Total numbers actively shooting

Gerri

Curious about the numbers actively competing in target shooting on a regular basis, not plinking but competitively on a regular basis in Ireland. Is the info available from any source out there?

Sparks

You'd have to pick a discipline I think Gerri, and you'd have to define what you mean by actively shooting (one match a year? two? ten? every match? training for internationals? that kind of thing). It's an awkward question to get a simple answer to

Kryten

Gerri wrote: »

Curious about the numbers actively competing in target shooting on a regular basis, not plinking but competitively on a regular basis in Ireland. Is the info available from any source out there?

In my opinion, not enough. I have been shooting competitively now since 2005. Target shooting, all disciplines, You tend to see the same faces at every shoot. Hats off to the dedicated shooters. Some of them will travel anywhere for a competition. We need more people like that

bunny shooter

Most disciplines turn into an arms race, fellows with loads of money buying success with better equipment. Be cheaper for them to buy trophy in the first place. :rolleyes:

Gerri

Sparks wrote: »

You'd have to pick a discipline I think Gerri, and you'd have to define what you mean by actively shooting (one match a year? two? ten? every match? training for internationals? that kind of thing). It's an awkward question to get a simple answer to

Let's say all disciplines called target shooting, regularly meaning once a month or more, competitively meaning competing in competitions not just informal plinking or practice, hence the once a month or more as they can enter competitions at least monthly leaving three weeks for training prior to competition.. If necessary , break it into ISSF,Silhouette,Sporting Rifle,F-Class,Pistol competitions meaning ISSF,Practical,WA 1500,Bullseye etc. Just trying to get a handle on overall use for target shooting. Excluding training and International competitions, purely shooters competing regularly in Rep. of Ireland only.

Bananaman

Gerri,

I doubt if that information would be available here. There is a very small, but vocal, % of the shooting community represeneted on these boards.

If you mean pistol target shooting then the DOJ would be the people to ask as they have the total number of licenses and they are all for target shooting.

B'Man

Kryten

bunny shooter wrote: »

Most disciplines turn into an arms race, fellows with loads of money buying success with better equipment. Be cheaper for them to buy trophy in the first place. :rolleyes:

Better equipment will not buy you success! Lots and lots of practice with a decent gun will get you there. Too often I have seen people spend thousands on the best of gear, show up to a shoot expecting miracles and could'nt hit the side of a barn. Sure it helps. Although I have seen guys with Glock 34 (not expensive but pretty accurate) seriously out shoot guys with X5's or X6's.

IRLConor

Gerri wrote: »

Curious about the numbers actively competing in target shooting on a regular basis, not plinking but competitively on a regular basis in Ireland. Is the info available from any source out there?

After having a quick skim of the results of competitions I've been to, I'd estimate there are roughly 15-20 people competing in prone ISSF/NSRA/NTSA competitions.

At least that for air rifle - I heard 30 something being bandied about at the last shoot.

Sparks

But those numbers are for those competing rather than actively shooting - how many would show up once a month or more in DURC for example?

IRLConor

Sparks wrote: »

But those numbers are for those competing rather than actively shooting - how many would show up once a month or more in DURC for example?

In terms of shooters in DURC, I'd guess at maybe 15-25 shooters that shoot .22 at least once a month. I think there's more for air rifle but I haven't been on RO duty on an air rifle night for quite a while.

Years ago I had a look at shooter numbers in DURC and it appeared that as a rule of thumb, 20% of those who join shoot at least once and 30-50% of those who shoot once will shoot regularly. Shooters who turn up more than once tend to shoot at least 2 nights a month and often shoot once a week.

[EDIT]
The number of members who don't participate is high because of the low barrier to entry (€4) and the push for members that we do in the first week of term. We get a lot of "impulse buyers" in Front Square during fresher's week.

Pretty much anyone who joins after fresher's week shoots at least once and they typically (I'd guess 90%+) turn into regular shooters.
[/EDIT]

I answered the way I did because of the phrasing of the question:

Gerri wrote:

Curious about the numbers actively competing in target shooting on a regular basis

It wasn't me!

There were a lot more shooters for DURC before christmas though. Used to be difficult to grab slots, and if you weren't in by wednesday evening it might be a shooting-free next week, but now I could grab a slot the morning of the day I wanted to shoot. Seems a lot of the semi-regular ones got less regular.

Leupold

What do you want this information for Gerri?

Sparks

Sparks wrote: »

But those numbers are for those competing rather than actively shooting - how many would show up once a month or more in DURC for example?

I don't think that they count, as I would define a plinker as one who doesn't compete.

Numbers of plinkers are down this year in DURC - seems to come and go and waves!

rrpc

Number of shooters on the NTSA smallbore classification list (those who have shot smallbore target rifle competitively in the last 12 months) is about 35 I think.

40 shot in the UCD open competition, 36 shot in the NASRPC competition in Rathdrum, so you can pretty much add all them together for starters. That still leaves a considerable number who shoot in other disciplines and events.

Club membership would give a more accurate figure. I'd estimate something in the region of between 1500 and 2000. If you add in clay pigeon shooting (also target shooting), then you could have thousands more.

Gerri

Leupold wrote: »

What do you want this information for Gerri?

I have a friend in the printing/publishing world and am just trying to see if a new publication dedicated to Target shooting might beviable. In light of the info so far it is unlikely to be a runner as the numbers appear to be insignificant. It seems that target shooting is a minority sport within a minority sport. When you consider the level of critiscism levelled at the Irish Shooters Digest over it's coverage ( which is what prompted my question initially) it seems disproportinate when the numbers actively competing in competitions is so small. I also believe the views held by some posters regarding the magazines coverage of dog trials and clay shoots is unwarranted for the same reasons, the numbers taking part in these sports is huge when compared to Target shooting (excluding clay competitions) and the amount of clay competitions and dog trials held every month. I also believe that comparing the ISD with Target Sports magazine in the UK is like comparing chalk and cheese, we do not have a history of competitive target shooting and obviously do not have large numbers participating so why should ISD cover something which is clearly irrelevant to the majority of readers? Unlike knife and bayonet collecting which I believe is more popular with readers as is probably likely for Militaria. While some people obviously believe that the contents of the ISD is going downhill, the level of advertising and the size of the magazine is increasing, along with the colour photograph content, which is hardly likely to happen unless readership and sales are increasing. I believe that if the editor is bombarded with content relating to Target shooting it will be published but obviously as there are so few people competing it is unlikely to happen because nobody is interested in supplying this info. If people want to read about it it must first be sent in. I will not be suggesting to my friend that he start a dedicated Target shooting magazine as I don't think there is a need for it.

bunny shooter

Reason ISD is coming in for flack is lack of actual shooting related articles.

Gerri

bunny shooter wrote: »

Reason ISD is coming in for flack is lack of actual shooting related articles.

The majority of the articles ARE shooting related i.e GUN dog and clay pigeon SHOOTING. What you probably mean is that they do not have what you want to read about, which is totally different but if you find a UK publication which covers Irish shooting, let me know.

bunny shooter

Gerri wrote: »

The majority of the articles ARE shooting related i.e GUN dog and clay pigeon SHOOTING. What you probably mean is that they do not have what you want to read about, which is totally different but if you find a UK publication which covers Irish shooting, let me know.

I draw your attention to my post on another thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55276022&postcount=22

I am involved in all types of shooting shotgun (hunting & clays), rifle (hunting & target) target pistol shooting and I have two gundogs. I'm not interested in articles about how great some wholesaler (Ardee & Derek Talbot's place) is just 'cause they pay for a full page colour ad every issue and I'm not inrterested in the NARGC annual piss up, which is probably paid for by members such as myself, 'cause they submit articles telling us how great they are.

I already buy "Shooting Sports" and "Sporting Rifle", two english shooting magazines, and find them very good and they don't have articles about the wholesalers and shooting orgs annual dance !

Now get back on your horse and ride out of town again

foxshooter243

bunny shooter wrote: »

I draw your attention to my post on another thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55276022&postcount=22

I am involved in all types of shooting shotgun (hunting & clays), rifle (hunting & target) target pistol shooting and I have two gundogs. I'm not interested in articles about how great some wholesaler (Ardee & Derek Talbot's place) is just 'cause they pay for a full page colour ad every issue and I'm not inrterested in the NARGC annual piss up, which is probably paid for by members such as myself, 'cause they submit articles telling us how great they are.

I already buy "Shooting Sports" and "Sporting Rifle", two english shooting magazines, and find them very good and they don't have articles about the wholesalers and shooting orgs annual dance !

Now get back on your horse and ride out of town again

well said bunny, never a truer word spoken even

Gerri

bunny shooter wrote: »

I draw your attention to my post on another thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55276022&postcount=22

I am involved in all types of shooting shotgun (hunting & clays), rifle (hunting & target) target pistol shooting and I have two gundogs. I'm not interested in articles about how great some wholesaler (Ardee & Derek Talbot's place) is just 'cause they pay for a full page colour ad every issue and I'm not inrterested in the NARGC annual piss up, which is probably paid for by members such as myself, 'cause they submit articles telling us how great they are.

I already buy "Shooting Sports" and "Sporting Rifle", two english shooting magazines, and find them very good and they don't have articles about the wholesalers and shooting orgs annual dance !

Now get back on your horse and ride out of town again

Pretty typical of your posts, and confirms what I said, articles that YOU are not interested in. Anyway I presume you have not got a clue about how many are actively shooting targets on a regular basis which was my original question. Nobody has contradicted my guesstimate that it's less than 200. UK magazines are catering to an entirely different market and as a regular reader of the two you have mentioned you obviously do a lot of air rifle shooting also as both these mags cover that quite extensively. It's amazing that when a question is asked on a specific topic, a lot of the replies have nothing to do with the original question, presumably because posters just want to increase their post count. Now if there is anyone out there who can respond to the original question I would be very grateful, thanks.

rrpc

Gerri wrote: »

Pretty typical of your posts, and confirms what I said, articles that YOU are not interested in. Anyway I presume you have not got a clue about how many are actively shooting targets on a regular basis which was my original question. Nobody has contradicted my guesstimate that it's less than 200.

I did.

Members of NTSA registered clubs add up to over 1000 alone. NASRPC clubs I don't know for sure but would estimate in excess of 500. If you include clay pigeon shooters (also target shooters) then the figure goes into many thousands.

That does not include the North. There are many very active target shooting clubs across the border including Comber, Downshire, East Antrim etc.

It wasn't me!

Just look at the Ulster League for how competitive it is even.

Gerri

rrpc wrote: »

I did.

Members of NTSA registered clubs add up to over 1000 alone. NASRPC clubs I don't know for sure but would estimate in excess of 500. If you include clay pigeon shooters (also target shooters) then the figure goes into many thousands.

That does not include the North. There are many very active target shooting clubs across the border including Comber, Downshire, East Antrim etc.

Ok referring back to my question, I was looking for info on active target shooters, excluding clay target shooters, not looking for info on club members and specific to Republic of Ireland only, so my figure still stands.

Sparks

Ok referring back to my question, I was looking for info on active target shooters, excluding clay target shooters, not looking for info on club members and specific to Republic of Ireland only, so my figure still stands.

No it doesn't, not unless you're planning to require people to have entered a competition before they can buy your magazine. This "competitive tradition" in the UK is nothing of the sort. The 30-odd people that rrpc and the others have mentioned is for national competitions. The ratio of people actively shooting to those actively competing in Ireland is a bit higher than in the UK, where the NSRA is continually lamenting the low numbers they see in Bisley compared to the armies of 25yd and 100yd shooters they see round the UK who enter postal matches, and the legions beyond them who just plink. We get 30 out of maybe two thousand in national matches - the NSRA sees far less of a turnout. Nevertheless, someone has to buy Target Sports and it's not just the ten or twelve people in the British Shooting squad. It's the plinkers and the postal shooters that buy it, and the national shooters who drive a part of it.

And for the record, looking at this month's Target Sports, I see only one ISSF column in there. The rest is black powder, building a .308 F/TR rifle, shotgun and other things - but every article holds interest to me because they're all target shooting. Not a dinner, not a gun dog and not a bayonet in sight (though there is a bit on sniper rifle scopes from WW2).

bunny shooter

Gerri wrote: »

Pretty typical of your posts, and confirms what I said, articles that YOU are not interested in. Anyway I presume you have not got a clue about how many are actively shooting targets on a regular basis which was my original question. Nobody has contradicted my guesstimate that it's less than 200. UK magazines are catering to an entirely different market and as a regular reader of the two you have mentioned you obviously do a lot of air rifle shooting also as both these mags cover that quite extensively. It's amazing that when a question is asked on a specific topic, a lot of the replies have nothing to do with the original question, presumably because posters just want to increase their post count. Now if there is anyone out there who can respond to the original question I would be very grateful, thanks.

That horse needs exercise