New-York tribune., 1921-11-28
Rules for Coming Season
To Be Discussed Fully
at Two Dav Meeting

The third annual meeting Of the
general committee, the rulemaking
and governing body of the American
Trapshooting Association, will be held
here Thursday ard Friday, and even
now the members of this board Of
control are on their way to New York
for preliminary work to be done be-
fore the magnates go into the formal
sessions.
This committee, which will doctor
the rules and regulations of the great
clay target sport, is composed of ten
amateur committee and the executive
committee, which has the same number.
President Elmer Z. Shaner, of Slippery
Rock, Pa; Vice President Tom A.
Marshall, of Chicago; Secretary Stoney
McLinn, of New York, and Treasurer
Tom A. Davis, of New York also have
the right TO sit in with this committee,
SO If all are present fourteen experts
of the scattergun sport will answer
the roll call.
The election Of chairman of the
amateur committee will be the first
business to be transacted The fate of
the zone managers certainly will be
quickly placed in the balance, if not
actually decided, on the first day. For
two years they have attended the big
shoots throughout the country and
acted as managers, arbiters and or
ganizers. While their work has been
generally satisfactory, especially in
giving service to the clubs, the plan Of
carrying field operatives at this time Is
very expensive. Whether or not the
zone managers are too expensive for
the amount of good accomplished is for
the members Of the amateur committee
to decide.
To Reform Scoring Rules
In a general way it Is known that
the scoring rules will be changed to
some extent, but the reform viii not
be revolutionary in character. For in
stance, it is believed that one emer-
gency ruling made last session by Sec
retary McLinn will be ratified and
added to the list. This ruling was
made necessary by peculiar error on
mark showing the result Of shoot
er's inning. 1t is likely that the re-
sponsibility will be placed upon the
shooter.
The question also may involve the
present form of protest and the time in
which it is made. The present rules
permit shooter to protest against the
scoring before he has shot two addi-
tional targets. This rule may be tight
ened so as to read before the con-
testant has fired another shot"
1t also is known positively that there
is demand for fewer tournaments, the
slogan being equality rather than
quantity" The registered tournament
u al J. +l,l
practically every club in the country,
whether large or small, wants to enter
tain visiting shooters. The evil of
freely granting registration of the
tournament variety has been guarded
against, but once again action must be
taken to prevent clubs from cheaper
ing what are regarded as stellar events
OF trapshooting.
Just how the number of tournaments
will be lessened is not known, but sew
eral methods have been advanced, and
all will be discussed. One recommen-
dation would base the number OF tour
naments in a state upon the number Of
affiliated shooters in that state. An
other suggestion is to grant registra-
tlon for tournament only when club
can prove a large number of active
trapshooters.
Reduce Number of Targets
But that does not mean that clubs
will have difficulty registering the tar
gets so that their members may obtain
official averages and ratings. The rule
makers of trapdom not only reduced
the number of registered targets re-
quired for an average and rating from
1000 to 1000, but also authorized the
registration Of club shoots, so that q
nimrod now may obtain rating at his
own club.
And these reforms, al of which have