Ipsc/uspsa At Gunshows?

[kdogintexas]

I am still a newbie so forgive me if this has been discussed before. Practical shooting has given me and my family another avenue to spend time together, meet new people, and truly enjoy a little known sport.

I have recently been to a couple of different gunshows(Dallas last weekend) and have noticed that some local ranges and clubs have been represented but nothing from this sport. I believe that we are missing a grand opportunity to gow our sport. Your thoughts!!

[GeorgeInNePa]

I am still a newbie so forgive me if this has been discussed before. Practical shooting has given me and my family another avenue to spend time together, meet new people, and truly enjoy a little known sport.

I have recently been to a couple of different gunshows(Dallas last weekend) and have noticed that some local ranges and clubs have been represented but nothing from this sport. I believe that we are missing a grand opportunity to gow our sport. Your thoughts!!

I believe USPSA has materials for local clubs to set up booths at gun shows. You just have to ask for it.

[richard franklin]

I am still a newbie so forgive me if this has been discussed before. Practical shooting has given me and my family another avenue to spend time together, meet new people, and truly enjoy a little known sport.

I have recently been to a couple of different gunshows(Dallas last weekend) and have noticed that some local ranges and clubs have been represented but nothing from this sport. I believe that we are missing a grand opportunity to gow our sport. Your thoughts!!

I believe USPSA has materials for local clubs to set up booths at gun shows. You just have to ask for it.

yes, you are correct. i go to gun shows all over florida and never do i see any materials or info on our sport.if i tell someone i shoot a open or race gun they look at me like i am from another planet!

[Rob Boudrie]

If any club would like to have a table a gun show, your area director can probably arrange for USPSA to pay the table fee.

[JD45]

I couldn't agree more.

All shooting sports should try to have a table at gun shows. Most of the people that I know outside of gun clubs have never heard of IPSC, ATA, NSCA, or anything like them.

All of our shooting sports are so under-marketed and promoted it's stupid. All it would take is one good movie with one hot chick and we would change things overnight.

[Chris Keen]

if i tell someone i shoot a open or race gun they look at me like i am from another planet!

You arent ? :P JK

Yup, it is up to each club to do a grass-roots sort of recruiting effort. But think about how easy it would be to get folks to show up to a match. Hand out some literature, tell them when & where your next match is, and I'll bet you could get 30-50% of them to show up.

And dont try to force-feed your range membership down their throats right away. Let them come to a few matches, and they'll be looking for a place to practice so they can get better at this exciting sport. That's when you reel 'em in, hook, line & sinker.

[EricW]

I found representing USPSA at our local gunshow to be one of the most depressing and disheartening experiences imaginable. Gun show attendee demographics do vary by region, so your results may vary. It is my opinion that the people most likely to shoot USPSA are not regular gun-show attendees.

Your mileage may vary.

[konkapot]

+1 to EricW. Make that +100

FY42385

[mlmiller1]

I am in agreement with Eric. Around here, most folks that go to gunshows seem to attend more shows than they fire rounds in a year! IOW, they like guns but they don't seem to like shooting them very much! Somehow that doesn't make sense but seems to be the norm around here. One of the guys from our club tried attending two shows, setting up & talking about our range & matches. He talked to hundreds of folks, handed out brochures & so forth, not a single person he spoke to showed up to shoot or even watch. Maybe other parts of the country have different results. MLM

[TDean]

Good luck on your efforts but I think you will find what Eric mentioned is true.

Take care, Craig

[GlockSpeed31]

Not to mention that a lot of the usual people that are at the gun shows, I don;t think I would want them on the same range as me or my friends. You know the types: gang-banger wantabe's, rough & smelly rednecks that want to be home on a Sunday watching NASCAR & drinking beer or the Para-Military types that walk back to their vehicle looking around for the "Black Helicopters & Unmarked White Vans" that are watching what they bought.

I had given it some thought a while back about doing the same thing and realized, this isn't the general crowd that USPSA draws from.

Best of luck to you,

GlockSpeed31

Edited June 18, 2006 by GlockSpeed31

[TreblePlink]

I have to drive an hour and a half to get to the two closest IPSC clubs. Our local club has several "action pistol" events, as well as bowling pin shoots, which draw 20-30 folks per event. But including myself, out of more than 300 members, there are two of us who've ever shot IPSC. Most of the members have either never heard of it, confuse it with IPDA, or are very misinformed about it.

Many of these folks don't have good Internet skills, so short of getting them to drive to a match, it's really hard to introduce them to it. I recently read that the USPSA comissioned Jim Scouten to produce a promotional, introductory DVD - I hope that when this becomes available, members will be free to copy it and supply it to likely prospects. Almost everybody will play a free DVD.

I have seen posts on this fine forum from guys who've used a TV / DVD player at a show table which more or less continously played back match video. Best results seem to be from showing C class shooters shooting production or limited guns - newcomers can more easily relate to that kind of display than open gun action by GMs.

Video training and promotion is a powerful tool. If I were the USPSA King, I would have several DVD segments produced, all of them branded and promoting USPSA. They would be:

1. Introduction to USPSA practical shooting - an overview.

2. USPSA shooting - a closer look at range safety and the rules.

3. Finer points of shooting technique.

4. How to promote, organize, and manage a club match.

5. So you want to be an RO?

Ideally they would be hosted or at least introduced by Jim Scouten or other recognizable face. I would distribute these either at cost or free to clubs and prospects, and would convey rights to clubs and members to copy and distribute if done without charge.

The first three could be packaged on one DVD - and could also go a long way prepping new shooters.

Production costs would not be free, but I think the dividends would pay off pretty fast in new memberships. With DV cameras and desktop editing / DVD burning, this kind of project could be cheaper than it used to be. I think there are several folks on this forum who would be very capable and willing.

[Rob Boudrie]

One problem with guns shows is action - you need to give prospective members somethign specific to do. One show in Area 7 always promotes a intro to USPSA/IPSC course. Although we only took an "at show" signup once, we'veranged from 5 to 25 students each year we do this. If we just promoted matches, we'd probably still bewaiting for people to show up. We have picked up a number of regulars, including some who have become our most dedicated workers and another became very active, and then took a leave from USPSA/IPSC to attend federal air marshall school (gee, I guess the FAM recruiters didn't get the memo about how "IPSC will get you killed" )

[Guy Neill]

In the very early days. we had a table at the local gunshow mostly to publicize our shooting. It was nto a membership drive as such, though we were always happy to have people join.

As a membership drive, however, gun show efforts will not pan out. We did, however, have a good number of people appear at our matches stating that so and so had talked to us at the gun show. Thus, we had the word of mouth working for us and attracted people interested, but who we had not talked to directly.

I think local clubs should have a presence at teh local gun shows as PR more than anything.

I remember one club, a very old, established club, that had never had a gun show table. I got approval to have a gun show table. As it happened, I was manning the table when a young man (20's or so) approached very enthused to see that there was a local club. He was a lifelong resident , but had never heard of the club. This seems a failure of the club, to me.

Even with little recruitment at a given show, I feel it is better for clubs to have a presence at gun shows. Otherwise there is little chance of any but the most dedicated tracking down the club, or being able to direct others to the club.

Guy

[eric nielsen]

What EricW said is true enough but I would encourage uspsa tables for gun shows near military bases and near high-tech corporate centers [like Denver, San Jose...] as I think you're more likely to hook a younger, smarter crowd there.

Tables near law enforcement training centers might be good too. Videos of Rob Leatham running and shooting usually don't hurt, either.

[EricW]

If was back in Portland/Vancouver again, I'd set up a table at the gunshow. There are enough normal humans with appropriate income and personal motivation levels to make recruitment efforts worthwhile. What's particularly interesting to me as I talk to various people about competitive shooting, is that people whom I would associate with a more "liberal/libertarian/free-flowing" point of view, seem to be the ones who have the most postive verbal response and body language to the sport.

This demographic does not coincide with what I most typically encounter when I meet "The Gun Show Regular," be the regular an exhibitor or attendee. That particular demographic seems to be almost totally offended by USPSA/IPSC - and they are such a bunch of closed-minded, grumpy, ignorant jerks, it's not even worth the oxygen or picoseconds out of my life to try and justify my sporting activities to them. I wasted 4 hours of my life that I will never get back listening to the same-old Bill Ruger "no honest man needs more than ten rounds" crapola.

Personally, I think we'd be better off setting up a booth at the local PTA meeting.

[shred]

We do OK at gunshows, but a you said, a lot of the 'regulars' want nothing to do with IPSC-- it either causes issues with their self-image if they actually try it or causes potential customers to actually learn to shoot one gun instead of buying a new one every month hoping that will fix their issues..

[JFD]

I'm pretty sure our IDPAers tried a table at a gun show and found it was a waste of time.

I agree that most people at gun shows have no interest in competition.

At our gun club we have at least 1000 members. We have less than 60 shoot USPSA, IDPA, or even the outlaw matches. Probably 250 will go to a gun show though....

Gun shows are a fair waste around Greenville, SC. I scoot in and buy primers and powder while avoiding the knives, trinkets, etc... MAYBE I can find a deal on .223 bullets, but there's never enough .40s or .45s to bother with. What am I going to do with a couple hundred bullets??? Wouldn't last a practice session.

[JD45]

Amen JFD!

I've been to those pitiful gunshows.

After reading this I'm beginning to believe it would be a waste of time.

We have near 500 members in our gun club and I have yet to meet the first USPSA shooter.

I talk about it until I bore myself. I leave USPSA brochures and info in the club house. Still, no interest.

[ampleworks]

Of course, this will probably coincice with the general misconception that one needs to go spend $3500 up front with Bedell, Benny, or Brazos and another thousand with Dillon to participate in our sport.

On this supposed recruitment DVD we need more revolvers, 1911s, and Glocks than anything. I'd even stay away from any type of 2011 to be honest. When someone is curious enough to see what Limited and Open are all about, they'd likely do research on their own.

[skeeter]

well, our club has been setting up at the Indy 1500 gun show for a while now. we set up a TV and show some home made movies of some of the club members shooting ipsc, 3 gun, and steele matchs that our club puts on. we also set out some guns for them to see with the spot light on getting started, you know a glock 17 with an uncle mikes holster. we give out shoots dates and times, web sight info ect. and answer all their questions.

i think it's well worth the time. my gun matchs have gone from 15 shooter being a good turn out to haveing 35 almost every month this year. now not all of them have been coming from the gun shows but at lest one group of guys started this way and they have brought thier friends

[open17]

I've seen several references to a "supposed" promo DVD by Jim Scoutten.

Does it exist?? You betcha it does, I'm holding one in my hand. As a club rep, I got

a packet from USPSA postmarked April 6, 2006. Includes the following:

"This is the USPSA" DVD by Scoutten.

"USPSA New Shooter's Class" DVD by Scoutten

Industry intelligence report on Practical Shooting

Front Sight annual edition

Cute pop-up display--Lisa Munson

Partner Program application

and a few other goodies.

The letter that came with it says that if anybody wants more the contact staci@uspsa.org

or call 800-995-5646

Bill

[Hotmetal10]

About five years ago I bumped into a bunch of guys at a gun show in New England. They had a video running of some local USPSA matches. I had no idea the sport even existed. It was this group that held the course Rob mentioned earlier. I took the course and have been hooked ever since.

I've got more than a dozen guys into it since then. Their attempt to recruit new shooters at that gun show was actually more successful than they know.

Thanks for the introduction Guys!

[mike_pinto]

Of course, this will probably coincice with the general misconception that one needs to go spend $3500 up front with Bedell, Benny, or Brazos and another thousand with Dillon to participate in our sport.

You mean you don't? It IS a good idea to take a tape of local matches so they can see all skill levels and all sorts of off the shelf gear. That's a great idea!

[richardschennberg]

I joined USPSA as a life member at a Shotshow in Las Vegas. I have since participated in hundreds of matches, including an IPSC North American Championship, six USPSA nationals, and state/area matches. I helped Chuck Bradley run USPSA matches at Bluegrass Sportsmens League where I served two years on the Board of Directors and two years as Pistol Division President. I am a CRO and have RO'd at several clubs.

From a maketing point of view, the only reason not to do a gun show table is because you have a better way to use your time and advertising budget. Perhaps state Rifle and Pistol Associations' and nearby gun/sportsmens' club newsletters and web pages would be a more directed and therefore more efficient advertising venue.