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Thoughts on increasing membership/clubs


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Really no need to spend much to get started - just use what you currently have.
 
Go shoot USPSA with your revolver, and learn and enjoy and meet other
revolver shooters.
 
Then, go from there ….    :cheers:

And shoot while people roll their eyes at how slow I am:-)
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Thanks for bringing up the ICORE membership "problem".  Interesting discussion for sure.

 

I have found over the past several years that attempting to bring in shooters to IDPA, USPSA, Steel Challenge, 3-Gun, etc that what works for me is to offer up the game as a challenge for a shooter AND HIS BUDDY.

 

A single new shooter comes in scared, excited, bewildered and only probably knows the one guy who invited him to shoot.  He sees the super fast guys and get dejected, especially after seeing his own performance for the first time on the clock.

 

However, if you get that same guy to bring his best shooting buddy with him then you get a lot of personal and one on one shooting as they can compare against each other and plan on challenging the "other guy" to a rematch the next week.  They are not nearly as intimidated by all the super fast guys with the ultra competitive outlook.   I've seen this a lot.   Shooting pairs brings back more repeat shooters than your basic single.

 

Throw in some advertising at ALL of the local gun stores in the surrounding counties to encourage simple competition among friends and you've found the hook.

 

Local gun stores are never a problem with having advertising flyers like these put out as it eventually will bring a shooter back for supplies or perhaps a newer firearm.

 

I had seriously considered starting an ICORE chapter down here but our range's shooting schedule is pretty full now and we are very lucky to be able to draw on most of south and southwest Florida for 5 matches a week.  As many of these guys shoot in multiple venues, adding another shoot, and with revolvers, would be only for the few hardy souls that run it in IDPA and USPSA from time to time.  But then, if we could drag out some of those people with revolvers sitting in a sock drawer year after year, you might get a whole new group involved.

 

I have had some luck with the occasional BUG shooter who brings a revolver to a match to explain what ICORE is.  Most have never heard of it.   I'd say we have a recognition problem among people who are not already active club shooters.

 

Oh yeah.   I believe newer, younger shooters want to run and gun.  I've seen some nice run and gun ICORE stages.  That part shouldn't be a problem.  Lots of fun.

 

The people I've seen in ICORE are pretty dedicated to the wheel gun and a great bunch.  This is good, but then we know a good firearm when we see one and it comes with a cylinder!

 

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We shoot both IPSC & ICORE.  Up here we are required to do the Black Badge course (aka safety and introduction to sport shooting) to get holster certified before we can do IPSC/IDPA/ICORE.

 

One thing it does it put 12-14 new shooters together for around 3 full days, hard not to make friends & connections

 

Our  BB instructor is also a big ICORE shooter/match director so he got us into ICORE.  Our club I believe has been hosting matches for quite a while.  ICORE in Canada, until very recently, should be callled  ICORE Ontario but there is a match in BC soon.

 

The Canada ICORE regionals is this weekend and sold out so fast they added extra squads.

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On 8/30/2018 at 8:27 AM, rowdyb said:

I can't tell you an answer to your problem but I can tell you why I haven't shot ICORE matches, even when I was a member of a club with tons of revolover shooters, an icore match each month I could have shot for free, and i owned a revolver with appropriate gear.

 

To me personally revolvers are the gun equivalent of motorcycles from the 60's. People like them, they have history, the work differently than modern bikes, people race them and some have really gone up in value. But for my time and money and emotional investment I want new. Modern.

 

Revolver won't grow because I think many people have an unconscious bias that revolver equals "old". And most old things don't interest people if there is a modern equivalent. SASS grew because they embraced the fact the equipment is dated and historical. ICORE has nothing unique to offer to draw a person to it, as a new shooter, that you can't find other places. That sounds rough but to me it's the truth.

 

The only thing I wish like say IDPA did with its time plus scoring is borrow the ICORE idea of an X ring time bonus. Make a small scoring area that if you hit you get a second off your time. If they made it 1sec per 1pnt down then might as well give you a potential bonus for standing there.

Sadly, since I do love revolvers, rowdy put to words what I've thought but couldn't quite express. 

 

So the challenge is to make the OLD, NEW again.  How to do that?

 

I tried locally, with modest success, just after USPSA started Revo Div.  Then Carmoney and Sam Keen aka Hopalong (btw where has he been?) picked it up.  Sam and the Memphis match was the apex, now it's flat again.  All along ICORE stayed flat, except for the IRC. 

So changing it to a different scoring dynamic doesn't look like the way.

I do know there is a snobbish attitude among some action competitors, not all though, that makes it harder to start local clubs.  Hard to believe but it seems most prevalent in USPSA.

I do think some of it is the National Leadership, not to knock those who have done it I do believe their hearts were in the right place, but the PR and the newsletter have never seemed anything but amateurish.

I've been an ICORE member off and on and though I love competing with a Revolver I am part of the problem.

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On 8/30/2018 at 9:27 AM, rowdyb said:

I can't tell you an answer to your problem but I can tell you why I haven't shot ICORE matches, even when I was a member of a club with tons of revolover shooters, an icore match each month I could have shot for free, and i owned a revolver with appropriate gear.

 

To me personally revolvers are the gun equivalent of motorcycles from the 60's. People like them, they have history, the work differently than modern bikes, people race them and some have really gone up in value. But for my time and money and emotional investment I want new. Modern.

 

Revolver won't grow because I think many people have an unconscious bias that revolver equals "old". And most old things don't interest people if there is a modern equivalent. SASS grew because they embraced the fact the equipment is dated and historical. ICORE has nothing unique to offer to draw a person to it, as a new shooter, that you can't find other places. That sounds rough but to me it's the truth.

 

The only thing I wish like say IDPA did with its time plus scoring is borrow the ICORE idea of an X ring time bonus. Make a small scoring area that if you hit you get a second off your time. If they made it 1sec per 1pnt down then might as well give you a potential bonus for standing there.

 

I can agree with part of what Rowdy has said.

 

I carried a BHP, and I shoot IPSC, USPSA and IDPA but my love for wheelies came when I started shooting PPC 35 years ago.

 

I love shooting ICORE but there are only 2 clubs in the area, one is 11/2 hrs away, and the other is 3 hrs away.

 

For a lot of people it's money, or lack thereof.  Can afford the gun but not the equipment or ammo in quantity.  Maybe can't take time away from family.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
7 minutes ago, FWSixgunner said:

Time & money are my barriers.

Right now the nearest ICORE matches are 3 hours away.

I can’t justify spending $1500 plus on a 929 & all the trimmings when the only thing I could use it for is USPSA once a month.

 

That's where I'm at. My estimated budget just went north of $2k considering trigger work, moonclips, holster/ belt rig and even reloading components (currenty reload .38 and .40). Right now I only shoot one ICORE a month if I'm lucky. The only way I can justify this investment to go revolver in USPSA (there's a match driving distance 3 weekends out of 4) and I'm not sure I'm man enough for that.

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I shoot USPSA open at my local match with my open revolver 2 times a month and then I travel 160 miles one way for an ICORE match. If you like shooting revolver you will shoot it where ever you can. I do not care about my finish at my local USPSA match as I just use it for practice and to put rounds down range. Every once and awhile I do place higher than all but the PCC. ? Sure makes those open shooters look silly. Shoot it where you can and just enjoy. 

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  • 6 months later...

I like shooting revolver.  It's fun and challenging, and invariably you'll have people coming up to you who are interested in them.  However, I just went to sign up for an ICORE membership and was immediately turned off by the fact that you have to print off and mail in a form. It's 2019 and there's simply no excuse for that.  It seems like digitizing the application process would be an easy way to possibly increase membership, as I see that it was tried before.  

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4 hours ago, UpYoursPal said:

I like shooting revolver.  It's fun and challenging, and invariably you'll have people coming up to you who are interested in them.  However, I just went to sign up for an ICORE membership and was immediately turned off by the fact that you have to print off and mail in a form. It's 2019 and there's simply no excuse for that.  It seems like digitizing the application process would be an easy way to possibly increase membership, as I see that it was tried before.  

Actually it can be done, just email them (can't remember who specifically handles it though) and they will set you up by email and pay on line.  At least in December I renewed that way.

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Actually it can be done, just email them (can't remember who specifically handles it though) and they will set you up by email and pay on line.  At least in December I renewed that way.
I did the same, but I agree it should be available on the website.
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16 hours ago, pskys2 said:

Actually it can be done, just email them (can't remember who specifically handles it though) and they will set you up by email and pay on line.  At least in December I renewed that way.

Oh, good to know!

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On ‎9‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 6:39 AM, Hi-Power Jack said:

Advertise where ?

 

Newspapers go to men, women and children of all persuasions - 

many of whom are terribly anti-gun.

 

Costs a LOT of $$$$ to reach our appropriate audience.

 

Sporting goods shops would be a good bet to return higher outcome.    ?

 

Marketing skills from 1975.  Awesome.

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It would help if there were clubs within reasonable driving distance.  ICORE's website shows only one club within 2 hrs of here (my max for a one day match) and when I go to its website, there is zero mention of ICORE in their list of matches or club calendar.

 

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On 4/22/2019 at 8:34 PM, pskys2 said:

Actually it can be done, just email them (can't remember who specifically handles it though) and they will set you up by email and pay on line.  At least in December I renewed that way.

Just wanted to give you a shoutout and say thanks; this method worked perfectly, and now I’m just waiting on my member number!

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9 hours ago, UpYoursPal said:

Just wanted to give you a shoutout and say thanks; this method worked perfectly, and now I’m just waiting on my member number!

Great, I like ICORE and have shot with Annette Aysen so I'm confident they will get ICORE back on track.

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