Reduced Rates for Youth Shooters at the 2013 Southern SxS

[Chris Dunlap]

John,

The Southern SxS is Bill Kempffer's largest single money making weekend of the year. He was kind enough to knock $20 off of the price for the youth shooters. You have to remember that he is in business to stay in business. He has targets to pay for, trappers to pay, machines to maintain, etc. I can assure you that Bill is not making money off of these kids. I run the Sporting Clays Tournaments for my gun club here in Georgia. There is not a lot of profit margin in a 50 bird course that is a "fun shoot". It would be nice if he could offer free Sporting Clays to the youth, but you have to look at it from a business perspective as well.

I'm not sure just what the PGCA is doing to promote youth involvment in our sport. I am the Membership Chairman for the LCSCA. I approched Bill K. about this idea last year at the Southern and he was gracious enough to make it happen this year. When he first informed me about the discount, I sent an email to both Bill Mullins (PGCA President) and to Frank Finch (LCSCA Executive Director). I have yet to receive any type of reply from Bill Mullins and I have yet to see anyone from the PGCA Leadership post about it on this forum. I posted it on the LCSCA Forum and decided to put it over here as well in the interest of attracting some of your club's youth shooters.

As for the prizes, currently the only youth prizes are the "High-Junior" on the Five Stand and the High Junior on the American Classics, both of which are trophies. I decided to solicit additional prizes from a few of the vendors and they have really stepped up and donated some first rate prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place on both the Five Stand and the American Classics. Trophies are great to look at for the first two or three weeks, but then they just sit on a shelf and collect dust. My goal was to award prizes to the kids that they can actually use and each time they do they will remember where they came from.

The bottom line is a $20 discount is better than no discount at all. I think we should all be gratefull for what Bill has offered and quit looking for a free handout.