerj]

My biggest personal reason for it....

I WAS big into shooting. I was hoping to get my EIC in the guard. But that never developed. Then my divorce happened and shooting took a distant 5th to 15th row for me.

some people as has been stated. They are not competitive nor do they want the rigidity that comes from a sports discipline. I know several in my group of friends that are that way. It's just something they want to do for fun. Past that, they'll go find something else to do with less rules.

[jgalt]

Building out what is forming in my mind would take me some time, but if I think there's a decent chance it'll (eventually) be widely used, it'll be worth it.

Hosting isn't an issue & I don't envision making any money from it (to address RIP's post), at least not in the near term. If there were ever enough monthly visitors to make it attractive to advertisers I wouldn't be opposed (of course), but that's not the purpose...

Setting up a structure that could both handle any type of event, including the local social events, and is easily searchable / filterable to allow users to find exactly what they're looking for would be the key to making it useful. Allowing export of events to personal calendars (existing Google, Yahoo!, etc.) should be part of it, and potentially the ability for users to create a login & store / bookmark their own list(s) of only the types of events in which they are interested would be nice (and fairly simple) as well.

As for getting the info into the database, that would be up to those who are interested in seeing the events listed. Distributing the ability to enter information away from a centralized admin would be key - otherwise it would be a full time job & I've already got a couple of those...

Marketing & SEO would take some doing, but a lot of it would come down to creating a system that is easy to use & contains information a large number of people find useful. Implement that and it'll grow over time via inbound links & word of mouth.

It might be fun to give it a shot - even more fun if it gets used...

[Fast351]

I really see two different topics being discussed here:

1) How do we get more people into the shooting sports?

2) How do we make the information about the shooting sports more available?

#2 is the easy one. One website, with a calendar for posting events ONLY! No forum, no politics, no discussion, just checkboxes with what events to filter on (USPSA/IDPA/F-Class/3GUN/Trap/HiPower/SmallBore/Bullseye/whatever). Each event on the calendar would link to a subpage with the "full" information (time/where/organizer/whatever) and a link to the home page of the hosting club/body. The challenge will be to keep it updated. I would recommend giving access to the organizers of the events and let them update their own info. Wisconsin has something pretty close to this (although they do have a forum there, which I would not recommend for a site like this, there are plenty of forums already): http://wisconsinshooters.com/

#1 is tougher. I know a TON of firearms owners outside of competitive shooting. Most of them have ZERO interest in competing. Either it's too expensive ammo wise, or they just don't have any desire to see how well they do against others. I think word of mouth is really the only way to reach the other people who are interested in competing. Then it's a question of which sport to start them in. If they're interested in pistol shooting, an IDPA match would probably be a better starting point than a USPSA match, just because of the level/tempo of the match. 3 gun would also be a good starting point (surprisingly) because of the tolerance and acceptance of new shooters. But you must realize that there will be people at all matches that are a the high end of the performance scale. This is just a fact. My advise for new shooters is always this: "Realize there will be people who have been doing this for a lot longer than you have owned guns. They will readily accept you into their sport, but don't expect to beat many people there. You will have to work your way to the top just like they have done. Be safe, and enjoy yourself!"

[jgalt]

Fast351-

Thanks for the link to http://wisconsinshooters.com/. That's a decent example of what I've been thinking of, and it is good to have a reference to work with / off of...

As for getting more folks interested, I do think making it as easy as possible to find both general information about different types of shooting sports & where / when the different events take place is at least a part of the solution - though certainly not all of it. I suspect you are correct that getting more people involved will generally entail one person talking a few of their buddies into checking it out, then hopefully at least one of those buddies doing the same, etc...

[andrewP]

If they're interested in pistol shooting, an IDPA match would probably be a better starting point than a USPSA match, just because of the level/tempo of the match.

I haven't been to an IDPA match, so perhaps I'm talking out of my hind end here, but I found USPSA to be very easy/friendly to start out in as a beginner, so I think either would probably be ok unless you're completely new to guns. I had done some reading beforehand, so I [mostly] knew what I needed, equipment-wise, to shoot Production class. I showed up at OGC with my gun, holster, ammo, etc, and was immediately welcomed and treated well. They gave me some brief instruction on how to be safe and I was immediately hooked.

I suppose some clubs might be more or less welcoming to beginners, but from a purely logistical standpoint, I don't see any reason why a beginner can't start out in whichever sport appeals to them more. Your advice about not expecting to win is very sound, though; I've yet to do better than 7th or 8th place in my class on any given stage, and I'm usually farther down than that. (Yes, I need LOTS more practice.)

[northernbird]

If there was a central place to post events and find upcoming events I think this would potentially be a pretty good first step to getting new competitors to come out. No ones going to come to an event for the first time unless they are either directly invited or stumble onto something interesting that leads them to looking at a schedule of upcoming competitions.

I think the best way to get new competitors in is to start way up stream. If you think about the path someone takes from being a new gun owner to showing up for their first competition there are a lot of little steps along the way where the vast majority of people stop. Many of those steps present opportunities to get the idea of competition shooting started in a persons head. While I think it would be good to relook at how we encourage people to take each next step that’s a huge undertaking. However, I think if some thought was given to what those steps are, we could probably identify ways to start introducing the competition thought much earlier and more directly ‘recruiting’ people from some of the steps.

I agree with the previous comments about not creating another forum, but I think it would be beneficial to include more than just a competitive events listing. A comprehensive list of clubs, and a listing of training classes that worked like the competition listing would be a good way to expose folks not yet looking for a competition to the world of competitions. I know we are trying to focus on that in this discussion, so if the site also included some articles and/or videos of past events and a few articles that broke down the different types of competitive shooting events I think that would be helpful to get people more comfortable about what to expect when they show up that first time. Especially if they don’t have someone to invite them.

jgalt - I like the way your thinking, and if you want to sit down and brainstorm with someone I'd be game.

[northernbird]

This is my first year shooting anything competitive (3 gun) and up until this year I'd never really even given it much of a thought. That being said I think one of the the challenges is to get new potential competitors to even see the listing of events. While I think there are folks looking to get into competition that would be searching, I think the larger group is those that would if they had it show up in front of them in an interesting way.

I'll post separately about how I got started, but heres a few thoughts about getting shooting sports in front of people that arent even thinking about it. Without a doubt I think the best way to get people out is to invite them directly but I think thats a pretty limited route. Up until I went and shot my first 3 gun match, I didnt know anyone that had shot a competition (other than trap).

Building off my previous post where I mentioned the steps people take as they would progress toward starting to shoot competitively, I think it would be a good idea to work with folks that are teaching classes and try to come up with something they could hand out that referenced the new ‘MN Shooting Resources’ site we’re kinda talking about. This is where I think having the site be more than just a listing of competitive events helps, because people could come to the site looking for something else (A place to shoot, or additional training) and find themselves drawn to competition.

I also think theres a point of diminishing returns. Too much stuff other than competition events and you get lost in the weeds. So theres definitely got to be a careful balance.

[northernbird]

This is my first year shooting anything competitive (3 gun) and up until this year I'd never really even given it much of a thought. That being said I think one of the the challenges is to get new potential competitors to even see the listing of events. While I think there are folks looking to get into competition that would be searching, I think the larger group is those that would if they had it show up in front of them in an interesting way.

I'll post separately about how I got started, but heres a few thoughts about getting shooting sports in front of people that arent even thinking about it. Without a doubt I think the best way to get people out is to invite them directly but I think thats a pretty limited route. Up until I went and shot my first 3 gun match, I didnt know anyone that had shot a competition (other than trap).

Building off my previous post where I mentioned the steps people take as they would progress toward starting to shoot competitively, I think it would be a good idea to work with folks that are teaching classes and try to come up with something they could hand out that referenced the new ‘MN Shooting Resources’ site we’re kinda talking about. This is where I think having the site be more than just a listing of competitive events helps, because people could come to the site looking for something else (A place to shoot, or additional training) and find themselves drawn to competition.

I also think theres a point of diminishing returns. Too much stuff other than competition events and you get lost in the weeds. So theres definitely got to be a careful balance.