by Jeff Knox
Full Article
I found this article interesting and am wondering what does your organization/club to do get the young children involved with your sport?
We have a three tier system.
The first tier involves learning proper usage of a rifle (using air rifles, junior sized if warranted) and a hunter's safety course. You must be a minimum of 9 years old to do this course. It runs once a week. The kids do one hour of hunter's safety and one hour of shooting.
The second tier is our Novice program. This is for kids that have either finished the first tier or have already received their hunter's safety through another organization or club and are interested in becoming competitive with their shooting. Here we supply the shooting jackets and rifles. They are also exposed to .22 shooting, both prone and 3P as well as a variety of other firearms including handguns. These shooters also can shoot in our local matches. This program runs once a week.
The third tier is our advanced program. We meet twice a week, are expected at this point to supply our own equipment. We do offer a lease program for some of the equipment. We are eligible for funding providing we meet the requirements such as shooting a minimum amount of matches including the provincial championships. From these members we will pick the teams for the Canada Winter Games, etc.
As it stands now we have about 25 active competitive shooters in the Advanced program and 14 and 16 in the hunter's safety and novice programs respectively. The ages range from 11 to 50+
The majority of our advertising is word of mouth however, in the past few years we have advertised in our city's "Leisure Guide" that is delivered to homes across the city. The advertisement has helped us immensely and this year our Novice program and Hunter's safety program has had to turn people away because we lack the facility to operate. We are hoping to build a new range in the near future to accommodate the growing needs of our programs.
It's a common topic of discussion at any gun club meeting or any other gathering of shooters: the dwindling number of shooters and hunters getting involved in the shooting sports. Someone will point out the prevalence of gray hair on the firing line and decry the lack of young people getting involved in the shooting sports.
Full Article
I found this article interesting and am wondering what does your organization/club to do get the young children involved with your sport?
We have a three tier system.
The first tier involves learning proper usage of a rifle (using air rifles, junior sized if warranted) and a hunter's safety course. You must be a minimum of 9 years old to do this course. It runs once a week. The kids do one hour of hunter's safety and one hour of shooting.
The second tier is our Novice program. This is for kids that have either finished the first tier or have already received their hunter's safety through another organization or club and are interested in becoming competitive with their shooting. Here we supply the shooting jackets and rifles. They are also exposed to .22 shooting, both prone and 3P as well as a variety of other firearms including handguns. These shooters also can shoot in our local matches. This program runs once a week.
The third tier is our advanced program. We meet twice a week, are expected at this point to supply our own equipment. We do offer a lease program for some of the equipment. We are eligible for funding providing we meet the requirements such as shooting a minimum amount of matches including the provincial championships. From these members we will pick the teams for the Canada Winter Games, etc.
As it stands now we have about 25 active competitive shooters in the Advanced program and 14 and 16 in the hunter's safety and novice programs respectively. The ages range from 11 to 50+
The majority of our advertising is word of mouth however, in the past few years we have advertised in our city's "Leisure Guide" that is delivered to homes across the city. The advertisement has helped us immensely and this year our Novice program and Hunter's safety program has had to turn people away because we lack the facility to operate. We are hoping to build a new range in the near future to accommodate the growing needs of our programs.