Thread: To many oldies and to few young people.

Most school teachers and principles would have a heart attack if they saw a squad of little Johnny's out on the sports fields in formation with .22's slung over their shoulders

My local NZDA is doing a good job of bringing younger people in. The committee skews older but the monthly club meetings seem to attract reasonable numbers in their 20s and 30s. The last new member night packed out the clubhouse. The HUNTS course is a good drawcard and plenty remain active members after completing it, myself included.

I attended a club night tonight with my lad at our local Small Bore Target Shooting club.
His fourth or fifth visit, there were a good dozen or more under 15yr old their.
We paid his annual fees last week as he is getting into it,(yay), fees cost about the same as three of four boxes of ammo.
The club is working hard on getting the young ones back into the sport, we are working on getting the local scout groups to re engage in shooting for a trophy that used to do the rounds between the local groups and Sea Scouts.

Hopefully you get a few new ones involved Rushy and has sparked some interesting conversation. Just something from a younger person (26). I trapshot through school and really enjoyed it and fully intended to carry on with it once leaving school. I haven’t shot competitive since mainly because of financial reasons and putting everything into getting myself established in life. Talking to some peers this seems to be the norm and most of us will get back to it one day when we are in a position to do so. All of us are rural based and have been around firearms and hunting from a young age which probably skews my perspective somewhat.

Thanks for the insight lumberjack, it is encouraging to me that there is intent among your peers to resume firearms sporting activities at some stage. You have also recognised the influence that living in a rural community has had on your involvement with firearms (it resonates with me and I agree). I suspect that to truly grow our sporting interests we need a compelling campaign to convince the inexperienced urban population that firearms are neither unsafe nor evil and they all in their various forms (long arms and short arms) have a rightful place in legitimate sporting interests.

Cost is the biggest factor these days with wanting to get into any hobby, I hunt, and would like to branch out into fishing but realistically one hobby is hard enough to fund. I'm lucky I brought most of my hunting gear before kids. Time is another factor, with 3 kids to sort out and a house to maintain plus having a partner to spend time with it doesn't leave much time for other stuff. I recently joined the committee of the wellington NZDA as it keeps me involved with hunting, and being around other hunters even if I can't get out into the bush often. Also gives me 2 nights a month booked out for a just me activity, great for the mental health.
Pistol shooting has always looked attractive to me and I feel that pistols are reasonably priced, as is ammo. Might give it a go one day but probably another 10 years before I have the funds and time

Originally Posted by Rushy

The club sub leases the 25 metre range from the NZDA range at Riverhead for our meetings. It would be best to go to an NZDA meet to use the 100 and 200 range.

Does that include a trip to the Riverhead Pub as well…..I’ll bring my Black tee shirt….always liked that pub……used to take my punt from northcoate up the channel to their dock for a few cold ones…

Originally Posted by A330driver

Does that include a trip to the Riverhead Pub as well…..I’ll bring my Black tee shirt….always liked that pub……used to take my punt from northcoate up the channel to their dock for a few cold ones…

She’s still a goodie.

Wanted to say thanks to @Rushy for this kind offer. I got in touch a couple months back, and after the club's committee approved me to come along, I went to my first club shoot yesterday. It happened to be a cowboy action shoot which was great fun. And nice to meet Rushy in person too.

Originally Posted by Fatberg

Wanted to say thanks to @Rushy for this kind offer. I got in touch a couple months back, and after the club's committee approved me to come along, I went to my first club shoot yesterday. It happened to be a cowboy action shoot which was great fun. And nice to meet Rushy in person too.

Thanks for the shout out. It was good to finally meet you as well. Glad you had fun.

Like others it really came down to $$. I was on the IPSC bandwagon at 30yo. Wished I started earlier. This was before Covid, loved it, shot A grade in my first two national comps. But after the price hike and difficulties getting powder etc it just became too expensive. Price of travel, accom, entry fees etc just got out of hand. For someone like myself, I only shot to compete against the best, not just to own pistols and plink at the club. I found it hard letting it all go as I was and still am passionate about it but I couldn’t justify competing anymore. I still go down and catch up with the team here in Wellington and also attend the odd event to help out here and there too just to keep in the mix. Also like yourself am always keen to get new people down to the club and introduce them to the sport.

my grand daughter just attended her first girl guide camp out of Auckland somehwere called the Hunuas - they got air rifles as a choice of activity - she choose it as one - damn proud of her and great to see that it was offered - if any on here were involved great stuff - she also chose high rope and I have a photo of her scaling what must be a 50 foot pole just with spikes okay a safety rope on but still damn brave - such a proud Grandad

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

my grand daughter just attended her first girl guide camp out of Auckland somehwere called the Hunuas - they got air rifles as a choice of activity - she choose it as one - damn proud of her and great to see that it was offered - if any on here were involved great stuff - she also chose high rope and I have a photo of her scaling what must be a 50 foot pole just with spikes okay a safety rope on but still damn brave - such a proud Grandad

Yeh that sounds great. The Hunua Range is in the south of Auckland, has a number of dams and pretty much separates Auckland from the Waikato Region.

Camp Adair? Thats been there for ever. I did scout camps there in the 60s I still remember the flying fox across the river. Scared shitless as I didn't like heights, but I couldn't wait for another go.

lol hard case I went to camp Adair in the late 70s. I think we might have had a shoot of .22s then too. Might have even gone horse riding there too but I might be wrong on that one. Was probably a good chance for the old man to get rid of me for a week