why don't more people compete?

I think the big things holding a lot of people back are ignorance, cost, time, and fear. Ignorance and fear are what kept me from trying it for a few years. I saw all of the competitions on shows like Shooting USA and thought I had to be that good to go shoot. I did not get started until I was 38 years old. It took my 8 year old son to get me started. We were watching a Shooting USA episode that was covering the Steel Challenge. He looked at me and said "Dad I have to do that!" . The next match USSA had we were there with my Ruger 22/45 and 2 mags. We had no idea what we were doing but we had a very helpful and sympathetic squad (thank you Jerry and Rob) and we were had a great time. Now we go to all kinds of matches fairly regularly. The ammo crunch last year really hurt our shooting but this spring I think we will be able to hit it hard again. We are geared up for 3 gun and want to give that a try. The guys we have met while shooting have been awesome, especially with my son. They have been very helpful.
 
I'll give you another reason, ASSHOLES!! If I would have met Curly or Kurt 20yrs ago when I first wanted to shoot Action Pistol I'd be a GM, or at least have worn out a lot of guns. Instead I got met by the poorest Ambassadors of the sport. I drove 2hrs one way twice just to watch IPSC at OKCGC hoping that somebody might point me in the right direction. They did, away from THEIR sport. Then a couple of years later I thought why not check out CAS, I've got those guns. Little did I realize that all those old Bastards that used to shoot IPSC had gone Cowboy, now they were even more surly and rude. I finally decided to give it one last shot and went to watch 3gun, that's when Curly came and introduced himself and told us we better go home or we were going to be addicted, I should've listened.
I percerviered and found a sport and a group of people that I enjoy being in/around but it wasn't easy. If Julie hadn't of pushed me to just go do it, I wouldn't have wasted my time again.
I'm glad to see anybody that loves to shoot get the chance and I like seeing people discover they like to shoot that didn't have a clue before. And I know I can be an Ahole sometimes but I don't want to be the kind of Ahole that I've seen.

Blaise, this is what kept me out of it for so long. My boss in high school always thought it was cool I shot. He sent me to an idpa match one weekend all expenses paid and all firearms lent. I drove the two hours and couldn't get anybody to help me squad, etc. very poor experience. Next match was a rimfire match while I was in college. Horrible experience. Finally I got invited to a match at old fort and I was hooked. Most people I have met since then have been great and because if my earlier experience I always make a point to do whatever I can to help new shooters get into the sport. Being an a hole is definitely a big factor that drives new folks off
 
For me, Jesse hit the nail on the head with this...

4. Time/convenience - Shooting matches is a huge time waster. Get to range at 9:30 leave at 2:30-3:30 for 5-7 stages and 2 minutes of actual shooting. I'd still love to see someone try to setup a 5-7 stage club match or steel challenge like a golf course. Once your certified to shoot unsupervised ie you take RO course or something similar you can show up anytime to the range any day of the week pay your $30-40 (like a green fee) and shoot the match. Turn in your scores and they go up on the online weekly match scores. I think it could make a viable business as I'd go shoot evey night of the week and I know I could talk others into going. My old oilfield buddy's do a lot of golfing and clay shooting during office hours to entertain clients and themselves. This would be right up their alley too. Like golf or sporting clays or that cool indoor golf carting track in OKC

I have been blessed where the first 3 are not an issue, but 4 is huge. This sport is a huge time suck, on match days especially. I started competing last May and have shot 4 matches. If the matches started earlier or somehow did something like Jesse mentions above, I could shoot 40! I am new to the sport and I guess I don't understand why local matches with 5 or 6 stages have to take up so much of the day. Realistically shooting starts an hour later than sign in which is typically at 9:30. So I am home at 3pm most of the time later. I understand there is setup, etc. but why can't we start earlier? My kids start school at 8:30, I typically have to be at work at 7 on weekdays. It kills your whole day to start a match at 10-10:30. I just can't do that on a Saturday when I have 3 young kids. Shooting is my outlet, I don't shoot a ton but I shot 15,000 rounds in practice last year and I would gladly trade most of that to shoot matches. I love the camaraderie, I love being nervous in competition, the sense of accomplishment seeing practice pay off. Speaking of golf, tee times start at 6:30 at most golf courses, why can't we sign in to matches at 7am and start shooting at 8? We would be done by noon. Maybe even having a morning session and an afternoon session?
 
Tons of people just arent competitive. They'd like to think they are, they want to be, but they arent. They may 'play' a lot of other sports, but not compete in them. I know a lot of people who play tennis, golf, pool, raquetball, whatever, but dont participate in actual tournaments (even if they 'play' in leagues) I know tons of people who ride bicycles (road and MTB or both) that are super serious about going fast, but they dont race.

I have lots of shooting friends who are pretty serious shooters, but just arent into competition. Turns out, they just are not and never have been into competing, at anything.

I have competed at every sport I've ever tried: skateboarding, boxing, golf, tennis, table tennis, road bike racing, mtn bike racing, rock climbing, kayaking, curling, you name it. With the exception of climbing, I never had any measure of success until I started shooting. But I was always eager to compete, always willing to get my ass kicked...most people just arent like that.

Assholes? You want assholes? Try bike racing, try whitewater kayaking. In kayaking and rock climbing, 'sandbagging' has a whole different meaning...much closer to 'hazing'. If you dont drown, break a bone, or take a huge whipper, maybe you'll get into the club. Most of the 'assholes' I've met in shooting would be lightweights in other sports.

From the outside, shooting sports looked very intimidating to me...but I was willing to get my ass kicked and I tried it. Maybe I got lucky, but in my first match I was squadded with some heavy hitters, who turned out to be helpful beyond the call of duty. Since then, friends I made that day have turned out to be the salt of the earth. Some of these same people (that I didnt even know 'off the range' ) showed up for my Fathers funeral...salt of the earth I tell ya.

Lots of A-type personalities in any competitive endeavor, but if you dont compete because of "assholes" maybe you just have thin skin...or you just arent a competitive person.
 
I've been naturally competitive my whole life. I was a sponsored amateur skateboarder, competed in snowboarding, mountain biking, road cycling and even as a business owner I'm ready to meet competitors head on. Out of all of those endeavors I've found those in the shooting sports to be the least ego driven folks who are the quickest to help out the newest to the sport with whatever is needed, advice, equipment, ammo, anything. I've never seen anything like that in any other sports and it's what has made shooting sports feel like home for me.
 
Heck, most people that enter competitions aren't competitive either, they're just there to meet friends and have a good time shooting, only a few put in the work needed to compete at a high level.
 
The Antichrome said:
Assholes? You want assholes? Try bike racing

if you dont compete because of "assholes" maybe you just have thin skin...or you just arent a competitive person.
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The question to me isn't whether you have thin skin or not. It's more like, why on earth would anybody voluntarily spend a whole bunch of time away from your family and instead spend it with a group of people who have been directly observed as being woefully unpleasant. Life is too short to deal with high school cliques indefinitely.

Apparently my previous comment has been removed for some reason, but for me, a particular store owner and his entourage would disparage and rip off customers at public shoots and in his store, while he was making good money, and it wasn't even a competition! It was enough to assume that I'd encounter this at his meets as well, and I could not justify continuing to spend good money to hang out with these pricks. This is totally different than trash talk and whatnot that you encounter while competing.

Anyway, rather than to support them, instead I chose to hang out with the bike racing assholes. Much more pleasant of a group. The attached pic is yours truly, before my back injury at least. And like I said before, I was pleasantly surprised if not shocked to find that the 3-gun world was not like this whatsoever.
 

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The Antichrome said:
Assholes? You want assholes? Try bike racing, try whitewater kayaking. In kayaking and rock climbing, 'sandbagging' has a whole different meaning...much closer to 'hazing'. If you dont drown, break a bone, or take a huge whipper, maybe you'll get into the club. Most of the 'assholes' I've met in shooting would be lightweights in other sports.
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Try racing quads it was one giant pissing match. I saw more fights between people (kids and adults) than you could believe.

In the little time i have been shooting i have had people literally shove there equipment in my hands because i said i would like to try something. Hell Jesse sent me some stuff to try and he has never met me in person.

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Eric_williams said:
Try racing quads it was one giant pissing match. I saw more fights between people (kids and adults) than you could believe.
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Been there done that as well, have to agree. It seemed to be due to a total lack of maturity, as 90% of the crowd was punk 18-19 year olds or guys who never outgrew that mindset. Dirt bikes are the same way if not worse. As soon as they can afford $2 worth of stickers to slap on their ride, they get the big head immediately and think they know it all.
 
Apparently a lot of first timer's got over their inhibitions about competing / 3 gun and showed up at the Heroes Multigun this past Saturday at ETTS. It was good to see so many people giving it a go for the first time, even if a couple of them did have the RO's wishing we were wearing armor :scared:

I know that several of them got the competition bug and will be back at their local range practicing and looking for another match soon.
 
I guess I'm competitive. I've raced, sparred, stick and ball stuff, shooting anything that sends a projectile. I never win or come close, but I always have fun, and somehow have avoided assholes. As for shooting, I would rather compete, meet new friends, and have fun, than spend my cash and time finding the latest ATAS gizmo to hang on the cheese grater quadrail of my zombie apocalypse Bindord AR2000.
 
I keep thinking about the thin-skinned comment earlier... if you want to see some real assholes in terms of competition related actions such as trash talking and harassment, and whether or not putting up with them makes you a thick-skinned competitor, try track. Doesn't sound like much I'm sure. Back when I was younger, I got 9th at nationals, broke the state record, was beating multiple starting running backs for the University of Kentucky regularly, and made it to my college track team as a walk-on. My specialty was the 100 yard dash. And, I was a white boy. Do the math. Those two things didn't go together too well. Lets just say that a lot of trash talkers in big cities that I raced in such as Cleveland didn't like getting beaten by a white boy too well plus I stuck out like a sore thumb, flying by these guys in an American flag printed pair of spandex. I might as well have showed up on the basketball courts in Harlem wearing a superman outfit, plus I had no entourage to back me up and was an easy target. But, I made a ton of sore losers, and enjoyed doing so.

Not wanting to voluntarily pay good money and spend time around unpleasant people when you're just there for fun has _zero_ to do with whether you can take the heat in an actual competitive environment.
 
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