How do we encourage new people into the sport ?

Most of us of a certain age grew up on Westerns and War film, guns everywhere, fairs, spud guns cap guns etc.
Youngters would rather shoot ray guns on computers.

Take a young un to a club and what do they see, a lot of old farts whinging about arthritis, no peers.
Would you stay?
 
I’ve fished since I was a kid (not so much for the last 20 years) but having two little boys were going more and more these days.

I have loads of their friends asking to come fishing with us, and I’m more than happy to do this. It’s the same with sailing and shooting although I would call myself a novice when it comes to the latter.

Now this is the thing, I have our lads friends asking to come fishing, their parents (read sheepish slightly embarrassed dads) asking if I don’t mind. After probing a little further I find out they’ve never fished as a child and haven’t got a clue and don’t really know how to take their kids fishing.

We live in an era of social media where we can spread the word easily. Our local fisheries run loads of try fishing weekends during the summer, quite a few sailing clubs do as well.

I’m sure there are plenty of shooting clubs that have open days but my issue as a newbie is I’m struggling to find a shooting club. I live in Shrewsbury, you would have thought there would be one around here but I’m struggling to find one!

I’m not sure if the answer is to go back to basics and try to get a few local shooters together and start a club like people did 50
years ago?

What’s the saying? Build it and they will come? Do the BASC have much on their website on starting a club? Do they offer
any support to open a club?
 
I don't know about BASC but the NSRA do have advice to start your own club including the various essentials like insurance etc. and even some draft Constitutions.
 
I think there's a lot of nonsense spoken about younger people being fixated with computer games over other activities; I grew up with access to computers and computer games from the early 80s onwards and still play most days, so did my friends and our children do too.
My interest in shooting started with my dad buying my a rifle aged 9, and spending a few evenings a week with him learning how to shoot, safety etc. Amongst my peer group even then only about 1 in 10 had an interest in shooting, the rest were simply not exposed to it outside of the fairground, and their parents showed no interest - so no momentum was created.

Modern technology, phones, computer games and the internet are not the issue causing a bar to entry; attitudes towards any kind of firearm and a general disinterest in anything other than mainstream sports across the board are the root of the issue.

On the flip side, you can't expect everyone to like the same things - all we can do as a community is make ourselves as open, friendly and welcoming of new people as possible.

If that means certain people need a crash course in adult urine direction, thunder flush operation, and a 101 in basic human interaction, so be it!
 
Redsun351 said:
Social media, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram and all of the others out there are exactly where advertising, marketing and promoting awareness needs to be, its where the younger generation live.
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To be fair there's a lot of clubs already on Facebook advertising shoots, publishing results etc along with quite a few owners groups for specific makes, HW, Theoben, AA, Webley, Diana etc.
 
Yellow Ballad said:
I’ve fished since I was a kid (not so much for the last 20 years) but having two little boys were going more and more these days.

I have loads of their friends asking to come fishing with us, and I’m more than happy to do this. It’s the same with sailing and shooting although I would call myself a novice when it comes to the latter.

Now this is the thing, I have our lads friends asking to come fishing, their parents (read sheepish slightly embarrassed dads) asking if I don’t mind. After probing a little further I find out they’ve never fished as a child and haven’t got a clue and don’t really know how to take their kids fishing.

We live in an era of social media where we can spread the word easily. Our local fisheries run loads of try fishing weekends during the summer, quite a few sailing clubs do as well.

I’m sure there are plenty of shooting clubs that have open days but my issue as a newbie is I’m struggling to find a shooting club. I live in Shrewsbury, you would have thought there would be one around here but I’m struggling to find one!

I’m not sure if the answer is to go back to basics and try to get a few local shooters together and start a club like people did 50
years ago?

What’s the saying? Build it and they will come? Do the BASC have much on their website on starting a club? Do they offer
any support to open a club?
Click to expand...
I feel your pain, I started this hobby about a year ago and live about 6 miles outside Shrewsbury. I have struggled to find ranges nearby, one at Whitchurch but I've had to travel to Wrexham and Nantwich for the rest. One of the members here told me about a range near the crematorium at Telford but I haven't been yet. Facilities at the ones I have visited have been primitive to say the least and only one of them can provide air for a PCP, the one at Nantwich has a cafe and a gunshop but no air as they are mainly for shotgunners with the air rifle range as an afterthought. Things might be improving though, the West Midlands shooting ground is near me and although they only do shotguns at the moment when I phoned to ask they said they were thinking of opening an air rifle range and an HFT course this year.

None of these ranges actually seem to advertise the fact that they exist.

Alan
 
Alanem said:
.... they are mainly for shotgunners with the air rifle range as an afterthought. Things might be improving though, the West Midlands shooting ground is near me and although they only do shotguns at the moment when I phoned to ask they said they were thinking of opening an air rifle range and an HFT course this year.

None of these ranges actually seem to advertise the fact that they exist.

Alan
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I find it interesting that this apparent wane in interest for shooting certainly isn't true for shotgunning, indeed they seem to be the one aspect of the sport that is actively advertised and known about. Most ranges even run group sessions for Stag do's etc.
As with @Alanem's post a local (BIG) clay club in Cambs has just started running a once a month HFT shoot and it's great, it's a nice big site with good parking, a canteen, superb loos (yay!) and even a gun shop. At the moment it's just once a month but I think a lot of us are hoping that once they realise the fiscal potential it could be more. I'd say the penny has already started its descent as the on-site shop suddenly had about a dozen thoroughly blinged up brand new Steyr's on offer.
 
Mrs. H said:
I find it interesting that this apparent wane in interest for shooting certainly isn't true for shotgunning, indeed they seem to be the one aspect of the sport that is actively advertised and known about. Most ranges even run group sessions for Stag do's etc.
As with @Alanem's post a local (BIG) clay club in Cambs has just started running a once a month HFT shoot and it's great, it's a nice big site with good parking, a canteen, superb loos (yay!) and even a gun shop. At the moment it's just once a month but I think a lot of us are hoping that once they realise the fiscal potential it could be more. I'd say the penny has already started its descent as the on-site shop suddenly had about a dozen thoroughly blinged up brand new Steyr's on offer.
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i went there for my first attempt at HFT last weekend, thoroughly enjoyed it. id likely be there more to practice if it was an option
 
Mrs. H said:
I find it interesting that this apparent wane in interest for shooting certainly isn't true for shotgunning, indeed they seem to be the one aspect of the sport that is actively advertised and known about. Most ranges even run group sessions for Stag do's etc.
As with @Alanem's post a local (BIG) clay club in Cambs has just started running a once a month HFT shoot and it's great, it's a nice big site with good parking, a canteen, superb loos (yay!) and even a gun shop. At the moment it's just once a month but I think a lot of us are hoping that once they realise the fiscal potential it could be more. I'd say the penny has already started its descent as the on-site shop suddenly had about a dozen thoroughly blinged up brand new Steyr's on offer.
Click to expand...

yeah oddly clay pidgeon shooting is thoroughly cemented in the public consciousness as an activity like go-karting or axe throwing or whatever but folk are generally non-the-wiser about air guns
 
Mrs. H said:
. I'd say the penny has already started its descent as the on-site shop suddenly had about a dozen thoroughly blinged up brand new Steyr's on offer.
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Mick and Karen have spent a fortune on the club in recent years and the air rifle range improvements, and sales has been on going for a while. Although the firearms side of the business is the main focus, they are acutely aware of the interest and increase in footfall that air rifles can bring.
 
BrettMRC said:
I think there's a lot of nonsense spoken about younger people being fixated with computer games over other activities
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London, 15 September 2025: Teenage boys in the UK aged 15 to 17 spend nearly 34 hours on average a week playing video games, more than they spend in the classroom, a new Mumsnet and Ygam report has revealed.

The latest data reveals nearly 8 in 10 parents are concerned about their child’s screen time when it comes to gaming and two thirds of parents are concerned about the risk of addiction to video games. While boys consistently game more than girls, the average time children spend gaming has increased to 20.4 hours per week, up from 16.8 hours in 2024.
 
Showing my age here but my parents unplugged the dial up if I used the internet for more than 1hr, just in case someone was trying to ring the house 😂, Half the time it wouldn’t connect anyway .

Back to the original question: il be taking my daughter to the ranges (so that’s an hopeful one person) and i should pull my finger out and get my nephews a nieces involved also( possibly another 3) Problem is that they all live 2+ hrs away. I could also get in touch with Penrith red squirrel rangers (one of them lives in the village) and ask if they’d be willing to do a school visit. I will do my bit 🫡🔫🪄
 
My other thought after posting last night is maybe there needs to be a push via the farming press that opening a small range is a source of passive income?

If not farming, larger fisheries or campsites?
 
There are some thoughtful ideas above, and thanks @jukibom and @Mrs. H for your posts.

Following the post by @urbanxi on normalising shooting (e.g.'Mortimer and Whitehouse'), there's a tv program from New Zealand called 'Hunting Aotearo' (the kiwi members can tell you more and have boasting rights) that has been running on our indigeneous tv channel here - the program is made by a Maori tv company. It's about the only program that gives a realistic view of how firearms are used in hunting. It's somewhat formula-tv - you know that's how things are - but I'd always try to watch it. We did have a program set in Tassie that ran on the Aus cooking channel(!) called 'A Girl's Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Wild Cooking'. The 'girl' in the title is a chef that moved to Tas to try to 'eat closer to the land' or similar. She was doing her firearms course in the (only) episode I saw.

I think you can find both on the internet.

Apart from these niche programs, I'd say most people here (and in the UK) only 'know' of firearms from tv and movies, being the 'cops and robbers' or James Bond (or Jason Bourne etc.) fantasies where the hero (male usually) with his handgun defeats a battalion of evil doers armed with machine guns and attack helicopters.

But more seriously, I'd say it is possible many people here then make the association of firearms and 'compulsory' violence, based on their 'lived' experience from tv, rather than personal experience of firearms and legal uses at the range (or hunting). So it is not just encouraging people to the sport, it also is actively overcoming the negative (and fantasy-based) perception.

My 2 australian-cents.
 
As someone new to the sport, I can see why younger people would be put off by certain things Ive come across so far. I deal with school age children with work, have school age children myself, am a beaver leader, and used to play Airsoft into my late 30's. I can definitely say that not all kids are playing video games all day every day, Id say that's more a reflection on the parenting than kids anyways, but that's another discussion.

Attitudes - very detached. Inclusivity is what we need, and that thread starting pic is a good example of the 'harmless fun' attitude prevalent. Doesn't bother me in the least and I get it, but society has moved on from that. People probably don't like the perception of shooting animals for sport either (sure sure, pest control etc).

Guns- many of the airguns are just fugly. Weird bullpups, bulbous bottles, thumb holes. It's got to put people off. I'm after classic lines or something tactical, looking like a rifle should. Tastes/requirements change as we get to know the sport so I'm not dismissing they may have their place.

Activity - some of the disciplines are just boring with little appeal. Benchrest? That's a hard sell for someone fit and able. I kind of enjoy the simple version I do for the AGF comp, but not exactly exciting. PRS shooting, that looks awesome and I wish there were more than one place in the country to try that, for eg.

Recruiting - airsoft would be a great source. I was so pleasantly surprised to see so many young people out playing IRL (in real life). They love spending money, upgrades, multiple rifles, pistols etc. I think it's a natural progression and a complimentary sport.

Now that Ive offended half the forum, remember, we are not our opinions!
 
CanuckATO said:
As someone new to the sport, I can see why younger people would be put off by certain things Ive come across so far. I deal with school age children with work, have school age children myself, am a beaver leader, and used to play Airsoft into my late 30's. I can definitely say that not all kids are playing video games all day every day, Id say that's more a reflection on the parenting than kids anyways, but that's another discussion.

Attitudes - very detached. Inclusivity is what we need, and that thread starting pic is a good example of the 'harmless fun' attitude prevalent. Doesn't bother me in the least and I get it, but society has moved on from that. People probably don't like the perception of shooting animals for sport either (sure sure, pest control etc).

Guns- many of the airguns are just fugly. Weird bullpups, bulbous bottles, thumb holes. It's got to put people off. I'm after classic lines or something tactical, looking like a rifle should. Tastes/requirements change as we get to know the sport so I'm not dismissing they may have their place.

Activity - some of the disciplines are just boring with little appeal. Benchrest? That's a hard sell for someone fit and able. I kind of enjoy the simple version I do for the AGF comp, but not exactly exciting. PRS shooting, that looks awesome and I wish there were more than one place in the country to try that, for eg.

Recruiting - airsoft would be a great source. I was so pleasantly surprised to see so many young people out playing IRL (in real life). They love spending money, upgrades, multiple rifles, pistols etc. I think it's a natural progression and a complimentary sport.

Now that Ive offended half the forum, remember, we are not our opinions!
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I too dabbled in airsoft when younger but grew out of it quickly after frustration of the cheating and your bang on with your comments. I noticed the large amount of people wanting to be “snipers” and were obsessed with upgrading their guns in hopes of achieving air rifle accuracy(which never happened). So yeah, perhaps the air soft clubs is one other place to reach out to, even if they allowed air rifles to use their range. The problem here is that they would need to hire more staff to supervise the ranges?

On another note, I was gifted a oculus vr headset and I have to say, after mocking my family members for years it’s very good, I die every time I play “population one” but I can understand why kids get hooked.
 
From experience, if we want to encourage youngsters into the sport, it doesn't really matter what type of rifle/gun they use (springer or PCP), or the style in which it is used (standing or rested).

The thing which is crucial is making it fun.

Shooting at paper targets has a certain appeal but it the appeal is short-lived.
Targets which react in some way always grabs their attention. Things which spin, fall down, blow up or ring, etc., etc., are the most desirable targets...... and the kids will happily "plink" at them for hours.
Plinking games are also popular.
Importantly, it leaves them wanting more.

If they're not smiling, they're not enjoying it.
Even reloading the mags is part of the fun.

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Well....we actually have no problem with interest from the general public here.

The present security situation in Europe have created a huge interest in national defense, sport shooting and even hunting, the latter being notoriously difficult here since so many already hunts regularly..
 
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