I couldn't agree with you more. I do however think that if we could offer something to this type of shooter, the ones closer to the major shoots would show up for the "fun" of it. But, like you said, most of these guys arent wanting to travel far or spend a ton of money to shoot. But we could just maybe get some shooters from close to these tournaments to show up and get bitten by the bug and start shooting year round. One of the things about competition shooting I like is the fact that when i get ready to go hunting, I put on my broad heads and adjust my site for them and I am ready to get it on (and I agree with you that there is a difference between 3-d competition and hunting practice, the targets dont move, and you have 2 minutes to shoot him). Shooting regularly has rewards which I need not explain on this forum, you already know what they are. But I will point out what I think is the most important of those, and that is the practice and endurance. You can hold longer, and you will have confidence in your shot. No need to shoot two hours a day for the two weeks leading up to season, no rushing to the bow shop days before season when it is likely that they are too busy to get to you right away because thats the same thing the average hunter has done, you have been ready for months, your biggest quandry is how much stuff you need to take for opening day. butchb