I meant to say I have 10 good friends and family members that bow hunt and I am the only one that does 3D. In our area at least it just seems like it is tough to get big crowds for shoots unless it is an ASA Qualifier. Like already has been mentioned there is quite of few local shoots around and they always seem to be around 40-50 people at those. I only see the really big crowds when it is an ASA shoot. It might be easier to get shooters to travel to you then to get people who have never shot 3D to start doing it.
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Is 3-D archery in decline
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That depends on who you talk to and what style they like. I think all formats are seeing an increase but the clubs are not. That may be due to the reasons listed above. It may be due to kids playing other sports.
I do know that S3DA is growing faster than anyone could have imagined. I know that clubs that join them see tremendous growth as well. When kids join, the parents follow. Clubs that can offer a certified level coach are well ahead of the curve. Lots of people want to shoot archery but finding an instructor that isn't Uncle Buck is darn tough.
Clubs cannot due things the way they did 20 years ago, with a "build it and they will come plan."
3D is growing, but at the club level, you are competing with big money payouts elsewhere. Our club shoots attract people who just want to have a family fun day and the majority of our club members don't compete, they just want a place they can come practice.
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Yes, 20 years ago we often saw 75-100 shooters. But times have changed. I agree with Pistol - clubs have to change and adapt. Our club still has relatively high monthly club shooter turnout - 50-60 shooters.
We now encourage and support lots of other venues - Traditional Bowhunters of Texas, ASA, The Deerman, charity shoots, 4H, boy and girl scouts, S3DA, and everything we can identify.
These are often the venues that decrease club shoots, so we encourage them to come to our club. So in short - 3D participation it up, but so is competition for those shooters.
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Just started in 3d shoots last year with my then 9 year old daughter I started taking her then she asked me to shoot with her so I am, also now have my older daughter shooting. with asa shoots almost every weekend the shoots we have done seem to have a good amount of shooters. we have also started doing the deermen and have a lot less people at them and at a resent club shoot seen even less people. Think it is hard to compete with the asa shoot
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Originally posted by Splitlimb View PostThank You everyone for the responses and keep them coming. We are a very small club 16 members and were not spring chickens if you know what I mean. With the rules and costs accompanied with a big sanctioned shoot it's hard for us to pull off.
Hope you all had a great turkey season.
Strangely enough my wife and I are moving to southern Iowa in the next few months. We have a small farm southwest of Bloomfield, Iowa in Davis county. We are going to start the first ever ASA Federation in Iowa and have shoots on our farm. We also have several other Iowa clubs interested in hosting some ASA events. Its going to be a challenge as I have found that many shooters in Iowa do not even know what ASA (Archery Shooters Association) stands for much less the type of format that we present. We already have a husband and wife team that shoots the ASA national events on board as our Iowa state representatives. My wife and I will be the Iowa state directors.
It only makes sense that Iowa has an ASA Federation. The title sponsor for ASA (Delta/McKenzie) is based in Dike, Iowa. For many years Delta/McKenzie was in Reinbeck, Iowa until their plant was destroyed by a fire. It is strange that there has never been an ASA local (state level) or national event of any kind in Iowa.
We are going to work closely with ASA and Delta/McKenzie to promote a state level ASA program in Iowa. We do not aspire to make the program as huge as the the Texas ASA Federation, but we do want to give the Iowa shooters an opportunity to experience the ASA format.
We will be shooting 20 targets at our state qualifiers. Shooters may shoot either Saturday or Sunday. We hope to have a couple of bi-state qualifiers with Missouri which already has an ASA Federation. We may only get 20-30 shooters starting out but that is okay. We will work to slowly grow the program in Iowa.
Your club may want to get involved as well.
PM me for my phone number and more information about the Iowa ASA Federation.Last edited by Arrowsmith; 05-30-2018, 02:35 PM.
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Originally posted by Arrowsmith View PostMy wife and I have run the Texas ASA Federation for the last 12 years (we retired after last season). During that time the Texas ASA Federation became the largest (most attended, most clubs, most shoots) ASA Federation in the nation. We still have shoots that exceed 200 shooters with a state championship last year (2017) that had 351 shooters. It is hard to compare our success with other states because we have developed a huge ASA following where other states have a very small or no ASA following.
Strangely enough my wife and I are moving to southern Iowa in the next few months. We have a small farm southwest of Bloomfield, Iowa in Davis county. We are going to start the first ever ASA Federation in Iowa and have shoots on our farm. We also have several other Iowa clubs interested in hosting some ASA events. Its going to be a challenge as I have found that many shooters in Iowa do not even know what ASA (Archery Shooters Association) stands for much less the type of format that we present. We already have a husband and wife team that shoots the ASA national events on board as our Iowa state representatives. My wife and I will be the Iowa state directors.
It only makes sense that Iowa has an ASA Federation. The title sponsor for ASA (Delta/McKenzie) is based in Dike, Iowa. For many years Delta/McKenzie was in Reinbeck, Iowa until their plant was destroyed by a fire. It is strange that there has never been an ASA local (state level) or national event of any kind in Iowa.
We are going to work closely with ASA and Delta/McKenzie to promote a state level ASA program in Iowa. We do not aspire to make the program as huge as the the Texas ASA Federation, but we do want to give the Iowa shooters an opportunity to experience the ASA format.
We will be shooting 20 targets at our state qualifiers. Shooters may shoot either Saturday or Sunday. We hope to have a couple of bi-state qualifiers with Missouri which already has an ASA Federation. We may only get 20-30 shooters starting out but that is okay. We will work to slowly grow the program in Iowa.
Your club may want to get involved as well.
PM me for my phone number and more information about the Iowa ASA Federation.
That’s awesome!
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The last time I saw it really drop was when the economy crashed in the late 2000's. If the gas prices continue to climb, I'd be willing to bet you will see a proportional decrease in folks driving very far to shoot. It's fun, but once it's hot and it costs too much it takes the fun right out of it.
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My .02 is that the "professional" shooters are pushing out the regular bowhunters. My first shoot after moving to TX took 4+ hours with no real breaks. Since then unless I have absolutely nothing else going on I avoid them. The club I belong to is in the dallas area and from what I have seen unless there is a qualifier or deerman going on they struggle to hit 20 shooters.
I think the regular bowhunter who just wants to spend time with family or friends and shoot to get some practice doesn't want to stand around and wait at every target.
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Originally posted by hardcore247 View PostMy .02 is that the "professional" shooters are pushing out the regular bowhunters. My first shoot after moving to TX took 4+ hours with no real breaks. Since then unless I have absolutely nothing else going on I avoid them. The club I belong to is in the dallas area and from what I have seen unless there is a qualifier or deerman going on they struggle to hit 20 shooters.
I think the regular bowhunter who just wants to spend time with family or friends and shoot to get some practice doesn't want to stand around and wait at every target.
In full disclosure, I shoot trad, and we tend to shoot much faster than our Compound brothers.
I can usually shoot two rounds of 3D at a trad only shoot in the same time it takes to shoot 1 round at an Open 3D shoot.
I can honestly say that I have skipped on attending a few shoots when I know that there will be a lot of "semi-pro" compound shooters there. It just takes way to long.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sound like a snobby Trad guy. I don't care what kind of bow you shoot, no judgement, if you shoot reasonably fast and keep the course flowing... we are good.
IMO there should be time limits and group sizes should be reduced for the really long stabilizer people.
I'm not only saying this because it slows me down, it also hurts the local clubs. Take down is delayed and less members are willing to hang around to help with take down.
If I'm done at say 11am why would I wait till 3:30 to take down.
JMO
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