OK 3d shoots

[hardnocks]

Just want some discussion on how to make 3d shoots better . Penticton shoot is always a good shoot. But it really annoys me to get halfway around the second round and see a steam of trucks heading down the road...I have been to shoots from the island to to alberta. Nanimo has a one day shoot that was by far the most fun why...Cause almost everyone stays, awards were given out ,prizes were drawn, people visited have, a beer together.....imo that was much better then ..like yesterday come to an empty parking lot and the kitchen packed up....don`t get me wrong i am not complaining about the folks who put on the penticton shoot. Its the same at vernon,armstrong ,enderby, kelowna.

[Bow Walker]

There are a lot of factors that go into making 3D shoots, all of which can have a bearing on the attendance and the fun-factor.

Some things that come to mind are...
1. Timing of the shoot - meaning everything from the day of the shoot, to th time of day, even to the time of year. Before/During hunting season?

2. Terrain for the shoot. Hilly? Fairly easy? Muddy? Easy trails? OK for youngsters as well as Olde Phartes?

3. Target placement. Hard hunting scenarios? Open targets? Obstructed?

4. Number/quality of targets. Too many? Not enough? Just bag targets?

5. Raffle table contents. This equates directly to the host club's enthusiasm and/or effort in hosting the shoot.

6. Kitchen? Is there even a kitchen there? The type of fare being offered. Best fare is "Pot Luck" - not just HDs and Hmbrgrs.

7. Overall facilities for archers. Clean toilets? Outhouses only? Clubhouse for gathering? Roofed pavilion/bbq pit (if no clubhouse) in case of rain? Practice area?

8. Location. Where's the shoot? Waay out in the "sticks", in the middle of "no where"? Closer in to town? Easy to find or do you need GPS?


All of the above have been factors both positive and negative at shoots that I have attended over the years. A combination of two or three negative factors will most certainly curtail the enjoyment factor for shooters. 3D shooters/attendees do have long memories!

[hardnocks]

Bow walker i am singing praises not for the shooting . Nanimo was maybe the poorest range to shoot at. They do a lot with what they have. Its the social part of these shots that i am talking about.

[Canuck2]

In general, probably the 2-day shoots are much more social oriented than 1-day shoots. Most archers will be camped on site by Friday evening and hobnobbing then as well as after the shooting is over, especially on the first day. For most single day shoots, a lot of people will be rushing off as soon as they're done because they have 2 or 3 hours of travel time ahead of them.

I think the main reason you might have seen a stream of trucks leaving early was because Penticton accommodated everyone by opening their course at 7:30 so folks could get all their shooting done in time to rush home and watch the Canada/US hockey game. That's like having your cake and eating it too, and it was appreciated by many.

As stated above, there were 123 shooters at the event. That's is terrific no matter how you slice it. I hope it's an indication of increasing interest in 3D.

[Bow Walker]

Bow walker i am singing praises not for the shooting . Nanimo was maybe the poorest range to shoot at. They do a lot with what they have. Its the social part of these shots that i am talking about.
:confused:Nanaimo? I don't know where the course was setup when you shot there but if it was behind, and to the left, and back downstream from the clubhouse....then I'd have to disagree strongly with you on the "poorest range to shoot at" point...

Nanaimo has one of the nicest areas for shooting on the Island. It's relatively flat. It's not choked with undergrowth. There is plenty of room to shoot.:wink:

I was at a late season shoot there (Nan.) once when the course was set up behind the Trap shooting area. Pretty thick in there, and very wet/low as well. But that was just once.:)

If it's the social aspect of 3D shooting..well there are a couple of things that you can do.
1. Get there about 1 to 1.5 hours early, have a coffee and schmooze.
2. Shoot faster in the afternoon(s) of the last day so as to get off the course while there are still shooters around. See #5 in my earlier reply.

If there is a decent raffle table you'll find that a lot of people will stick around after to buy tickets and participate.

[jrjonesy]

It would be tough to organize but with some clubs only doing 1 shoot a year it may be worth it to have preregistration and shotgun starts. 1 or sometimes 2 groups starting at each target would accomodate over 100 people on a standard 20 target course and would mean everyone would finish at approximately the same time.

It's a little tougher to get people to stick around when they may have to wait for over 2 hours for other groups to finish.

Penticton was a great shoot. Liked the new layout. Everyone definitely was vacating asap to get to the hockey game.

[Bow Walker]

It's also a rule of thumb that the more you put into the shoot, the more you will get out of it. Get involved, be active, be outgoing and friendly, enjoy the day, and others will enjoy it too.

not that you aren't doing all of the above already....

[BowSitter]

One of the reasons that we have a good crowd at the end of a shoot is because over here on the Island we do shotgun starts and the ribbons or what have you are handed out to 1st, 2nd, 3rd place of every class. Plus the prize table is drawn at the end as well. It works for us anyway.

[triggr31]

Let's not forget boys that pen was not a good example for everybody rushed off to catch the can vs USA final . I once again enjoyed the penticton shoot and thought the course change was good.

[Jonas111]

Sorry I was one of the guys leaving to watch the game.

Next week in Summerland I am heading to Vancouver right after the shoot. The wife is picking me up so I will most likely be the last one there. She is always late.

I think it is a great idea to give out some kind of prizes, even if it is just a $2 trophy or something. Give people something to stick around to talk about. It would make us all better shots to learn how the best guys did and try to improve.

That's how they do it in golf. Every mens night in golf they wait until the end to give out the prizes so everyone sticks around to see if they won. They even give out door prizes and if your not there you don't get anything.

I guess the hardest part will be to get the giveaway prizes and also get the trophys or medals or whatever you give away made up. Hopefully the Kelowna shoots do something along that line. I would like to see everyones honest scores.

All in all I really liked the Penticton shoot, I will be there again next year for sure and YES I will stick around next year. There will be no Hockey game on that I need to get too.

[hardnocks]

Thats a good excuse the hockey game but it was the same last year and the year before that. All one day shoots in the OK valley are the same . Penticton is the worst cause they have nothing. At least summerland has a spot shoot so people will stay for that.

This is just MOP but clubs should start giving something back to the shooters. Even if its ribbons...or a raffle and don`t draw your door prizes tell the end .

again i am not complaining on the shoot .

[bowhunterbruce]

merv ,you have brought up a very valid point.when i first started shooting 3d's just about every club gave away some form of prizes for each catagory as well as door prizes just for signing up,most of the clubs around these parts have gotten away from this and im not sure why.
we have all been doing the draws before the shoot ends and taken away the compition side of the shoots so that no one goes home feeling they lost out on anything.
imo i think healthy compition amoungst everyone in thier respective catagories only makes us all better shooters and makeing sure that every child under the age of say 16 or so goes home with something if only a partisipation ribbon.
maybe what we need to do merv is get together all okanagan club organizers and come up with a collective thought process that we can all work together with as a basis for all to follow and this would include some form of after the shoot type things that everyone including the kids would love to be apart of.
what do ya think
bruce

[hardnocks]

Ya bruce in the last bunch of years the competative side of 3d shooting has flown out the window.

I am not a real competitive person and could care less if i win. but it is nice to win once in a while.

I would like to see the clubs get together and have a archery tour. Crown a champion at the end of it all. Heathy compation

[Ruger4]

Crown a champion ! I like it !

Good points as well BHB !

[Walksalot]

Thats a good excuse the hockey game but it was the same last year and the year before that. All one day shoots in the OK valley are the same .
Penticton is the worst cause they have nothing. At least summerland has a spot shoot so people will stay for that.

This is just MOP but clubs should start giving something back to the shooters. Even if its ribbons...or a raffle and don`t draw your door prizes tell the end .

again i am not complaining on the shoot .

Hardnocks, the statement that Penticton had nothing is simply incorrect. Historically,the adult shooters left early and just the parents who had young shooters remained for the young shooters to receive their ribbons. So, this being the case we posted on our information board at the clubhouse that only cubs and juniors were to receive ribbons and ribbons were given out. A parent from Chase,who had to leave early, emailed Doug, our senior coach, and inquired as to whether any of her young shooters had won a ribbon and if so could we send off the ribbon by mail. Also, in an attempt to keep people informed as to the score situation in the hockey game we had a lap top computer showing the game.
Hardnocks, if you are going to criticize us please have the facts straight and not pass on misinformation.
Again, thanks to the many shooters who showed up to make our shoot a success. We went from hoping to simply cover our expenses to looking at which targets we will purchase next.

[Ruger4]

Walksalot,

CONGRATS on a successful shoot. Myself, I brought along two new archers to the 3D community which were shooting for the very first time and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

As we finished round 1 , we were approached by a nice fella and his son from Penticton who moved here a couple years ago that were intrigued and interested into getting into archery. Our group welcomed them to walk the course for round 2 with us to get an idea of what's involved.

Of course they had tons of questions that we were more than happy to answer for them.

The dad has a bow from a few years back that he'll be dusting off and hopefully joining us in Summerland !! Two more archers to the group, just thought I'd share that with ya'l !! Great to see the archery community on the re-bound , we need to couple that with positive encouraging feedback.

Thanx again Penticton Club , looking forward to Summerland this sunday,
Rob

[Bow Walker]

merv ,you have brought up a very valid point.when i first started shooting 3d's just about every club gave away some form of prizes for each catagory as well as door prizes just for signing up,most of the clubs around these parts have gotten away from this and im not sure why.
we have all been doing the draws before the shoot ends and taken away the compition side of the shoots so that no one goes home feeling they lost out on anything.
imo i think healthy compition amoungst everyone in thier respective catagories only makes us all better shooters and makeing sure that every child under the age of say 16 or so goes home with something if only a partisipation ribbon.
maybe what we need to do merv is get together all okanagan club organizers and come up with a collective thought process that we can all work together with as a basis for all to follow and this would include some form of after the shoot type things that everyone including the kids would love to be apart of.
what do ya think
bruce
I don't know how the OK shoots are run - but all the shoots on the Island follow this format (whether competitive or not)...
1. Club reps go out into the community to solicit prize donations from various sources. This helps with the solicitor's advertising and also gets the club a bit of community recognition.

2. At the registration table shooters are categorized as to class of equipment. This is for scoring purposes. The shooter's names are posted on a chalk board in their respective categories. The "Raffle Table" is all set up so that shooters can see what is offered and decide how many tickets to buy.

3. There is always coffee/tea available in the morning, about 2 hours prior to the shoot start. Whether this is free or not is immaterial, it's a social thing.

4. Of course there is always some sort of fare offered for the lunch break, from minimal on up to a feed.

5. At the end of the afternoon round the scores are added up and posted beside the shooter's name. This really helps with the competitive people among the participants.

6. After all the shooters are in and their scores are posted, the results are announced and ribbons given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. In each class.

7. After all that (which gives lots of time for the late shooters to buy even more tickets) the Raffle table is raffled off. Each item separately - generates lots of interest providing the prizes are decent.

Then everyone usually breaks up into groups for horse trading of prizes and then people start to clear out. Makes for a fun and entertaining day.

The raffle table contents depends on the efforts of the club reps when they go "begging". Very important.

[hardnocks]

Lets have the facts walksalot shooters don`t hang around cause theirs is nothing to stay for....we have a bunch of new shooters so lets take advantage of it and make some changes for the good.

My criticising is meant for the whole archery community

[hardnocks]

And thats why bowwalker if there was a cheeper way to get over to that god forsaken rock . I would come to all the island shoots.

In the ok we have such good 3d courses. we just need work on the social part.

[Jonas111]

I have a really good feeling we are about to see this sport grow.

Lets not get too negative about shoots and try our best to support what we all really love to do, which is archery.

It's way to easy to be negative about things, just look at all the positive in our future. The crowds at the two shoots I have been two are great.

Plus Ruger4 and I got to shoot with a guy and his son following our group to see how much fun it is.

Archery is a growing sport, lets keep it fun for all.

[Awishanew]

Bow Walker. I agree with the first 7 steps for a 3D but you missed Number 8. Our Nanaimo club, after all animals are in and the clubhouse cleaned, get together for a get together with a snack and a beverage. We have an analysis of the shoot.

[hardnocks]

yes we are seeing an upswing in attendance now. but places like the island archery has had a steady growth.

So penticton entery fee was 15 dollars. pretty cheap for a days entertainment...so how about chargeing 20 dollars and giving back 5 of that for prizes.

[Walksalot]

We kept the shooting fees down because in these current economic times any increase may very well make it to costly for some people to attend.

[Bow Walker]

Bow Walker. I agree with the first 7 steps for a 3D but you missed Number 8. Our Nanaimo club, after all animals are in and the clubhouse cleaned, get together for a get together with a snack and a beverage. We have an analysis of the shoot.
Great idea. But the "great unwashed" have already gone home. It's just the club members and/or few volunteers that are re-hashing the shoot.

I am talking about the social aspect of the day - for the non-members who come out to shoot.

Super idea though.