ucson, AZ – As mostlong-time SASS mem-bers know, in the be-ginning there where
three “Founding Fathers”—BillHahn, Gordon Davis, and HarperCreigh, Judge Roy Bean, SASS#1. These three gentlemen werethe sparkplugs and inspirationbehind what has become knownas Cowboy Action Shooting™. Allthree were Action Pistol competi-tors, but when it was questionedif that game could be played with“cowboy guns,” these were theguys who put their heads to-gether and made it happen. Welost Bill a few years ago, we stillhave the Judge, but GordonDavis, Diamond Jim Chisholm,lost his battle with ParkinsonsDisease and Lewy Body Demen-tia just after Thanksgiving 2012.
Gordon Davis was a leather
maker … in fact, he had beenmaking leather products since hewas 12 years old. His products in-cluded all sorts of “cowboy” itemsand many found their way intowestern movies such as Tomb-stone and Unforgiven. His prod-ucts were also instrumental ininfluencing designs for Safarilandand John Bianchi’s fledging busi-ness. Celebrities the likes of ClintEastwood, Roy and Dusty Rogers,and Randy Travis also proudlystrapped on his cowboy rigs.
At the first END of TRAILGordon took the role ofspokesman for the event. ChinaCamp’s video of the match promi-nently features Gordon explain-ing the stages for the camera. Hewas associated with the produc-tion of END of TRAIL for the nextseveral years until business and
U.S.OpenThe Match of Champions!
Diamond Jim Chisholm, SASS #27aka Gordon Davis
TState, Regional, and above cham-pions a FREE match at the U.S.Open held at the World Shootingand Recreation Complex inSparta, Illinois September 4through September 9, 2012. Whatan opportunity! Top shootersfrom across our great nation con-vened and most of them broughttheir “A” game! BUT, the bestthing about the U. S. Open (andANY match headed up by Moseand Bella Spencer) was EVERYshooter in attendance was madeto feel like a CHAMPION!
The warm-up Matches began
,.
By Sugah, SASS #80446Photos by Sugah & Tex, SASS #4
There were plenty of categories at this year’s US Open—the usual standard categories as well as Outlaw, Senior Gunfighter,Frontier Cartridge Gunfighter, and others … a little something foreveryone … and, the categories all had enough folks in them to provide true competition. Three days of main match competition in changing weather conditions tested everyone and allowed
the real champions to emerge. It was loads of fun!
For Updates, Information and GREAT Offers on the fly-Text SASS to 772937!
HISTORY Little Known Famous People . . . Women In The Old West . . .
REVIEWS BOOKS Raid In Lincoln County . . .
ON THE RANGE What’s Goin’ On In Your Town? . . .
CLUB REPORTS Shootin’ Across The USA . . . Two Shoots For One Good Cause
THE WILD BUNCH CORNER
GENERAL STORE /CLASSIFIED
SASS AFFILIATED CLUBS (MONTHLY, ANNUAL)
SASS MERCANTILE (Nice Collectables) . . .POLITICAL A Fundamentally Changed America . . .
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SASS is a member of the Edgewood Chamber of Commerce and actively participates in local community events. Edgewood
inaugurated its annual “Hunt-n-Glow” holiday festival designed to entice folks to spend the day visiting Edgewood businesses.
In the evening there was a lights parade, featuring, among others, a SASS cowboy float. Local SASS members are seen here beside
the “gussied up” SASS freight wagon. It was a fun time—but COLD!
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Tex, SASS #4
to be positive!It’s impossible to think about the
future without at least spending sometime pondering what’s happening inour society where folks feel somehowempowered to march into public areasand start shooting. No one, gun own-ers included, care to see such behavioror endorse it in any way. There is sim-ply no rational reason or justificationfor such actions. And, sadly, there isalways the “public knee-jerk reaction”for more restrictive gun laws and reg-ulations. Most of our members wouldagree it’s not the guns, but the peoplehandling the guns that are to blame… but still there’s the question, howdo we prevent these tragedies fromoccurring in the future? There haveto be answers …
On a much lighter note—what isSASS planning for the future?
RegionalsAs many now know, there have
been changes to the Regional Champi-
onship program. The Western Re-gional has been moved from SouthernCalifornia to Chorro Valley on the Cen-tral California coast. This makes theevent a bit more convenient for moreshooters in California and Nevada, andyes, the Los Angeles cowboys will haveto travel a bit further than they’re usedto travelling. SASS has high hopes forthis new Regional; hopes many will at-tend, and expects the organizers pro-
vide a quality product.Hell on Wheels lost their range,
which offered SASS an opportunity toreorganize the Regionals in that partof the country. The Four Corners Re-gional at Founders Ranch now con-sists of the four corners states—Utah,Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.Utah and Colorado were “unique”swing states where shooters couldpick their Regional, but no more.
ar and away our cowboysare “traditionalists”—con-servative and slow tochange. That’s not too
surprising, after all, we spend ourweekends recreating the 1880s, amythical place frozen in time whereeverything was simpler, folks weremostly honest and polite, and timeswere exciting! Most would havethings stay just as they are … but,alas, that’s just not possible … nor isit even desirable. 2013 will bringchanges—hopefully most will turnout
F
SASS Plans For The FutureThe Regional match schedules and contactpoints once again havetheir own page on the SASS website. < http://www. sassnet.com/ Regionals.php >
Make plans now to attend the Regional for YOUR area.
By Tex, SASS #4
The third change was to anoint abrand new Regional in a part of thecountry that has never had one—thenorth-central part of the country. ThisRegional is centered near Minneapolis.
Make plans now to attend the Re-gional for YOUR area. These champi-onship matches are supported by themajor SASS sponsors and allow you towin a “free ticket” to the nationalchampionship, Winter Range, inPhoenix, AZ!
Discussions are still on-going re-garding introducing a new level ofchampionships between the Regionalsand the National Championships. Asthese discussions begin to bear fruit,you’ll be the first to know!
ConventionAre we going to have a Conven-
tion in 2013? The answer is YES!The location has been selected but
negotiations are still in process, so it’sdifficult to say too much right now. Ican say the venue is NOT Las Vegas,NV. The new site for the 2013 Con-vention is centrally located. Excitingnew plans for the Convention are un-derway—including a possible River-boat evening, a Victorian poolparty/pajama party, banquet and ball,exciting new seminars lead by areahistorians, select vendor displays, andon and on. It’ll likely be about thesame time (early December) as it’sbeen in the past. Begin making plans(and saving your money) now for thisouting … you don’t want to miss it—itwill likely be somewhere else in 2014!More information will be providedonce the negotiations are finalized.
END of TRAILPlans for a “brand new” END of
TRAIL are in the works. T.A. Chancewill take the reins as the END ofTRAIL Action Shooting Match Direc-tor, and Pecos Clyde will be the MatchDirector for the Wild Bunch Champi-onships. These gentlemen will be re-sponsible for designing the matchstages and ensuring they runsmoothly. Misty will continue to mas-termind the many other details re-quired to provide a memorable andenjoyable experience for all ourguests. Make plans now to attend the“Granddaddy of Them All” in June.
END of TRAIL Mounted ChampionshipLast year SASS embarked on a
great experiment and asked CMSA tohost our World Championship ofSASS Mounted Shooting. They did afine job, provided much needed enter-tainment for the public, and SASSwas very happy with the results.However, as a matter of policy, SASSwould very much like to keep thischampionship an all SASS affair, if atall possible. For 2013 the BuffaloRange Riders Mounted Club has ac-cepted responsibility for planning andexecuting this championship. Iceladyand Stuttering Wayne will be theMatch Directors. Look for the stan-dard six-stage championship, ExtremeStages, rides through town, and“extra” events to provide not onlyample opportunity for competition,but an enjoyable exhibition for the
viewing public. With this change, for the first
time in its history, the Wild Bunch willhave no role in the planning and man-agement of END of TRAIL. This is afirst step in ensuring the continuinglongevity of the event. Come and seehow the new managers handle the as-signment!
Four Corners RegionalNowhere else in the world does
SASS itself host a Regional champi-onship … except for the Four CornersRegional. This year, SASS will embarkon yet another grand experiment to re-cruit New Mexico clubs to be the host-ing organization(s). New Mexico ishome to the tenth largest communityof Cowboy Action Shooters in theUnited States and many of these com-petitors are very talented, indeed.And, not just in the shooting venue,but in the ability to design stages andmatches, construct supporting props,and manage the conduct of a match. Ifsuccessful, this will be the final majormatch to be relinquished by SASS intothe capable hands of organizing clubs.
Founders RanchThe Ranch is home to SASS. It’s
the whole reason our Headquarters isin New Mexico. It is home to END ofTRAIL and the Four Corners Re-gional. It needs all the revenue it cangenerate to pay the mortgage. Accord-ingly, SASS has established a shotgunfacility (Sporting Clays and 5-Stand)on the Ranch and for a while earlierthis year opened a couple of the shoot-ing bays as a public shooting range.The Ranch itself has been used forweddings, civic events, and law en-forcement (including mounted) train-ing/qualifications. As otheropportunities began to present them-selves, it became clear FoundersRanch was going to have to go back tothe county for additional use permits,which is being done. If the new per-mits are issued and additional Ranchrevenue is realized, SASS should beable to expedite the development ofthe “town” area and build additionalstage props. 2013 appears to be a busytime for both SASS and the Ranch!
The Cowboy ChronicleAs with every other publication
in the world, publication costs con-tinue to rise and advertising revenuecontinues to shrink. The CowboyChronicle has recently lowered itspage count from around 100 pages tosomething closer to 72. One of themajor cost drivers for the paper isthe printing and mailing costs.While everything possible is beingdone to keep costs under control, theday may well come when the decisionis made to forgo paper and go “alldigital.” Certainly, there will be is-sues—not everyone owns a computer… and many of us old codgers grewup with newspapers and are notcomfortable getting our “news” fromthe computer screen.
As can be seen, 2013 is shapingup to be a watershed year withmany new changes. We’ll see whatthe future holds—it’s going to be in-teresting!
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Page 8 Cowboy Chronicle January 2013
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ad Mountain Mike’sLeather Jacket waswon by Okie Sawbones,SASS #77381. Again,
Mad Mountain Mike comesthrough! Despite losing theirhome to a wildfire, Mike and hislovely wife, Miss Tabitha, con-tinue to support fund raising ef-forts for the chapel—we are mostgrateful, Mike! For more of MadMountain Mike’s Leather Cloth-ing & Historic Programs, visit:www.rivercrossinginc.com
Rick O’Shay print from StanLynde, was won by Harvey Mush-man, SASS #83526. Yes, RickO’Shay, that iconic character thatwon our young hearts along withGene, Roy, and Hoppy. I can stillsee Rick trying to bag that Elk.For more of Stan’s work, visit:http://stanlynde.net/
WE AIN’T DONE YET … ANDGun Cart from Wooden Works
West, was won by Tejano, SASS#96111. Tejano has won a full-size gun cart that can fit in thetrunk of a compact car and meetsFAA size requirements forchecked baggage! The CarriedAway™ gun cart will serve Tejanowell as he travels to shootsaround the country. It holds up tosix long guns and has a built-inlocking ammo box. When folded,the full axle and 16" wheels store
neatly inside. By the way, thepneumatic wheels can handle theroughest terrain. And, incredibly,the folded size of the cart is anunbelievable: 9" x 18" x 28". Toview more Wooden Works Westproducts, visit:http://www.woodenworkswest.com/index.html
AND A RAFFLE STILLAWAITS US! A COYOTE CAPMASTERPIECE FOR SOMELUCKY INDIVIDUAL. Coyote Cap E Model 1901 70-
150 Prototype Rifle/Shotgun stillup for raffle.
Purchase tickets at:http://www.sassnet.com/chape
l/index.phpHallelujah Pards, we SASSers
are something else! Approximatelythree years in the making from ideato approval to construction, ourChapel stands tall and is being fur-nished and commemorative plaquesinstalled on the walls as we speak—a united effort demonstrates theunity and brotherhood that existsin our SASS Society. But, as statedabove, we still need your help andthe help of all SASS affiliated clubs.We still need to complete the fur-nishing of the Chapel, and moneywill always be needed for ongoingmaintenance, so speak to your clubsabout continuing donations—you’rea Daisy if Ya do!
Another milestone reached as Plaques are installed on the Chapel walls
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personal issues took their toll andprevented him from spending asmuch time on the range as hewould have liked.
Gordon managed to attendEND of TRAIL a few times in theensuing years, including the 20th
END of TRAIL anniversary. Hewas also inducted into the SASSCowboy Action Hall of Fame in
2006. Although his health hadbeen deteriorating for the pastseveral years, he was able to at-tend the High Noon at the Tomb-stone Livery match in Tombstone,AZ this past February, giving himan opportunity to meet new cow-boys and visit old friends from theearly days.
He’ll be missed by family andfriends …
Diamond Jim Chisholm, SASS #27aka Gordon Davis . . .
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inden, LA – Goex®Powder Inc., for over200 years the manu-facturer of the only
American made authentic black-powder, sets a new standard ofprecision with the introductionof Olde Eynsford.
This new gunpowder ispainstakingly crafted with onlyselect grade materials and pre-cision refined processes. Its uni-formly tight grain size ensuresconsistent shot to shot perform-ance. In response to competitive
demand, higher velocities areattained with Olde Eynsford.
“Olde Eynsford is ideal forcartridge and round ball com-petitors who demand preciseshot placement at long dis-tances,” said Tim Vaitekunas,Chief Operating Officer ofGOEX Powder, Inc. “We believethis is the finest powder we’ve
ever made in consistency and in-creased velocity.”
Look for Olde Eynsford inthe plastic 1lb. cans at GOEX®
dealers everywhere in early 2013.For a complete listing of distribu-tors, visit goexpowder.com, call913-362-9455, or write to GOEX®
Powder Inc, 6430 Vista Drive,Shawnee, KS 66218.
MGoex
® Sets A New Standard of Precisionwith Match Grade Blackpowder
ostuming has alwaysbeen what separated usfrom the other shootingsports. SASS would not
exist if we were shooting thesame guns dressed in t-shirts,ball caps, and tennis shoes. It isimportant. Encouraging costum-ing in SASS is important. If cos-tumes devolve to “the minimum,”the sport will be lessened. Butparticipation in costume contestshas been waning at END ofTRAIL. This applies to “BestShooting Costume,” judged dur-ing the match, and “BestDressed,” traditionally at theSaturday night party, but movedto Thursday night for 2012. I be-lieve the reasons are a combina-tion of items.
Over the years we have seensome spectacular costumes, suchas Tornado Ali’s Scarlet O’Haradress at the first SASS Conven-tion, Calvin N. Hobbs and Bar-bary Coast’s “Tom Mix and one ofmy many wives” at END ofTRAIL, Robber Baron’s museumquality morning suit, Bat Mas-terson’s, well, Bat Masterson,and way too many perfect ladiescostumes to mention here lest Ileave someone out. But we onlysee them once.
Why? We USE TO have arule, first place winners of ENDof TRAIL can’t enter again. Thisapplied at the SASS Convention,and some Regionals barred ENDof TRAIL or Convention winners.
Think about that. Costumescost sometimes thousands of dol-lars and hours and hours ofwork, sometimes months of re-search. If you are successful andwin END of TRAIL in the cos-tume that you just spent all ofthat effort, sweat, and money,you can’t enter it again. This isequivalent to telling Badlands
Bud that he can’t shoot the gunshe won END of TRAIL everagain. The rule was droppedin 2005 with so little fanfarethat it was still being observedat the costume contest this year.I was a judge at another majormatch a couple of years ago, anda couple showed up with whatwould have been winning cos-tumes, but one of the judges re-membered they had won beforein the same costumes. Thus,they didn’t place. The event did-n’t have the rule in their writtencostume contest rules, but weregoing on either the rule thatonce upon a time was in theCostume Contest Handbook orjust tradition. Sorry, Bud, butsince you won last year, we’removing you out of the trophies.
I didn’t know the rule wasremoved. Cat Ballou didn’t re-member it until I mentionedthat I couldn’t find it. Then sheremembered it had been re-moved in 2005. I have talkedwith several costume contestjudges, and none of them knewthat the rule doesn’t exist any-more. I’ve never understood thatrule. I suppose it is so someonewith a really good costume does-n’t dominate year after year.First of all, if it did, so what?How many times has Holy Terrorbeen World Champion? Has thathurt the sport? I’m assuming ifyou enter a costume contest, youwant to win. If you win a shoot-ing category at END of TRAIL,you’ve usually competed againstformer World Champions. Whyshould the costume contest beany different?
Then there’s the sheer im-practicality of expecting someoneto spend thousands of dollarsand months or years of effort, re-search, and production and then
doing it all again with anothercostume next year. What hap-pens is, former winners oftenjust never enter again. The mar-velous costumes sit in closets,and fields grow smaller.
So my first suggestion is:1. Welcome back past win-ners
For END of TRAIL 2013 ad-vertise its a “Champion of Cham-pions” Costume Contest, andencourage former winners to re-turn with their winning costumeand let the judges sort it out.Encourage new costumes, too, ofcourse. What’s the worst thingthat can happen? The line forjudging gets long? Spectacularcostumes from the past winagain? People who haven’t comeback to END of TRAIL come toshow off their costumes? That’sa bad thing?Note to Costume ContestJudges at other events:Do the same thing. Encour-
age previous winners to bringtheir costumes back. When youdisqualify contestants for wear-ing the same costume again, youare running them away from fu-ture costume contests. If thesame costume wins two or threetimes, so what? Wasn’t it thebest costume in the room?
2. Give Awards Worthy ofWinning END of TRAIL
In 2003 I won Best DressedMilitary and received the samesilver belt buckle that first placecategory winners received, andthe same free entry to the nextEND of TRAIL (which in thiscase cost SASS nothing becauseI was unable to attend). In 2007I received the same belt buckleas first place category winners,but no free entry.
Somewhere along the waythe silver belt buckles were re-placed by scarf slides, but secondand third were the same bucklesthe top ten shooters in categorygot. Then, those went away.This year the scarf slide wasfirst place, and a medal was sec-ond and third.
What this told the contest-ants was that costuming was nolonger important.
So I suggest for END ofTRAIL 2013 give the same beltbuckle for first that categorywinners get. Yes, the words“COSTUME CONTEST” are onthe buckle so no one believesthat someone of, say, mymediocre shooting skills, actu-ally won a first place shootingaward. Second and third mightbe scarf slides, buckles, orplaques.
If category winners get freeentry to the next END of TRAIL,then so should the costume win-ners. My original suggestionwas to give the costume winnersthe same thing the poker tourna-ment winner got this year, a ColtSAA, but for some reason thatwas rejected. On the other hand,I bet we’d have a lot of entries.
3. Remove “Presentation”from scoring
In years of interviewing peo-ple who didn’t enter, but werewearing costumes that wouldhave been competitive, I’ve dis-covered one thread. They areafraid of public speaking, andthe “presentation” is scaringthem off.
The first convention didn’thave presentations. Contestantsweren’t allowed to speak. Thisrightfully bothered some contest-ants who wanted to explain theircostumes. A lady might want to
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explain that she was wearing anew outfit in 1876, but she could-n’t afford the latest shoes, so theywere of an older style.
But the presentations grew.Despite time restrictions, somepeople gave performances worthyof Broadway. At one convention Iwatched such an impressive per-formance, and a lady sitting nearme while waiting her turn said, “Ican’t do that,” and left the room.
I doubt the judges ever gavesomeone an award based on theirpresentation. A good presentationwouldn’t help a bad costume, anda bad presentation was overlookedif the costume was good. One yearat the convention the BestDressed Military winner froze up,stuttered, and shook during hispresentation. But the uniformwas spectacular, and he won.
So why are scaring contest-ants away with the presentation?We’ve told people “it’s just for tiebreaking.” But that isn’t enough.Take it out of the scoring alto-gether. People are afraid of pub-lic speaking. Instead, when thejudges are ready, the chief judgeshould smile and say, “Would youlike to tell us about your cos-tume?” I used to practice the
presentation to get it perfect forthe 60 seconds or so allotted, butafter fear of presentationsstarted running people off, Istopped. Instead I gave a briefdescription of what the costumewas supposed to be and said,“Any questions?” There alwayswere. This seemed to work justfine. It is a costume contest, notan acting contest.
We have excellent judges atmajor matches, some with yearsof experience. They ask goodquestions, and they treat the con-testants quite well, putting themat ease. They can sort out thecontestants quite well. Some-times it’s by the slimmest of mar-gins. But they aren’t allowed toleave ties. They have to pick win-ners. It’s virtually always by con-sensus. If you don’t win, it’s notworth worrying about. The nextset of judges will see things dif-ferently. Anything using judgesinstead of a finite scoring system,such as a shot timer, is going tobe imperfect. Just come backnext year.
4. Instead of making contest-ants come to the judges
Bring the judges to them.
Have someone at the door invitecontestants to have a seat. Thenlet the judges find the contest-ants. This was tried at El Doradothis year. El Dorado is muchsmaller than END of TRAIL, andthe contestants were spreadabout the dining room. Thejudges interviewed every prospec-tive contestant, including somewho didn’t intend to enter. Onthe other hand, they had moreCostume Contest contestantsthan END of TRAIL in some cat-egories. The pressure was muchlower on the contestants and thejudges. At END of TRAIL youmight need a friendly lady at thedoor giving numbers to contest-ants as they came in. Then atclosing time the judges know theyhaven’t missed anyone if theyhave all of the numbers back. Onthe other hand, they could justannounce, “have we missed anycostume contest contestants?”
5. Move the contest back toSaturday night
The costume contest is tradi-tionally Saturday night becausethat’s when people can relax,change out of their shootingclothes, and not have to worry
about cleaning guns or shootingfirst thing in the morning. Thepromenade and awards presenta-tion take about 15 minutes out ofthe party. But costuming is im-portant. Without costuming,there would be no SASS. Theonly time a lot of contestants dodress up is on Saturday night. Ifthere’s a costume contest, a lot ofnon-entrants will dress up. Ifthere’s not, they’re likely to be intheir shooting clothes. Addition-ally the party is the only timemost contestants will see whatthe costume contest winners arewearing. They might be inspiredto dress up next year, maybe evenenter the contest.
The Colt SAAs for first is stilla good idea, too. (Captain - your observations oncostuming, especially at END ofTRAIL, are most thought provok-ing. Costuming is an integralpart of the whole SASS experi-ence, and perhaps, we have let itsimportance “slide.” Your sugges-tions will certainly be takenunder much consideration, andhopefully, changes in the right di-rection will be made. Don’t counton Colt SAAs for first placeawards, however…Cat)�
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ar 3 Ranch, English,TX – It’s winter inTexas, and we’re chilledto the bone! We’re look-
ing forward to springtime and allthe cowboys and cowgirls gettingready for the 2013 SASS shootingseason. It’s the greatest shootingsport known to over 100,000members and going strong since1982. As we pards get a little longin the tooth, we need to supportthe folks who raised us up now forover 30 years.
Let me start out by sayingthat living on a shooting rangeain’t all it’s cracked up to be.Ellie and I get so excited whenthe campers start to roll into the
campground. Then, as fast asBadland Bud, SASS #15821, orPrestidigitator, SASS #52251, it’sover again, and we see, yet again,another empty range. It is a lot ofwork getting things ready for amatch, but in the end, it’s allworth it.
Now, the problems set in—with everyone gone, we startplanning OUR shooting seasonand what needs to get donearound the ranch—or not … WithChristmas near and the SunshineState looking pretty darn good,let’s head to Florida for the Siegeat St. Augustine in January andSteinhatchee Retirement Center(Tennessee Tall and Rio Drifter’s
house). We will meet up with thewildest group of cowboys and cow-girls known to SASS—Outlawsfrom Possum Trot, VIPs fromSparta, scorekeepers from theBlack Gold region, and rangeowners from Texas. Then, likesands through the hourglass, Isay to myself, “Let’s go to Texas,”as we have the Senior Games toput on. Yep, the Second AnnualSenior Games will commence onMay 17, 2013.
We have to start out thegames with the non-invitationalExtreme Putt-putt Golf Tourna-ment. This will lead us right upto the side matches and a verypopular event in the land down
under. It is called the AustralianPat Garrett Match. Competitorswill use five guns during thismatch. It will be a four-stageevent and replace the Plainsmanand Wild Bunch for the weekend.We have changed a few rules re-garding caliber requirement.Also, there will gender splits inthe Pat Garrett Plainsman andPat Garrett Smokeless. So, getout those Long Range rifles, twoblazing pistols, and your ol’shotie, and let’s play at the SeniorGames! The entry form can bedownloaded from the website,www.badlandsbar3.com.
* * * * * * * *See ya in the Badlands!
Y’All Come toThe Senior GamesinTexas! May 17-19, 2013
By T-Bone Dooley, SASS #36388
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ee
he Chapel Committee islooking for ten uniqueStained Glass Win-dows—all 10 winning
entrees will be commissioned forplacement in the chapel. Youheard right: 10 will be used. Thewinning “Best of Show,” gets aspecial plaque in the altar area ofthe chapel, which may be desig-nated “In Memoriam” if so de-sired, otherwise an expression oftheir choice. Best of Show alsowins a luncheon with Judge RoyBean, a complimentary shoot oftheir choice at any match hostedat Founders Ranch, and a spe-cially engraved thank you fromthe Wild Bunch “in recognition ofyour artistic contribution.”
Hold on, that’s not all! Win-ner also receives an engravedChapel Memorial Belt Buckleand a Scarf Slide by Jackson.
All runner-ups will havetheir window hangings placedprominently in the chapel with aplaque recognizing the con-tributing artist’s name, whichmay also include “in memoriam,”if so desired. Additionally, run-ner-ups will receive a speciallyengraved Memorial Chapel BeltBuckle OR Scarf Slide (theBuckle or Slide will be engraved“with special thanks,” from theWild Bunch, and recognition byname in The Cowboy Chronicle).
To enter, email a drawing,picture, or depiction and de-scription of your entry to TheCowboy Memorial Chapel Com-mittee, in care of [email protected] Entrees al-ready submitted will be for-warded to Long Jim Hancock bySASS Staff.
THE THEMEThe theme is easy—God,
Country, and the West. Tie itall together as only an artistwith your skills can do! Yourdrawing can be sketched toscale, but your final renderingmust fit a Chapel Window.Eight of the windows are ap-proximately 36" by 60" and thetwo by the altar are 24" by 60".Entrees must be received nolater than March 31st, 2013.The committee will judge theentrees and notify the winnersby mid-April, 2013. Winnerswill be expected to have theirwindows completed and deliv-ered to Founders Ranch by theweek of END of TRAIL 2013, sothey can be installed for the of-ficial dedication of the CowboyMemorial Chapel at that time.Needless to say, your artistic ef-forts will be appreciated foryears to come by all members ofthe SASS family. Time to getthe lead out and get your entryin—you’re a daisy if ya do!
More On The ChapelStained Glass WindowsLet’s Get the Lead Out!
By Palaver Pete, SASS Life/Regulator #4375
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Col. Dan, I read your “Holly-wood and Guns” column (Nov.
‘12) with great interest, as I havewondered what causes these aber-rations with firearms. I grew up inthe 40s and 50s in a farming arewhere guns were commonplacetools. We often hunted on the wayto and from school and, in factwould leave our shotguns on theschool bus with our driver, a localfarmer. Never was any problem.
In the mid-50s, Korea happened.Boys were left without a father’sguidance again and mothers went towork. My parents split for other rea-sons, but I felt the absence of my fa-ther’s approval. Today, absenteefathers leave no one for boys to pat-tern their development after, and thedefault falls to peers using iPads,
etc. Over simplification, maybe, butthe family has disappeared for a lotof kids in favor of video games andelectronics as surrogates. Thanksfor letting me bend your ear. I al-ways enjoy your viewpoint.
Chilkoot, SASS #58803Denver, NC
Chilkoot, thank you for that mostthoughtful note. I’m glad you enjoymy column. I appreciate your sup-port. I think you’re on target withyour assessment regarding thefamily, and I can relate to yourstory about taking guns to school.I did the same and went huntingas soon as the final bell sounded!Nobody thought anything about it!
Soldier on Chilkoot!Colonel Dan
Another “Hollywood and Guns” Letter
Cree Vicar Dave – I alwaysenjoy the articles you provide
to The Cowboy Chronicle. All of themare interesting … some are reallygreat projects and I save those.
Please keep the articles com-
ing. They are a great service toour game!
Bob B. Bodacious, SASS Life #53402
Arp, TX
Ienjoyed the article by CreeVicar Dave on the M1911 strip-ping stand. However, not havinga wood shop to build such a handything, I would offer my countryboy substitute.
My simple substitute for thestripping stand is a bushingwrench from Brownell’s (partnumber 080-045-300) and a 2-1/2gallon clear plastic storage bag.Stick the gun in the bag, and usethe bushing wrench that has abulge on the side that holds theplug down while turning the bush-ing. The bag’s function is to catchthe plug and spring if you fumblethe thing. Use the same methodto put the gun back together.
Even though “Old Slab Sides”is a rugged gun, you better believeMurphy’s Law of “anything thatcan go wrong will go wrong”, andthe addendum to that law “at theworst possible moment with nogunsmith in this time zone” stillprevails. Since that is the law, justbe on the safe side go on thethought that “one is none, two isone, and three is better,” so carryat least one gun as a spare. Eitherthat or a shoe box of spare fitted
(not drop in) parts and the abilityand tools at hand to detail stripthe entire gun down completely. Ifnot, save a lot of headache and gowith the spare gun.
Now if you have one of thosesuper-duper sexy looking full-length spring guide rods, either aone piece or two piece, then alsoorder part numbers 087-881-001,087-882-001, the plug and springguide when you order the bushingwrench. Then take that rod anduse it for a fish weight. If JohnMoses wanted one there, he wouldhave designed it that way. As far asI can see the only function of thatrod is to make the gun harder tobreak down for cleaning, and whileit looks neat, it is best to keepthings simple. Another one of thoseneat but useless items is one ofthose “blue thingy’s” that suppos-edly protects the frame from “bat-tering.” Perhaps if you shoot over5 thousand rounds of P+ ammo ayear for four or five years, youmight see a just a shiny spot on theframe; otherwise, save your moneyand use it to buy practice ammo.
Bunk Stagner, SASS #85926West Point, TX
Field Stripping The 1911
Great “How To” Articles!
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Bragging or Just Shooting Clean?
It’s Time To Say Goodbye
Ibelong to a Utah club calledWasatch Desperados, the oldestclub in Utah. Wasatch Despera-dos does an annual shoot eachSeptember called Rampage. It’san all-day shoot with six stages,lunch, awards, and giveaways.It’s a fun time. I have shot Ram-page clean the last four years.
I have also been shootingCowboy Action Shooting™ for 18years. I shoot monthly matches,state shoots, Regional shoots, andhave taken first in every Duelistclass here in SASS. I have alwayshad the goal to shoot clean.
We have a saying in Utah, “Ifyou ain’t missing, you ain’t shoot-ing fast enough.” Well, I’m tryinganyway. After shooting clean forRampage in 2011, I made it a goalto shoot one whole year clean at
Wasatch Desperados. Like I said before, I’m not the
fastest Duelist ever, but I hold myown. In 2012 I was the top Du-elist at the monthly shoots, I alsotook first place at the Utah Stateshoot, and at Rampage this yearmy average time was 29 seconds.
As Tex has said, we need toalways be looking for somethingnew. After Rampage last year Iwent from September 2011 toSeptember 2012 “clean.” Thatwas 52 stages and 1240 shotsdown range without a miss orany Ps!
Porter Rockwell, The Destroying Angel, SASS #7756
Harrisville, UT(It ain’t bragging if you can do it!… Editor in Chief)
Reckon you wonder what hap-pened to me. Well, I done got
too old to do much of nuttin’. My“Peepers” got weak, can’t see realgood, and my “Ticker” needs help.Stopped a-shootin’ with PadensPosse, and I was the founder of it,so that kinder upset me.
Y’all got some new cowpokesin there I don’t know, so old Den-ver Doc is put out to pasture. Butit is the most fun I’ve done in the
91 years of my life.I want to thank all cowpokes
for puttin’ up with me and printin’the few articles I sent in.
Y’all keep on having fun andI hope Y’all are around forever.I’m droppin’ my subscription tothe Chronicle after it runs out –can’t see good enuf to read it.
Denver Doc, SASS #1500Salisbury, MD�
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his is the story of myderringer—a .41 rim-fire blackpowder singleshot Colt. This der-
ringer dates back to the 1860s,just after the Civil War. It wastaken from a dead man, saved mygreat grandfather, and has beenpassed down through four gener-ations.
My great grandfather, GeorgeGolden, was silversmith in Eng-land. He stole some gold and setsail for the U.S.A. He made it offthe boat, but the gold did not.
Finding himself dead broke,he fell in with the pirate JeanLafitte while in New Orleans.
During a bloody fight one night,George took this gun off a deadman, a combatant who lost. Ithad one round in it. George waslater captured by the authorities,but before he could be identified,he used the one round to escapeand made his way up north toShreveport.
George, my great grandfather,laid low and finally got a job at asawmill and married my greatgrandmother. My grandfather,Trayton, was born. When mygrandfather turned 14, he movedto East Texas near Huntingtonand worked as a blacksmith’shelper. Trayton later married my
grandmother, Roxie. The derringer has been used
one other time. My dad told me heshot a “mad dog” one stormy nightcoming home from town, but thedog turned out to be the neigh-bor’s. He was about 12 and hadtaken the gun unbeknownst to mygrandfather. Of course, granddadand the neighbor were none toohappy about this.
George died of the consump-
tion and Trayton inherited thederringer. My dad, Trayton, Jr. in-herited the gun from Trayton. Iinherited it from my dad. This isthe story of my Dead Man’s Gun.(Great story! If any other cowboysor cowgirls have an interestingstory about a historical gun intheir possession, please send it in.We would like to feature these oldgun stories as a monthly item inThe Cowboy Chronicle … Cat)
This derringer dates back to the 1860s, just after the Civil War. It was taken from a dead man, saved my great grandfather,
and has been passed down through four generations.
By Texas Ghost, SASS #50125
T
Little Known FactMany people believe that Robert E. Lee commanded the Southern troops
for the entire Civil War. It was actually Adjutant General Samual Cooper
until nearer the end of the conflict.
DEAD MAN’S GUN
FF
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he Range Rider TVshow aired in syndica-tion from 1951 – 1953.The series starred Jock
Mahoney along with Dickie Jones.There were 79 black-and-white 30-minute episodes.
This early Western featured theexploits of the honest, principled,and tough Range Rider and his boy-ish sidekick, Dick West. Dressed ina fringed buckskin shirt and awhite Stetson, The Range Riderwore no boots, only moccasins. Hishorse was called Rawhide. Dick,sporting a dark, military-style shirtand a black hat, rode a steed calledLucky. The theme song was called“Home on the Range” although inlater episodes it was played at afast tempo without the lyrics. Theshow was a production of Gene
Autry’s Flying A Productions andwas executive produced by Autry.
Jock Mahoney (1919 – 1989)was an American actor and stunt-man of Irish, French, and Cherokeeancestry. He played the title char-acter The Range Rider along withpartner Dic West, played by DickieJones, later star of the syndicatedseries Buffalo Bill Jr. The charac-ter had no name other than RangeRider and his reputation for fair-ness, fighting ability, and accuracywith his guns was known far andwide, even by Indians.
It is interesting to note that inThe A-Team episode When youComin’ Back, Range Rider? Mur-dock is seen watching an episode ofThe Range Rider in his room at thepsychiatric hospital. He adopts thepersona of the Range Rider as the
team pursues wild mustangrustlers and is frequently seenwearing a mask of the Range Riderhe cut from a cereal box.
Many episodes of The RangeRider series are available on DVDsand for viewing on the Internet.
I’ll be turning the rotary TVchannel selector dial now. Stay tuned. [email protected]: Wikipedia, InternetMovie Database (IMDb).
medics recommended hego to the emergencyroom for a look at hisribs and back. Rio gra-ciously declined.
Ten days later aftermuch suffering, sleepingin a chair, and insistingon doing the two-daydrive from Texas to Ten-nessee, we arrived home.At three in the morningRio’s lung collapsed. Hewent into shock, his
blood pressure dropped to a dan-gerous level, and he could notbreathe. An ambulance run tookus to the ER where they startedan IV and did an MRI, whichshowed seven broken ribs and aright lung filling with blood. TheMRI showed Rio had lost 90% useof his lung, the pleural cavity wasfilling with blood, and his oxygenlevel was extremely low. Theycalled for a helicopter transportand were told that due to theheavy rainfall at the time, theycouldn’t fly. Another ambulancewas called, and they took him to
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a want to know what welearned? NEVER listento a cowboy when hesays (through gritted
teeth), “I’m fine”; “I’m okay.” RioDrifter and I learned the hardway that may not be true! On theSaturday before Halloween 2012,Rio fell about eight feet whiledoing one of those things that weknow better, like climbing on astep ladder onto the step thatsays “This is not a step,” or usinga step ladder when he should’veused an extension ladder. An am-bulance was called, and the para-
the University of Tennessee Med-ical Center Trauma Center. Itwas a nail- biting run followingthe ambulance in the dark in therain to an unknown area, justpraying he would be okay.
The trauma doctors stabilizedhim and scheduled an operatingroom. Due to the old blood thathad accumulated over the pastten days, they had to open up therib cage to remove over a liter ofblood. He had bruised/puncturedhis right lung, and it continued toooze blood into the cavity from thetime of the fall. Rio spent twodays in the ICU following the sur-gery due to the fear of infection.We celebrated when he was fi-nally sent to a room. Five days inthe hospital and several weeks ofrecovery later let us share our les-son with you.
Some of the things theTrauma Specialist, PA MarkHoward, (University of TennesseeMedical Center-Trauma Center)shared with us that COULD EAS-ILY have happened as a result ofthe fall and the damage done tohis body included:Loss of lung capacity,Bronchial tree cut, which re-quires invasive surgery,
Damage to his kidneys due toloss of oxygen supply,
A stroke or heart attack dueto a blood clot,
Infection due to the blood col-lecting in the lung and pleu-ral cavity,
Risk of pulmonary embolism,Blood clots. Period,Acute blood loss,Tension pneumothorax/hemo-thorax (Big words that areno fun and are life threat-ening!), and
Pressure on the heart due toaccumulated blood in thelung.All of which could have been
avoided had I/we ignored his “I’mfine; I’m okay” and carried hissorry butt to the emergency roomWHEN IT HAPPENED instead ofhim collapsing ten days later. (Bythe way, Rio Drifter shot the matchand placed sixth and 104 overall!)
Many of you manage shootingevents large and small whereshooters sign waivers. My sug-gestion is each shooter sign awaiver stating if an ambulance iscalled and it is the recommenda-tion the shooter be transported toan emergency room, the TRANS-PORT is mandatory. No decliningthe ride. If you shoot, you acceptthe terms, which include seeingan ER physician. No shame inbeing smart enough to find out ifyou have unknown injuries. Asmanagers of shoots and/or ownersof ranges, your liability is greatlylessened.
Our sincere thanks go to theTrauma Surgeons, the NursePractitioners, Physicians Assis-tants, and staff at the Universityof Tennessee Medical Center; theonly Level I Trauma Center serv-ing Knoxville and the surround-ing area. Our sincere thanks go toour cowboy family who camethrough with prayers, calls,emails, the Wire, and offers ofhelp from all corners. We love youand thank you for the kind words.Been there, got the T-shirt, anddon’t want this to happen to any-one else.
Cowboy up ... take care ofyourself and do what the EMT’srecommend. Your life could de-pend on it.
fter living in the heatand ever-expandingpopulace of Phoenix forover 50 years, Ms Emma
and I decided to look for a newplace to hang our hats. We had vis-ited much of the north country ofArizona in search of a smaller andcooler place to retire or rather pre-retire. We bought a few acres inYavapai County 25 miles north ofPrescott and finally built a littleranch in 2003. This was my pre-re-tirement home as I continued tocommute to Phoenix until 2010.During those “pre-retirement”years we had little time to appreci-ate the role Prescott played inbringing statehood to Arizona in1912. However, in retirement wehave had the opportunity to im-merse ourselves in the rich historyof the development of Arizona dur-ing the Territorial days andthrough Statehood in 1912.
Prescott (pronounced“Preskit” by the locals) is only ashort 75-minute drive north ofPhoenix. At 5300 feet Prescott isknown as the “Mile High City”with temperatures that are usu-ally 15 to 20 degrees cooler thanthe city to the south aptly namedfor a bird that bursts into flame.
While Prescott is full of histor-ical opportunities, I want to whetyour appetite with four of the“must see” stops—Ft. Whipple(aka Bob Stump Veterans Hospi-tal), Elks Opera House, Has-sayampa Inn, and Sharlot HallMuseum, all within two miles asyou enter the city.
FORT WHIPPLE: Commis-sioned by the Federal Govern-ment, Lt. Amiel W. Whippledirected the survey of the 35th par-allel route in 1853 – 1854, whichroughly lies along today’s I-40through Northern Arizona. Whip-ple died 9 years latter at the bat-tle of Chancellorsville, Virginiawith the rank of Major General.
The Arizona Territory becamea reality with President Lincoln’ssigning of the Territorial Act of1863. Ft. Whipple, named in hishonor, provided an operationalcenter and military support forArizona’s first Territorial Gover-nor John Goodwin (Lincoln namedJohn Gurley as the first Governorof the AZ Territory, but he died be-fore assuming office and was re-placed by Goodwin).
While Tucson was establishedlong before, Prescott was namedas the first Territorial Capitol ofArizona because Tucson had a fewdrawbacks. The Civil War wouldnot be ended for two more yearsand for a time a garrison of Con-federate soldiers called Tucsonhome. Further, the Prescott areawas proving to be rich in mineralresources and the Federal troopsat Ft. Whipple ensured theseriches would remain in Union con-trol. Centrally located in the Ter-ritory, Ft. Whipple also protectedthe citizens from various Indiantribes hostile to the encroachmentby settlers and miners.
Fort Whipple Museum, locatedon the grounds of the VA Hospitalon Hwy. 89 in Prescott is housed
in one of the 1909 military offi-cer’s quarters. The Museumtraces the history and develop-ment of Fort Whipple, includingthe contribution of a troop of Buf-falo Soldiers. http://www.sharlot.org/fort-whipple
Admission is by donation.Hours are 10 am to 4 pm Thurs-days, Fridays, and Saturdays andclosed on Thanksgiving Day, Christ-mas Day, and New Year’s Day)
ELKS OPERA HOUSE: Asyou proceed down Prescott’s“main drag,” Gurley Street at theintersection of Marina, to your leftyou will find the Elks OperaHouse. It is amazing to think howquickly Prescott evolved from afrontier mining settlement in1864 to city with a culture equalto St. Louis. “The Elks,” as it isaffectionately known by Prescot-tonians, was the result of citizeninterest in building a venue forthe arts and entertainment. In1904 when the local chapter of theBenevolent and Protective Order
of the Elks decided to build alodge, $15,000 was raised by thePrescott community to add a per-forming arts theater.
The theater was completed in1905 with an opening-night per-formance of Marta of the Low-lands featuring Florence “ZaZa”Roberts. The orchestra was com-posed of musicians from Prescott,nearby Jerome, and Phoenix. Thegrandeur of the Elks rivaled anyperforming arts theater from St.Louis to San Francisco, featuringtwo lobbies, a grand staircase tothe balcony, and sixteen luxuriousopera box seats.
Since that grand opening, theElks has never suffered a pro-longed closure, playing host toplays, concerts, vaudeville, andmovies, but also everything fromweddings to wrestling matches.As vaudeville faded, the Elks be-came almost exclusively a filmhouse. Much of “her” charm waspainted over, covered, or removed,such as the opera box seats to op-timize movie showings. Howeverin 2010 with the help of a private
Prescott, Arizona
A Bonanza of History. ,
By Justice B. Dunn, SASS Regulator #3519
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Ft. Whipple
Opera House
Hassayampa Inn
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grant of $1.25 million, the Elkswent through a major renovationto return it to its 1905 majesty. http://www.elksoperahouse.com/Tours available Tuesday
through Friday 10:00 am to 2:00pm; Admission by donation.
HASSAYAMPA INN: Acrossthe street from the Elks OperaHouse you will find The Has-
sayampa Inn. Named for a rivernorth of Prescott by the Apache,Hassaympa or “the river that losesitself” invites its guests to losethemselves from the troubles ofthe world and recharge. Has-sayampa Inn has played host tomany celebrities since it’s openingin 1927 such as Georgia O’Keefe,D.H. Lawrence, Clark Gable, Greta
Garbo, Tom Mix, and Will Rogers. http://www.hassayampainn.com/Continuing westward on Gur-
ley and past the courthousesquare and Montezuma Streetaka historic “Whiskey Row,” (youcan come back here after you’vefinished your tour) at the SE cor-ner of the intersection of Mc-Cormick and Gurley you will findSharlot Hall Museum. Named
after territorial historianSharlot M. Hall (1870 –1943), the complex restson nearly four-acres andis home to multiple ex-hibits providing wonder-ful insights to the earlydevelopment of Prescottand Arizona in general.
The Governor’s Man -sion is considered the“Crown Jewel” of the manyhistoric buildings withinthe museum grounds. It isthe oldest building associ-ated with Arizona Terri-
tory still standing on its originallocation. Undoubtedly the Mansionescaped demolition because SharlotHall opened this Museum begin-ning with the Governor’s Mansionin 1928. The rustic “Mansion” isfilled with smaller exhibits thatgive visitors a true feeling of whatit would be like to live in the Ari-zona Territory in those early days.
Exhibits on the Museumgrounds include the Sharlot HallBuilding, a 1936 Civil Works Ad-ministration project containingdioramas depicting various as-pects of the development in Ari-zona such as mining, ranching,and conflicts with Indians of thearea. Others include the restoredFrémont House moved to the Mu-seum grounds in 1971 to avoiddemolition, the restored home ofWilliam Bashford in 1973 one ofPrescott’s merchants again tosave this treasure from the bull-dozer, a Transportation Ex-hibit containing a stagecoachused in Tombstone, a ConestogaWagon, and other period modes oftransportation including SharlotHall’s personal 1927 Durant Star
Touring Car. New galleries willopen in late 2012 featuring theregion’s prehistory, and are partof major exhibit expansion effortsthat will continue over the nextseveral years.
http://www.sharlot.org Mu-seum Admission $5/adult, chil-dren under age 18 free. Hours –May – September: Monday – Sat-urday, 10 am to 5 pm; Sunday,Noon to 4 pm. October – April:Monday – Saturday, 10 am to 4pm; Sunday, Noon to 4 pm
If you will invest those initial75 minutes to travel from Phoenixto the cool pines of Prescott, youwill be rewarded with the op-porunity to revisit Arizona in thoseearly days before it became the48th State of this great nation.�
Hassayampa Inn
Governor’s Mansion
Stage Coach
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spring. On the two guns in this arti-cle modified stock trigger springswere used.) Finally, to reduce thepounding all these nice new partswill receive in a competition gun,there is a hammer over travel stop.Photo 7. So, let’s see how we con-vert that second revolver.
First, completely disassemblethe entire gun so we have a bareframe. Photo 8. Photo 8 alsoshows the stock transfer bar, ham-mer, pawl, and trigger. We will nolonger need these. Next there issome minor preparation of theframe that needs to be done in orderto get it ready to accept the newparts. On the upper left side of thehammer channel is the cylinder de-tent pin. This pin locates the cylin-der on New Vaqueros and
hotgun Boogie, SASSLife #67879, AKA UweBartsch, is a Germangunsmith and SASS
competitor. Photo 1. He makesfrequent trips to the U.S. and al-
ways has some unique and interest-ing gun modifications and parts toshow me whenever I get a chance tosit down with him. This year atBordertown (2012) he had someRuger parts he had just picked upfrom a heat-treating facility on hisway to the airport to head to theU.S. These were the first batch ofparts that will ultimately make up
the first Ruger drop-in short strokekit!!! I happened to have a brandnew Ruger 50th Anniversary Black-hawk with me, so Boogie looked itover and began showing how thiskit is installed. Photos 2 and 3.He finished the first gun and I tooka second set of parts home to photo-
graph their installation into a sec-ond 50th Anniversary Blackhawk.The first gun is on the left. On theright is the 2nd Blackhawk with aSuper Blackhawk hammer in-stalled so both guns would have thesame hammers in order to make acomparison. Photo 4. The distancefrom the frame to the tip of thehammer on the gun on the left isone inch! On the stock gun, themeasurement is 1.5 inches. Also,compare the distance from thehammer spurs to the top of the backstrap. The difference is astounding.
To appreciate the ingenuity ofthis kit, we need to look at what isinvolved in short stroking a Ruger.What determines how far the ham-mer travels to the rear when youcock it is the length of the hand, orin Ruger parlance, the pawl. On allcowboy style revolvers the pawl pivothole is below the hammer screw.Think of a teeter-totter. As you pushthe seat down on one end, the other
moves up because it is on the oppo-site side of the center pivot. Whenyou lengthen the pawl, it pushes thebottom of the hammer back and thatmakes the top of the hammer go for-ward. Now with the pawl length-ened, when you start cocking thehammer, the cylinder starts rotatingfaster. So, that means the bolt has togo down quicker. This typicallymeans welding material on the backof the bolt so the hammer plungerhits it quicker. Then you need toweld the bottom of the hammer andcut half-cock and full-cock notches.(Some smiths also add a safetynotch.) Then you need to modify thetrigger to fit the new notches. Onceyou’ve done that, you don’t need thetransfer bar anymore, so you canweld up the hammer face, etc., etc.ALL of these things are designedinto the new kit.
The kit comes in three parts.First, there is the fully heat-treatedand brand new hammer, trigger, andpawl. Photo 5. (Since it is the mostpopular style, the new hammer isshaped like the Super Black -hawk/Montado hammer.) Next, theparts are so precise that if you wantan action job, you merely add parttwo. Photo 6. Part two consists ofa complete set of tuned springs.Starting at the top, and shown intheir approximate locations in thegun, there is a reduced power firingpin spring, the hammer plungerspring, then the pawl spring, the boltspring and the mainspring. (Thefinal kit will also have a new trigger
ShOtgUnbOOgie
Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS Life #32933
Short StrokeBy Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS Life/Regulator #32933
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Blackhawks to make loading andunloading easier. Our new shortstroke will have a half-cock posi-tion, so we don’t need this detent.
Use an Allen wrench and remove it.Photos 9 and 10. Next, on the bot-tom left side of the hammer channelin almost all Rugers is a burr. InPhoto 3 Boogie is showing the loca-tion of this burr. Photo 11 shows aclose-up of the burr. Remove thisburr with a diamond needle file orother small file. Finally, the kituses the stock bolt, but it needs aminor mod. The rear corner of thestock bolt is square. Photo 12. Asmall 45-degree cut has to be madeat the rear of the bolt to aid thehammer plunger in resetting.Photo 13. Now we can startadding the kit parts.
The hardest step in the wholeinstallation is replacing the firingpin spring. The firing pin bushingis TIGHT! First, scribe a fine line onthe face of the bushing and recoilshield. Photo 14. This will helpalign the bushing when you rein-stall it. Next, look in the loadinggate recess and there is a hole. Thishole contains the firing pin bushingretention pin. Drive it out with apunch. Photo 15. Put the frame ina secure fixture and place a punch
bushing retention pin.Things get much easier and
faster now. The next thing to do isput in the new hammer plungerspring. This spring is really inter-esting. One end is surface groundso it is perfectly flat. Photo 18.The flat end goes on top of theplunger. Photo 19. The flat endkeeps the coils from tipping whenthe spring is compressed andmakes the hammer plunger move-ment in the hammer very smooth.Next, install the new pawl in thehammer and put the hammer in theframe and install the hammer pin.On gun one (the new one) the pinwould not initially go into the ham-mer. The hammer pivot hole ismuch tighter than the stock hole.When the hammer pin was formed,the ends were just the tiniest bitbigger than the middle. A LITTLElight POLISHING was all it took forthe pin to slide into place. The in-stalled hammer has virtually noside-to-side slop in it. On many cus-tom short stroke modifications asmall washer is slipped between the
on the firing pin and drive it and itsbushing and spring out of the frame.Photo 16. (Caution. The photoshows the frame in a vice. However,this vice has smooth jawed alu-
minum jaws. If you use a shop vice,make sure to pad the jaws.) Photo17 shows the firing pin bushing, fir-ing pin spring, firing pin, and reten-tion pin. Above the stock firing pinspring is the new kit spring. It hasfewer coils made of smaller wire andmakes a big difference in getting re-liable ignition. Insert everythingback in the frame and start thebushing. Use your scribed lines toline it up and drive it into place witha brass rod inserted into the barrel.Finally, look through the hole in theloading gate recess and if every-thing looks lined up, drive in the
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trigger and bolt to eliminate side-to-side slop in those parts. The kithas this washer built into the trig-ger. Photo 21. Put the loading
gate, gate spring, bolt, and triggerinto the frame and install theirpivot pin. Photo 22. Put one fin-ger on the bolt, pushing it down andone finger on the trigger, pulling itforward (so the sear will engage)and cycle the action to make sureeverything is fitting correctly.
Now install the new triggerspring in the grip frame along withthe new bolt spring and plunger.Put the new pawl spring andplunger in the back of the mainframe and assemble the gun. The
final step is to adjust the over-travel screw so it stops hammermovement right after the sear hasengaged and put some blue lock-tite on it to keep it from moving.Photo 23. Put on the grips andcycle the gun, looking at the boltand cylinder movement to makesure the timing is right. Then,what do you have? I shoot Duelistand my left thumb is gettingwhere it is harder and harder tocock my left revolver. Here’s whatthey look like from a shooting po-sition. Photo 24 is a stock Rugerwith the Super Blackhawk ham-mer. When I cock it, the spur isburied in the web of my hand.Photo 25 shows the gun shortstroked in this article. The spur iswell above the web on my hand.WOW!!! The action is smooth and
Shotgun Boogie Short Stroke . . .
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remarkably light, especially whenyou consider it still has to reliablyignite primers with a muchshorter hammer fall. It is alsomuch easier on the old thumbjoint. One other thing that is no-ticeable is there is no over travelin the trigger. You pull it, the ham-mer falls, and that’s it.
Boogie is planning on being atWinter Range in Jimmy Spurstent to demo and install these kits.The basic kit is $349. The springkit is $39. And, the hammer overtravel kit is $39. Stop by and visitwith him. His English is a heck ofa lot better than my German! Youcan also try contacting him at hiswebsite. www.shotgunboogie.de
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eople have been asking mequestions about blackpowder that I couldn’t an-swer without testing
them. Which is hottest? Which ismost accurate? Are “Wholly Black”powders more accurate than theheathen substitutes? What’s thedifference between Triple SevenFFg and FFFg? What’s the differ-ence between Jim Shockey’s Goldand American Pioneer Powder?Can I shoot Frontier Cartridgeusing Unique? Should JustinBieber star in a remake of Shane?
In order to get an overview ofcurrent powders, I took everyblackpowder and substitute I hadon hand and set up my RansomRest and Oehler 35P Chronographat Cowtown near Phoenix. One ofCowtown’s stage buildings is builtvery strong, and I can clamp theRansom Rest on a shelf and expectit to be stable. Using a RansomRest eliminates human errors. Totest powders, eliminate other vari-ables. I used one gun, a Ruger OldArmy with 5-1/2" barrel preparedby Rowdy Yates of Lee’s Gun-smithing. Speer .457 round balls(143 gr.) and Remington #10 capswere used, leaving only the powderas a variable. I’m emphasizingthat the results are the result ofmachine testing and not my inputbecause of some surprising results
P
Captain Baylor modeling the Mernickle Evil Roy Slim Jim rigwith matching shotgun belt.
(Photo by Lorrie Lott, Mr. Quigley Photography)
in the testing. My input was lim-ited to trying to load each cylinderexactly the same with exactly thesame amount of powder and con-sistent seating of the balls.
Because of battles with envi-ronmentalists, Cowtown’s targetscan’t be placed between about 10and 25 yards. The 25-yard targetsrequire climbing a steep hill to ac-cess. Deciding I was too old forRanger school, I wimped out. I setthe target at 10 yards. The varia-tions get larger and easier to dif-ferentiate with range. I wasafraid that wouldn’t be far enoughaway to differentiate betweenpowders. As The Redhead oftentells me, I was wrong. The small-est group was ¾", while thelargest was 5-1/4."
Oehler 35P ChronographThe Oehler 35P Chronograph is
considered to be extremely accu-rate. It has 3 screens and a proofchannel that catches and elimi-nates glitches. The primary chan-nel screens are 4 feet apart, abouttwice what other consumer chrono-graphs use. The third screen is inthe middle. If the velocity readingof the proof channel is more than asmall percentage away from themain, it gives an error reading. Itprints each test velocity, proof veloc-ity, and the high, low, and averagevelocity, the Extreme Spread (dif-ference between high and low) andStandard Deviation of the string. Iadded power factor and group sizeto the results. The black powdercategories do not have a power fac-
DiSpatcheS fROm
camp bayLOR
BlackpowderVelocityand Accuracy Test
By Captain George Baylor, SASS Life/Regulator #24287
. ,
The Ransom Rest is clamped to a shelf at Cowtown inPhoenix. In front of it are the three screens of theOehler 35P Printing Chronograph, then a target.
Firing the Ruger Old Army in the Ransom Rest. The rest allows the gun to recoil and has to be pushed back to its stop for the next shot.
Swiss FFFg shot the biggest group at 5.25", a real surprise for what is considered the
Gold Standard of blackpowder.
Equally surprising, the three smallest groups were by American Pioneer Powder products, with the best in the test, 0.75” group, by American
Pioneer Powder FFFg.
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tor requirement, but it is a good in-dication of suitability. If your powerfactor is too high, you’ll be slowedby recoil. If it’s too low, knockdownswill stay up. Instead, we have asmoke standard. Needless to sayall of the loads tested far exceededthe minimum standard.
Test LoadsThe test procedure was, except
for Pyrodex Pellets, to use the same30 gr. spout for all of the powders.It throws 30 gr. of Goex 3F byweight. 30 gr. is the lowest chargethat the Ruger Old Army rammerwill seat the ball without air space.Longer rammers and cylinder load-ers allow lighter charges. Tex uses40 gr. and considers 30 grains a cap-gun load. 5 round groups werefired, always from the same 5 cham-bers. I used no wads or lubes in thetest. I ran a bore brush through thebore after every cylinder to get ridof excess fouling. No malfunctionsof any kind occurred. The first andlast cylinders fired produced thesmallest groups, indicating no dete-rioration in the gun or mounting.Results in DECREASING
group size order:Swiss 3f—Swiss is considered
the gold standard long-range black
powder on the market. It is morepowerful than most. High velocitywas 923 ft./sec., low 885. Average ve-locity was 905. Extreme spread (ES)was a low 38 ft./sec. Standard Devi-ation (SD) was a low 14. In the lasttwo, lower is better. Power factorwas 129. I was extremely surprisedto see a 5.25" (center-to-center)group. If I hadn’t just gotten a ¾"group from another powder, I wouldhave looked for a problem in theRansom Rest. The next powdertested scored a 1-3/4" group.
Pyrodex Pellets—I get ques-tions about these occasionally. Theyare .44 caliber 30 gr. pellets.They’re very tempting becausethey’re easy to load. My experiencewith them has been unsatisfactorydue to delayed ignition (hang-fire,pop…bang). This was no exception.3 rounds experienced audible de-layed ignition out of five. High ve-locity 928, low 710, average 782, ES218, SD 88. Power factor 112.Group size 2.75."
Goex 3F—This is a good allaround powder. It works well in allof our main match guns includingshotgun. High was 817, low 707,average 778, extreme spread 110,Standard Deviation 46, power fac-
tor 111, group size 2.75."Triple Seven FFg—Triple
Seven is a black powder substitutedesigned for hunters to get as muchvelocity as possible for big huntingmuzzleloaders. It also has more re-strictions in the loading instruc-tions than all of the other powderstested, with limitations on wadsand fillers, making light loads diffi-cult to achieve without violating therestrictions. 30 gr. of FFg gave ahigh of 902, low of 768, average 833,ES 144, SD 55, Power Factor 119,group 2.25."
Triple Seven FFFg is evenhotter, resulting in velocities thatexceeded the SASS maximum of1,000 ft./sec. for pistols. The highwas 1042, low 992, average 1015,ES 50, and SD 17. Power factor145, group size 1.75. Hodgdon saysFFFg is for muzzleloaders only, notfor metallic cartridges.
Sadly Goex Cowboy has beendiscontinued. This is a shame asthis is a good powder for all mainmatch guns. High 739, low 631, av-erage 707, ES 108, SD 43, powerfactor 101, group size 1.75.
Pyrodex P—Pyrodex was theoriginal blackpowder substitute. Ithas a reputation for being dirty, andcartridges need blackpowder lubedbullets. “P” is equivalent to 3F. Itis a good, all around powder for ourmain match guns. It has the addi-tional advantage of being widelyavailable. Some of the others arehard to find in some areas. High783, low 697, ES 86, SD 34, powerfactor 106, group size 1.75. 4rounds fit in ¾" with one flyer, so itmay be more accurate than the testresults show.
Goex Express has been dis-continued, but I still have someFFg, so I tested it. It is an excellentpowder. High 768, low 702, average723, ES 46, SD 17, power factor 89,group 1.625." Sadly the Goex pow-ders that performed the best in thistest have been discontinued.
Jim Shockey’s Gold FFFg—This is American Pioneer Powder’spowder intended for hunters. I geta lot of questions about it because itis easier to find than the less expen-sive American Pioneer Powder. JimShockey has a popular show on theOutdoor Channel. It’s a good pow-der. All of American Pioneer Pow-der products have been improvedcontinuously. I find they dust lessthan they used to, and they’re notas hygroscopic. (Look for the blackbottles). Jim Shockey’s Gold seemsmost improved since my last test ofit several years ago. Like Pyrodex
and Triple Seven, all of AmericanPioneer Powders are safe to use inprogressive reloading machines.FFFg—High 826, low 540, average703, ES 185, SD 71, power factor101, group size 1.375.
Jim Shockey’s Gold FFGwasmarginally more accurate. Velocityhigh was 772, low 618, average 667,ES 154, SD 61, power factor 95,group size 1.25. The power factor isreasonable for Cowboy ActionShooting, and the group size is good.
And The Winner Is:And the winner, to my sur-
prise, was American PioneerPowder FFFg. High 693, low 461,average 555, ES 232 (!), SD 85,power factor 79, group size 0.75.With that velocity spread, I wouldexpect less accuracy, but the tar-gets don’t lie.
This surprised me enough thatI shot another group after shootingthe others. High was 541, low 445,average 507, ES 96, SD 36. Powerfactor 73, group 0.875.
I’m sure at this point a certainpercentage of “soot lords” will havethrown the paper across the room.I hope you’re not reading the elec-tronic version on your laptop if youdid. You won’t be able to send theobligatory angry email to The Cow-boy Chronicle. “Conventional Wis-dom” is that “Wholly” black is moreaccurate than substitutes. Theirconsistency gives low Standard De-viation, and this almost guaran-tees pinpoint accuracy, at least intheory. Perhaps conventional wis-dom only applies at conventions. Idid a test like this in 2005. APPFFFg gave 1.75" groups vs. Cow-boy’s 2" groups—at 25 yards. APPhas long given me good accuracy, soI wasn’t surprised at the decentgroup. What surprised me wasthat none of the other powderswere able to match it.
Conclusions: Jim Shockey’sGold isn’t markedly different fromAmerican Pioneer Powder for per-cussion pistols. The hottest pow-der tested, as expected, was TripleSeven FFFg. The hottest whollyblack was Swiss FFFg, again ex-pected. The mildest was AmericanPioneer Powder FFFg. As for ac-curacy, American Pioneer Powderproducts finished 1, 2, and 3. De-fying all kinds of odds, the mildestpowder was most accurate. Ithink with experimentation andtuning all of the powders testedwould work well for percussionpistols. I’ve used them all at onetime or another. Justin Bieber asShane? Really?Test Results Chart
A .45 ACP case was used to cover thepowder spout for filling …
… resulting in a spout filled to thesame level every time for consistency.
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say, “Tell me all you knowabout hatbands.” You reply,“Well, they go on a hat, … Dickhad a really tight one … Newt
(Lonesome Dove) didn’t have one …plain or fancy ... that’s about it.”
Dictionaryaly speaking (is thata word?) a hatband is “a strip ofcord or leather that goes around thecrown of a hat, just above the brim.”Not a word about its function …?
The Duke seemed to favor a nar-row band of silver with a smallbuckle. Down around Sweetwater,Texas, you see cowboys and cowgirlswith whole rattlesnakes, completewith heads made into hatbands …Saw a feller at a shoot once with golftees in his hatband and a putter andsix iron in his guncart … blendingtwo hobbies, you might say … Can noother function be made of a nearlyuniversal accutrement, than as arepository for small “nit noys” not en-trusted to vest or trouser pockets?
I love to digress, so for anotherparagraph at least, indulge me. Ishot with some pretty fine shootistsover the years, but their hatbandsnever really stood out as a hallmarkof their talent. One gentleman car-ried half a dozen barn burnermatches in his hatband. “Whatchacarry them matches for?” He: “Neverknow when ya’ll ‘ll need a far!” ... Ididn’t point out those matches hadbeen rained on so many times his hatwas stained blue from them …
Crocodile Dundee had gatorteeth in his, and one yokel I observeda had a hatband made from a car-tridge belt … and it was loaded withcartridges! How he got by without aneck brace is a mystery … Then, of
course, there was the “Great CowboyHat Revival” of the seventies whencertain states had their populationsof pheasants decimated to providethe plummage displayed on thou-sands of cowboy hats worn by folksthat had no inkling of the West orcowboys, “they just looked sooopretty!” NASCAR great RichardPetty still wears his. (Duh!)
I was discussing with my shoot-ing pal, The West Virginia Kid, SASS#31461, the fact I’d been unable tocome up with a real function for thisubiquitious part of western attire.‘You know, Chil, (that’s what he calls
me), a hat band is a right handy placeto keep a supply of toothpicks … ”“You use a lot of toothpicks, do you,Kid (that’s what I call him)? “Well, no,I don’t. But I’ve seen some that do.”
Johnny Concho paid his bar tab,in at least one film from the thirties,with a concho pulled from his hat-band when funds ran low, but histhirst was unabated. “Barkeep, thatthere’s Mexican silver. Reckon it’llbuy a round.” The Bartender bit onthe concho and nodded in the affir-mative and set up the drinks. I don’tknow the significance of biting theconcho, but it seems bartenders werealways biting the payment offered.Might be the subject for another in-vestigative article …
A Mostly Non-Functional Article On A Non-Functional Article
HATBAnDSBy Chilkoot, SASS #58803
Chilkoot, SASS #58803
.
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n this article I will ana-lyze the use of rankpoints versus time forscoring. It is written
from the viewpoint of a scientist. Forthose that assert cowboys were notscientists, I refer you to Hec Ramsey.
The principles of each methodare applied at all levels taken totheir logical conclusion. The discus-sion will not compromise the logicalcorrectness of the analysis with therealities of what is physically possi-ble. The analysis is based on a six-stage match and varies from there.
Rank scoring assigns a rankbased on time (and penalties) foreach stage making each stage equalin importance to another. Rank isnot based on the match, but asmaller part of the match, a stage. Ifwe assign a place based on a smallerpart of the match, why not base itupon an even smaller part, thesmallest part possible? Assign arank for the time shooting pistols,another for the rifle, and a third forthe shotgun at each stage. For thesake of this discussion, assume thetimer can record the time to the lastpistol shot, and start a new time forthe rifle, and another for the shot-gun. Transitions are included. Totaltime for the stage equals the sum ofthe time for each firearm. A timerlike that doesn’t exist (yet), but weare examining the logic of scoring,not the realities of getting it done.
The mythical timer also sumsup both pistols whether or not thestage calls for them to be shot oneafter another or with anotherfirearm in between.
My analysis respects our gun-fighters, since they will alternatebetween revolvers when the stagecalls for one after the other.
Instead of the match having sixstages of revolver, rifle, and shotgun,and assigning a rank for each stage,the match now effectively has 18stages; 6 revolver only, 6 rifle only,and 6 shotgun only. Is the sum of therank for each of the 18 stages the bestindication of who won the match?
Time scoring assigns a scorebased on the total time for thematch. A stage is a sequence of pis-
tol, rifle, and shotgun. A match is abunch of those sequences strung to-gether. For the sake of this discus-sion, assume at stage 2 the timer ispreset with the time from stage 1.Stage 2 is just added to stage one.The same with the following stagesuntil the end of stage 6. Then, thefinal time is recorded.
If instead of a match having sixstages of revolver, rifle, and shotgunand assigning a time for each stage,we now have a match with effectively1 stage having 6 revolver pairs, 6 ri-fles, and 6 shotguns. Is the sum of thetime for each of the 6 stages, whichhappens to be the same as the time ofthe match if it were one big stage, thebest indication of who won the match?
Consider both methods for thefollowing match. The match hasthree longer stages each consisting ofrevolver, rifle, and shotgun and nineother shorter stages; three revolveronly, three rifle only, and three shot-gun only. Using the rank point scor-ing, the nine shorter stages have aweight three times the value of thethree longer stages, when the nineshorter stages have the same num-ber of shots as the three longerstages. Using time scoring, each shotcounts the same. Which is the bestindication of score for the match?
Considering only the logic of thescoring and not the practically of thestages or record keeping, your an-swers to these questions indicatewhether you believe rank or timescoring is the logically correctmethod. While it is convenient tokeep time for each stage, that shouldnot impact the logical correctness ofhow to determine the overall score.
I find it convenient to check mytime for a stage because I can re-flect on how well I did on that stage.But for me, a second on one stagehas the same weight as a second onanother. To know how I did for thematch, I check the total time. I willnever come close to winning amatch, so the scoring method hasno effect on me personally. But Iam a scientist, and we analyze
things just because they exist. Ihope the analysis was useful.(Not really. There are literallydozens of ways to score a match …and each is “correct” and “fair”when it is declared before hand andused rigorously. We’re playing agame … and the rules of the gamedictate what is correct. Matcheswhere the rules say one can “buy amiss” are correct and fair … but theresults will differ significantly fromanything described above.
Rank points have a number ofbenefits and shortcomings. So does“total time” scoring. Neither is per-fect. As a matter of philosophy, each
stage should stand alone. All stagesdon’t necessarily have to be “equal.”One’s score should not depend onhow many other folks have a similarscore. The “Stage Points” scoring sys-tem introduced for Wild Bunch™ sat-isfies these criteria … and will likelybe used at END of TRAIL. Scores arecomputed on a category basis for eachstage. One competes only againstthose in their category. Each stage isassigned a number of points that are“won” based upon how well oneshoots the stage. The points are de-termined by the number of logicaltargets in the stage—if all the stagesare 10, 10, and 4+, each of the stageswould be worth 240 points. It’s fair,it’s reasonable, and it’s correct. Justanother view … Editor in Chief)
SCoRInG-RANkvs.TIMEAs a Cowboy Scientist Views It
By Four Feathers, SASS #58356I
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ast fall the Vicar’s Wife and I traveled to“Outlaw Camp” near Heber Springs,Arkansas to attend “Mayhem on the Moun-tain.” I really enjoy Black Powder Shoots.
The missus sometimes asks me, “Why do you shootBlack Powder? It costs more for reloading supplies,takes longer to reload ammo, and you spend two hourscleaning your guns after the match is over.” I justsmile and say, “Because it’s soooo much FUN.”
Well I’m sure glad we attended this particular BPshoot because Stump Man, SASS #89993, and his lovelywife Mustang Toni, SASS #93341, brought their 1860’sreproduction six barrel Gatling Gun to the shoot. OzarkOutlaw, SASS #19847, (the outlaw of outlaws of “Out-law Camp”) managed to have an article published in the“Sun-Times” newspaper in Heber Springs about this sixbarrel crank gun being at the Match. It was mentionedin said article that the gun would be on display at theshoot Saturday afternoon, AND, that anyone whowanted to could turn the crank on this “Cowboy EraGun” for a buck a round. I could not believe the numberof people from the area who lined up ta shoot this multi-barreled beauty. Later a “Turkey Shoot” was offered tothe Cowboy Action crew.
I asked Stump Man, aka Kenny Stump, to tell mea little about his prize position. He said he startedworking on the gun about a year ago. The first big jobwas “making the payments.” When the gun arrived ona Friday, he opened up the shipping box and set out ta
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sight it in the next day. None ofhis shooting pards could make it tothe short notice ribbon cutting cer-emony, so he managed ta hoist the310-pound gun up onto its tri-podby himself. Excitement + adrena-lin = results. After several hoursand a few hundred rounds ofammo, it was time to put the newtoy away. But some of the excite-ment and adrenalin had waned.Thankfully his son showed upfrom a college break just in time tohelp. That’s when he came to therealization he needed an originaltype carriage.
Armed with a photo and anartist sketch of an 1865 GatlingGun Carriage, Stump Man set outta fabricate a set of wheels for hisnew “Cowboy Gun.” After deter-mining the diameter of the wheels,the other dimensions were scaledfrom there. He found most of whathe needed at “Home Depot.” Theyhelped him find the wood andmany of the metal parts. The steelparts that were not readily avail-able were made from scrap pieceshe and his father, Short Tree,SASS #90329, had accumulatedover the years.
The wood was formed and as-sembled using hand tools. Not theleast of them was a two handedflat plane. With hand tools you canget a good workout, and whenyou’re finished ya got somethingta show for it. Then they were
LaborofLoveCree Vicar Dave,
SASS Life Regulator, #49907
By Cree Vicar Dave, SASS Life/Regulator #49907
Stump Man sent me a photo of an original Gatling Gun still in working condition.
It sold at auction for $155,250!
Stump Man, SASS #89993, and Mustang Toni, SASS #93341, with their Gatling Gun. They travel to Big Shoots with their six-barreled crank gun
and hold “Turkey Shoots,” giving away nice prizes.
Axle and tongue frame. First step in building the carriage. Frame with Gatling Gun hardware attached.
Sitting in the drivers seat is Stump Man. Everyone enjoys turning the crank!
Wheels assembled to the frame.
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soaked in a mixture of Thomp-son’s Water Seal and BritishWalnut stain. When dry, 2coats of Spar Varnish were ap-plied. All the metal parts weresand blasted for uniformity,epoxy primed, and finishedwith aircraft quality Black Poly– Urethane.
There are a few more thingshe would like to install on thecarriage such as ammo boxes,etc. In all he spent 60 hoursover 33 days on the carriagein 90° F temperatures. Itwas truly a “Labor of Love.”It says in Ecclesiastes 1:3NIV, “What does a man gainfrom all his labor at which hetoils under the sun?” With awork of art like this, for onething, there is the good feel-ing of a job well done.
Stump Man expressed tome the plans they have fortheir Gatling Gun; “I amtruly a gun nut like most of usCowboy Action shooters are. Iwanted something Big to taketo shoots. As we are just get-
ting started, our plan is to take it toBig shooting events and do a“Turkey Shoot” as a side match andgive away guns to the winners. Sofar we have had the gun at theArkansas State Championship“Shoot-n-the-Shade” in HotSprings, Arkansas, at the “Moun-tain Valley Vigilantes Camp,” theArkansas State Black Powder StateChampionship, “Mayhem on theMountain” at the “Outlaw Camp”in Heber Springs, Arkansas, “Raidon Fort Parker” at the “Fort Parker
Regulars Camp” in Fort Parker,Texas, and most recently at “Comin’At Cha” at T-Bone Dooley’s place inEnglish, Texas for the “SouthwestRegional Championship.”
If you would like ta have thisvery unique crowd pleaser come toa shoot in your area, you can con-tact Stump Man at: [email protected]
Give him a holler, and see if hecan come ta your shoot.
Close up of Gatling Gun mounted on carriage. Stump Man plans
on mounting ammo boxes and such in the future.
The crank is in the foreground and the elevation screw in the back.After the adjustments are made,the gun can be moved a little
when it is fired.
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he Second Amendmentstates “A well-regulatedmilitia, being necessaryto the security of a free
state, the right of the people tokeep and bear arms, shall not beinfringed.” To me this means thatas a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, I have the right to keepand bear arms. To me this alsomeans safety, independence andprotection.
There is a lot of controversyover the meaning of “a well-regu-lated militia.” Some believe thismeans the general public shouldnot be able to own guns as they arenot part of the militia. I believe theFounding Fathers didn’t mean thatat all. Having just escaped fromthe control of a professional army, Ibelieve the Founding Fatherswanted to establish an armed citi-zenry instead of a controlling army.With an armed citizenry, it wouldlevel the playing field. The citizens,as well as the militia, would be
armed, thus no one group couldoverpower another with the threator use of guns or similar weapons.The armed citizenry could also behandy if the country were ever at-tacked on the home front. The gen-eral public would have the abilityto protect themselves instead of re-lying solely on our military to tryand protect everyone.
Safety and independence arevery important to me. I want to beable to be an independent youngwoman and not have to rely on oth-ers to protect me. I am currentlygoing to school in a big city near LosAngeles, California. Although I liveon campus and am not able to keepa gun with me, I feel safer knowingthat if a situation presented itself, Iwould know how to safely handleone. If the Second Amendment wasnot in place and my family was notallowed to keep guns in the house, Iwouldn’t know how to use one, andI wouldn’t feel as confident in myown self-protection.
In the future when I do move offcampus, I would feel safer aboutmyself, my property, and my friendsknowing there is a gun in my apart-ment. The Second Amendment hasgiven me the means to rightly de-fend myself. This, in my opinion, isthe most important thing the Sec-ond Amendment can do. I have theright to be an independent womanand I don’t have to rely on others toprotect me.
I believe the defense of our livesand our property is given to us byThe Second Amendment of the Con-stitution. Everyone should know
how to handle a gun safely even ifthey aren’t avid shooters. If thetime ever came, I would muchrather be able to have and safelyhandle my gun than wait fifteen tothirty minutes for the police to ar-rive. The Second Amendment al-lows me the option of owning a gunand protecting myself rather thanhaving to wait for someone to arriveand help me.
To me, The Second Amendmentmeans independence, safety andprotection. I can live on my own inthe city and feel safer about myselfand my roommates. The SecondAmendment gives and protects myright to own a gun and thus keepmyself safer from robbery or as-sault. I have the independence toprotect myself and my loved ones,and in my opinion, the safety of myfamily is more important than any-thing else. The Second Amendmentprotects my right to protect myself,my country, and my family.
2012 SASS Scholarship Recipient
Miss Mandy, SASS #89466
What The Second Amendment Means To Me
AKA Amanda CordesEdited by Justice Lily Kate, SASS #1000
T
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AKA Kathy HollmannEdited and Adapted by Justice Lily Kate, SASS #1000
y name is Kathy“Morning Dove” Holl-mann, SASS #7889 andmy parents are Jim
Hollmann, Sierrita Slim, SASS#4054, and Chaleeporn, Sweet-face, Hollmann, SASS #7888. WyoBob, SASS #64979, is my grandfa-ther and I have two brothers mostof you don’t know, Tombstone TimHollmann, SASS #6820, andPawnee Pete Hollmann, SASS#6851. Since I first joined SASSat two years of age, you can tellthat my family has been involvedwith SASS for many years. At ageseven I started competing in Cow-boy Action Shooting and switchedto Cowboy Mounted Shooting atage ten, for a total of twelve years;however, my dad and I still shootCowboy Action when we have theopportunity to break loose. Myaction shooting home clubs, wherepeople still remember when mydad had to hold up my rifle forme, are the Seven Rivers Regula-tors in Carlsbad, NM and theRocky Flats Rangers in Alam-ogordo. The Buffalo Range Riders– Mounted in Edgewood, NM atFounders Ranch is my currenthome club.
Riding horses and shootingguns is what I love, but being partof the camaraderie of the cowboylife with my shooting family is re-ally a wonderful aspect of oursport too. Whether or not I winisn’t what keeps me coming back,it’s the great people, for they aretruly like family to me. Being in-volved with action and mountedshooting has had a great impacton my life. It has made me theperson I am today, not only be-cause of the competition, but be-cause of the great people in thesport too, my role models.
At age nineteen, I am cur-rently a full-time student at East-ern New Mexico Universityworking towards my Bachelor’sDegree in Business Administra-tion with an emphasis in Market-ing. I took some college coursesduring high school and graduatedwith twenty seven college credithours. I’m now a sophomore andam only a few hours away frombeing a junior. My specific futureplans are still undecided, but Iknow two things for sure: I willearn my degree in 2015 and havea career that involves both horsesand guns.
2012 SASS Scholarship Recipient
Morning Dove, SASS #7889
,
M
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his is an article to helpcompetitors decide onwhat type of scabbardto use for mounted
shotgun or rifle shooting.Guns depicted:
• Stoeger .410 coach gun ( nickelplated and a dark birchwoodstock)
• Marlin 1894 Carbine• 16 gauge hammered shotgun• Cimarron 45 L.C. revolving car-bineA few years ago I was compet-
ing in the Will Lantis Classic in
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Spearfish, South Dakota. After ahard day of competition I decidedto relax and take a short trip toDeadwood to visit my saddlemaker. Jerry and Duffy Croft havebeen making cowboy saddles for al-most thirty years. Jerry made mysaddle and one for my wife for herwedding gift some 20 years ago.
As I drove up to the Croftplace and got out of my truck,Duffy saw me and instantly hereyes teared up in sympathy formy condition. She thought Iwas too thin and wanted to plump
me up before I left South Dakota.She fed me lots of buffalo steaksand gravy and a lot of coffee toachieve her goal.
After dinner Jerry and I satdown to discuss an idea I hadabout mounted cowboy shooting.Being a relatively poor collegeprofessor, I needed a scabbard formounted shooting that I could usefor both the shotgun and carbineevents. Everyone knows that onesize does not fit all.
But Jerry and I discoveredsomething unique about thefirearms I was using. The dis-tance across the barrels of theStoeger .410 shotgun and the dis-tance across the barrel and thetube magazine of the 1894 Marlinwas the same. Jerry suggested hebuild a scabbard that would holdeither one, but just turn the shot-
gun to a different angle. Problemsolved - one scabbard for bothguns. The scabbard has a wideround mouth that stays open.There is a buckle loop that will gothrough the saddle gullet andsnug up to the swell. There aretwo strings to secure the scabbardto the “D” ring of the saddle andthe “D’ ring of the girth.
By placing the shotgun so thetoe of the butt stock faces outand is perpendicular to the saddlehorn, and putting the carbine sothe toe of the rifle butt stock facesthe head of the horse, the scab-bard works for both guns.
I have since used the samescabbard for a hammered 16-gauge shotgun and a Cimarron re-volving pistol. Everything worksgreat and it is cheap - one scab-bard for all four guns.
Iam sad to report the passing of agreat cowboy, shooter, and friend,Michael Devlin, known to hisfriends as “Hoppy.” Hoppy joinedSASS early on as he attended thefirst END of TRAIL. As he tells thestory, when he joined SASS theywere issuing two-digit badge num-bers. Mike insisted on the three-digit number of 777.
Hoppy enjoyed his retirementyears in Prescott, AZ being active inthe Buscaderos, Victorian Society,and the Corvette Club. Hoppy rel-ished the Old Western flavor ofPrescott and enjoyed all the cowboyactivities, breakfast on Thursdaymornings, monthly shoots in thearea, and Winter Range. He wasproudest of his “clean shoots” at thecowboy matches.
Hoppy attended the 2011 ENDof TRAIL for the 30th Anniversary.His last cowboy match was in Cot-tonwood, AZ at the Verde ValleyRange Wars. His other interestswere his wife, Lupe, his daughter
and grandchildren, his Corvette,and the Corvette Club.
Hoppy will always be remem-bered for his sharp whit andproverbial smile.
Hoppy is survived by his wife of41 years, Gaudalupe; his daughter,Ellen Tighe; his granddaughters—Danielle, Kristen, Jenna, and Hal-ley; and his sisters.
ee
Sacramento, CA – DiamondDick began playing Cowboy
Action in Castro Valley, Califor-nia in 1989. In 1990, he co-founded River City Regulatorswhere he was initially the rangemaster and later became the Ter-ritorial Governor. Max Sand,SASS #1674, and Diamond Dickstarted the Plainfield Raid an-nual in 1996, and it ran for nineyears. It was one of the most suc-cessful shoots in Northern Cali-fornia. They introduced ahandicap system that workedvery well and made an additional30 shooters very happy!
In 1999, Diamond Dick andothers started the CaliforniaRangers on a private cattleranch. At the same time, he be-came the president of the Murri-eta Posse. During this time, hewas also certified as a RO-II in-structor. Soon after, he and MaxSand hosted the Pan Pacific Sen-ior Games at River City Regula-tors. It was the hottest match,weather-wise, in which he hadever shot!
At River City Regulators in2003, Diamond Dick hosted thefirst Cowboy Action Shooting™match in the California Policeand Fire Games. A couple ofyears later the presidents of theCalifornia Rangers and MurrietaPosse asked Diamond Dick to bein charge of setting up the Cow-
boy Town Range atthe Sacramento Val-ley Shooting Center
and get itgoing. It be-came opera-
tional the following year. Diamond Dick was inducted
into the SASS Hall of Fame in2011, although health problemsdid not allow him to attend theceremony at the SASS Conven-tion. Territorial Governor, SutterLawman, SASS #24333, person-ally presented Diamond Dickwith his bronze induction statueand proclamation at a privategathering in his Sacramentohome.
Diamond Dick really appreci-ated being a part of SASS sinceits early days, and especially en-joyed the people and friends hemade. He is survived by his wife,Paniolo Lady, SASS #28694, andson, Diamond Dick, Jr., SASS#17476.
DIAMonD DICkSASS Regulator & Life Member #1842SASS Hall of Fame Inductee
By Tex, SASS #4
HoPALonG CASSIDySASS Life #777aka Michael Delvin
March 17, 1944 - October 25, 2011By Turquoise Bill, SASS #39118
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Little Known FactKady Brownell followed her husband to the battlefield near Manassas.
She stayed on the field to take care of the wounded soldiers
and when the flag bearer was wounded, she carried the flag
across the field until she was wounded.
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on Tuesday with more being heldon Wednesday. Wednesday alsoheld the Wild Bunch Match andSide Matches with the Posse Mar-shal walk-through completing thebusiness for the day; then everyoneheaded to the “Party on the Patio!”The majority of us enjoyed meetingand greeting old friends and newon the inside due to high, high,high temps! What an honor tohave the Sparta VFW presentingour colors. We salute you! It wasour privilege to have SASS royaltywith us! SASS #1 Judge Roy Bean,SASS #4 Tex, SASS #55 Cat Bal-lou, SASS #1000 Justice Lily Kate,and SASS #1522 Big Horn wan-dered among us throughout thematch and were just as friendlyand approachable as those sweetlittle girls of Duke Skywalker!
The first wave of the 302 shoot-ers met at 7:30 Thursday morning
for their safety meeting andshortly thereafter, the first shotwas fired downrange. Let the com-petition begin! Can’t say enoughabout the scenarios – Mose figuredout a way to be fair to everyshooter! If you were a righty or alefty, if you were a gunfighter ornot … talk about options! With thethree time slots over three days,the 12 stages were very organizedwith no waiting, no over-lapping ofposses. Yet another example ofMose’s skills! Thursday also in-cluded day one of the Indoor WorldChampionships as well as theShotgun Games. Vendor row wasbusy throughout the match. Theday ended with a Pot Luck CookOut. I can honestly say the 2012U. S. Open held something for
EVERYONE involved in CowboyAction Shooting™.
Day Two, Friday, thankfullybegan with a bit cooler weather.We did dodge a short rain shower,but everyone seemed prepared andthe lead kept flying! We had an-other day of Indoor World Champi-onships as well as the ShotgunShow Down! Poker and BingoTournaments were held in the Ven-dor Mall. A few folks left smiling!
Saturday was the final day ofshooting. Temps were much cooler,which was great for most cowboysand cowgirls! The Indoor WorldChampionship Shoot Off was heldSaturday afternoon. Everyone’sfavorite cowgirl, Frisco Kim, wascelebrating her 21st birthday! TheChicken ‘N Beer Bash was held atVendor Mall while we all enjoyedthe music from The TurnpikeCruisers at the Outlaw Entertain-ment party. Various guns were raf-fled, and I hear Barkeep Casey hadto find another way home to Ala-bama after he refused to share hisbrand new ‘73 he won with histraveling companions! CostumeAwards were announced and doorprizes were handed out on thedance floor. Now THAT was enter-tainment! Dance for your prize!
Cowboy Church was held Sun-day morning followed by an ab-solute feast at the Pig OutBreakfast Buffet. Everyone con-gregated in the Main Event Centerfor awards. The World ShootingComplex presented Splitrail a freeentry to the 2013 U. S. Open forbeing the only State, Regional,
AND World champion in atten-dance. Spirit of the Game winnerswere announced from each posse.The list of folks who “shot it clean”was 28 shooters long! Congratula-tions to overall winners, Prestidig-itator and Shamrock Sadie, whowere also awarded a free entry to2013 END of TRAIL by SASS, com-pliments of the Wild Bunch, alongwith their overall buckles.
Buck D. Law tells me on a reg-ular basis not to wrap my smile upin how well I shoot or how well IDON’T shoot! Consider theamount of time you spend at amatch. The actual time spentshooting all 12 stages (or howevermany are set up for that particularmatch) is a very small amount …only minutes. The pleasure in oursport comes from the camaraderiewe all enjoy from being able tospend time with our friends at var-ious locations. We interact on theSASS wire with folks we have yetto meet, but have built somewhatof a bond with through posts andmessaging. What a treat when weactually encounter one another!Buck and I have been fortunate tobe able to shoot in fifteen differentstates over the past several years.We can honestly say we have truefriends in each of those states
.
There were plenty of “first-class” awards for the Sunday awards ceremony.The colorful buckles filled a table just behind the main match trophies.
,U.S. oPen
Once again Big Horn (left) took to the road in support of a major SASS competition, bringing the
indoor wax bullet guns, ammo, and targets as well as SASS Mercantilemerchandise and Tex’s hats to
the match. With him is travelling companion, Crotchety Ol’ Bart (right),without whom Big Horn couldn’t manage the task. These two
have made many trips for SASS—working hard and enjoying
the shooting!
Yes, there was an awards ceremony …and yes, it was done well! Dooley Gang
representative, Ringo Fire (left), honchoed the efficient distribution of awards and was ably assisted by
Match Director Mose.
SASS Headquarters Officials, Judge Roy Bean, Justice Lilly Kate, Tex, and Cat Ballou, were in attendance this year.
All but the Judge even shot the match!
The Saturday night Beer andChicken party was a huge success!There was plenty to drink, and no
one went away hungry!
(Continued from page 1)
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(More HIGHLIGHTS continued on page 38)
through Cowboy Action Shoot-ing™. You will never meet afriendlier group of folks!
Everyone in attendancewalked away a winner! Mose cameup with a way to make everyonehappy while still remaining fair,Bella’s smile is endless, Ringo Fireand Honey B. Graceful were rightbeside them always smiling, al-ways saying “yes” if at all possible!Their aim is to keep’em happy‘cause, as any good match directorknows, that’s what keeps’em com-ing back! The Kaskaskia Cowboyswere gracious hosts. The list offolks to thank is endless. It takes
an unbelievable number of man-hours to put on an event such as
this. Hats off to ALL involved! Seeyou next year!
THE MATCH OF CHAMPIONS!
US Open Champions—Prestidigitator and Shamrock Sadie
The World Shooting Complex is a world-class shotgun facility, capable of accommodating several thousand shotgun competitors at one time.
It also features 12 bermed “cowboy” bays and a range building that serves as headquarters for the Range Staff.
Each of the twelve Cowboy bays features excellent “cowboy” facades—all different and all attractive.
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WinnersMain MatchOverallMan Prestidigitator,
SASS #52251 TNLady Shamrock Sadie
SASS #78511 SCCategories49’er Shell Stuffer, SASS #33146 ILBuckaroo Missouri Lefty, SASS #91721 MOB-Western Copperhead Joe, SASS #39162 KYC Cowboy Ben T. Iron, SASS #47179 ALCowboy Prestidigitator TNCowgirl Velvet Sheath, SASS #21321 FLDuelist Doc Roy L. Pain, SASS #28321 MIE Statesman Rowdy Bill, SASS #9628 NYFrontiersman Split Rail,S ASS #24707 OHF Cartridge Lead Ringer, SASS #87957 ORF C Duelist Confederate Colt, SASS #31216 FLF C Gunfighter Stone Creek Drifter, SASS #58853 OHG Dame Green Eyed Indian, SASS #51116 NC
CategoriesGunfighter Sgt. Eli, SASS #35882 ILJunior Olin Winchester, SASS #83099 GAL Junior Slick’s Sharp Shooter, SASS #77967 GAL 49’er Sixgun Sallie, SASS #38989 NCL B-Western Shamrock Sadie, SASS #785011 SCL Duelist Iron Maiden, SASS #67188 TNL F Cartridge Honey B. Quick, SASS #47009 OHL F C Duelist Gemstone Janet, SASS #74014 PAL Gunfighter Bdoc, SASS #76983 PAL Outlaw Yazoo City Gal, SASS #68552 GAL Senior Lefty Jo, SASS #18830 COL S Senior Two Sons, SASS #12636 INWrangler Bent Barrel Betty, SASS #33237 TXOutlaw Tennessee Tombstone, SASS #34723 TNRange Boss Papa Dave, SASS #17266 TNSenior Fast Eddie, SASS #76308 GA
U.S. oPen THE MATCH OF CHAMPIONS!. ,
CD Tom, the purveyor of the SASS Scoring Program and chief scorekeeper for END of TRAIL, was in attendance with his lovely bride, Silver Fern. And, they BOTH shoot—well … who would have thought?
The World Shooting Complex features large multi-purpose buildings. The vendors were all
able to set up inside—very civilized! Tex is seen here explaining away his last editorial
to an interested SASS member.
Mose and Bella Spencer are the sparkplugs behind the US Open, and both assured all the bases
were covered for this smooth-running event.
Bella is seen here in the Range Headquarters ready to handle
any little issues that might develop …
(Continued from page 37)
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CategoriesS Duelist Ambush, SASS #31337 WIS Gunfighter Lassiter, SASS #2080 OHS Senior Ol Short Tom, SASS #12635 INWrangler Duke Skywalker, SASS #26871 INWild BunchOverallMan Shell Stuffer ILLady Honey B Quick OH
CategoriesL Modern Honey B Quick OHL Traditional Screamin Squaw, SASS #82479 ILModern Shell Stuffer ILTraditional Tex, SASS #4 NMSide MatchesBucky’s Mounted ChallengeMan Darby,
L Junior Sweet Sister Kit, SASS #79916 ARSpeed PistolTraditional Rattlesnake Wrangler TXL Traditional Shamrock Sadie SCDuelist Unpleasant, SASS #47592 TNL Duelist Last Kiss, SASS #34954 TNGunfighter Lassiter OHL Gunfighter Last Kiss TNL Junior Sweet Sister Kit ARSpeed Shotgun‘97 Roy’s Creek Dan, SASS #73697 OKL ‘97 Sixgun Sallie NCHammered Double Rubicon Ryder, SASS #69415 NCDouble Colt Faro, SASS #545798 TXL Double Shamrock Sadie SCL ‘87 Shamrock Sadie SC‘87 Lassiter OHL Junior Sweet Sister Kit AR
THE MATCH OF CHAMPIONS!
There were plenty of side matches at this year’s event. Wild Bunch
was a hotly contested “mini-match” shot just before the main match.
The Alamo Kid was at it yetagain! You never know where you’ll next find one
of his “rocks!”
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t would be best to dis-card the images andperceptions we haveabout women as they
were during the “Old West.”Why? Because those imagescame to us by way of Victorianwriters with Victorian ideas ofwomen’s roles or more recentlyby militant feminist writersseeking rationale for modernfeminist agendas. Extensive re-search by more objective investi-gators reveals a much differentand reassuring story about thewomen who came west and be-came an integral part of the leg-end of the Great American West.
Three major stereotypeshave colored our image of theWestern woman. She was an un-willing but faithful partner toher adventurous husband, fol-lowing him dutifully into thevast wilderness and beaten intopremature old age by the unend-ing hardship and toil.
She was the “Madonna of thePlains,” holding in herself all thevirtues of Heaven, though proba-bly inferior to men in intelli-gence, but superior to them inpiety, honesty, and all the quali-ties that must counterbalancethe coarseness of the men whosebusiness it was to conquer thewild country. They were home-makers, schoolteachers, and thelike.
Or she was the “bad girl,”who refused to be either of theseand adopted the ways of themale, coarse in language, skilledwith six-gun and horse, ready tocompete with men at everyturn—and did so successfully.Here we have Pearl Hart,Calamity Jane, Belle Starr, and“Charlie” Parkhurst.
While these stereotypes didexist, they did not represent thehundreds, thousands of womenwho willingly joined the nationalurge to “go West” to create a newlife with new opportunities, awayfrom the stifling confines of east-ern cities and traditional limita-tions. Indeed, the 1890 censusprovides information that indi-cates as much as 13% of themore than 900,000 women livingwest of the Mississippi were in-volved in the professions.
The women made a fine ac-count of themselves. These aretheir stories.
Clara Shortridge FoltzOne of Los Angeles’s most
imposing and important build-ings stands at 210 W. TempleStreet. Formerly known as theCriminal Courts Building, thisimposing structure now bearsthe name “Clara Shortridge FoltzCriminal Courts Building.” Thisbuilding appears on the nightlynews perhaps more than almostany building in America as eventoday it hosts trials for some ofAmerica’s most self-centeredHollywood celebrities, self-en-riching executives, self -empo wer -ing politicians, and vile criminalsof every stripe. Clara ShortridgeFoltz must have been an impor-tant woman to have such a build-ing named for her.
And she was. Her story is aremarkable tale of vision, bril-liance, and determination in theface of hard-line Victorian atti-tudes on women’s place in soci-ety. Eloping at the age of 15 witha habitually unsuccessful farmerin Illinois, she birthed five chil-dren during the years theymoved first to Portland, Oregonin 1872, then to San Jose, Cali-fornia where her husband aban-doned her and the children.
Faced with this new chal-lenge, she began teaching andturned her attention to the longdreamed of study of law with alocal judge, the commonly ac-cepted manner of passing the barat the time. When she applied totake the bar exam, she wasstymied by a California law thatlimited the bar to “white males.”Undaunted, she wrote a legalstatute changing “white male” to“person” and lobbied the legisla-ture—and the governor—intopassing the change into law. Thegovernor signed it in 1878 underher watchful eye, having forcedher way into his office. She im-mediately passed the bar examand became California’s firstwoman attorney. Her law prac-
CHRIS MADSENwas born in Den-mark in 1851. He
joined the Danish Army,served in the French For-eign Legion and foughtwith Garibaldi in Italy. Hecame to America in 1876,joined the U.S. Cavalryand for the next 15 yearswaged war against hostileplains Indians.
In 1891 Chris becamea U.S. Deputy Marshal inthe Oklahoma Territory.He worked with Bill Tilgh-man and Heck Thomas.They became famous asthe “Three Guardsmen.”The Guardsmen arrestedor killed more than 300outlaws and brought downthe Doolin-Dalton gang.Madsen personally killed gang members Dynamite Dick Clifton andLittle Dick West.
In 1896, Chris heard that the bandit Red Wreit was hiding outin Oklahoma. Madsen’s posse found Wreit and ordered him to throwup his hands. The outlaw came out shooting. Madsen fired once andRed fell dead.
In 1898 Madsen joined the Rough Riders and fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba. After the War, Chris re-turned to Oklahoma and in 1911 was appointed U.S. Deputy Marshalfor the entire state. Chris Madsen died in 1944 at the age of 93.
LITTLE KNOWNFAMOUS PEOPLE
Way Out West –By Joe Fasthorse, SASS #48769
Chris MadsenJoe Fasthorse, SASS #48769
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ICol. Richard Dodge,
SASS #1750
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Women
OLDweSt
InThe frage and civil rights. Profitableinvestments in business andpublishing made her modestlywealthy. During all this, shecontinued to raise her five chil-dren as a single mother and en-couraged women not to totallycast away their domestic roles.One wonders what kind of child-hood her children must have hadand what kind of inspiration shemust have been for them.
Her 56-year career, with herexample of independence, bril-liance, determination, courage,
and a true pioneering spirit, ren-ders it entirely appropriate thata major legal establishment inone of America’s largest citesnow proudly bears her name.Avey, Sharon; The Lady Lawyer:
Clara Shortridge Foltz, 2001, AV
Publishers
Babcock, Barbara Allen; Woman
Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz,
Stanford University Press, 2011
Myres, Sandra L.; Westering Women
and the Frontier Experience, 1800-
1915; University of New Mexico
Press, 2004tice in San Jose quickly became asuccessful divorce and probatelaw firm.
Desiring a more formal legaleducation, Foltz enrolled in theHastings College of Law in SanFrancisco. Denied admission be-
cause of her gender, she sued, ar-gued, and won her own case andwas finally admitted, and imme-diately encountered outlandishridicule and boorish behaviorfrom her male classmates. Shelater wrote: “They must havebeen an inferior lot, for certain itis that I have never seen norheard tell of any of them fromthat day to this.” She could turna phrase.
Interestingly, Foltz never re-ceived her law degree. Her lawpractice had become so successfulshe was forced to withdraw fromHastings. She gained an enor-mous reputation as a wise andcompassionate counselor, gener-ous to a fault with destituteclients. Perhaps her greatestlegacy was her realization of theinequity in the justice system forthe indigent. She set about thereformation of the justice system.
At the Chicago World’s Fairin 1893, she introduced the con-cept of legislation to form the of-fice of Public Defender—a radicalconcept that is now universal toevery state in the union.
In 1910, she was appointed tothe Los Angeles County DistrictAttorney’s Office and became thefirst woman District Attorney inthe United States.
Moving on to politics andbusiness, Foltz spoke forcefullyand effectively for women’s suf-
By Col. Richard Dodge, SASS Life #1750
Clara Shortridge Foltz
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incoln County, New Mexico would become fa-mous in the late 1870s for the Lincoln CountyWar and “Raid in Lincoln County” takes thereader to a ranching family in that area just a
short time before history was made. Raid in LincolnCounty is a novel about family and what it took to pro-tect a family in those times. Written by James Holl-man, a Cowboy Action and Mounted Shootingcompetitor who goes by the alias Sierrita Slim, “Raidin Lincoln County” reflects Hollman’s over thirtyyears in law enforcement and his love for openspaces. He has a small horse ranch in rural NewMexico and works cattle the old way.
Our hero, who also goes by the handle of Slim,is a former Civil War Confederate cavalry officerwho left Georgia to become a lawman in Sierrita,Arizona. Slim comes running when needed to pro-tect the family spread in Lincoln County. When
trouble comes to a peace-loving family, aman just has to stand up and do what needsto be done. And, as the reader would antici-pate in most Western novels, Slim gets to fallin love, too. Now, as much as I’d like to tell youthe whole story, you just have to get this West-ern novel and live the adventure with Slim.
James Hollman has done great research onthe Old West characters in Lincoln County andenvirons and ranch life in general in the 1870s.Hollman’s knowledge of the mountains, passes,springs, and creeks has certainly earned the envyof this amateur cartographer. Hollman just putsthe reader in the middle of the action. This re-viewer lives not far from where the story takes
place and has “jeeped” over much of the area with book in hand.“Raid in Lincoln County” is written in an easy, conversational stylethat makes it hard to put down.
“Raid in Lincoln County,” by James Hollman, a must-read forevery Western story fan, is available through Amazon.com E booksand can be found in the SASS Mercantile.
L
RAID
Sgt. Shuster, SASS #60835
IN LINCOLN OUNTYReviewed by Sgt. Schuster, SASS Regulator #60835
CF
!
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ittsburgh, PA – The Oc-tober sun was low on thehorizon, the sky glowing adeep amber streaked
with blue, when the set up posse fin-ished. They were finished position-ing and painting the last of the propsand targets for the Cowboy ActionShooting™ match the following day.Some of the trees were changingfrom summer green to autumn yel-low, orange and red; in all, a beautifulWestern Pennsylvania autumn day.With Halloween only a few weeksaway, the target colors had likewiseshifted from the traditional black togreens accented with some red andblue. The Logans Ferry regulators,with scenarios written and bays set,were now ready for penultimatematch of the season. All were readyto head for their individual home-steads for a quiet dinner, prepara-tion, and checking the guns and gearfor tomorrow’s Cowboy Action Shoot-ing™ match. This was to be a specialweekend with Cowboys shooting onSaturday, directed by Bdoc, SASS#76983, and John Barleycorn, SASS#76982. The Wild Bunch™ matchwould follow on Sunday, directed bySgt. John Campbell, SASS #58165,and Gray Squirrel, SASS #46705.Territorial Governor Mariah Kid,SASS #43037, was on hand to tourthe stages and offer suggestions hereand there, but by and large thestages were set for the weekend.Everything appeared normal andready to go! At least that is what theRegulators thought.
There was, however, a report onthe Logan’s Ferry Saloon a few weeksearlier, in September, that some zom-bies had been seen in the area. Thereported stated:
“I really hate to have to reportthis, but there is a big problem at theLogan’s Ferry ranges that reallyneeds to be fixed, and fixed soon. Iwas down there, just minding myown business, and what do I see ...Zombies!!! Not just one or two, but aherd of Zombies, wandering aroundaimlessly, acting like they owned theplace or something. Something’sgoing to have to happen, and happen
P
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active! The Wild Bunch™ pausedonly long enough to conduct athrough safety brief and informationmeeting, and then headed out to con-front the zombies.
Some of the more savvy zombieshad learned from the previous day.One or two attempted to hide andambush from unlikely and unex-pected places. Some lurked behind acovered window and another from in-side the local “privy.” Undaunted,and never ones to shrink from a chal-lenge, the Wild Bunch™, led by Sgt.John Campbell and Gray Squirrel,brought their heavy fire power tobear on zombies and steel alike. .45ACP rounds from the 1911s and evena “Tommy Gun,” accompanied withlarge caliber 1866, 1873, plus an oc-casional Marlin lever action rifle and1897 shotguns finally carried the day.The high round count; 110 pistol, 60rifle, and 34+ shotgun made up thedifference for the smaller WildBunch™ posse. Every shooter scoredhit after hit on steel and zombiesalike on every stage. Not wanting toslow the pace to rid the range ofthese undead critters, the WildBunch™ posse “shot through” and fi-nally triumphed over the invaders.
With the final .45 caliber roundsnow down range, the posse putaway their guns, then reassembledto help take down and store thesteel. Each agreed this had been achallenging match and exciting fi-nale to the weekend and were look-ing forward to the season’s closingmatch in November.
Since that action packed week-end, most of the trees have shed theirfall finery, and the ranges are quieternow. The winter season is fast ap-proaching—time for cleaning thegear, perhaps doing some amateurgunsmithing, and probably some re-loading. April is not that far off, andthe excitement will start anew!
No more zombies have beenseen at Logan’s Ferry or in the West-ern Pennsylvania area. But know-ing the zombie producing viruscould strike again at any time, theLogan’s Ferry Regulators remain onguard and ready to spring into ac-tion should the need arise …
going down range, and the steel andthe zombies were dropping in rapidorder. The crisp morning was fol-lowed by the warm afternoonweather that lent a helping hand bykeeping the posses comfortable andzombies squinting their bloodshoteyes in the autumn sun.
After four stages, the zombieswere temporarily at bay. It was theright time for both posses to break forsome lunch and conversation. Fol-lowing the break, however, bothposses were refreshed and eagerlyreturned to the action. In the truespirit of the game, both steel andzombies were swiftly put down onthe remaining two stages. The jobnow well done, both posses joined upwhere they had started that morn-ing, this time for scores and somebunkhouse conversation. Finally,with the sun low in the afternoon sky,cowboy and cowgirl alike packed upand headed down the trail for home.
The next morning, another nearperfect Western Pennsylvania fallday, the Wild Bunch™ arrived only tofind more zombies were lurking onthe range. This second wave, whichmust have been in hiding from theCowboy Action Shooting™ posses theprevious day, confronted the nowsmaller Wild Bunch™ posse on allsix stages. The weather had warmedup somewhat, and this seemed tomake the pesky undead even more
soon, or else the entire area is going tobe overrun by these pests.” Logan’sFerry Saloon, September 12, 2012
But on this Friday evening, withthe fall tinted leaves bight in the lateafternoon sun, and the weather abalmy 70 degrees, all was well—there were no zombies in sight, thestages were set, and all were lookingforward to the weekend of CowboyAction Shooting™ and Wild Bunch™matches. Imagine the shock and sur-prise the next morning when the setup posse returned to open the range,only to find the reported zombies hadreturned! They were infesting thestages and lurking unseen in thewooded hillsides. The only explana-tion: a fast acting zombie virus musthave swept through the area overnight. The dreaded virus had turnedhealthy humans into the creaturesnow skulking about the range insearch of food!
In the true spirit of the CowboyAction Shooter, the key word being“action,” match directors Bdoc andBarleycorn rounded up the possesand got rolling with the match andthe zombie elimination. Followingthe safety briefing and informationmeeting, two posses totaling 20 cow-boys and cowgirls spread out to com-pete stage by stage, andsimultaneously rid the range of theundead invaders. The sun had risento well above tree tops, rounds were
ZOMBIE ATTACK atBy Utah Scout, SASS #92575
LoGAnSFeRRy
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WinnersOverall Match WinnerMan Cody Conagher,
SASS #6986 Lady Sidesaddle Sue,
SASS #73023Delaware ChampionsMan Hand Cannon,
SASS #60485Lady Side Saddle SueCategoriesYoung Gun Jarrod B Right,
SASS #95052 E Statesman Jingles Jerr,
SASS #5463L Senior South Paw Sadie,
SASS #49471Senior Flat-Iron-Frank,
SASS #23826L S Senior Bonnie B Good,
SASS #27711S Senior Bigfoot Jim,
SASS #51847L B-Western Cuss’n Kate,
SASS #88392B-Western Red-Eyed Kid,
SASS #37263S Duelist T-Bone Pickins,
SASS #81022F Cartridge Ornery Ike,
SASS #93832
F C Duelist Quaker Kid, SASS #61691
Frontiersman Cemetery, SASS #72287
Gunfighter Doc in the Box, SASS #40647
Duelist Marshlan, SASS #22743
L 49’er Lena Okley, SASS #6987
49’er Cody ConagherWrangler Silas Highland,
SASS #81983L Wrangler Tomahawk Teri,
SASS #52808Cowgirl Sidesaddle SueCowboy Hand Cannon
COSTUME CONTEST Town WearLady Tomahawk Teri Man Cemetery
Working Cowboy Emberado,
SASS #2218 Cowgirl Side Saddle Sue
L B-Western Cuss’n Kate Best Dressed Couple
Ruby Blast, SASS #74331 &
Yankee Hoot, SASS #74330
SASS 2012
Deacon Will was presented withthe Spirit of the Game Award.
Hazel Pepper gives her SxS a run during the Side Matches. Note the new berms the host club
Eas’dern Shore Round-Up Committee that brought you this match — Side Saddle Sue, Hand Cannon, Hazel Pepper and Deacon Will, WyomingSchoolmarm and Vaquero Dan, Bonnie B Good and Jingles Jerr, andSouthpaw Sadie and Teton Tracy. Not pictured is Delaware Coop.
udlersville, MD– 2012saw the fourth Champi-onship Match for theState of Delaware. This
year’s event was hosted by theEas’dern Shore Renegades, theDelware Sportsman Association,and main match sponsor, TheCowboy Shop/Cody Conagher.Match Director, Teton Tracy andthe event committee worked tire-lessly to build stages, ingeniousprops, and acquire new targets.One of the keynote attributes ofshooting with this bunch of cow-boys is their grub. On site ven-dors prepared delicious food frombreakfast to dinner, allowing thecompetitors to be comfortably sus-tained. The BEST BBQ of anymatch was served for the eveningmeal with more meals beingserved than there were shooters.
Large targets, interesting sce-narios, and fast paced action werethe themes of the match. Weatherwas as near perfect as anyonecould have ordered for such anoutdoor event.
EAS’DERN SHOREROUND-UP May 3 - 5, 2013
The 2013 Delaware StateSASS Championship is justaround the corner and the com-mittee is busy working on all ofthe details. Questions? ContactTeton Tracy at (302) 378-7854 [email protected]
Cemetery makin’ some serious smoke.No one has ever doubted he doesn’t
make enough smoke! Cough, cough ….. gasp!
. .
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COSTUME CONTESTJudge’s Choice Doom’s Darlin’,
SASS #92853Best Cart The Dynamite Wagon
Irishman Jim, SASS #68928
& Sweetheart Sherry, SASS #68929
Side MatchesLong Range RifleBig Bore LeverMan Crooked Shot Deale,
SASS #69587 Lady Tomahawk Terri
Pistol CaliperMan T-Bone Pickins Lady Ruby Blast
Big BoreMan Big Foot Jim Lady Tomahawk Terri
Long Range PistolLady Tomahawk Terri Man T-Bone Pickins
Speed ShotgunS x SMan Cool Hand Lee,
SASS #81764 Lady Ruby Blast
Levered Peacemaker Reb, SASS #36806
SxS HammeredEmberado
Side MatchesPumpMan Big Whiskey,
SASS #73829 Lady Side Saddle Sue
Speed RifleLady Southpaw Sadie Man Jesamy Kid,
SASS #34841 Speed Pistol Jesamy Kid Speed DerringerMan Hand Cannon Lady Dancin’ Angel,
SASS #53686 Speed Pocket PistolMan Doctor Doom,
SASS #69253 Lady Doom’s Darlin’
Most Powder Burned in Long Range Side Match (tie) Sundown Charlie,
SASS #61859& Sgt. Hochbauer, SASS #64409
Clean MatchCool Hand LeeQuaker KidRed-Eyed KidT-Bone Pickins Yankee Hoot
Big Whiskey was gettin’ pretty serious as he gamed that side match.
Teton Tracy presented Cody Conagheran envelope of cash raised through
raffles to be used for the Mason Dixon Scholarship Fund.
Match Winners were Cody Conagher(c) and Sidesaddle Sue (left rear).
Delaware Champions were Sidesaddle Sue and
Hand Cannon (back row).Congratulations!
Yankee Hoot and Ruby Blast, from Connecticut, won the Best Dressed Couple.
The first annual Too DangFrank Award was presented to Slash 8 in recognition for all that he has done to develop this Club
and all he continues to do.
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leburne, TX – The2012 Texas State SASSChampionship washeld at the Ormsby
Ranch in Cleburne, Texas on May3, 4, and 5. Some of our distin-guished guests were Tex with CatBallou and The Judge with Jus-
Shooting club and Billy BobEvans from Comanche Valley Vig-ilantes. Two Gun Johnnie – sidematches, Goatneck Clem – WildBunch, Plainsman – Two GunJohnnie, Costume – Cowtown
tice Lily Kate. We were glad tosee them join our groups. Theevent was hosted by ComancheValley Vigilantes and Lone StarFrontier Shooting Club. TheMatch Directors were RangerRick from Lone Star Frontier
texaS StateChampionship
A “cross-over shooter”—Tex, an“Elder Statesman Frontier Cartridge Gunfighter” shoots Traditional Plainsman dressed for Wild Bunch™. Anyone who limits themselves to just one discipline is missing lots of fun!
WinnersOverallMan Rattlesnake Wrangler,
SASS #54580 TXLady Hey You,
SASS #64946 TXCategories49’er Phantom,
SASS #54973 TXBuckaroo Rattlesnake
Wrangler TXBuckarette Diamond Kate,
SASS #95104 TXCowboy Texas Rick O’Shay,
SASS #70305 TXC Cowboy T-Bone Dooley,
SASS #36388 TXC Cowgirl Bella Spencer,
SASS #63491 KYCowgirl Hey You TXChipmunk Hammerrock,
SASS #86679 LAE Statesman Pineywoods Jim,
SASS #56822 TXF C Duelist Billy Boots,
SASS #20282 TXFrontiersman The Brisco Kid,
SASS #26032 OKGrand Dame Cat Ballou,
SASS #55 NMGunfighter Rusty Remington,
SASS #61821 TX
Junior Preacher Kid,SASS #92046 TX
L 49’er Yankee Texan,SASS #56796 TX
L B-Western Louisiana Lady,SASS #34986 LA
L Duelist Kansas City Sneed,SASS #71319 TX
L F Cartridge Honey B. Graceful,SASS #51369 TX
L Gunfighter Buffy Logal,SASS #46039 TX
L Wrangler Bent Barrel Betty,SASS #33237 TX
L Young gun Ellie Mae Maverick,SASS #90614 TX
B-Western Slick McClade,SASS #69490 LA
Duelist Nuttin’ Graceful,SASS #39117 TX
F Cartridge Spur Roberts,SASS #14625 TX
Outlaw Doc Prairie,SASS #71556 TX
Range Boss Hemlock,SASS #384 TX
S Duelist Tumbleweed Dan,SASS #48676 TX
S Gunfighter Eli Hawk,SASS #39161 TX
L Senior Kow Katcher,SASS #58134 TX
2012
CBy Billy Bob Evans, SASS #53658 and Diamond Lizzie, SASS #53659
Photos by Billy Bob Evans
The Wobble Trap and Bob MundenCard-Splitting Side matches generated donation funds for the SASS Scholarship.
Outlaw is not (yet) a recognized SASScategory … but it’s fun, safe, and very“showy.” Outlaws are showing up
in more and more matches.
It’s Texas— what would expect? There are great props for the range … but certainly, one would have to be The Alamo!
The Judge and Justice Lily Katewere in attendance … Kate didher best with her firearms while the Judge held court
in the SASS booth. It was great having them both
at the match!
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Scout, Parking, vendors and range setup – Cowtown Jack, and Stages writ-ten by Bent Star.
Thursday participants arrived toregister and participate in the sidematches. The side matches werekicked off with a three-stage Plains-man side match followed by the nor-mal assortment of side matches. Weended the day with a four-stage WildBunch™ match. Approximately 110shooters participating in 32 sidematches. This year side matcheswere shot for free except for two sidematches – Wobble trap shotgun sidematch and the Bob Munden stage,splitting a playing card. After thematch the cards were laminated andpresented at the banquet to the par-ticipants. The proceeds from thesetwo matches were donated to theSASS Scholarship Fund.
Friday we started the matchwith a boom. Scouts from theLonghorn Council out of Ft.Worth (High Adventure program)started the morning off with a bigboom from their 12 pound moun-tain howitzer cannon. There were250 shooters in 10 posses shooting5 stages. The shooters were pro-vided with pulled pork sand-wiches served with homemadeBBQ sauce for lunch. Two GunJohnnie and Texas Rick O’Shaycooked 18 pork butts that were
texaS State
L S Duelist Krazy Legs Kay,SASS #87857 TX
Senior Goatneck Clem,SASS #16787 TX
S Senior Gunslinger,SASS #3335 UT
L S Senior Rosie RashWrangler Cowtown,
SASS #29167 TXYoung Gun Commanche Tom,
SASS #77925 TXWild Bunch™OverallMan Evil Roy,
SASS #2883 COLady Miss Cubbie,
SASS #84627 TXCategoriesModern Evil Roy COL Modern Louisiana Lady LATraditional Tex, SASS #4 NML Traditional Miss Cubbie TXPlainsmanModern Two Gun Johnnie,
SASS #59477 TXTraditional Wyandot Jim,
SASS #66953 TXSide MatchesSpeed PistolTraditional
Buckaroo Kid Ghost,SASS #81656 TX
DuelistLady Kansas City Sneed TXMan T-Bone Dooley TX
What folks will do for … charity! Shotglass holds on tight while her next victim … customer, (sorry!)
selects his “stretch raffle tickets” Saturday evening.
Friday started off with a boom! Scouts from the Longhorn Council from the Ft. Worth
High Adventure Program opened the festivities with a BIG BOOM from their 12-pound mountain howitzer cannon!
Cowtown Scout organized and ran the costume contest. With a little forethought and a great panel of judges, it all looks easy. The judges did a great job!
(Continued on page 48)
non! It is a great program thatallows the kids to experience his-tory with a hands on experienceusing the historical weapon.
The banquet was held at the
Cleburne Convention Center Sat-urday evening. There was a silentauction and a stretch raffle. Din-ner was catered by Babe’sChicken Dinner House fromBurleson. Fried chicken orchicken fried steak with all thefixin’s was served. During thedinner Match Director RangerRick announced the scores, andbuckles were presented to thewinners. Stretch raffle winnersreceived their prizes. Many of theraffle prizes were donated by clubmembers, sponsors, and vendors.33 Clean Match winners receiveda white goat pin.
served over two days of meals.Not a lot was left, and everyoneraved about how good the foodwas this year. Friday evening a
potluck dinner was held at therange for those wishing to stay.Everyone had a great time.
Saturday opening ceremonieswere started with a big boomfrom the cannon. The remainingfive stages were shot. After allthe shooting was completed, par-ticipants were treated to an op-portunity to crew the cannon.With directions from the scoutparticipants one could learn allthe positions of the firing crewand were even allowed to fire thecannon. A big thanks to the FortWorth Longhorn Council for com-ing out and bringing their can-
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2012 Texas State Championship . . .
— Wild Bunch™ Winners —Tex, Traditional, and Evil Roy, Modern.
Wild Bunch™ is a new SASS discipline, and is quickly gaining in popularity. One can now find Wild Bunch™ events all across the country, and indeed, around the world!
Hey You and Rattlesnake Wrangler were the Texas State Champions and the match winners!
Congratulations!
The event was hosted by Comanche Valley Vigilantes and Lone Star Frontier Shooting Club.
Match Directors were Ranger Rick (l) from Lone Star Frontier Shooting Club and Billy Bob Evans from Comanche Valley Vigilantes.
(Continued from page 47)
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end, OR – Latitude 44º
03’ North — 121º 18’
West — a very danger-ous place to be on Hal-
loween—day or night. Thislatitude and longitude have longbeen compromised: the Warlocksand Witches (W&W) of Eastwickhave discovered our location andonce again descended on the defi-ant humans gathered at the Cen-tral Oregon Shooting SportsAssociation Range on the edge of
of these creatures for the pastseveral years. Enough isenough—we need to take a standand shoot their lights out!
On Saturday we practiced ourmarksmanship in order to bestcope with the inevitable Sundayattack. Based on a great deal ofdefensive shooting experienceduring previous W&W attacks,match director Whisperin’ Wade,SASS #36209, ordered we do somenighttime shotgun shooting. Hisidea was rather brilliant: heasked those who were accustomedto fully stoking their shotguns forWild Bunch™ Shooting events todo so for the Saturday night prac-
of a great ice age lake—actuallypart of the great Missoula floodthat created the lake now referredto as the Great Salt Lake, locatedmuch to our southeast. It is spec-ulated amongst local historiansthis ghostly part of Oregon hasbeen a favorite target of the W&Wsince before the white man camewest. These historians receive noargument from PMP memberswho have experienced the wrath
Oregon’s high desert country—it’sone of their favorite target areas.The outcome was not pretty andmuch needs to be repaired beforethe brave souls of the Pine Moun-tain Posse (PMP) can resumetheir normal shooting schedules.A Halloween Massacre was barelyavoided.
This part of Central Oregon isnotorious for Headless Oarsmenrowing long canoes on the mistyvalley bottom that was once part
Warlocks andWitches ofEastwick
This is commonly referred to as a group of Pumpkin Seeds!
Swashbuckling Cowboss is comforted by
Honey Bee Sweetwater Pearlafter both distinguished themselves during the Witches attack.
B
By Palaver Pete, SASS Life/Regulator #4375
“A Halloween Massacre was barely avoided”
Palaver Pete, SASS Life/Regulator #4375
STRIke AGAIn!w
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tice, and for those more accus-tomed to loading from the belt, heordered them to continue thatpractice for the Saturday nightevent. He further directed, forpurposes of recognition, that twocategories be established: “tradi-tional” and “fully stoked.” Thepractice paid-off on Sunday, asthe W&W casualty rate skyrock-eted from the well aimed shotgunrounds. Category Winners duringthe practice were:
Traditional Shotgun Man Whisperin’ Wade Lady Bullseye Miss,
SASS#56827Stoked ShotgunMan Key Hay Makena,
SASS #93747Lady Bullseye Miss
But that was not all. Wadealso ordered we practice ZombieShooting with various assort-ments of calibers in the event our
Satisfied that Saturday’s prac-tice was sufficient, posse membersdid all they could to rest-up and sleepin preparation for Sunday’s on-slaught—they did not wait long—Sunday morning at O-Dark Thirty,the forces of evil struck! The skyturned black as the Warlocks andWitches launched their attack!Thanks to the prior night’s practice,we were ready to greet their attackwith a volley of lead. Let the may-hem begin!
Battles ensued on five Stagesthroughout the day. The cowardlyWarlocks sent the Witches to fight inthe first stage, and then the War-
locks hoping our ammo would be de-pleted, followed in the next fourstages. The Posse held firm, and be-fore we knew it, the obnoxious,smelly, and offending invaders hadbeen successfully driven off. TheMatch Director asked for a casualtyreport, and fortunately only one per-son, Cascades Annie, SASS #70533,had received a serious wound to theneck (see accompanying photo). For-tunately, due to our prior medicaltraining, Annie was brought back tothe living after receiving a refresh-ing blood transfusion.
Now it was time to celebrate,carve pumpkins, eat tacos, and pres-ent our awards. The Good Guys won,but the knowledge that next yearwould present a similar attack madethe Posse aware one must always beprepared to fight evil. The maxim isalways keep your firearms clean andfunctioning, your basic load of pow-der and ammo at the maximum, andyour SASS friends close at hand—you’re a daisy if ya do!
Rough Cut Ruby and The Legend smile after fighting hard to drive off the attacking Warlocks and Witches.
Sandy Charm wears one of the Witches outfits captured during the hectic battle. Another of her victims is pinned to the wall.
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ictoria, BC – The 21stAnnual oldest SASS af-filiated match inCanada, HEADQUAR-
TERS 2012, unfolded on August24 – 27, inaugurating eight daysof fabulous competition thatwould be marked by joy, sorrow,and jubilation.
The double feature began withthe “Pig War at SalmonellaGulch.” A stellar internationalgroup of shootists from Canada,the USA, and Europe were onhand to provide an award winning
whose allegiance falls in bothcamps did not fire a shot.
The narrowly contested con-frontation began on Friday withside matches. The main eventopened on Saturday culminatingin the consumption of pulled porkand the drawing of prizes. Thedelight of Saturday’s event wasthe celebration of Jingle Bob’s,SASS #51499, 85th birthday. TheVictoria Frontier Shootists organ-
(you can take that any way youchoose) led by ex-military man,Crochety Old Grouch, SASS#55188, vow to defend their posi-tion with hot lead. The Canadianirregulars (likely suffering fromthe same malady) are led by ex-military officer, Haweater Hal,SASS #55287, who vowed not togive any quarter. The Americanmountain howitzer manned byMiss Mary Spencer and Grey Fox
performance.The Pig War (a slight distor-
tion of a historic event) eruptsdue to an incident where Ameri-can miners assassinate a Hud-son’s Bay Co. pig; hence, thepulled pork for Saturday night’sdinner. In retaliation, the Cana-dians demand restitution for thepig at ten times its true value.
The only solution is a call toarms. The American Irregulars
Roller Coaster of Emotion AccompaniesIncredible SASS Double Feature
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The delight of Saturday’s eventwas the celebration of
Jingle Bob’s, SASS #51499, 85th birthday.
The American mountain howitzermanned by Miss Mary Spencer and Grey Fox, whose allegiance falls in both camps, did not fire a single shotduring the Salmonella Gulch Pig War.
Senorita Itchy Finger on prome-nade with brother, Low CountryAmigo. Both are Champions, and Itchy Finger received a SASS Scholarship Award this year.
Montany May accompanying Black Ashley in his far-east cowboy suit acquired during a spring trip to Mongolia.
Sunday afternoon was the mid-range and covetedSchutzen Target match organized annually by a SASS member from Germany, Cornelius O’Keefe,
SASS #60577 (on the left). Chinook Kid, SASS #96226, a newly minted SASS member, won the Schutzen Target.
Cornelius O’Keef (left) and Teacher C (right)presenting Neut Reno with the WCFSS Legacy Award for 2012.
Headquarters
Headquarters and SASS Canadian Nationals 2012
— Territorial Ryder —2012 Overall Male Champion.
He is the second Oregonian to winthe title. Territorial Ryder was also the “Triple Crown” 2012
Canadian Championships winner!
V By Grey Fox, SASS Life/Regulator #223, and Miss Mary Spencer, SASS Life/Regulator #55147
ized a cake and awarded JingleBob an “85” medal. Another mo-mentous event was the awardingof the Western Canadian FrontierShootists Society Legacy Award toNeut Reno, SASS #51654, for hiscontribution to Cowboy ActionShooting™ on Vancouver’s Island.
Sunday dawned with CowboyChurch presided over by PreacherMan John, SASS #87098, then onto the remainder of the mainmatch to determine who prevailsat Salmonella Gulch.
Sunday afternoon was themid-range and coveted SchutzenTarget match organized annuallyby a SASS member from Ger-many, Cornelius O’Keefe, SASS#60577.
The joy at Sunday’s dinnerwas contagious. GoldstreamCatering as always catered thesumptuous banquet. A wonderfuldisplay of frontier finery was dis-
Headquarters and were ready forthe crowning performance.
Boomtown’s safety meetingopened on a very sorrowful note,the announcement of the passingof Pauncho, SASS #5511, longtime competitor and a pivotalmember of the “Three Amigos,”Cariboo Lefty, SASS #5391, Paun-cho, and Too Dusty, SASS #5477.The opening was a heartfelt odeto Pauncho’s father, Al Pearce,who was the mentor to HighCountry Amigo, SASS #49198.High Country’s tearful deliverywas heart rending. Then, CaribooLefty continued with a eulogy forPauncho. Cariboo Lefty could notcontinue without breaking downbefore he completed his character-ization of the loss of a championcompetitor, fun loving individual,and a true gentleman who treatedeveryone with respect. The hugegallery of hardened pistoleros wasmoved to display their emotions,and there was not a dry eye in thegallery. To lighten the balance ofthe opening, Territorial Ryder
mid-range was Low CountryAmigo, SASS #80038, (youngerbrother of Senorita Itchy Finger).Chinook Kid, SASS #96226, anewly minted SASS member wonthe Schutzen Target.
Monday opened with a Cow-boy Practice for those who wereenrolled for “Bust up at Boom-town, the Canadian Nationals.”
Tuesday and Wednesday weredevoted to touring beautiful andhistoric Vancouver’s Island.
Part two of the Double Feature began onThursday August 30, 2012.
THE SASS CANADIAN NATIONALS BUST UP AT BOOMTOWN.
Courtenay, BC – An incredibleprogramme awaited an even
larger assemblage of competitorsfor the SASS Canadian Nationals.
The adrenalin was running atfull speed and emotions weretighter than a G-string at a bur-lesque hall. Many of the atten-dees had honed their gun work at
played during the costume prom-enade. Then, the stunning publicannouncement of the first Cana-dian SASS Scholarship awardee,Senorita Itchy Finger, SASS#80037, a very deserving youngwoman, champion shooter, TopCowgirl, honours student, and tal-ented musician. She is a credit toher family and to the SASS familyof Cowboy Action Shooters.
The main match winners wereseparated by a mere 7.39 secondsbetween the top three competi-tors. Flush with victory fromPalmers Gulch, Territorial Ryder,SASS #31939, emerged as TopGun. This is the second time anOregonian has won Headquar-ters; the first was in 1996. Run-ner up and Canadian Championwas Haweater Hal, also Top Sen-ior. And third overall was VictoriaDiamond, SASS #60592, also TopLadies 49’er. Top rifle shot in the
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presented Cariboo Lefty with hisown personal timer—an Hour-glass timer!
The event may have had asomber start; however, due to thethrilling schedule, everyone wascaught up in the action. SASS ROcourses, ladies clinic, warm upmatches, the Wild Bunch™ (BadBobby Blue Eyes shot the WildBunch™ with blackpowder in .97,rifle, and 1911). Boomtown LadiesBrunch, side matches, swap meet,Friday’s steak dinner, and themuch awaited Dancehall Darlingjudging, adjudicated over oncemore by the Judges—the CaycuseKid, SASS #67090, and his cohortTicklewood Kid, SASS #55938, (we
Sunday, Cowboy Churchbegan the day; then on to com-plete the main event and in theafternoon, the Top Gun shootoff.
Sunday evening’s dinner wasa gala affair catered by members
suspect he tickles more thanwood). We have no idea what theircriteria for adjudication is; how-ever, a willing winner is alwaysaround. The Dancehall Darlingaward went to Montana May,SASS #95820, chosen from a stun-ning array of ladies.
The main match was off andrunning Saturday, a Tribute toJohn Wayne, and an unbelievablecontest it would be. At Saturday’sconclusion of the main stages, thepossibility of a Triple Crown Win-ner was emerging. Saturdayevening’s costume promenade,dinner, side match awards, cos-tume awards, and Wild Bunch™winners only proved to enhancethe adrenalin rush.
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Headquarters and SASS Canadian Nationals 2012 . . .(Continued from page 53)
CategoriesL Wrangler Montana May, SASS #95820Senior Haweater Hal, SASS #55287 S Senior Tax Ridder, SASS #4234Wrangler Rusty Wood, SASS #50427SIDE MATCHESSpeed Pistol Victoria Diamond, SASS # 60952Speed Rifle Captain Copps, SASS #57513L Speed Rifle Victoria DiamondSpeed Shotgun Crotchety Old Grouch, SASS #51188L Speed Shotgun Victoria Diamond
Canadian Nationals ‘12THERE WAS INDEED A TRIPLECROWN WINNER!Top Gun of Palmers Gulch, Headquarters, and the Canadian Nationals Territorial Ryder, SASS #31939 CategoriesBuckarette Sassy Gal Kayla, SASS #96123
The opening ceremony included a heartfelt ode to Pauncho’s father, Al Pearce, who was the mentor to High Country
Amigo, SASS #49198.
The Dancehall Darling judging was adjudicated over once more by the “Judges”—the Caycuse Kid,SASS #67090, and his cohort, Ticklewood Kid, SASS #55938.
The Dancehall Darling award wentto Montana May, SASS #95820, cho-sen from a stunning array of ladies.
Two newly appointed (long over-due!) Regulators, Miss MarySpencer and Cariboo Lefty.
CanadianBoomtown’s safety meeting
opened on a very sorrowful note,the announcement of the passing
of Pauncho, SASS #5511, long time competitor and a pivotal member of the
“Three Amigos”—Cariboo Lefty,SASS #5391, Pauncho, and Too Dusty, SASS #5477.
Cariboo Lefty provided a eulogyfor Pauncho. He could not
continue without breaking downbefore he completed his
characterization of the loss of a champion competitor, fun loving individual, and a true gentleman who treated everyone with respect.
of the Courtenay Fish & Game,dedicated volunteers who preparefantastic meals.
The jubilation of the evening’sevents were punctuated by theawarding of two new Regulatorsfor their long term contributionsto SASS - Cariboo Lefty, SASS#5391, and Miss Mary Spencer,SASS #55147. The roar of ap-plause was an audible acceptanceof the SASS committee’s choice.
High Country Amigo and hisincredible committee organized afabulous, exciting event at aworld-class facility. Boomtownlooks like a genuine Old Westtown situated in a little valleywith buildings lining the twostreets. The bays are on the out-side sides oriented to east andwest. It is a Cowboy Action Shoot-ers dream. There is ample drycamping and lots of room for RVs.
The American contingent hasgrown tremendously due to the
reputation of Headquarters andBoomtown. The rave reviewsfrom attendees will attract manymore shootists.
Montana May, SASS #95820Cornelius O’Keefe, SASS #60577
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CategoriesBuckaroo Whistlin Will, SASS #88382B Western High Country Amigo, SASS #49198Cattle Baron Jingle Bob, SASS #51499C Cowboy Southwestern Trapper, SASS #82702Cowboy Low Country, SASS #80038Cowgirl Senorita Itchy Finger, SASS #80037Dualist Doc Blondie, SASS #46708E Statesman Minto, SASS #56175F Cartridge Aspen Sam, SASS #96108F C Dualist Porcupine Quill, SASS #78510Frontiersman Bad Bobby Blue Eyes, SASS #73397Gunfighter Too Dusty, SASS #5477L 49’er Victoria diamond,S ASS #60952C Cowgirl Goldie Stone, SASS #18860L Dualist Saucy Sadie, SASS #89135
L Senior Dallas Dancer, SASS #42365L S Senior Lady Shuswap, SASS #53492L Wrangler Montana May, SASS #95820Senior Haweater Hal, SASS #55287S Dualist Little Edgy, SASS #64336S Gunfighter Crotchety Old Grouch, SASS #51188S Senior Joe Cannuck, SASS #58702Wrangler Rusty Wood, SASS #50427Young Gun Captain Will Turner, SASS #92899Wild BunchModern Crotchety Old Grouch, SASS #51188Traditional BlackAshley, SASS #89886L Traditional Hit N Miss, SASS #83681Wild Bunch Black Powder Bad Bobby Blue Eyes, SASS #73397
(There is no such category, however, we felt it was worthy of note).
Match Winner and Triple Crown Winner, Territorial Ryder, with
Canadian Lady National Champion, Victoria Diamond, and Canadian MaleNational Champion, Haweater Hal. Territorial Ryder is not only a gentleman competitor, he is also a very nice individual who gets up and acts as bus boy at mealtime!
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Ready to have some Wild Bunch™ fun!
ild Bunch™ ActionShooting is growing inthe Southeast. Thenumber of matches held
and number of clubs holdingmatches has increased. To date wehave held five Wild Bunch™ RangeOfficer classes in the Southeastwith 59 attendees. These newrange officers have come fromSouth Carolina, Florida, Georgia,North Carolina, Tennessee, and Al-abama representing many variousclubs that either hold Wild Bunch™Action Shooting matches or thosetrying to start matches.
Each monthly article will high-light a different club. This month’sclub is the Greenville Gun Club andthe Greenville Gunfighters. We hadthe pleasure of holding a WildBunch™ RO Class there in May2012 and had 12 in attendance fromGeorgia, SC, and NC. Match Direc-tor Hondo Jackson grilled ham-burgers for lunch. After the class, aberm was set up, and we shot fourscenarios, giving everyone a chanceto run the timer and put the classinformation to practical use.
yards with both speed and accu-racy required, and we shoot sixstages at all monthly matches.In 2012 the SC State SASSChampionship was held atGreenville Gun Club. We had afour-stage Wild Bunch™ sidematch with 21 shooters.Greenville Gun Club is also host-ing the 2013 SC State SASSChampionship and will againhave a four-stage side match. Weare expecting 30 to 40 WildBunch™ shooters at the sidematch next March. Presently,the monthly matches are heldeach 5th Sunday. If our numberscontinue to increase, we mayhold matches more often.
The main drawback to WildBunch is the equipment. Our clubis good at sharing guns and equip-ment with new shooters to getthem hooked on Wild Bunch™.The main concern is the .40 orabove caliber rifle. Most SASS
ild Bunch™ ActionShoot ing was started atthe Greenville Gun Club
in Greenville, SC in July 2011.All the matches have been in the“True Spirit of Wild Bunch™.”The matches are built aroundthe 1911 .45 ACP, then shotgun,and least emphasis on the rifle.The number of shooters at ourlast match was 15 and was miss-ing several of our regulars. Wenow have a sufficient number ofqualified ROs. The stages in-clude lots of reactive targets.Greenville Gun Club also has astrong IDPA organization. Theexperience of IDPA made imple-menting reactive targets easier.The targets were already avail-able at the Greenville Gun Clubwith no additional expense. Allshooters enjoy a target that fallsor reacts when hit!
We try to make the stagesfun, challenging, and exciting.Distances are usually 8 to 15
Sassy Teton Lady, SASS #47525,and
Deadwood Woody, SASS #22184
wiLDbUnch™Action Shooting In The Southeast
By Sassy Teton Lady, SASS #47525, and Deadwood Woody, SASS #22184WBAS Southeast Ambassadors
W
WFinally, it’s my turn to shoot!
in Greenville, SCBy Hondo Jackson, SASS Life #83365, Territorial GovernorWild Bunch™ Action Shooting Match Director and RO
wiLDbUnch™
(Continued on page 58)
Moose Nugget Flats
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nchorage, AK – OnMay 19, 2012 the firstWild Bunch™ AlaskaState Championship
was held at Moose Nuggets Flats,just outside of Anchorage, Alaska bythe Alaska 49’ers Cowboy ActionShooting™ Club. For those of youwho’ve never discovered the beautyof a moose nugget, it’s moose poop—dried and hardened for easy trans-port. (It makes good kindling.)
Winners
OverallMan Taino,
SASS #33670 AKLady Bear Claw Becky,
SASS #76196 AK
Alaskans love a goodshootout
With several dozen shootersin attendance, the Alaska 49’ersput on a “rooten-tooten” matchSam Peckinpah himself wouldhave loved. Fast action and agreat sense of friendship, cama-raderie, and fun action filled theair along with volumes of spent.45 ACP shells.
Action TargetNo great match can happen
without the generous support ofthe shooting industry, and ActionTarget of Provo, UT, was the eventsponsor. Action Target was instru-mental in providing us a raft ofAction Targets made especially forWild Bunch™ Shooting; manythanks to Action Targets for thesweet deal they gave us and to ourown Marshal Stone who hauledback a ton of new targets. Wehear the rear end of his truck andtrailer were dragging tail all theway through the Yukon just tomake it home, here in Alaska!
Congrats to everyone whocame out for this fun event. Checkour website for future events:www.alaska49ers.pistolshooting.com
A
Wild Bunching It on,
Action Target was the match sponsor—and made available a generous supply of targets!
By Tombstone Kenny,SASS #76195
and Little Nelchina,SASS #68078
Alaska Wild Bunch™ Championship
comes to the
Great Land
— Match Winners —Taino and Bear Claw Becky
Congratulations!
!
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f you club holds WildBunch™ matches on amonthly basis, please letSlipnoose (Slipnoose@
sassnet.com) at SASS Headquar-ters know so she can get yourschedule into The Cowboy Chronicleeach month. And of course, if youhave an annual Wild Bunch™match, please make sure that in-formation is included as well.We’ll see if we can’t develop aWild Bunch™ section of monthlyand annual matches for The Cow-
boy Chronicle Schedule Section.The Cowboy Chronicle is also in-
terested in printing your WildBunch™ related articles andmatch results. Articles can dealwith almost anything WildBunch™ related—why it’s a fundiscipline, equipment and loads,competition techniques … almostanything. Articles should be sub-mitted to The Cowboy Chronicle WildBunch™ Editor, Evil Roy at [email protected].
wiLDbUnch™ee
e finally wore Hipshot out after 25 years of devoted service!He has been the END of TRAIL Match Director for both Cow-boy Action Shooting™ as well as Wild Bunch™ Action Shoot-ing. Thanks to him for all the hard work! Pecos Clyde has
designed stages for Wild Bunch™ matches since the sport started a fewyears ago. He will bring these years of experience and knowledge tothe Wild Bunch™ World Championship starting this year. This shouldhelp make an already great match even better.
pecOScLyDe
W
INewENDof TRAILWILDBUNCH™Match Director
ChronicleMaterial
�
�
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shooters in our area shoot a .38 anddo not want to buy another rifle. Onerecent rule change I believe will helpthe sport is the addition of the Model12 shotgun.
Wild Bunch™ is a fun shootingsport. Our numbers continue togrow slowly, but surely. Our successhas been through club members en-couraging and helping new shooters.We also help them with loads andadvice to keep the 1911 runningsmooth. We also try very hard tohave good stage design. It is a lot ofwork putting out the steel and nu-merous reactive targets, but it’swhat keeps the shooters comingback. You cannot make the stages sodifficult that marksman level shoot-ers have no chance to hit the targets.You cannot make them overly easyso that expert shooters cannot alsoenjoy the match. That is the chal-lenge of good stage design.
Wild Bunch™ is pure fun! Onceyou get them to shoot it, they usu-ally come back for more!
=======If you are in the Southeast (GA,
AL, TN, VA, FL, SC, NC) and yourclub has a Wild Bunch™ match,please let us know so we can putyour club on our schedule. If youwould like to hold Wild Bunch™matches but are hesitant to do so,get with us. We will do our best tosupport you and your efforts to getWild Bunch™ Action Shooting upand running. You can contact us at:[email protected]
Wild BunchTM Action Shooting In The Southeast . . .(Continued from page 56)
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SASS Wild Bunch™ ActionShooting is a combinationof historical reenactment
and Saturday morning at thematinee. Participants may choosethe style of costume they wish towear, but all clothing must be typ-ical of the late 19th century andearly 20th century. Emphasis isput on period US military from1900 to 1916 and Edwardian pe-riod fashion. Western dress suchas Pike, Dutch, Lyle, or Tector inthe closing scene of the WildBunch movie (e.g., Western stylepants with or without suspenders,and long sleeve western shirt) is
appropriate. Vests are optional.Boots must be SASS legal. Mexi-can dress is also appropriate.
“SASS puts a great deal ofemphasis on costuming because itadds so much to the uniqueness ofour game and helps create a fes-tive, informal atmosphere thatsupports the friendly, fraternalfeeling we encourage in our com-petitors.
“All shooters must be in cos-tume, and we encourage invitedguests and family also to be cos-tumed. Shooters must remain incostume at all match events: din-ners, award ceremonies, dances,
and etcetera.“ALL clothing and equipment
MUST be worn appropriately, howit was intended, and how it wouldhave been worn in the OLDWEST or as seen on B-Westernmovies and television.”—SASSWild Bunch™ Action ShootingHandbook, Version 4.3 April 2012.
Costuming is what sets SASSapart from other shooting organi-
zations. If you’re thinking of get-ting started in Wild Bunch™ Ac-tion Shooting, and you arecurrently a Cowboy Action Shoo -ter, then basic costuming is simple.What you’re wearing in Cowboy
By Captain George Baylor, SASS Life/Regulator #24287
Clothing and Accouterments
Men’s Costuming for
wiLDbUnch™ACTION SHOOTING
“
A basic Wild Bunch™ outfit is easy and inexpensive. Almost any SASS cowboy clothing will work … however, it’s always wonderful to see period military costumes (in varying degrees of completeness) whenever a Wild Bunch™ match is a “stand alone” event!
Captain George Baylor, SASS Life / Rugulator #24287
�
(Continued on page 60)
loughhouse, CA – OnDecember 16th, 2012,an eight-member teamof the Gold Country
Wild Bunch™ Club, will go headto head against an eight-memberteam of our local IDPA shooters ina three gun match.
The setting is the SacramentoValley Shooting Center in Slough-house, CA, approximately 30miles east of Sacramento. Sacra-mento Valley Shooting Center ishome to Diamond Dick’s CowboyTown and the Sacramento Defen-sive Pistol Association Club.
The match will consist of eightstages. Four stages will be shotusing the local IDPA rules. It iscalled the Back to the Futurematch and will be hosted by the
Sacramento Defensive Pistol As-sociation club at the Action PistolRange. The other four stages willbe shot using Wild Bunch™ rules.It is called the Back to the Pastmatch hosted by Gold CountryWild Bunch™ at Diamond Dick’sCowboy Town.
For the Back to the Pastmatch, the IDPA boys will beusing 1911 pistols and riflesmeeting the Wild Bunch™ rules.They will be allowed to use any12ga shotgun that is a slide actiontype. The Wild Bunch™ groupwill furnish the lever rifles.
For the Back to the Futurematch, the Wild Bunch™ boyswill be using 1911 pistols, Model‘97 or Model ‘12 shotguns, and,yes, “black” rifles. However, I willbe using a Ruger Mini 14—“if itdoesn’t have wood or a lever, it’snot a rifle!”
Members of the Wild Bunch™team are: Badlands Bud, SASS#15821; Bobcat Tyler, SASS#10767; Doc Burwood, SASS#79166; Tully Mars, SASS
Page 60 Cowboy Chronicle January 2013
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ee
ll my training with 1911s in the Army, Chapman Academy,Gunsite, and Thunder Ranch was with black sights. Thatwas the recommendation. But then, my eyes went to hell,and now we’re shooting black targets, so I can’t see black
front sights. Mose N Bella (www.site.mosenbella.com/ [email protected], [email protected], Mose–270-349-4392. Bella–270-816-2119) gold-plated the sights of all of my competition revolvers, and,with my terrible eyesight, has made a big difference. This is legal inWild Bunch Modern, but not Traditional. So I had them do my Modern1911s at END of TRAIL. The improvement in my ability to see thefront sight against what are usually black targets was significant, andcertainly worth the money.
All of Wild Bunch For Dummies is online at:http://www.curtrich.com/01wildbunchfordummies.html
(Note: It is also legal to paint the front sight in the Modern Class.I painted my front sight orange, and it made all the difference …Evil Roy)
A
S
By Captain Baylor, SASS Life/Regulator #24287
gOLDfROntSightS
#40161; Steeley Eyes Mike, SASS#590; Rondo T. Sackett, SASS#5534; Wobblin Bob, SASS#63710; and Sutter Lawman, SASS#24333.
I must confess this was my
idea, and since the losers get tocook the steaks, I sure don’t wantto wear the cooking apron! Thepurpose of this match, in additionto having a lot of fun, is to start adialogue among the 30 shootingdisciplines at the SacramentoValley Shooting Center and topromote Wild Bunch™.Note: The California SASS WildBunch Championship will be astand-alone match August 30 toSeptember 1, 2013.
Action Shooting™ is acceptable inWild Bunch™ Action Shooting. Ifyou’re coming here from someother shooting discipline, then it’sprobably a shock that you can’twear shorts, T-Shirt with sponsors’logos, and athletic shoes. Onceyou’ve gotten over that, you’ll wantsomething that will “fit in.” Youmay wear blue jeans, Roper boots,and a button shirt and a cowboyhat, and you’re “legal.”
Basic (cheap) costumesIf you look at the iconic photo
of the four protagonists of TheWild Bunch, Pike (WilliamHolden), Dutch (Ernest Borgnine),Lyle (Warren Oates), and Tector(Ben Johnson), you’ll note they’rewearing basic ‘60s western movieclothing. If you copy one of thoseoutfits, other than Lyle, with nohat, you’re fine. (Wearing a SASSlegal hat is required). I’ve found
black and brown jeans at Wal-Mart for $10 that look westernwithout being blue jeans. Theywere wearing belts in the movies,and Levi’s had started puttingboth belt loops and suspender but-tons on their 501 jeans in 1912(before that only suspender but-tons), so either belts or sus-penders are authentic to the era.The movie shirts buttoned all theway down in front, unlike 19th
century shirts that were generallypullover with three or four but-tons. They didn’t even wear wildrags or other neckwear in themovie. I’ve seen cheap wool hatsthat look like theirs for $25 or so.Three wore plain black wool orcanvas vests. So going as Pikemight require work and money,but going as a cowboy who wouldlook at home in the movie ispretty easy and doesn’t have tocost much.
Men’s Costuming for Wild BunchTMAction Shooting . . .
wiLDbUnch™Fun In The Gold Country
(By press time, this match will havealready occurred. The Cowboy Chronicleis looking for a follow-up article de-tailing the exemplary exploits of ourWild Bunch™ Action Shooters againstthe “Back to the Future” boys!)
By Sutter Lawman, SASS #24333Wild Bunch Ambassador
�
�
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B
(Continued from page 59)
DON’T LET RAIN OR DARkNESS TAkE
AWAY YOUR FUN! GET THE INDOOR
FAST DRAWTARGET/TIMER SYSTEM
A GREAT WAy TO
PRACTICE FAST DRAW
USING yOUR REvOLvER
INDOORS WITHOUT
NOISE OR SMOkE!
CALL 408-626-9360 OR
949-786-4011 TODAy!
Page 61Cowboy ChronicleJanuary 2013
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/
Page 62 Cowboy Chronicle January 2013
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/
Page 63Cowboy ChronicleJanuary 2013
alaska 49er’s 1st Sat & tripod 907-373-0140 Birchwood
3rd Sun
golden heart Shootist 2nd Sat & wind Drifter 907-457-2113 Fairbanks
Society last Sun
Juneau gold miners posse 3rd Sun Five Card tanna 907-789-7498 Juneau
russell County regulators 1st Sat will killigan 706-568-0869 phoenix City
north alabama regulators 1st Sun Drake robey 256-313-0421 woodville
Vulcan long rifles 2nd Sat parson henry 205-541-2207 hoover
Brown
alabama rangers 2nd Sun Dead horse phil 205-531-7055 Brierfield
Cahaba Cowboys 3rd Sun Duke Slade 205-854-0843 Birmingham
gallant gunfighters 3rd Sun Buck D. law 256-504-4366 hoover
old York Shootists 4th Sun Derringer Di 205-647-6925 hoover
white river gang 1st Sat arkansas tom 870-656-8431 mountain
home
Critter Creek Citizens 1st Sun evil Bob 903-701-3970 Fourke
Vigilance
mountain Valley Vigilantes 1st wkd Christmas kid 501-625-3554 hot Springs
SASS NATIONAL 18 - 24 pea patch 623-465-8683 phoenix aZCHAMPIONSHIP Winter Range
winter range warm-up 22 - 22 wild Bodie tom 602-721-3175 phoenix aZ
the plainfield incident 04 - 07 point of origin 530-304-5616 Davis CaBayou Blast 08 - 10 possum Skinner 337-372-0586 lake Charles laSASS South Carolina State 21 - 24 Cowboy Junky 864-414-5578 greenville SC
Championship Manse’s Revengetrailhead 21 - 24 Charles 281-342-1210 Columbus tx
goodnightButterfield range war law 26 - 27 Fast hammer 575-647-3434 las Cruces nm
enforcement vs Cowboys more Fun less runShootout on the little river 30 Big Boyd 229-244-3161 Valdosta ga
Comancheria Days 04 - 07 red Scott 210-316-0199 Fredericks- txburg
land run 11 - 14 Flat top okie 405-373-1472 oklahoma okCity
Shootout at Fort miller 18 - 21 pocket Change 559-683-2204 Clovis CaSASS Mississippi State 19 - 21 macon a. 601-214-4009 mendenhall mS
Championship longshotShowdown at Purgatory
Dry gulch at arroyo Cantua 25 - 28 Sutter lawman 530-713-4194 Sloughhouse Ca
SASS California State 02 - 05 mad trapper 661-589-7472 Bakersfield CaChampionship of rat riverShootout at 5 Dogs Creek
SASS Georgia State 02 - 05 Done gone 770-361-6966 Dawsonville gaChampionship Round Up at River Bend
Buffalo Stampede: 07 - 11 SaSS office 505-843-1320 edgewood nmFounders Ranch Championship THE Preview to END of TRAIL
SASS Virginia Blackpowder 11 - 11 missouri 757-471-3396 west point VaShootout Smoke on the Mattponi VI marshal
SASS West Virginia State 17 - 19 eddie rebel 304-397-6188 eleanor wVBlackpowder Championship Smoke over Buffalo Flats
SASS Utah State Blackpowder 18 - 18 rowdy hand 435-637-8209 price utShootout The Castle Gate Smudge Match
SASS Mississippi State 23 - 26 easy lee 901-413-5615 Byhalia mSChampionship – Smokin’ Guns at Rabbit Ridge
Shootout at three Fingers Saloon 24 - 26 Dirty Sally 805-438-4817 Santa Camargarita
James gang rides again 3rd annual 24 - 26 Shaddai Vaquero 406-231-2329 park City kYSASS Ohio State Championship 24 - 26 Buckshot Jones 937-418-7816 piqua oh
Shootout at Hard TimesSASS Pennsylvania State 24 - 26 Black hills 570-538-9163 muncy pa
Championship – Barb ValleyNorth Mountain Shoot Out XI
SASS Vermont State 24 - 26 Doc mcCoy 802-363-7162 St. Johnsbury VtChampionship Green Mountain Mayhem
Duel in the Desert 25 - 26 Silverado h. D. 520-390-2263 tombstone aZlittle Big match 25 - 26 william Sackett 360-786-0199 little rock waSASS Iowa State Championship 30 - 01 pit mule 515-205-0557 indianola ia
Shoot out at Coyote GulchSASS North Carolina State 30 - 02 J. m. Brown 919-266-3751 Salisbury nC
Championship Uprising at Swearing Creek
SASS MA, CT, and RI State 31 - 02 Barrister Bill 978-667-2219 harvard maChampionship Shootout at Sawyer Flats
reckoning on the rock 31 - 02 Stoney mike 608-868-5167 Beloit wi
SASS Oregon State Wild Bunch 01 - 02 hoss reese 503-907-6522 Bend orChampionship
SASS NATIONAL MOUNTED 22 - 24 Dan nabbit 520-456-0423 tombstone aZ
SASS FOUR CORNERS 21 - 25 icelady 505-263-5619 edgewood nm
REGIONAL –
Outlaw Trail Mounted
Page 69Cowboy ChronicleJanuary 2013
SASS Alaska State Blackpowder 02 - 02 marshal Stone 907-232-1080 anchorage akShootout Smoke in the Greatland
SASS Colorado State 06 - 09 pinto Being 970-464-7118 whitewater CoChampionship
SASS Wyoming State 06 - 08 Joe Cross 307-587-2946 Cody wYChampionship Cody’s Wild West Shootout
ride of the immortals 07 - 09 easy rider 770-954-9696 griffin gaSASS Kansas State Championship 07 - 09 el Dorado 913-686-5314 lenexa kS
wayneSASS Oregon State 07 - 09 molly b’Dam 541-479-2928 grants pass or
Championship Battle of Rogue River
SASS Utah State Championship – 12 - 15 Jubal o. 801-518-3374 Salt lake utUtah War Sackett City
SASS High Plains Territorial 13 - 15 Jubal o. 801-944-3444 Sandy utBlackpowder Championship SackettThunder at Big Salty
ambush at hat Creek 14 - 16 modoc 530-365-1839 Burney Carevenge of montezuma 14 - 16 Stumble leena 970-739-9705 Cortez CoSASS Illinois State 14 - 16 Beaucoup Joe 618-521-3619 Sparta il
Championship – Spring Roundup at the Gulch
SASS Northwest Territorial 17 - 19 pinto annie 509-520-2789 milton- orBlackpowder Championship FreewaterSmoke in the Gorge
SASS Maryland State 20 - 22 Chuckaroo 301-831-9666 Damascus mDChampionship Thunder Valley Days
Yellowstone Valley Buffalo 21 - 22 grizzly Bill 406-252-4157 laurel mtStampede
SASS WORLD 22 - 30 SaSS office 505-843-1320 edgewood nmCHAMPIONSHIP END of TRAIL
SASS Wisconsin State 23 - 23 Captain Cook 715-248-3727 Station range wiBlackpowder Shootout Smoke in the Hills
SASS HIGH PLAINS 04 - 04 Capt. Jack 970-443-3539 Cheyenne wYREGIONAL Hell on Wheels Storm
SASS Alaska Territorial 05 - 07 Four Bucks 907-350-4422 anchorage akChampionship – Shootout Under The Midnight Sun
SASS Alaska State Championship 12 - 14 ruby lil 907-488-0792 Chatanika akSASS Montana State 12 - 14 montana lil’ 406-761-0896 Simms mt
Championship SkeeterShootout On the Sun River
SASS Pennsylvania State Black 21 - 21 Slowpoke John 717-676-3198 ickesburg paPowder Shootout Smoke on the Ridge
end of Year Shoot-off Dec 15 - 15 richmond p. 27 21 797 5054 Cape town
hobson
SASS AFFILIATED CLUBS ANNUAL MATCHES
CZECH REPUBLIC
FRANCE
GERMANY
SOUTH AFRICA
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his is a very difficult arti-cle for me to write, but Ihave to face facts. APollyanna approach to a
bad situation has never been my na-ture. To deny or whitewash the truthnever helps one deal with that truthin an effective way. What I wit-nessed on 6 November 2012 was avery disappointing and extremelyfrightening reflection of a fundamen-tally changed America, a distinctlydivided America whose future is nowin question.A generation ago, Americans
wouldn’t have given Obama the timeof day. Now, with the support of adispicably complicit press, they handhim the Oval Office. What 50% ofAmericans value most has obviouslydegenerated from personal liberty togovernment dependency. America,as we knew it, could have survived adestructive president, but no freecountry can survive the philosophythat led half of its voting populationto elect one. This election was themanifestation of two divergentphilosophies that have grown expo-nentially divisive in just one or twogenerations and an apathetic seg-ment that never voted!Over the years I’ve been witness
to a representative cross section ofthe political spectrum from top lead-ers to the grass roots, and what I’veseen doesn’t bode well for our futureas a united people. I see more andmore of less and less common groundamong Americans, and it concernsme greatly. There’s a schism that iswidening into a chasm at an ever-ac-celerating pace as we lose our na-tional identity and align ourselveswith a variety of splinter groups, cul-tures, and philosophies.When many of us were kids,
Americans seemed to share a senseof traditional values, much more sothan they do now. We appeared tohave been more aware of what theAmerican culture was and couldmore easily describe it, or at least
know it when we saw it and identifyourselves with it. God and gunswere not looked upon as political lep-rosy, the Founding Fathers were notvilified as former slave holders de-serving of no respect, the Constitu-tion was revered as the foundation ofour freedom rather than a challengefor politicians to circumvent and ig-nore, government handouts weren’tviewed as unalienable rights, and wewere just Americans, no in-your-faceuse of hyphenations that I remem-ber. Today we seem to have lost thatmelting pot look and are now morelike a mosaic of sub-cultures that feelthe need for a hyphenated identity.We’re losing our sense of national
consciousness that was America’sunifying force or national glue thatcame from sharing a set of tradi-tional cultural values. The glue thatkeeps any country unified boils downto a very few important ingredi-ents—a common language, secureborders, a shared set of solid, tradi-tional, and moral values upon whichthe country was originally based, anda sense of identity with a culturethat sets its people apart from therest of the world. In order for anygroup of people to remain united,they must share a common set of val-ues they incorporate into their livesand pass along to their children.History has shown when those char-acteristics are lost, the country sooncomes unglued.We are now coming unglued and
polarizing into two major campswhose philosophies will never reachconsensus because their fundamen-tal values are mutually exclusive.Can such divergent philosophiesever coexist in one country andunder one government? The differ-ences between the two philosophiesare stark and becoming more en-trenched as attitudes harden. Themost basic differences are that tradi-tional Constitutionalists believe inself-reliance, self-determination, freemarkets, and individual liberty,while progressive statists, includingthe lapdog American media, believein government reliance, governmentcontrol, and very limited personalfreedom for the unwashed masses.
Reviewing some concepts of theopposing philosophies, traditionalistsgenerally believe in the former whilestatists generally believe in the lat-ter: Individual freedom vs. societalcontrol; Limited government vs. ex-pansive government; Independencevs. dependence; Self-reliance andpersonal responsibility vs. govern-ment reliance and “shared” responsi-bility; Freedom of religion vs.freedom from religion; Equal oppor-tunity vs. equal outcome; Privateproperty vs. public property; Na-tional sovereignty vs. world govern-ment; States rights vs. federal rights;The money you earn is yours vs. themoney you earn is ours; “Shall not beinfringed” pertains to the right tokeep and bear arms vs. pertaining topolitical ambition.This country is now so divided in
basic values and polarized in philos-ophy that I see no clear path to a rec-onciliation of these two opposingcamps. Continued coexistence would re-
quire not compromise, but submis-sion, because this confrontationinvolves diametrically opposed prin-ciples, and I don’t cotton to compro-mising principles. As I’ve writtenbefore, compromise of principle is nocompromise—it’s surrender, and tra-ditionalists are unwilling to surren-der their principles. “… in matters of principle, stand
like a rock.” ~ Thomas Jefferson ~Attacks on our Constitutional
principles are clearly an attack onthe country because it seeks to oblit-erate many of those principles andgoes against the very foundationupon which we’ve built our lives. Isense dark clouds on America’s hori-zon regarding philosophical unifica-tion vs. separation, and it shouldn’tsurprise anyone. We faced separa-tion issues in our past, so why shouldour future be any different? As Jef-ferson did in the Declaration of hisday, I believe causes that impel sep-aration are being unmistakably de-clared today by these opposingideological camps and some form ofseparation is becoming more of a pos-sibility than it has been in 150 years. How this will play out is still
T
TBD, but my faith in dedicated con-stitutionally based Americans re-mains unshaken. At the same time,I fully expect and understand thestatists will continue their powergrab until they eventually reach toofar and pull back a bloody stump!What I’ll never understand, however,is apathy. The fact that Romney re-ceived less votes than did McCain ismind-boggling. In spite of Obama’sintentionally destructive record andwith our country’s future on the line,upwards of three-million potentialRomney voters didn’t care enough tocast a ballot! Although he was notthe hard core conservative we tradi-tionalists would have certainly pre-ferred, the alternative was Obama!What sense does that make? Itseems Romney and the GOP failed toadequately motivate the conserva-tive base of support sufficiently, andhe paid the price—we paid theprice—our children paid the price—America paid the price. We have to ask ourselves, had the
GOP nominated a traditional consti-tutional conservative and adopted amore conservative platform, wouldthe outcome have been different?Unfortunately, we’ll never know.What I do know is when the GOPran with a Reagan, they won twiceby landslides. When they ran a per-ceived conservative in Bush, theywon. When they ran moderates whotried to “reach across the isle” andgarner moderate voters as did Dole,McCain, and now Romney, they lost. I can only pray the day will come
when traditional patriots, true con-stitutional conservatives, rise up ingreat numbers, standing united andstrong against modern statism, andvehemently reaffirm their tradi-tional principles for all to hear. Andif that means we are impelled to sep-aration, so be it!People who revere freedom over
subservience won’t allow themselvesto be dominated by anyone or anygovernment, and their resolve willnot waiver. As George Washingtonaffirmed during their time of trial,“The spirit of freedom beats too highin us to submit …” I’m convinced,traditionalists will continue to sol-dier on the path pioneered by ourForefathers and choose to live as didthey—free!” Contact Colonel Dan: [email protected] Archives: http://mddall.com/sbss/archives.htm
