POOR SPORTSMANSHIP AT REGIONAL SHOOTS

[backwoods]

As of late there have been a few problems arrising at our MBA shoots, and honestly I have been l the last to find out these things. But now I know and its fixing to all be fixed and I MEAN NOW! First problem is people talking about others when they are not present to defend theirselves. THIS IS GOING TO STOP IMMEDIATELY! This weekend alone, had a person accuse someone of missing a target, but no miss was on the scorecard. They laughed and joked about how that score cant be possible when they missed multiple targets. Well after making calls and getting calls from the people in the group with the person that was said to missed a target or 2, truth is they were innocent, but someone else in the group did miss targets and freely admitted it and score card reflected it. When you accuse someone, you better make sure you know exactly what your saying and it better be the truth and right, cause if your wrong, it has made the person you accused look bad for no reason and yourself look stupid for telling a lie. And what does all this do? Makes people NOT wanna come shoot, be apart of us, and hurts our sport as a whole. I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS AT ALL. If you cant say something nice, SHUT UP and dont say anything at all. Next issue is we have people taking extremely to much time on the range. I cant find it in my copy of the rules but it will be corrected by the state shoot, but ALL SCORECARDS ARE TO BE IN BY 5PM. Any afterwards are disqualified automatically. A 15 min grace period I think is fair enough. Coming in off at range at 630 pm two regionals in a row is not gonna cut it. If I could found it in writing this weekend I had enough people mad enough to protest the last group out and got them all disqualified. So at the state shoot next month cut off time on Sunday will be 1pm sharp. ALL CARDS IN BY 5PM. NO EXCEPTIONS UNLESS MYSELF AND COMMITTEE SEE FIT TO MAKE A EXCEPTION. Next problem, and this hurts me and makes me mad down to my core, WE HAVE PEOPLE NOT EXACTLY CALLING SCORES CORRECTLY. If your arrow is not touching the line, YOU DO NOT GET THE HIGHER SCORE. If you think you can miss a line by a quarter inch and call it a 12 or 14, go to eye doctor cause you in danger of shooting someone. This is just not gonna work. So everyone in the run for Top Gun this year, you will be peer grouped at the state championship. From cubs all the way up to the pros. Show up on Sunday morning around 10am and be ready to be assigned a group to shoot in. I hate to have to do these things, this is supposed to be fun, but when we have people bending and breaking rules, its time to teach them how to do things proper like. I WILL NOT NAME NAMES OR TELL WHO, WHY AND WHAT I KNOW SO DO NOT CALL ME ASKING PLEASE! I got to much going on now as it is, and this crap IS going to stop right now. I have also gotten reports about people in Bowhunter and Bowhunter moveable being upset over some issues. As for this year I will not change anything until after state shoot. When you sign up at table for bowhunter moveable, please notify personsigning you up if you have pins or a moveable sight, I need to know exactly what I am dealing with to make a ruling on some things. THANKS!

[naburton]

"you sign up at table for bowhunter moveable, please notify personsigning you up if you have pins or a moveable sight"

I say... Just bring your bow to the table.... and let the MBA classify the bow

[martinleopard]

RULE 12- Put your money where your mouth’s at! The MBA has this rule to protect the integrate of the shoot. If you have proof that a shooter is scored wrong, prove it! This means take your money and information to the correct people so it can be investigated and handle with class. This is not joke and it not funny. Be a man take the right steps because the MBA has rules to take care of this situation.

RULE 10- Arrow must touch line! Score it, what it is!

TIME- This is hard! I didn’t get off the range at Yazoo until 5:30 signed-up at 12:30. The line at the first target was long. SUGGESTION: Maybe have 2 shotgun starts. One around 10:00 and one around 2:00. This would put everyone finishing at the same time. Also you could assign groups. This would stop some conflict. This is my view point>i enjoy archery...

[wheresthebear]

The time issue is going to be a work in progress. There are going to be times like yazoo city where there is going to be a back up on the range due to a large number of shooters. But when you take 15 min per target is going to stop.

The other issues are cut and dry. Like martinleapord said, put your money were your mouth is. If you feel there is an injustice, write out a complant and turn it and the fee into one of the MBA 3D officials and it will be checked into. What went down this past weekend was wrong in so many ways.

[stickslingerdh]

I'm proud of you Backwoods ! I think peering groups at the State Shoot is the best Idea I've heard of in awhile. I'm for it at every shoot. If you could go back on here about 2 years, you would see that I recommended this way back then. Some people are just not gonna do right in " Their Little Group ".

[lojo]

I wasn't able to make it to the Philadelphia MBA regional, but all these issues come up at local shoots as well. I think peer grouping is the best solution. We've discussed it at our club as well. ASA does it, it works, and we operate under ASA rules. This would also solve the problem of having 6 people in one group and 3 in another. The group of 6 will always take longer and hold others up. ASA and, I'm sure, MBA also have time limit rules for shooters. That is a MUST and the people in the group have to help enforce it.

As others have already stated here, if you KNOW something is occurring that's wrong -- and I do mean KNOW -- put up the money and protest. It will benefit the sport of archery to weed these things out. Just my 2cents.

[mrgoodtime]

Your doing a great job with the 3-D Bill, dont let anyone tell you different , I been a member for many yrs. and i'll stand and say that NOBODY better could have been picked who loves the sport more and wants to see it grow and mature more than you.Holler if ya need me/us

[backwoods]

Thanks everyone thats has chimed in on this. I wanna be perfectly clear on this, NOTHING that has happened so far is the responsibility of the clubs we have been at this year. Yazoo, Oxford, Columbia, and Philidelphia have been nothing short of amazing to me and the MBA this year. But going to them you hear of some cocerns they having, issues in general, and I see them in our shoots. If anyone is to blame it is me because I am running the shoots. YES I seen some issues, but for the good of the sport I thought the issues would corrected themselves so I let somethings go by hoping for the best. BUT I have quickly seen I have to lead the way with the things needing changed and so I am doing the best I can. PLEASE BE PATIENT! And thanks so much for all the support I have gotten, I cant do my job without the shooters and more importantly the clubs themselves working with me to make these shoots be what they are and hoping they will be. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[reesguide]

Bill, Keep pluggin away and it will come together. The hard truth is that peerin groups are neccesary, not to keep folks from cheating but to keep good folks from gettin cheated. Zero tolerance is the best policy, give an inch and some will take a mile. A fair and simple shoot will be enjoyed more by all. At a golf tourney one time we put a scorekeeper with each group, some left and wouldn't play but there sure was alot less griping when the scores were posted!!! Keep it clean and enjoy the sport!!!

[teoctom]

I have been out of the shooting loop for 12 years now, and I am looking to get back involved into the sport. It was always good fun until someone started taking things way too serious.
I am competitive to the core, and that is good as long as it is under control. At the end of the day, we do this for fun and we need to remember that sportsmanship is the key to all aspects of hunting and shooting sports.
Lets be cordial, lets keep it honest, and lets go have fun is what my philosophy is.