To many oldies and to few young people.

I am witnessing a year on year reduction in the number of members of the pistol club that I belong to and am posting this thread in an attempt to make a positive change before the shooting activities that I so passionately participate in become consigned to the fate of Dodo’s and Dinosaur’s.

If any Auckland based A category firearms license holders have an interest in pistol shooting then send me a private message and I would be happy to host you to an introductory shoot at the club.

Our club conducts several different pistol shooting discipline competitions (cowboy action, service pistol, IPSC speed steel, multi gun) all of which are a great deal of fun.

I would have you know though that pistol shooting has an element of expense to it (club fees, firearms and ammunition) and requires an on going commitment to participate in twelve scheduled club shoots per year. Whilst you do not have to purchase any pistols on the journey to getting your B endorsement (the club pistols serve this purpose) our club does expect new members to show commitment in the first six months but participation in all disciplines and attendance at twelve shoots before it will support an endorsement application.

I don’t think I can make it any more clear than that so if you hold an interest then let me know and I will provide some further information and arrange to take you along one Saturday.

That's interesting Rushy.
Our club is continuing to grow.
We struggled to maintain a club during the early 2000's but now we almost have too many for our facilities.
Small rural town though. Not sure if that would make a difference.
Do you have any rifle facilities (100,200 yards etc) ?
I have a mate who has shifted up your way and is a bit stuck for somewhere to shoot.

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.

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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.

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You don't make use of the 100 , I'm shocked . The possums will be pleased :D

Huge difference in attitudes between big urban centres and rural towns.

I had an interesting experience last weekend, whilst visiting Chch. Granny and grandson were heading to Orana Park leaving me at a loose end.

So I headed back down the road to where I'd seen some ranges. There was a big gaggle of folks heading into one of them so I tagged along . . . Into the Nth Canterbury NZDA branch facility. Most of the gaggle were young fellas and a bit of a chat established they were from "Hunt Soc" which is associated with Canterbury Uni. There were a few old blokes there, they got "Range Officer" vests, some of the young ones had no firearms license, they got blue vests. I made myself known to one of the younger "old blokes" and was invited to stay and observe. There was also a bloke from the FSA There, had a great chat to him to.

MAN I learnt a lot. The old blokes were great, like all good ROs they had eyes in the back of thier heads but were very relaxed and accommodating - I had a yarn with all of them at appropriate (I hope) times, and a good read of the RSOs, which as a local range convener are always interesting.

The Huntsoc guys were great, a lot of the were sighting in/checking loads etc but after a bit all the blue vests guys got given a target, then a briefing, then the older huntsoc guys coached themthrough what was for most of them, their first shots out of a rifle (or maybe one that wasn't Dads). It was all very relaxed, companionable, and still professional. I left before the FSA guy talked with them but he'd told me he was speaking about getting a FAL with special mention of how to deal with storage whilst at uni - and he had solutions that sounded fine to me.

This experience has many pointers as to how to keep out sport going, some I took home being we need to seek out gaggles of young people like the "Huntsocs" and engage them. We need to ensure they deal with RO's etc cut of the right cloth - keep them away from the opinionated wankers who love to frequent ranges. We need to get young people doing the coaching etc, they speak the language of the young and are far more capable that most would think (and apart from range safety issues, why give a flying fuck if their opinions are different to the hierarchy, man I heard some funny stuff).

Echo your thoughts Tentman, the younger folk have more energy for this stuff as well if they get the passion.
When in my late 20s and early 30s I was an R/O, an RO instructor also a Holster instructor and Holster trainer. President of the local pistol club, organiser of South Island Nats, and still found time to load for two people and compete.
I think I had a good mentor, and I believe that it is through good mentoring from seniors we get to pass on the passions for our sports.

On a similar note, I've been selling a few of my Entry Level BP guns.
We need to let younger guys get started with what ever shooting sport we are into.

These younger guys will maybe get the bug and want our more valuable guns in time.
We can't take them with us to the grave

I'm always happy when someone younger takes an interest in what I'm into.
It's probably pretty intimidating and bewildering for some of them.
Sadly none are serious about learning the Gunsmithing side of things
I guess that's a consequence of a generation of Tupperware rifles

I think what you'll also find, well what I come across is the average person just wants to shoot a gun. I come across that a lot and when I get the chance Ill take them to the farm for the day with various firearms go through the safety aspects and explain what it actually is and the various parts etc and what they do, then we set up some targets, some of them like to make their own targets and we have a shoot. Generally by the end of the day they have had enough and their curiosity has been satisfied.

The problem with the young is (if they are not vehemently against guns because that fits with their vegan beliefs) simply that they cannot afford to shoot A-cat rifles and shotguns are one thing (not cheap) but pistols and the associated costs (high cost club memberships/PNZ fees/bullshitter fees/etc) all add up. These are either young guys, such as students who are typically poor, or just starting out in life with a hefty mortgage and/or kids. As much as they might want to shoot, as much as they have the enthusiasm, it simply is too much. Add to this 12 shoots a year - it might sound easy, but it quickly passes you by if you work full time and have a family.
Call me cynical, but increasing costs is a great way of breeding out the pistol shooting from society.


(Add to this, most pistol clubs I know have at least one dickhead RO who can really put you off. It's amazing, these guys seem to think it is mandatory to behave like this. I know some great guys, who are great ROs without the dickheadedness, so it is certainly possible. )

I’ve seen that RO issue, but have also seen it dealt with,
We are running with about 55-60 members, have just expanded to include 2 new satellite ranges and have now hosted 6 major events so far this year. But we have better attendance at events from out of Towner. We try to bring our shooters through, but you can lead a horse to water….

Speaking as a youngish person (38, wife, two kids and a mortgage) I have just recently joined the local Pistol Club and love it. Been around a cat firearms my entire life but pistols were so foreign to me. I have a total of 8 ISSF shoots under my belt and really enjoy it. Most of the crew are happy as to take on the minding duties as well which makes it easy too.

There is one RO that fits in the harsh category and has been overly harsh with another new shooter but the two guys who mainly take care of RO duties are fantastic.

I agree around the expense putting people off, if my financial situation was the same as it was 6 months ago, the range fees would have simply been unaffordable.

I also wouldn't have gotten into it if a good mate of mine hadn't been a member. He was brought in by an older chap that he hunted with, so again if he hadn't been welcomed in by a friend, neither would I.

The use of club guns is excellent, although some do complain about them, I definitely appreciate them being available.

Greetings,
I have seen the numbers engaging in 4p rifle shooting dwindle steadily over the last 40 years or so until there is practically none in the Napier Hastings. F class, pistols and shotgun seem to be a bit better but as the OP stated mostly older people and not many of them.
This is easily the greatest threat to rifle ranges.
Regards Grandpamac.

Address the financial aspect of the sport by subsidizing the ammo cost?

Here under 20's shoot full bore for free,at the pistol club the police range fees subsidize the clubs ammo cost by about 25%.

Kiwis just dont seem to understand the future of their shooting sports depend on new blood as well as financial contribution.

bring back the old army cadets - maybe - for youngsters getting into shooting it is expensive -needs to be subsidized and advertised

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:omg:

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

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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.

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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…

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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 :XD:

I think it's largely a case of many of these clubs having an extremely poor online presence. The amount of experienced shooters that I run into with absolutely no knowledge of who the various local clubs operating are, let alone what discipline they shoot or a calendar.

Have a look at the S.P.A.R.C series. Well promoted online, very well attended by younger and new shooters, and they shoot at a ton of different locations.

Our local service rifle club is going the same way as the pistol clubs. All of the new members and young guys have been created by them shooting at another club with a service rifle member and being convinced to give it a go.

If your club is not coming up from a simple Google search and the times/dates/prices/photos/videos of club shoots and an explanation of your disipline are not clearly stated, don't expect young people to even know you exist.

Personally I fall into the price barrier category for pistol shooting. I do a lot of rifle shooting and simply can't afford adding pistol to this as well, even though I could make the time and would like to get into it.

At the moment we shoot air rifles on our block (not sure if our neighbours will be ok with us letting the 22LR off) but would be very happy to help set up a good distance shooting range somewhere and get a school team going as well for my kids. I can volunteer my time and some funds to the cause. But it’s not a one man job.
I shoot pistols with them too when I can take them to the club.
My hand is up to help.

Do the 12 club events have to be club events or could you attend the range 12 times a year by yourself to meet your requirements? I dont have my pistol endorsement so forgive the ignorance.

12 organised club shoots.