4H Shooting Sports

[OldFaithful]

Hello, I've been involved in our little county 4H shooting sports program for several years. Its currently in a slump and the numbers have dwindled.

Anyone else here involved in their county? Any suggestions for getting through an attendance slump?

 

[Tradesylver]

I was asked to restart the program in Brown County after the shutdown. Numbers the last three years run about 9 to 12 4Hers very little interest as we only offer air guns and archery. I lost four instructors last year so down to three of us, if another one drops out I'll shut the program down. I can't seem to get anyone new instructors to expand the program. Seems to be a general lack of interest from the 4Her's and volunteers.

 

[OldFaithful]

I was asked to restart the program in Brown County after the shutdown. Numbers the last three years run about 9 to 12 4Hers very little interest as we only offer air guns and archery. I lost four instructors last year so down to three of us, if another one drops out I'll shut the program down. I can't seem to get anyone new instructors to expand the program. Seems to be a general lack of interest from the 4Her's and volunteers.

I was the coordinator for almost 20 years and recently handed that role over to another volunteer. I started with 0, and due to my wifes friendly personality we got up to 40 or 50. It has dwindled back down to about 5, and I attribute that to some bad apples that discouraged her. She no longer participates.

BTW...We do 22lr and 20ga and 50cal black powder.

I wonder if that is typical, or if it can be built on anything else?

 

[Barry in IN]

I’ve been a 4-H Rifle and Pistol instructor for around 15 years now. We split most of the disciplines up and do Archery on one evening, Shotgun on another, then Rifle, Pistol, and Muzzleloader (RPM) on Saturdays. Therefore, I don’t always see all the disciplines.

In RPM, we had around 40 this year. We had a little over 100 kids in it 8-10 years ago. Shotgun is about the same, but I don’t think they ever peaked as high.
I don’t know much about archery numbers now, but I know they are definitely not as high as they once were.
I would say all the disciplines have more or less plateaued in the past few years.

But I think that’s how it is all over.
Our conservation club was at the membership cap and turning members away for years, but we’re almost 100 below the cap now.

I was in a motorcycle club for a while, and the numbers declined there too. You can include me in that, since I’m no longer a member.

I’m hearing the same from others in photography clubs and the like.

 

[Creedmoor]

Both of my sons did 4H rifle growing up in So Maryland. They shot 4H and JROTC.
I volunteered when they were involved.
It was a great leadoff to what they are doing for a living now.

 

[OldFaithful]

I’ve been a 4-H Rifle and Pistol instructor for around 15 years now. We split most of the disciplines up and do Archery on one evening, Shotgun on another, then Rifle, Pistol, and Muzzleloader (RPM) on Saturdays. Therefore, I don’t always see all the disciplines.

In RPM, we had around 40 this year. We had a little over 100 kids in it 8-10 years ago. Shotgun is about the same, but I don’t think they ever peaked as high.
I don’t know much about archery numbers now, but I know they are definitely not as high as they once were.
I would say all the disciplines have more or less plateaued in the past few years.

But I think that’s how it is all over.
Our conservation club was at the membership cap and turning members away for years, but we’re almost 100 below the cap now.

I was in a motorcycle club for a while, and the numbers declined there too. You can include me in that, since I’m no longer a member.

I’m hearing the same from others in photography clubs and the like.

I've also been an instructor...rifle, pistol, shotgun, muzzleloader and archery. Glad that you have stayed with it.

It was really funny, after the hunger games movies came out, we got flooded with girls that wanted to learn archery. Maybe we should plan around the action movies???

 

[OldFaithful]

Both of my sons did 4H rifle growing up in So Maryland. They shot 4H and JROTC.
I volunteered when they were involved.
It was a great leadoff to what they are doing for a living now.

Thats great, I always thought parent involvement was the key to a successful program.

 

[Barry in IN]

I've also been an instructor...rifle, pistol, shotgun, muzzleloader and archery. Glad that you have stayed with it.

It was really funny, after the hunger games movies came out, we got flooded with girls that wanted to learn archery. Maybe we should plan around the action movies???

Same thing with us. “Brave” and “The Hunger Games” came out and we were 2:1 girls in archery. One of mine was among them.
I haven’t been involved with archery in a couple of years, but then, girls still outnumbered the boys a little.

And of course girls do better.

 

[Barry in IN]

I was asked to restart the program in Brown County after the shutdown. Numbers the last three years run about 9 to 12 4Hers very little interest as we only offer air guns and archery. I lost four instructors last year so down to three of us, if another one drops out I'll shut the program down. I can't seem to get anyone new instructors to expand the program. Seems to be a general lack of interest from the 4Her's and volunteers.

We have a lot of trouble getting and keeping instructors, too.
I don’t get it. If you’re always there with your kid, why not be there as an instructor?
“But I don’t know anything about guns/archery/whatever!”
We have plenty of jobs, from monitoring lines to handling paperwork where that doesn’t matter.

On the other hand, I’d get more instructor training but I’ve had my disagreements with the instructor training program and won’t go back. So I can sure see that point also.

 

[OldFaithful]

Same thing with us. “Brave” and “The Hunger Games” came out and we were 2:1 girls in archery. One of mine was among them.
I haven’t been involved with archery in a couple of years, but then, girls still outnumbered the boys a little.

And of course girls do better.

We had 1 girl that was just awesome at shotgun and the instructors encountered her to continue with the skill, but nope. Her family just couldn't afford to support private practice or training.

 

[OldFaithful]

We have a lot of trouble getting and keeping instructors, too.
I don’t get it. If you’re always there with your kid, why not be there as an instructor?
“But I don’t know anything about guns/archery/whatever!”
We have plenty of jobs, from monitoring lines to handling paperwork where that doesn’t matter.

On the other hand, I’d get more instructor training but I’ve had my disagreements with the instructor training program and won’t go back. So I can sure see that point also.

I've always thought parent participation was key. We have training and our fundraisers pay for it but we can't even get parents to show up. Sorry, venting. Doesn't help anyone.

In our program once you're trained in 1 discipline you can work at the line in any discipline...so long as a trained instructor is there too. So dont think you have to go back to help out in other disciplines, at least in our program.

Well at least some of us show up!

 

[Creedmoor]

Thats great, I always thought parent involvement was the key to a successful program.

I did FFA and 4H as a kid, I grew up about 8 miles from the National 4H Headquarters in Chevy Chase. It has since sold and they moved it.

 

[Barry in IN]

I've always thought parent participation was key. We have training and our fundraisers pay for it but we can't even get parents to show up. Sorry, venting. Doesn't help anyone.

In our program once you're trained in 1 discipline you can work at the line in any discipline...so long as a trained instructor is there too. So dont think you have to go back to help out in other disciplines, at least in our program.

Well at least some of us show up!

Yeah I help out with other than Rifle and Pistol, but I should get qualified in others so we can hold them if the primary people can’t make it. That’s only been a problem a couple of times, though.