Running thought on SSAA and other shooting organisations

I’ll be the first to admit i’ve no idea how it works, but so SSAA has no staff? They’re all vollys? Ie no one gets any benefits/ remuneration? Where/what does all the money go to? This changes my perspective a bit

Seems that way, about the money though, nfi. Grants to state branches? @danmac?

Nationally it’ll be a boat load of cash, the magazines i used to get wern’t that flash so it makes me wonder is all, i’m sure theres alot of behind the scenes, range up keep? Marketing, insurance? Properties…

I ask the same question.

Look at a commercial magazine like new idea, similar size, 12 month subscription is $35. Plus add in 15 bucks save if you go shooting on their ranges, the membership pays off rather quickly.

And i don’t see how they can make huge profits from their ranges, after they pay the ROs, the facility manager and the person on the cash register/shop… They probably be lucky to break even many days.

But my bigger question is, what does other organisations do for shooting (excluding sdaa and nra/vra) like the duck hunting… or better question… apart from cring and sooking what do we do

I think what you did here is called a strawman argument :wink: Irrelevant question.

I think i answered your question as per my knowledge.

and then asked a couple other questions…

i find lots of people are happy to complain and say xyz (could be shooting could be others) does nothing… but no one actually then attempts to give a better solution.

Unless you don’t want to read anything that doesn’t agree with your own ideas… which is fine, it is your forum, your rules

Back to the SSAA I think you will find that there are quite a few full time people in admin Roles. It takes someone more than someone to put the magazine together and more than one person in the office processing memberships on the phone answering questions ect office manager assistant starts to add up.

Well this is not my forum so I ask the question what about the members that don’t use the ranges and only get a magazine the ssaa must be making a profit from us I can find 30 people around me they are likewise in magazine only I understand there is a lot of behind the scenes work from the ssaa but I still wonder how much when major things are brought up from the lawmakers and there is no visible push back from the ssaa to me and I assume to many others this looks like ‘‘lets not stir the pigeons or we will loose our foot hold’’ ie just being a member of the ssaa is enough to gain a gun licence up here I find it hard that they would jeopardise that position by speaking out on members rights or continually heavy voice shooters rights in the media as the gov would take a dim view of that so which leaves the question of are they just moving along and appeasing the law makers to retain their position or are they just in the business of ranges and sport shooting and not for the general shooters as a whole and is it a matter of them getting themselves into a position of power where you won’t get a gun licence unless you are a member of the ssaa and if so I presume by then they would be a toothless tiger guided by the government rather than sticking up for the general shooters and gun owners rather than feathering their own nest

So, as no-one seems to know what this is about, I’ll explain a few of the FACTS.
The bloke from Precision 365 basically started a business under the banner of supposedly teaching people how to shoot accurately at long ranges. Claims to be an ex-army sniper, whatever,…
Sets up on a little, PRIVATE, ( NOT SSAA ) range, hangs a bunch of metal gongs up at varying distances out to 1500+ m, gets a bunch of wanna-be snipers to sign up and pay a bunch of cash, then sets about sending bullets down range in the name of precision shooting.

So, here are a few of the things that he has failed to abide by;

  1. All range shooting in NSW must be approved by F.A.R.
  2. Any formal target shooting must be associated with a recognised discipline.
  3. Disciplines are only authorised if they relate to a target shooting activity that has links to internationally recognised competition. i.e., Olympics, World Titles, etc.
  4. The range inspectors in NSW are very fussy when it comes to shooting metal targets.
    The range safety template basically increases to nearly 3 times that of say a full-bore range.
    Any metal targets shot with high-power rifles must now be shrouded to prevent chances of ricochet.

I could go on as there are a number of other restrictions he has disregarded but that more than covers enough to make my point.
Mr 365 Precision followed none of the approval processes, shoots on unapproved targets, on a range that has insufficient safety template for the distances shot and calibres used and doesn’t shoot an approved match.
It has got nothing to do with SSAA whatsoever, he has basically broken the NSW firearms laws and you blokes reckon they should be shouting from the rooftops to protect him?,…give me a break.
There are about a million licenced firearm owners in Australia, the SSAA has a goal of reaching a membership of 200,000, tell me again how they want ALL firearm owners to be members?
They do have paid staff that are in constant liaison with government departments and members of parliament, constantly on the case to protect ALL shooters rights, but when you have a biased media it’s very hard to get the FACTS publicised. Any incorrect anti-gun reporting results in immediate action from SSAA but the media are very selective about airing any rebuttal from SSAA that is not in keeping with their agenda.
Going in to bat for a bloke that has basically broken the law is not part of their job.

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Getting some meat in the thread. Love it. @Gunmut, “our forum”. I am interested though. I’ll try to find some factoids about other organisations. I think ADA does a bit. As for others, nfi.

Yes danmac I agree that the ssaa couldn’t go in to bat for these blokes because of the way they have gone about the situation as you explained but its been far to long and people tend to form their own opinions it took until now for me to hear what the facts were also I wasn’t referring to those blokes I was referring to the whole thing as far as the ssaa saga goes it sounds like they’ve chucked it in when its said ‘’ It’s very hard to get the facts published’’ its hard to do a lot of things but to duck and dodge to fear what ever they fear then it seems to me it is what I have said they are in fear of loosing what they have with the gov and its business as usual in my opinion that’s not a way to achieve a good outcome for gun owners

I think the ADHA does a bit for the money they take from their members. I know the Upper Goulborne district are active in hunts and other programs as a overall org they are very active on FB and set up displays at shows ect Not sure if that is to generate more members or what as a expo is already preaching to the converted. One of the guys at my rifle club is the secretary for the UG ADHA hence we have twice a year shooting comps at our range.

I think we should remember the time that the AFP flat out lied about the number of “firearms” that were seized at the border, one year.
SSAA called them out on it; there were ‘some’ firearms, but the greater majority was parts.
I seem to recall that AFP was, in essence, forced to make a corrective statement, but, guess what, it was “buried” in some publication, so that nobody really noticed a correction to the lie.
MSM were more than happy to trumpet the lie, but come correction time, well, it’s down to the editor as to where the item is placed, at the behest of the doctrine that the publication follows.
The SSAA does a lot more, behind the scenes, that you fellows never see, or perhaps even hear about.

See, I call BS on this. As a paid up member I see or heart nothing about this and having work in corporate industry for a while, this is code talk for I’ve done nothing. Evidence, anything, something quantifiable…

Yes oldAG I understand what you are saying but again with you and danmac the buck stops with the media outlet being rather hard to deal with especially the truth so why stop there on major items why not find alternative ways of getting the truth out and by the way for the record I have never said the ssaa has never done anything for shooters it’s the lack of it and the lack to pushing hard for shooters of all walks the ssaa have had long enough to find avenues of getting true info out to people, again it was said that there was no push especially with the AFP having to apologise but didn’t make it ‘‘presumably’’ so why wasn’t it followed up while the AFP were on the ropes but again we get the its very hard to get the facts out to the people I don’t buy that because if you are the right man or woman for the job then I couldn’t see them pulling back until they have been heard loud and clear no matter what it takes to get the truth out

There are official websites, forums, Facebook, Reddit, instagram, twitter…

YouTube, Vimeo, other shooter organisations’ website.

Perhaps one of the SSAA main shortcomings is communicating to its members what it has done or is doing to support and progress Sporting Shooters. The magazine as nearly all magazines have found out are costly to produce and less read than other forms of media. Switch to an electronic magazine only others have done it and found it is working better communicating wise and costs less.

If you blokes are interested, the SSAA actually put a lot of time, effort and resources into getting the “Nioka” range up and running, despite it being a private range. I know this first hand and I do shoot there.
The owners of the property then decided to go it alone and separated themselves from any involvement with SSAA. They used to charge a range fee for a weekend shoot and provided meals at reasonable cost to try to make an income from the range. They then decided, approximately 2 years ago, that that was too much trouble and that anyone using the range had to be self sufficient.
About the same time “Precision 365” approached them and offered much more income than they had been receiving and basically took over the range. Bulldozing mounds that had been put in place for metallic silhouette because he couldn’t work out “why the hell would you want a mound at 365m?”
( That’s the turkey distance for the un-educated.) He then set up suspended, metal “gong” targets from 200 to 1500m. Wether he had sought FAR approval for these targets I don’t know, sounds like he didn’t.
The NSW FAR range inspector has his tits in a tangle over metal targets and has been closing ranges that shoot them or imposing strict conditions on the use of such targets. He requires them to be “shrouded” so that there can be no chance of a ricochet, his ideas on the behavior of projectiles hitting steel targets have no basis in fact or evidence and some of his ideas defy the laws of physics. As you can imagine this has caused a lot of grief for us that shoot such targets, ( e.g.,silhouette, long range black-powder, etc.,) While I am all for supporting “Precision365” if you want, blaming the SSAA for this blokes plight and assuming they are all for it is horseshit!!!
Like most things folks, the devil IS in the details.