[saskbooknut]

Only one over 80 active shooter in our little club.
The 70 to 80 age group is strong.

 

[Debradwright]

34 and no kids. These stats worry me. What is going to happen in 10-20 years when the older crowd isn't around anymore and the younger crowd doesn't shoot. I guess I'll get a foot control puller to shoot skeet by myself

I am the youngest person that shoots (regularly) at my local club. The rest are at least 45 plus. Including my husband.

 

[painter*]

Old enough to know better...young enough to not care....71 going on 17.

 

[Wildbill65]

Crowding the 70 years young crowd. Didn’t start shooting a lot until I was over 50.

 

[lt0026]

Proof that reloading and shooting is on a downswing and people are aging out of the game.

 

[albanygun]

This is in the Shotshell Reloading forum so I think the answers would be different if posted in the Sporting Clays forum.

 

[Chips&Clays]

Sad truth of age. Looking back on my near-by club. At one time was around 10 squads lined up to shoot trap. Now maybe 3 with 1/8 of the shooters.
Had two skeet fields full of shooters, now one hardly is one going..
My other club is a sporting clay club with 5 stand. Growing, but age is in there also, but picking up more new shooters..
Age is dieing out without few replacements. Looking back many are passing away in their 70"S. Others with heath restrictions, and some plain giving it up.
I'm 80 and looking back, still shooting approx 8000 a year with around 1500 registered. I'm fortunate, and don't take it for granted. Have a great day....

 

[Cold Iron]

A lot of this poll reveals the nature of discussion forums rather than the topic being discussed. A lot of us migrated to forums when “Usenet” news groups died off. 🙂 The young kids are on Reddit and social media groups.

Don't forget the transition stage, dial up First Class Bulletin Boards. Then CompuServe and AOL. Hate to think how many of those AOL CD's they mailed out and ended up littering the landscape as targets. Not that I would have ever done that...

So as I type this, over 61% of respondents are over 60 years old. I wonder how much the following affects this number:

• Being retired and/or no kids in the house (more time to shoot and read about shooting)
• Having more disposable income than those younger than 60 (can afford to shoot more)

I'll be 65 in a couple of months retired from the Navy 27 years ago. I think, ran out of fingers and toes counting it a few years back. Not so sure when I retire for good but likely a few more years. Making more money than I ever dreamed of and hard to let go of it. Really got a pay hike when the Ex decided to leave the boys and I to go find herself. Had no idea how much money she was throwing away. Youngest son was Mn. ATA Class Runner Up at the age of 14. That was before Mn. had youth programs and I was his program. It was only because of reloading that we could shoot 20K rounds a year. Shot was cheap then.

He ended up with advanced stage IVB cancer but is in remission living in my basement. He is messed up from treatment and likely will never be able to shoot again but at least he is alive. I still support him and will have to until I die. But no other options available, and I can.

Don't shoot as much as I used to mainly because I hate the cold anymore. It hurts my bones LOL. Only go through ~2 flats a month in the winter but once the snow melts I shoot a lot.

This is in the Shotshell Reloading forum so I think the answers would be different if posted in the Sporting Clays forum.

I agree. Minnesota hosts the world's largest shooting event each year, even bigger than the Grand. Almost 8,000 High School kids from Mn. at Alexandria where the High School State shoot is held. Yesterday had a coworker contact me about helping him get his son setup for HS shooting starting in March. Seems like I end up getting involved each year even when I don't try to. But also don't mind. And glad he contacted me now instead of before he bought a gun for his son. Lot of parents start the kids out with 20 ga. guns, have you tried to buy 20 ga. shells lately? I load for the 20 but it also kind of gets out of hand at times trying to help the kids too. Why I bought the 20 ga. Grabber from @Steve Y last week that he had for sale. @joe kuhn has the right idea teach them how to reload and set them up. And when the kids do get serious I do.

But back to your point the Mn. program is finally expanding to Sporting Clays and 5 Stand instead of just Trap. Last year we had a lot of kids show up to shoot 5 stand and I'm very glad to see it happen. I think it is the next big growth of shotgun sports in Mn.

Our replacements are in the works but worried that there is a big gap between when we age out and they come in to stay. On the other hand have seen a few dads and even a couple of moms start to shoot a little because of their kids picking it up. I'm cautiously optimistic, at least around here.

 

[Nebs]

This explains why many of us are crotchety.

 

[shotsmith]

71 in March and still working.

 

[CC268]

29! I think a lot of comes down to money

 

[dutch7373]

73 and semi retired. Haven’t gotten to the complete “re” part yet. Just tired.

 

[painter*]

Proof that reloading and shooting is on a downswing and people are aging out of the game.

 

[BRUKSHOT]

I Are 62...where did the time go, huh?

 

[lt0026]

Video games have taken over for the younger generations. Anything to do with guns is taboo now with younger kids on a nationwide basis. Especially urban and suburban areas.

 

[MikeX3]

59. Like my buddy tells me, I may not be old, but I can see it from here. 😂

 

[CC268]

Man I just hope I can be a wealthy old guy like you guys when I grow up!

 

[NE Kansas Shooter]

59. Like my buddy tells me, I may not be old, but I can see it from here. 😂

I’m almost 57 and can see it from here also. I’m a prefect example , I shot every weekend from 18-27 then a job working out of town a lot I stopped. I have a 15 year old son who found all of my old reloading supplies stored In the barn last year. So we started loading and shooting. I also switched jobs and stopped traveling so much. He will be on a youth trap team this spring. So after a 30 year hiatus I’m back.

 

[Justin L.]

36 and plan to keep shooting for a long time! Might not shoot as much registered this year, but maybe more just “fun” shooting.

 

[fiver]

i remember 36.
i was shooting ATA every weekend, traveling down south in the winter up to that point.
realized one day i was putting a 10-K shotgun in a 400$ pickup truck....

took me 20 years to shoot another ATA event, only now with a 500$ shotgun in a 10-K pickup.