Rant from Target Shooters

Isn't greed a wonderful thing

Well said Ken !!!!! 

Right on Ken. It's pretty clear to me when dealing with PA that the bottom line is way, way most important. They're selling widgets for a profit. Their widget just happens to be air guns and related items. 

While not a equal comparison when I look at the world of trap shooting and sporting clays versus the vendor support/involvement in the airgun realm its stunning. Go to any large trap shoot and you will see all of the major shotgun vendors on site, many with gunsmiths and spare parts handy. Vendors putting up full size trucks, thousands and thousands of dollars in added prize money/gear. Vendors giving away product "so you can try it free". Vendors will often ship ammo to your event for free so you can fly there without having to deal with 400lbs of ammo.

Where the comparison is equal is in the competitiveness of the shooters. The US has some of the best in the world and many of them capable of winning any world title on any given day. Rather its trap shooting, or airguns benchrest or otherwise. 

Vendors if the bottom line is profit, then help grow your market! Get involved in promoting the sport and the events. Work with local clubs and support their efforts to grow the sport like youth programs. One of the reasons the shotgun sports are as popular as they are is there is a HUGE youth program that is largely funded by vendors, free guns, free ammo, free targets and so on. In some areas the trap shooting team is bigger and better funded than the football/basketball team.

PA is a retailer and not a public service organization. Isn't it usually the manufacturers who provide these kinds of sponsorships? As long as PA provides good service and sells their merchandise at a fair price they're fine with me.

Can't say I'm with you guys on this one. You are talking about perhaps the most narrowly specialized aspect of air gunning, and arguably the most expensive as well when considered from the individual competitor's point of view. Extremely high-end equipment, a commitment both in terms of time and mental toughness that most people cannot make, and finally competition results that are very hard for the wider air gunning audience to become excited about are all fundamental aspects of Benchrest that make it very much a niche pursuit.

Asking (actually, more of a demand on your part) that PA do much, much more to financially support your particular interests in Benchrest is like asking a Western Outfitter shop to do more to support Dressage competitions. Sure, the Outfitter sells stuff that falls squarely in the horse owning/riding world, but not much of it really appeals to the Dressage crowd. Dressage is all about the finest leather tack, $1000 riding boots, and all the best equipment money can buy, not to mention tens of thousands spent on a single horse with the right conformation and blood lines needed to compete at the highest levels of the sport. The Outfitter shop isn't in business to cater to the extreme needs of the Dressage competitors - their business model is to support a much wider audience of riding enthusiasts who want quality tack and duds at reasonable prices.

Just so with Benchrest and Pyramyd Air. PA is an air gunner's cornucopia of supplies, tools, guns, gear, and goodies all available around the clock and around the globe. A shooting kit for an 8-year-old just learning to shoot, a springer for a farmer who needs to take out some rats and pigeons in the barns, all the tools and materials for a retiree to outfit a workshop for tuning and tinkering with guns... these are the things PA stocks and sells because this is where 95+% of air gunners live, work, and play. If PA had a couple of staff members who really got into Benchrest, and so could act as champions for the sport during internal company discussions, then perhaps you'd see a change in the interest PA shows to Benchrest. Perhaps inviting some PA reps to participate in Benchrest competitions and then treating them as honored guests whose good graces you are trying to court would go farther in garnering PA's support for Benchrest than rants (your word) and undeclared boycotts will.

They've been invited Ironlion. Most top FT shooters feel BR is below them. Not difficult or varied enough to be a competitive sport without ever attending a match. I know. I shoot both sports.

As for the cost it is on par with the top levels of FT as well. Most top guns cost $2-4,000. Then ad in shooting jackets(front rests for BR) gloves, bum bags, gun cases, flying, international competition every year and the cost comparison is a wash. Also Airgunn BR is an international sport with just as many countries participating as they do in FT.

I understand what your saying but i don't believe anyone or any corporation should HAVE to sponsor everything that involves airguns. They provide a lot of products and exceptional service at "fair" prices. They sell a tremendous amount of items which they have to purchase, market and sell to make a profit. Not including salaries, rent, insurance and everything else. I don't think it is fair to smash them like this. Sorry just my 2 cents.

I can spend $200 for a decent spring rifle, scope, pellets, and targets and spend hours plinking, hunting, shooting targets at increasingly long range, and basically stay out from under my wife's feet. When it comes to Benchrest, you tell me how far a similar investment will go for someone literally stepping into the sport for the first time, and all to be able to hold up a regulation target that requires either an expert judge with decades of experience and a magnifier to score or a spiffy computer program that tracks each pellet impact and calculates the exact target score. 

I can step into my back yard and shoot cans, plastic bottle caps, splatter targets, ping-pong balls, and all kinds of stuff at the drop of a hat. I can approach farmers and woodlot owners by the hundreds looking for permission to take pests and small game - all without driving more than 1/2 an hour from home. I can buy a box of Daisy wadcutters and shoot fliers for hours just to pass the time and be perfectly happy about it. These are the things that PA, and other shops like them, make possible for me at prices I can afford.

Please don't misunderstand, I am delighted that Benchrest has progressed to such precision and expertise along with so much else in the airgun world. Still, the free market, so clearly in force in the air gun market here in the US, has much to tell us about what captures the interest and dollars of the general populace - and Benchrest isn't it. PA knows this and follows the market's flow. Not evil. Not greedy. Just committed to the free market sector that has provided it with its growth and stability.

Pyramyd is probably the largest seller of pellets in the united States

i offered to purchase 2 cases of pellets from pyramyd if they would send me the boxes they come in and was told no
i now boycott them because they will not support us even tho they want us to buy their pellets
they are the reason pellets no longer have the Mfg label on the back giving us some information
and if you shoot benchrest or field target that label is important if you are a serious shooter
but pyramyd will not let you have it
there are a cpl of serious competition shooters working at Pyramyd and i can guarantee you they pay attention to the pellet die number
yes i boycott them for this reason alone

About the only thing I could see PA doing as a retailer is paying the entrance fee,if there were a group of guy and gals that went to every sanctioned BR event in the United States why couldn't PA do the BR entrance fee and maybe supply a shirt then the manufacturers could offset the cost of pellets and give them good deals on equipment and maybe a support patch for their shirts, it would also be another way for PA and their suppliers to advertise their businesses.
Just my two cents...

"Salticon"

"John_in_Ma"Isn't greed a wonderful thing

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No greed on our part.

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Not at all Ken. I meant on PA. The are comfy making the money they do but won't put a foot forward on the chance that another airgunning sport might grow.Sure bags and fliers are great but they don't even support the worlds FT team and one of their employees is a member.

As for Ironlion that's great you like to stick to your back yard but some of us like to test our skills against others. It's called having a competitive spirit. As has been pointed out the firearms community will support it's competitive shooters above and beyond what may be called for. And there are likely far more gun owners who don't compete than airgunners who don't percentage wise. The air gunning community see's it as a detriment to the sport to support competitive shooters for some reason? Explain it in a satisfactory manner as to shut this thread down and I'll lay down.

Ok you WANT to be competitive. So do it. But why does some one else have to pay for your competitive spirit? Please stop. This sounds so petty to me. Pay for your own stuff or don't do it. God I'm getting tired of everyones complaining. I don't want or mean or to be rude,but get over yourselves. There are a lot of things I would like to do but can't afford it. These are 1st world problems.