There is a class for anyone with any equipment to shoot pro, its called PRO your choice if you want to shoot pins, fingers, scope, big arrows, little arrows, long stabilizer etc. If you want to shoot pro, shoot pro, don' t try to change pro to suit individual needs. There are 3 pro classes now, that' s plenty. You want something more challenging than HC, move to mbr/fbr or the fingers equivalent.

--Bob

No, actually, there are only Pro Classes for shooters who are proficient at 50 yds.
I don' t care about the equipment used. Just thought, as others said above, that it would be nice to have a Pro Hunter Class and maybe even a Pro MBR/FBR. This forum is for everyone to express their opinions in a friendly manner whether they agree or not!
On the MBR/FBR, I don' t feel you should change equipment rules. For what purpose? The yardage is fine too.
But enough said about Hunter Class and MBR/FBR; we are getting away from the message of the first post. I feel it would be a benefit to the IBO if they would split the MBO class into two classes. This would give the shooters in MBO a better chance to win something and not compete with pro-like(for lack of a better term) shooters. Just like Chiefheadhunter said, " he was hooked" when he won a trophy from the B Class in Open , and not discouraged. We all know this would not take place this year, but it would be nice to have a vote on the subjects I and others just mentioned. This is an organization with members, is it not?

Why do we want to change the rules when somebody doesn’t win? When I shoot in the MBO class at worlds I shoot to be the best! How are you going to get rid of the sand baggers that shoot 350' s all season go to worlds and bang they some how shoot in the 90' s.You cant disqualify them if you do then you will have to disqualify the guy that has a good day. We all want to be pros but we aren’t. To make a class so you are I think is wrong. The pros are there because they deserve it mot because someone made a class for them.

There is much discussion on this subject which is good if everyone is thinking about the overall class and not just what will benifit their own position. The MBO and Hunter Class big as they are at a few shoots are very small if you consider all the facts and potential. In the 2003 year book there are over 100 shoots for people to qualify at and they are still authorizing shoots to qualify at. Only the top 20 shooters in each class qualify to shoot at the world in the amatuer class and the trophy shoot has no qualifying shoots. At the World this year in W Virginia the total shooters in both the rounds MBO AND HC. Trophy and ametuer was approximately 500 shooters. This gives an average of approximately 5 shooters for each qualifier. At the Indoor World the top 20 shooters is less than 10% of the shooters who tried to qualify. With some kind of division in these classes many more people could qualify without having to travel or spend additional monies to qualify. There are many more advantages and reasons that these classes should be looked at and some kind of solution be studied to try to satisfy the majority.
The two classes that we are discussing made up a large percentage of the total shooters at the world. Of the approximately 30 classes represented these two classes represented about 35%. These figures can all be verified very easily.
The IBO is aware of all the facts and figures and if it is possible to make changes easily it will be done. For this year no further changes can be made. At the end of the year there will be another year of facts and figures to use in future changes.
There is no way that everyone can have things just exactly the way they would like them so let us try to put together some things that we will learn this year and help the people in charge look at possible changes that will benefit the IBO and all the members.

bowperson, sorry if you took my post as rude/snotty, wasn' t meant that way. Let me try to re-state it.

There are to many pro classes now (in my opinion). If you want to shoot pro, then there is a place to do it, pro, to me means the best, take on all comers. Creating more " pro" classes to satisfy people who don' t want to put in the time and effort to get great at the " pro" ranges, again in my opinion, is wrong and will do nothign to diminish the term/classification of Pro.

As for breaking MBO up, I think it may make sense, the numbers dropped, but there are still to many to put on one range combination. However, Ken has explained before, there is alot more to adding classes than just adding one. The largest issue is probably the scholarship programs that are out there now, which are done to EACH class at the generosity of Hocking College (?). Adding more classes would basically ask them to pony up more money, which would be pushing the request and they would have every right at that point to withdraw it totally.

I like the theory of the OpenA/B/C that ASA does, however, run over to the asa message board and look around, won' t take long to find posts about people sandbagging lower than some feel they shouuld, just to win. Same discussions we get here at times about former open, mbr, spm, pmr shooters shooting HC.

The only place MBO size is an issue is at the worlds, and I think they handle it pretty good.

--Bob

I think if someone is good enough to be shooting in the pro class,they should be able to shoot at any distance.

Bob H , thankyou for re-stating your post. I agree to a certain extent what you said about the pros.

Something has to be done about the large numbers in MBO and HC. The A/B/C class method would be good for both MBO & HC.

As for handling the MBO class, I don' t feel that it was fair for all in that class. They all did not shoot the same course. If they would split it in two, or more if necessary, then the shooters on each course would be competing fairly.

About Hocking College Scholarships; even though the classes would be divided, it would still just be MBO & HC.

The problem with shooters jumping down just to win; I don' t think anyone can do anything about those. I guess it' s just something we all have to deal with, unless someone can come up with a solution for that particular problem.

Somebody hopefully is bound to come up with a good solution concerning MBO and the HC that will be fair for everyone. Let' s hope we can all discuss these matters nicely, especially concerning HC. That way, we can hear what everyone has to say; and weigh out each opinion.

I for one hope the MBO stays the same. The class definitely creates problems with getting 500 or so shooters on a course. But, I have seen the other side and it creates its own problems.

When ASA started Open C it was (and still is) as a Novice scope class. A way for people to move from pins such as novice or HC and try a scope without all the pressure of Open A and B. Didn' t take.

Check out the participation #s on the ASA site. (I have not checked this year so I may be made a liar since ASA took the shotoer of the year points out of Open C. That class may have dwindled some). The open A class is the smallest of the amateur scope calsses. Open B is next. and Open C is always the biggest. For some reason archery is a sand bagging sport. I know of several people that have been shooting longer than I have (I shot with one guy at my very first shoot who shot Open B 5 years ago) who are now shooting a novice class, Open C.

So it may seem a quick fix. But here is one vote for sticking with the current problems before creating new ones.

bowperson, not sure I follow you on both breaking up mbo into a,b,c and scholarship still is MBO, can you explain that please.

As for HC, I don' t see a need to break it up, they, last year, still fit on one course combination for the worlds. MBO breaks across 3 course combinations, they take the top scores from each combination and start them even for teh 10 target shootout on Sunday. Personally, I like it this way. It would be nice if you could find a way to carry the scores over, but that wouldn' t work, cause the courses can' t possibly be all made equal. But it would be a shame to shoot the lights out for two days, and then loose it on one brain fart nerve induced shot. But those are the rules and you know them going in, so you have agreed to play by them. Me, I just botched it on Saturday, I was on teh line after Friday and quickly shot myself out of it Saturday morning due to nerves. [X(]

--Bob