Area 6 Championship match will go somewhere else!

             Dixie Shooters bid on and received the Area 6 IPSC Championship for 1999 and 2000.  However, we were unable to negotiate an agreement as to how the match would be run, the range fees, a commitment by USPSA to hold the match here for two years,  the payback to the shooters, and what to give the Range Officers who helped officiate the matches held here.

            The biggest issues were the range fees, the commitment by USPSA to hold the match at the F.O.P. Range facility for two years (as is customary) instead of just one year so the range can recoup the expenses of improving our facility to hold just this one event,  and the RO garrantees.  The club president, Tim Herring, has respectfully withdrawn Dixie Shooter's bid on the match due to these problems. (See the letter to John Hurst and Andy Hollar - President's letter declining Area 6 match).

             We are in the planning stages of creating an independant match on the scale of FIPT, The Mile High Showdown, and other big non-USPSA matches.  The name "Dixie Nationals" has been suggested.  If you have any suggestions, can help out with planning, or want to know more, call  or e-mail us at the Range or Tim Herring.  

                  We at the F.O.P. Range will not have any substandard competitive events held here.  We will always run our events openly and fairly.  We will not forget that this is supposed to be fun for us shooters.  That is the reason Tony and I got involved in this business and the real reason the Dixie Shooters was formed.  A match that would withhold funds that should be paid back to the shooters so that a few Range Officers can be garranteed guns on a private "Range Officer Prize Table" is unfair to the ones that matter, THE SHOOTERS!!  IPSC officiating is supposed to be done on a voluntary basis.  There is no room or funds for "professional RO's".  If this sport is to grow, changes have to be made.  We propose that they are made here and now.  

                 There is a lot of work to be done in putting on a large shooting event that would be able to handle 300+ competitors.  We already have a premiere shooting facility capable of handling parking for over 200 cars.  We would enlarge our parking capacity to hold 300+ vehicles.  Enclose the end of the shotgun range to create a safe place to hold huge feild courses (35 by 75 yards).  Build a new range behind our Steel Plate Range large enough to also hold a large feild course.  Then there is the hundreds of tons of rock that must be trucked in to ensure that there is safe sure footing and no mud to be tracked home from our range.  All these things we had proposed to do to get ready for the Area 6 match.  We would have a large expense of preparing our facility for this large event.  The F.O.P. Range has traditionally beared the expense for all the props, target stands, steel targets, moving targets, turning targets, running targets, staples, timers, sticks, etc. for the Dixie Shooters for every match held here.  Dixie Shooters has not had to provide anything, other than shooters and RO's, and that is why we have charged the range fee of $25 at the Section Level IPSC matches held here.  We only asked $15 per shooter for the Area 6 match.  We would need the match for two years or we would incur a loss hosting the match.  An agreement could not be reached.

                 A "Dixie Nationals" would be an asset to the IPSC shooting community as it would be a fair match with tremendous payout to the winners of each class and the match winners.  You will find complete financial statements for every Section Level match held at our range put on by Dixie Shooters in the Major Matches section of our home page.  You will notice that the payback at our section Level matches has been greater than the last Area 6 match with money being paid out through 5th place in B and C classes.  B and C make up the bulk of us shooters and put the most money into the matches.  Ask for a financial statement from the Area 6 match and you will hear that it is none of the shooter's business where the money they paid for the match went.

                     We have not forgotten..... IPSC is for shooters,  IPSC is fun,  IPSC should not be a politically run professional range officer organization.

Jon Grigsby  A-32152