All is not peaches and roses in shooting land.
Its time for all you Masters and Highmaster shooters to look inward to see what you have done for shooting lately. I received the following thoughts from a disgruntled sharpshooter today, and I think it bears some reflection about us and our sport. Here is the excerpt
that is pertinent to us all.
"....... I personally think the masters and high masters don't do enough for the new shooters. They should be the ones putting teams together, running the practices, putting together teams to go to Perry and recruiting new shooters. Instead they provide terrible pit service, nit pick other shooters incorrectly about rules and do nothing to make a new shooter want to come back to a match. I try to get squaded with non high master because of these reasons...."
Does this bother me--- no, not much, I've been called High Master scum by experts. (where is Coby D. these days?) However, it's hard to even argue with someone who thinks this way. So, lets use this a teachable moment, and try to see what it is that newer shooters expect from us, even if they are not totally aware of who gets a lot of the work done in shooting sports. I'm sure that we can all work a little harder for the benefit of the newer shooters.
Hawkeye
6 comments:
Hi All:
In MInnesota and Wisconsin the high power matches have lots of Masters and High Masters. We should not forget that it is intimidatiog
Hi All:
In Minnesota and Wisconsin the high power matches have lots of Masters and High Masters. It speaks to their dedication to our sport. We should not forget that it is intimidating for a Marksman or Sharp Shooter to be at a match with so many advanced shooters. Over the years, I have been treated with great friendship and offered lots of help from Masters and High Masters. Yet, I have also been treated poorly by a couple. We should remember that our sport can only survive by bring in new shooters to carry on into the future. A long time ago a learned that, “what goes around comes around”. It’s just as easy to offer a bit of advice to help a novice shooter as to bitch about one. With a little help and luck they will one day be Masters and High Masters keeping our sport alive.
Regards,
George Minerich
PS: sorry about the partial message
Hi Everyone,
I'm the disgruntled shooter that is quoted in Jim's post. Yes, I wrote those words in an email. No, I don’t think that applies to all Masters and Highmasters. I am well aware of who currently does all the work when it comes to HP in Minnesota. As always there are two sides to every story. Unfortunately Jim left out the part about him not wanting me to put together a team of new shooters for the upcoming Team match at Redwing. He wanted to have only competitive teams and didn’t want me to turn it into a plinkers match. How is that for wanting to help new shooters? Quite a different attitude from what you would think by reading his blog. So, I stand by my comments. I can give plenty of examples to back them up.
Regards,
Tom Torborg
PS – I hold a classification of Expert in NRA Highpower, not Sharpshooter.
Some additional perspective. Two of the three shooters who have helped me the most to get into high power and steadily improve are Jim and Tom. In my opinion, their unselfishness and dedication to our sport is admirable to say the least. Also, for what it's worth (coming from a newer shooter and NRA Expert), my experiences with High Masters and Masters on the line and in the pits have been almost always positive. Thanks, Mark Schoess
More perspective---
This is the exact msg, sent to a Doz. or more people, that Tom is cranked up about:
complete text.
In a message dated 9/9/2009 12:18:21 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ......... writes:
"I'd like to shoot on a competitive GRRC team. Let's remember that this is a club x club competition, not just a plinkers match. We (at grrc) should try to put together a HM and Master team if possible, to try to win this match. "
I'm not sure that I see a part about not wanting him to put together a beginners team. With 12 shooters being able to form 3 teams, I still think "a" team should be competitive and try to win the match for GRRC.
Jim,
What about non master and high masters? What teams are they supposed to shoot on? That was your response to me when I indicated I wanted to set up a wood stock team. Even after I emailed that there were going to be more than one team from GRRC you still tried to discourage me from putting a team together using obsolete rifles (your opinion) just for fun.
Another lesson we can take away from this situation is that emails are not always the best way to get you point across.
Still a disgruntled Expert,
Tom
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