shooting hugh, you state you have shot a couple of ibo shoots, is that saying you have attended a national ibo shoot, or a local shoot that uses the ibo rules. sounds like you have not been to a national shoot.

its the same as your local club trap shoot vs the grand...different critter all together.

my advise is to attend a national ibo event, the southern triple crown, the indoor world, national triple crown, or world shoot. then form an opinion of the ibo. if you are experiencing problems with the local clubs, please dont think that is the way the ibo isran. there are some extremely hard working folks that take care of the ibo and the shooters. please dont mix the two up between local clubs and the real ibo. go to www.ibo.net and look at the rules, i think you will find all the answers you need there.

if you dont think the ibo promotes archery, or does anything to grow the sport, attend the ibo world at snowshoe wv this year. i think the attitude will change. again, i think you are caught up in some local range stuff that isnt a good representation of the real ibo, its ideas, and views on 3d archery.

you mention classing people, the same problem you are experiencing at you local club is the largest contributing factor to not being able to accurately class shooters. the range difficulties differ, the range rules between clubs differ, even though they may state they are an ibo club, the only time a score could count toward an ibo classification for score would be an ibo qualifier or state tournament. the other scores could be obtained thru shooting the national level shoots, but you would have to attend several to get a good baseline to accurately place shooters into classes.

the ibo offers classes from pee wee to seniors, with classes with varying max yardages from 20 yards to 50 yards approximate. without a baseline to start a shooter in ibo events, you would have to start them in the most difficult class offered for that shooters equipment. they may be a very legitimate bowhunter, but, without a history on that shooter, you cannot assume they either have the ability, or need to develope the ability to shoot longer yardages. start them off in a class too dificult for that shooters ability, and they may never return. let them shoot in a class that is not challenging enough for them they have the opportunity to move up, but this is not mandatory in the ibo. if you want to shoot a specific class, not effected by age progression as in the cub, pee wee..etc..you can shoot it from now on. that differs from firearm shooting sports, where there is a large group of shooters, paying enough money to afford to pay someone to keep scores, keep up with scores, and report them back via the internet or paper methods. the ibo is non profit. there whole funtcion is to promote 3d archery, which makes them money, so they can fight for bowhuters rights, which is where they spend the money we pay in.