Plain jane cowboy action shooting?

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JellyJar

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I have been interested in doing some sort of cowboy action shooting for some time but I plain don't want to play dress up or go around using some silly name. :cuss: All that I am interested in are the guns and the gear.

Also, I understand that in most SASS events today they use pipsqueak loads that a mouse would laugh at. :barf: I would like to see an event where the shooters were required to use more or less full power loads for the big cartridges liked they used back in the day.

Does anyone know of such an organization?
 
part of what you're missing is that SASS isn't as much about shooting as it is about marketing and selling merchandise.

SASS is the best marketed and most profitable of the shooting sports...well, maybe trap shooting, but the demographic of SASS is different...it's like NASCAR. it's about inclusion in a shooting sport.

many local matches don't require you to wear a full get up...but you'll be like Lady Godiva...but i can't see they raising the power floor

although, to tell the truth, many famous shootist did use the smaller calibres
 
AFAIK, SASS is pretty much what there is as far as organized cowboy shooting goes. But like all the games, it's kind of up to you (within certain limits) how far you want to go.

You'll have to join SASS and come up with a name. How silly it is, is pretty much up to you, as long as no one else is using it. I don't know for sure, but maybe you could even use your real name or some slight variation on it. Or if you have a nickname, that would probably work.

You'd have to play "dress up" to some extent. If you're just planning to shoot at your local club, how much you need to dress up will depend on their local rules or custom. For some clubs, jeans, a western type shirt, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat should do the trick. A lot of folks around here dress like that every day.

And the rules don't require that you use mouse guns. It might put you at a competitive disadvantage, but it all depends on whether you're out to win or just for the fun of shooting the old style guns. In my CAS days, I shot .45 Colt loaded to about 850 fps (pretty much standard velocity for the round), and I shot Duelist (one handed). Didn't win, but had fun.
 
The entire point of SASS is to re-create a microcosmic, romanticized image of the old west. That is why they require you to pick an alias and wear a period-appropriate costume.

It's about much more than just the shooting competition, as large SASS gatherings like the End of Trails include all kinds of events like singing, dancing, rope tricks, cooking, etc.

The entire point is to create a gathering with a particular ambiance. The SASS guys might bristle at my mentioning it, but SASS is kind of like a Renaissance Fair or gathering of Steam Punk enthusiasts in that regard.

While dressing up certainly isn't my thing, I have to say it is cool that there are people willing to go to those lengths to construct what is basically a subculture of western-style shooters.
 
Justin, I think you're spot on. I used to regularly go to Winter Range and had a great time -- in large part because of the overall experience.

I can understand someone being in it primarily for the fun of shooting the old style guns. But the whole "lifestyle" side of it adds great color and interest. I've still got some pretty neat outfits.
 
Having watched some events and talked to the folks involved with it I have pretty much decided it's not my cup of tea. The game seems to be a dress up version of USPSA/IPSC competition only using antiquated firearms and replicas. Folks that participate seem to enjoy it all and that's what matters the most. Most of the get ups Hollywood western inspired rather than historically accurate.
 
http://www.sassnet.com/AClubs-AL-001A.php

Here is the SASS page for Alabama clubs.

Hat, button up shirt, jeans & boots.
You don't have to go all out.

You have to use holsters and you have to use lead bullets.

As far as the "full power loads" remember they used black powder for a lot of the cowboy era, the hotter smokeless powder came in the mid 1880s.
 
There is a huge range of cowboy shooters. Many DO really get in to the costume side. But you don't have to. You can't show up in a baseball cap and running shoes, but, acceptable outfit is not too hard to come up with. If you have a long sleeve shirt, jeans, leather boots (they don't have to be cowboy boots) and a hat you can shoot. Although most of the "gamers" do shoot light loads, you can shoot normal power stuff with no problem. They do have an upper limit (1000 FPS) and you are limited to lead bullets only, both restrictions to prevent target damage. But that includes normal loads in 38 special and 45 colt, so it's not a big burden.

Give it a try, you will find friendly people, the vast majority of whom are there to have fun, not to win. You will even find quite a few others who want to shoot full bore loads, some black powder too. "Style points" are not actually counted up, but are well respected. At a lot of matches, if you just show up they will loan you guns, ammo, a hat, almost anything you need to get started.
 
Well, if you don't like Cowboy Action shooting cuz you don't want to wear the appropriate attire...

So, do 3 gun and use the old guns. But, don't expect the SASS people to change the sport they enjoy to accommodate you.

I enjoy SASS and I like dressing the part of the cowboy.

It would seem silly to be wearing flip flops, a panama hat and shorts and shooting the old rifles.
 
LOL

Like other shooting competitions don't involve dress-up.

I'm not a SASS shooter, but come on, look around you at some other shoots. You don't need a full ensemble of tactical clothes, usually, but that doesn't stop anyone from dressing head to toe like they're on a SWAT team so they can shoot a 10/22.

Jeans, a shirt, and a Stetson will suffice for SASS. You don't have to have handmade retro clothes if you don't want to. People have fun with it, if they want to.

WRT loads, I can't think of any shooting sport where any serious participant uses a higher-recoil load than they need to, either because of "power factor" rules or to knock down a target.

Part of the reason for the clothes and aliases (as with CFDA) is to attract the public as spectators and future participants. It works.
 
Not a SASS shooter, but just a thought, what's the big deal with making up a name? No offense, but I'm sure your real name is not JellyJar, but you use that name here don't you? Just call yourself Jellyjar Tom, Dick, or Harry etc. etc.
 
notbubba said:
...As far as the "full power loads" remember they used black powder for a lot of the cowboy era, the hotter smokeless powder came in the mid 1880s.
Click to expand...
The normal "old west" load of black powder in the .45 Colt produced a muzzle velocity of about 800 to 900 fps with a 250 grain bullet. Current SAAMI loads using smokeless powder produce about the same. A 250 grain bullet at that velocity is "meaningful" and a hair more potent than the normal .45 ACP performance of a 230 grain bullet at about 850 fps (more or less).

So the old black powder loads were about the same power and recoil as today's standards. They just used more powder and had a different pressure curve.

Forgive this digression.
 
SASS has set the financial barriers to entry pretty high, I think. For any kind of beginner, having to buy three different kinds of guns is pretty expensive when you don't yet know if you are really interested. I noted that where they have cowboy silhouette, they set the standards on guns to exclude cheap single shots (e.g. handi-rifles) and push you to reproductions of 19th century weapons that cost over $1000. So despite their reputation (which I don't doubt) for being friendly and inclusive, they've set the rules in a way that defines their demographic.

For handguns and shotguns, there are acceptable guns are pretty reasonable price levels.
 
The H&R Buffalo Classic is SASS legal, though I think you have to change the sights a bit to fit within the regs. It's relatively cheap.

Otherwise, though, it's true: the initial barrier to entry is significant, with around $2000 worth of guns required, just to start -- not counting the gunsmithing.

Personally, I would probably dabble in SASS if there was a rimfire division and/or there was a one-revolver division. I have other things to do. Of course, that might get me "hooked" and that would be okay. But I would need a lower bar to clear, just to try it out.

As it stands, I might try CFDA. One gun, and a lot of fun.
 
I looked at getting into it, but lost interest when I learned about the pipsqueak loads (if you're looking for the experience of shooting these old guns, and you're using squib loads, then you're not getting it), and when I learned that I could take my Dad's .357 magnum Ruger bird's head Vaquero -- a gun that did not exist in the old west, firing a cartridge that did not exist in the old west -- and I could compete with that. But on the other hand, if I took my real, 1880s-vintage S&W 1st model double action, in .44 Russian -- a gun that is actually from the old west period -- I would not be allowed to participate.

They can have it.
 
You might look into Lever Action Silhouette. All you need is a .30-30 class rifle, preferably with a tang or peep sight, OR a lever gun chambered for a pistol caliber cartridge OR a .22 rimfire lever, pump or semiauto with a tubular magazine. All depends on which class you want to shoot, I shoot all three classes and have less than a grand total invested including the tang sights and Lyman 17a front sights. Lots of fun, shoot old time type rifles, no special clothing needed, very simple rules, nice people. Give it a try. :)
 
You can keep CAS. They can't hit the broad side of a barn.

I ran the revolver range tower at the 100th N-SSA Nationals. We've got a revolver team event, shot at 25 yards with percussion revolvers. Four-man teams, three events...12 clay pigeons on a backer, 8 hanging clay pigeons, 8 4-inch square wood blocks.

A seriously competitive team will break all targets, with a total time of around 100 seconds.

For the 100th, we invited some CAS shooters to try it. Didn't even require them to shoot one-handed.

They broke a total of six targets, IIRC.
 
if you want plain jane cowboy shooting, simply go out back with your cowboy era handgun, load it up and plink at a tin can in front of an old stump.
 
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