Provisional Limited Optics

[Caballoflaco]

I'd like to know what is the average lifespan of a USPSA member. I'd ponder a guess and say it's less than 5 years.

I know the data that does get thrown around is 1/7 of the membership doesn't renew every year. That seems like a lot to me and USPSA has to replace that every year. Following the firearms market is one way to do that.

The average participation time in any hobby is around 16 months or so for the average person according to a quick google search. People are flaky and this is a problem all hobby-sports deal with, not just USPSA.

Ask @Archer1440 about archery stuff or cyclists about the turnover on a group ride they’ve been doing for a couple of years.

[Quantrill]

I'd like to know what is the average lifespan of a USPSA member. I'd ponder a guess and say it's less than 5 years.

I know the data that does get thrown around is 1/7 of the membership doesn't renew every year. That seems like a lot to me and USPSA has to replace that every year. Following the firearms market is one way to do that.

Maybe. Markets are fickle in my opinion.

It seems like USPSA had plenty of members before the flurry of equipment changes of the last few years.

[JCN]

Maybe. Markets are fickle in my opinion.

It seems like USPSA had plenty of members before the flurry of equipment changes of the last few years.

If you read the CO history article, USPSA almost doubled their membership during CO years. It made a huge difference.

You have any video shooting that gat?

Old video for me

[ECK]

I submitted and it said error. Then it went to a screen that said Survey Completed thank you for your feedback.

I don't understand L-10 with optics. Why.......

I got the same, but then it went thru (hopefully). I suspect their website is getting a few hits tonight….

I struggled with the L10 proposal, not sure I see the point either. I suspect somebody hope’s it will be a defibrillator and help breathe life back into L10. But I don’t really have a dog in that fight. I’m classified in L10 but haven’t shot it in almost 10 years.

[Quantrill]

If you read the CO history article, USPSA almost doubled their membership during CO years. It made a huge difference.

I understand the numbers increase, I question whether that is a positive or negative.

The tactical kilt crowd really doesn’t bring much value in my opinion.

[JCN]

I understand the numbers increase, I question whether that is a positive or negative.

The tactical kilt crowd really doesn’t bring much value in my opinion.

I think that’s probably region dependent.

IMO they do at least over here. Guys with USPSA numbers higher than 119k are all running our main clubs here and doing a great job.

[Archer1440]

All above plus:
1) If IPSC becomes the Olympic sport it would be a major boost for gun rights everywhere.

That will never, ever happen. I can bring receipts to this discussion if needed but the short answer is no, not a chance.

(I am involved in an Olympic sport and spent 30 years working for a member of the IOC)

[CleverNickname]

That will never, ever happen. I can bring receipts to this discussion if needed but the short answer is no, not a chance.

(I am involved in an Olympic sport and spent 30 years working for a member of the IOC)

Is the reason anything other than "guns (especially handguns) are icky?"

[ECK]

My opinion FWIW is the volunteer nature of USPSA is its greatest limiting factor. RO's are volunteers and the rules keep getting more a and more complicated. Stage set up can take an entire day and few competitors turn out to help.

In my local club were fortunate to have enough people to make it work but most are in their 60's and 70's. They're going to age out and I dont see any volunteer replacements on the horizon. I hope this isnt a nationwide phenomena.

I don’t think it is, or at least I hope not. At my club we setup the morning of and we’re done within an hour, hour and a half tops. 6-7 stages depending on turn out. All volunteers. Stage designers and MD get a modest discount on the match fee.

We expect everyone to help setup and tear down. We used to announce setup time @ 0830 & shooter’s meeting @ 1000. It’s subtle, but that enabled some people to roll in around 0945, look at the stages then belt up. Now we just say the match starts at 0830. Not sure what average age is, but I suspect it is early 40’s to mid-50’s, with a bunch of kids on the low end and a bunch of super seniors on the high end.

The club has also invested in us, we have a side-by-side w/ trailer and ATV w/ trailer to help move things around. So some of that is club culture, some of it is the club putting some of the match fee back into the matches to make things go easier and faster.

[Archer1440]

Is the reason anything other than "guns (especially handguns) are icky?"

To be in the Olympic Games, sports must have several factors. The biggest ones, in order, are:

Universality- participation in every continental region which for Olympic purposes is the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania. Not sure how many Aussies and Kiwis participate these days.

Gender equality. Check, in that AFAIK a woman can compete with and against men for the same prize money, etc in IPSC.

Gender Equity. That’s a tough one, in a sport that has what- a 25-1 male/female participation ratio?

Televisibility. Needs to be interesting for television. Very doable in my opinion but…

The real elephant in the room is that some influential IOC members - including the President, Thomas Bach, don’t really care for guns in the first place (conveniently ignoring the ones being carried by their security details at the Games) which is why firearms based competition with actual “lead styphnate goes bang” devices is more and more limited in the Games. And mind you Bach was an Olympic FENCER. A sport where you are scoring points STABBING PEOPLE.

And this is not a new phenomenon. Read this for starters… 22 years ago now. https://apnews.com/article/30594033c...248b56f6778822

So, yeah. “Guns icky”. Slack jawed as that may be, it’s what we would have to overcome.