Howard Roark said:
I’m probably the only person to ever quit shooting IPSC and go to Highpower. Started out shooting F class and quickly changed to conventional, then across the course. I also shoot smallbore prone and silhouette.
Howard, I left an action pistol discipline to shoot High Power Rifle as well. The days are much, much longer.
What would get me to shoot Bullseye?
Well we had a bullseye pistol league at my club, and they were frankly jerks. I mean they were really hostile and detrimental to the overall business of the organization. They self-selected, and many of the decent people they had on that league left because no one gave the jerks the ultimatum - act decently or don't come back.
So the decent people left. There's no way I'd shoot with those individuals.
But the sport itself? It takes specialized equipment good for little else but the sport. The AR15 I use across the course, and the match rifles other guys use, are very specialized and can't be used for anything else well but that competition. And just like Bullseye pistol, the rifle side of the sport is not what it used to be, either.
It takes an investment in both equipment and time. And lets face it, for those who really want to have a fun in a sport, bullseye competitions really aren't a whole lot of fun. Not the kind of fun an action pistol match is.
Bullseye matches are the same target, the same course of fire, over and over. There's a challenge there, and it's a slow dedicated process to get there. During the growth process it's not much fun, and a lot of frustration.
What can be done to help? I have no idea.
Times have changed. The shooting world has changed. The concealed carry movement has influenced the reason why people own pistols, and opened up entirely new worlds in terms of competitions built around that interest. Unfortunately the NRA may just have to change the rules, and its sport to stay relevant. You'll see a whole lot of resistance to that.
The CMP has seen great success with the "Games" portion of the matches at Nationals, and at clubs back home shooting those Garand matches. They're fun. They're still a bullseye sport, but they're at reduced ranges and more generous scoring rings. We've seen quite a few guys bring a Garand out to a vintage CMP match, get hooked, and move up to the more challenging aspects of the more formal NRA and CMP matches.
The participation is still not what it once was, but the sport isn't on death's door, either. The CMP did quite a bit to spark interest in a sport that had been languishing. There's probably a lesson in there.
If you think it's tough finding a range to host bullseye pistol, try finding ones than can host the NRA and CMP rifle matches.