Close of Season Meeting with the NRA

October 8, 2013 Neil 15 comments

Close of Season Meeting with the NRA

The HAC As we have the Autumn Action Weekend (AAW) meeting closing early this year the opportunity has been taken to have an end of season meeting with representatives from the NRA to review the season and discuss any possible changes to the format of the Gallery Rifle Action Meetings (GRAWs) we have at Bisley every year.

As many will know the NRA hosts four GRAW meetings a year at Bisley which offers the full range of Gallery Rifle events and some offering a fair bit more. The Calendar details the weekends and the dates have been nominally cemented into the calendar as advertised elsewhere on the site for a fair few years now.

The 2013 AAW will formally finish at 12:30 on Sunday 26th October. A meeting has been arranged between the NRA and representatives of the GR community to start at 13:15 over in The HAC.

I am looking for comments and feedback from everybody so we can represent as many viewpoints as possible at the meeting. We can’t invite everybody in person to the meeting but via channels such as these we can solicit views and opinions from as many people as possible.

Get your feedback over regarding how the GRAW meetings are being run at Bisley. Should everything continue as it is? Are there too many meetings, too few? Too many competitions, too few? Same old stuff year in year out or still increasingly interesting as the years progress? Enough shooting challenges or has everyone cracked it? Too expensive, about right or too cheap?

OK – the last question is a bit loaded but the idea of coming to a shoot at Bisley is its an all in one package – you turn up, you shoot, you move on to the next thing. The friendly ROs and admin people do everything else for you. Is the package about right or is it completely adrift with what we all want?

Feedback or comments via the usual mechanisms please. Here, email, or the usual social media channels.

Neil

General, News none

#1 | Written by Mike Chinery about 11 years ago.

Firstly, you need to be reviewing the previous two seasons as well as this season to capture the full decline in attendance.
And you also need to look at the failure of promoting Bisley at club level, as for every competitor on the curcuit there must be at least twenty club shooters who have never competed at Bisley.

But nothing will change while the prices remain prohibitively high for the majority.

As I have stated before, higher attendance at a lower unit cost for the benefit of the Sport, and NOT lower attendance at a higher unit cost to the detrement of the Sport. Either way, the income and overheads remain the same.
#2 | Written by Neil about 11 years ago.

Here for some attendance stats

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjU9ixLDqszkdHJPOWpkSnhvTFh6OTFTNHY5TTBMVEE&usp=sharing
#3 | Written by Mike Shields about 11 years ago.

I’ve been saying it for a while, drop the prices, you’ll get a lot more attending and make just as much revenue eg: Higher prices = less attending, Lower prices = more attending. I understand that you have overheads but you must find a way to bring the pricing down or at least even the pricing structure out if you want more shooters to attend. The low attendance at the Nationals proves my point. £20.00 to shoot nearly 200 rounds in the Bianchi is well worth it, but £11.50 for the Multi-Target is ridiculous for 24 rounds! Especially now it’s run with a walkthrough, you can complete it in less than 10 mins..!
Make the shorts cheaper.
If the NRA are serious about promoting the sport (and they should be) they need more people through the gates, wouldn’t it be more productive to have (hypothetically) 800 shooters paying £5 each = £4000 than 400 shooters paying £10 each = £4000?
That’s why I had to stop attending Bisley, I couldn’t afford it anymore and I’m sure I’m not alone in that predicament…
#4 | Written by DFoster about 11 years ago.

I would have to echo some of the above comments. As much I am thoroughly enjoying coming to shoot at Bisley again, the cost is becoming considerable. I also think the shorts events are expensive now that many of them seem to be creeping well over £10 per entry!

As pointed out above, I have far less issue with the pricing on the bigger events such as 1500 although shooting three classes of gun does add up.

The other point over which there is little direct control from NRA is cost of travelling and acommodation it all adds up, as for myself and many others Bisley is not just a quick trip up the road.

If something could be done regarding the cost of entering I would happily enter more competitions per visit simply because the benefit per cost is better.

I am sure there are likely to be others who have yet to enjoy the atmosphere of shooting at Bisley for whom the cost of attending is disconcerting.
#5 | Written by Greg Goldsworthy about 11 years ago.

Rachel and I shoot Nationally and Internationally but we are starting to find the cost of visiting Bisley to compete as becoming cost prohibitive. In 2014 we will be visiting more venues within the UK and Europe in which to shoot and less time at Bisley. A great shame that we are being forced in this direction due to the spiralling costs.
#6 | Written by s smoothy about 11 years ago.

I agree that the shorts events are over priced given their round count.
The major issue’s are the loss of what were our regular shooters and our inability to attract new shooters. I personally think the NRA needs to promote the sport more within affiliated clubs whether this is through offering concessions to new people, selling Bisley on RCO courses held at clubs or via emails and links to a site where prospective punters can watch the various comps being shot, including all range commands.
With regard to attendances it is curious to note that whilst the popularity of the GRAW’s have diminished the likes of Derby, the western winner, the army and SLG seem to be expanding.

Additionally £ 24 per person for a hut on the ABC lines is to high
#7 | Written by Mike Hibberd about 11 years ago.

It is a long drive from Scotland to Bisley but I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that we all enjoy competing there. The cost is an issue which is why we tend to only travel to the Phoenix & The Nationals. As events further north become more prolific and these competitions count towards national rankings, the attraction of travelling to Bisley diminishes. For me, cheaper entry, remove some of the less popular competitions and replace them with emerging ones such as Mini Rifle, PSG, 2/3 Gun, that seems like the way forward.
I would like to see National Team competitions and more done to remove the stigma at club level about shooting at Bisley which would hopefully encourage more club shooters to make the trip south at least once a year.
#8 | Written by Stephen Bushnall about 11 years ago.

This year was my 11th at Bisley for the Phoenix Meeting as a competitor and my 5th year as an RCO. I have a couple of points that I would like to share.
Firstly I hate to say that there are a lot of shooters that do not even know Bisley exists and there possibly is a stigma about Bisley. I was a member of Hartlepool Rile Club when I first attended. My friends and I, when we did hear about Bisley and the Phoenix Meeting were told that it was a National Competition for top class shooters only. It was only because one member SNEAKED down that we found it was for everyone. The first year there was only 5 of us. The next year there was 16. I try to tell as many as possible about it.
Secondly the cost is a factor. I agree that £10 for short comps is stopping people entering. Considering the Volunteers do not get paid and the huts are already there so no practical cost involved why are the entries so expensive. If it was cheaper to enter or volunteers received a discount then more people would attend or enter more. I don’t think any competition should be scrapped unless there has been less than 3 people enter for more than 2 years. That is the attraction of Phoenix: the variety of shooting.
There does seem to be an NRA and GRAW split. It is as though we are a second class shooter and trespassing on THEIR hallowed ground.
#9 | Written by Terry Fry about 10 years ago.

I can only echo most of the previous comments.
Most if not all the Club organised open GR matches run at a reasonable profit even though their entry price can be 50% cheaper than NRA Bisley events, surely a large amount of the fees are being swallowed up by the NRA accommodation & admin, as open matches run at Bisley by other clubs still make a good profit and even provide food for competitors and range crews.
I for one will only shoot matches at Bisley that give value for money & the MT 24 shot walk-down is a rip off.
When Neil spoke to many of us a many months ago about running MT as a walk-down comp he proposed it would have its entry price reduced to £7-£8 to reflect the saving in targets and range time we all agreed this would make the MT more likely to be on our entry form in the future but it seems he was over ruled, now look at the resulting effect, lower entries! there is less cash around so we are all looking for value for money.
The GRAW short matches are not delivering this especially MT.
#10 | Written by mr smith about 10 years ago.

I ‘d like to thank Terry for answering a question i’ve tried to post twice on here about the level of entry fee at other major comps compared to bisley.Perhaps a trial of lower fees with the usual short comps costing what is charged for the 25/50m precision,obviously precision would have to drop as well.
The number of action weekends perhaps need a pruning as well,mainly due to demand on RO and range crews as it’s usually the same people having to the work which i’d like to thank them for.
#11 | Written by John Lynch about 10 years ago.

So – nothing positive or complementary about the current situation.

General consensus – overpriced ?
#12 | Written by andrew j brice about 10 years ago.

Will price moans and subsequent poor attendance loose the gr circut the saw and aaw? It seems likely. …

Im taking five years out of gr I only hope when I return that the gr circut is there…….with spiralling ammo prices, suggestable public opinions against shooters and the ill feeling of a recesion its not good times for us, but through dialogue and cooperation the gr community can come through this….

It may well be in the future the gr community reform (in part under a new name) the npa and break from the nra, possibly moving from bisley….it may just go to regional comps with say 2 derbys or 2 matterseys a year, who knows..

As long as people are willng to help and want to shoot then a common ground is there…

See you all sometime soon and good luck..

Andrew….
#13 | Written by Greg Goldsworthy about 10 years ago.

Sorry to see you bowing out for a period Andrew. I never like to see anyone leaving GR even for a short time, especially a very good shooter such as yourself. I hope to see you ‘on the line’ soon in the not to distant future.
#14 | Written by DFoster about 10 years ago.

Any feedback from the end of season meeting yet?
#15 | Written by Neil about 10 years ago.

Yes – there will be in a couple of days or so.