Offhand is no more difficult than hitting a golf ball or casting fly rods.  Like those sports it can be enjoyed at any age.  You have to adjust equipment as your fitness level changes but don't need to give the sport up as long as you can stand.

The difficulty shooting offhand is it's largely self taught while other sports have instruction available. Anyone exposed to a formal program or coaching at some point has an advantage.  There are natural shots but generally they were involved in competing with lots of examples to watch. Informal coaching.

I can only speculate on whats happening in Wyoming but expect the fact they are running offhand matches makes it attractive and new or more likely cross over shooters come into the sport. Success builds on success.

Boats

Bnice,

No agenda whatsoever, other than focusing a Schuetzen organization on offhand shooting and attempting to revive and preserve a historic old club.

I don't feel that having more shooting organizations is a bad thing at all unless one requires that you cannot belong to any other. This is not the case.

It was always somewhat shocking to me that the average single shot shooter had no idea who Horace Warner or H.V. Perry was...or how to string-measure a target. We have had many old-time shooters dedicate a lot of personal time with excellent records shot to the sport of rest shooting. It be a shame if the old-style rest shooting died on the vine when it is so simple to revive...especially when we have the talented bench-rest shooters today that we have.

I see more shooting organizations as a strength rather than a weakness...more shooting, more shooters. The single shot community is diverse in it's interests and by having associations that are focused on specific aspects we have more appeal collectively to the whole. The problem is not shooters...the problem is getting people to do the work. We have had excellent support in that regard in the Wyoming Schuetzen Union and have people who have stepped up to do the work associated with the National Rifle Club. It takes some initial effort to get an association going and these two have been very fortunate in that regard.

Gute Ziele,

Steve Garbe

gents,
goodmorning, Here in so tx we have the newbraunfels schuetzen verein. == oldest in existance rifle club in the country. established july 4 1849.
my understanding is that at first this was an awful hand shoot that later turned into  both oh and a standing stairstep rest. which we now only shoot at 100 yards  either iron or scope.
we allow any rifle of either single shjot or a bolt gun. with a maximum of 5 shots allowed at one standing. 
there are also some clubs in the fredericksburg area that shoot at 200 yards both centerfire, and rimfire iron sights only on a standing stairstep rest.
the newbraunfels season should be starting in late march and there are always rifles available to shoot. not to mention food and beer.
A number of the memebers of this club also shoot the assra, and the issa and the wsu.
personally I think y'all are getting things too complicated and like some one said i do nont care about aggregates scores just wantn to have fun with friends.
cheers
irish

I live in Montana and have shot WSU matches. Because of this change to offhand matches only I will no longer shoot with WSU. I will continue to shoot at the ASSRA matches in Missoula , where I have spent many enjoyable years shooting Schuetzen combination matches. WSU is making a BIG mistake in my opinion.

gents,
goodmorning!
have to say that I agree with y'all that if it was an offhand type match it would not be worth driving to.I do not even shoot offhand at the nbsv matches anymore.
I think the main idea of today's rifle clubs is to encourage new members, particularily with children. not to run them off because one person decides he wants things to run his way.
I feel that the assra, issa have been around for a while and while all organizations have problems. they will be here for a while longer. i shot at mexia this weekend and we shot to a set of the wsu rules. so i had a target with 9 shots on it (iron) so i shot it again. the best thing that could happen is for all of the groups to standarise the rules write them in stone and quit trying to change them.
I have shown up at a match down here and not been able to shoot because a group had gotten togther the day before and made up some new rules!
As for thewsu. well as i put it this is texas not wyoming and why would i want to shoot any thing different than i do now?
cheers
irish

I find it most challanging to shoot off hand.  It's my worst position; but for THAT reason I shoot it - to build my skills.  Bench is ok, but with the .458WM off-hand is much to my preference.

Quote:


But that cooler of beer after the match makes up for all the frustrations!  That pause with friends suffering through the same challenges - that tidbit of information that will be the KEY to doing better NEXT time!

Any given issue can be an insurmoutable challange - we need to look at the process and enjoy it!

AND there are ALWAYS the few rugged individuals that STILL work at being able to put together a match-quality gun for under $(several hundered) - and don't we all spend bunch trying to do it too?