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Thread: Cowboy Action Shooting

  1. #1
    Hammertime
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
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    Desert Southwest

    Cowboy Action Shooting

    My kid pulled up some Cowboy Action videos on Instagram the other day. Holeeey crap these guys are fast!

    I know nothing about it but it looks super fun. I find it hard to believe they are using centerfire rounds as the recoil looks simply negligible. I am seeing 0.15 splits with a SA revolver. Don't see how that is possible unless they are holding trigger back and somehow fanning the hammer?

    I can't figure out how to embed this stuff.

    Fast Splits:

    http://instagram.com/p/BlpvjvRBRCZ/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BlpvjvRB..._web_copy_link

    Dry fire:

    http://instagram.com/p/BiNlWRjnfuv/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BiNlWRjn..._web_copy_link

    http://instagram.com/p/BgsVVwdAm5m/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BgsVVwdA..._web_copy_link
    Last edited by Doc_Glock; 07-31-2018 at 04:54 PM.

  2. #2
    Member olstyn's Avatar
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    Sep 2014
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    Minnesota
    That is very different than what I'm used to thinking of as cowboy action shooting. I don't think I've ever seen my father-in-law's cowboy action group shoot at *half* of that speed.
    Last edited by olstyn; 07-31-2018 at 05:44 PM. Reason: brevity

  3. #3
    Hillbilly Elitist Malamute's Avatar
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    Oct 2013
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    Northern Rockies
    The first one looks like hes doing a basic two handed shoot with left thumb cocking. Yes, you can hold the trigger back for repeat shots. It is quick. I'm nowhere near that quick, but have shot plate shoots and kept up reasonably well with most of the modern shooters that made consistent hits.

    Cowboy action is fun, but I never got into it much. It was a lot of fun shooting the modern plate shoots with single actions though.


    And yes, many of the faster cowboy action shooters use smaller calibers and/or light loads. I just stuck with my normal load that was supposed to be 45 Colt factory equivalent of 860 fps/255 gr, but ended up going 925 fps/250 gr cast bullet.
    Last edited by Malamute; 07-31-2018 at 07:24 PM.

  4. #4
    I shot a couple matches years ago. I enjoyed it but didn't have the time to keep up with it.

  5. #5
    My parents are old enough to have grown up with the TV Western genre and both do a lot of SASS shooting. Now, they aren't like what you see in those videos, but they do have some "hardware" picked up from matches. There are a LOT of categories and divisions in SASS, so that certainly contributes to their placing. That said, I'm a better pistol shot than dad, but give him a lever gun and he makes me look like a damn fool.

    What I know about CAS, I know from them and one match I did shoot using borrowed gear. Lots of people use 38 loads that have recoil about like a rimfire. Lots of short stroke kits in lever guns. Targets are pretty damn close, steel, and usually just need to be hit but not fall to score. Most targets aren't knockdown type anyway. There are some weird rules. My one match, I got penalized for reloading my shotgun while moving. Apparently you have to be flat-footed to load up....

    Mostly, SASS is a family friendly shooting sport that you can work your way up to some pretty high speed. My folks never really went full bore with it. Dad loads 38's to actually be 38's and shoots 45LC loads that chrono'd one my Chrono at 45ACP hardball power factor. They mostly do it for fun and camaraderie and the travel to Western States with bigger matches. My one match I had a decent time, but I had a USPSA addiction at the time that was much more important to me.

  6. #6
    Frequent DG Adventurer fatdog's Avatar
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    May 2016
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    Rural Central Alabama
    CAS forked a few years ago, in terms of the structure of the sport, the nature of the stages, the way you win, what a match is like, etc.

    SASS is now about raw speed. The accuracy and powerfactor requirements are minimal, almost gone, the targets are very close, to be competitive you have to load very light (e.g. most I know are shooting .38 special 125gr at about 550-600fps or less) and the targets are huge.

    It is about what you see in those videos for the top tier shooters. Quite simply how fast can you just run the gun and dump rounds in the general direction of that very close, and generally large target. How fast can you load that shotgun and dump rounds.

    The other CAS branch, which I still shoot, is NCOWS, longer ranges, full power loads required by powerfactor, strong bias towards black powder divisions, much much smaller targets (typical 4" hit area for pistol), much much longer ranges (30-100 yards for rifle targets), and locally you only shoot one handgun and one long gun on a stage, not two pistols, rifle, and shotgun on every stage like SASS.

    I still have quite a few friends in SASS but I let my membership drop this year because I just don't enjoy or excel at that type of stage/match anymore.

    On the other hand, I shoot an 1858 Army or 1860 Army C&B pistol and a single shot .45-70 carbine in NCOWS and would not trade that monthly experience for anything.

    I have heard of other variant offshoots of SASS, and NCOWS is not nearly so large as SASS, never was.

    Something all CAS is experiencing is plumetting participation nationally as the people of my generation and those older, either age out of being able to come shoot or simply die off. The replacement rate from people under 50 is not making up the difference. Some of the gunsmiths who do shortstroke conversions of 1866 and 1873 guns are even quitting and looking for other types of work to keep the money rolling. 5 years ago a local SASS club was running between 40 and 60 competitors, this year they have been averaging a dozen.

    Nationally the sport is dropping like a rock at the club level. It appears to be on the same trajectory as NRA Bullseye competition, a few major national or regional matches but eventually, dead at the club level.
    Last edited by fatdog; 07-31-2018 at 09:26 PM.

  7. #7
    Hillbilly Elitist Malamute's Avatar
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    Oct 2013
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    Northern Rockies
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom_Jones View Post
    Does NCOWS require costumes and silly names?



    ....which was a part I didnt get into all that much. I just wore a hat when at the SASS shoots i did. They made fun of my brogans (loggers). Its also what encouraged me to use my SAs in modern plate shoots. So long as reloads werent part of the program, it wasnt too much of a handicap. Even if it was, i knew I wasnt going to win anything. I was there to have fun shooting and use some of the guns I carried normally and liked a lot.
    Last edited by Malamute; 07-31-2018 at 10:43 PM.

  8. #8
    Member olstyn's Avatar
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    Sep 2014
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    Minnesota
    Quote Originally Posted by fatdog View Post
    Nationally the sport is dropping like a rock at the club level. It appears to be on the same trajectory as NRA Bullseye competition, a few major national or regional matches but eventually, dead at the club level.
    Yeah, the club I'm a member of has a SASS match monthly during the summer. My father in law shot it until he retired and moved out of state. I remember spectating (and occasionally getting roped into shooting with my FIL's guns) a few times when he was here, and they had a decent but not large number of shooters (like maybe 10-15). My wife and I stopped by the most recent one to hang out with her uncle who still shoots it, and they had all of 5 people shooting. Pretty lame to drag all that steel down from the storage shed for only 5 guys. I bet they don't even bother in another few years.

  9. #9
    Frequent DG Adventurer fatdog's Avatar
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    May 2016
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    Rural Central Alabama
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom_Jones View Post
    Does NCOWS require costumes and silly names?
    yes

    Although at the local level we dispensed with the names thing, and became more lenient than they are nationally about period costuming.

    At the end of the day a local NCOWS club has a great deal of discretion about divisions and how hard they enforce the costuming side of things. Here in central AL it is about the guns and shooting and the rest of it is encouraged, but nobody is going to ask you to leave for showing up in jeans and a button front shirt. Most don't remember their "cowboy name" they signed up for.

    But I fear we are the exception and a lot of NCOWS clubs are over the top on the costume being period, etc.

    The costume thing has cost both sports untold numbers of otherwise interested shooters, but the people who run the two national organizations, and some club level leaders are purists, and it has always hurt the sport.

    If CAS had forked again to some organization that made the costume part completely optional, do it if it makes you happy, and just emphasized the guns and the shooting it might have had a future.
    Last edited by fatdog; 08-01-2018 at 06:34 AM.

  10. #10
    Frequent DG Adventurer fatdog's Avatar
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    May 2016
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    Rural Central Alabama
    Quote Originally Posted by olstyn View Post
    Pretty lame to drag all that steel down from the storage shed for only 5 guys. I bet they don't even bother in another few years.
    Yes, one of the clubs I am a member of once had a very active IDPA club, a USPSA club, and a SASS club. It followed that pattern for the SASS guys, the last time I remember helping them setting up and run a match it was down to 5-6 shooters, then finally all of them were gone (literally passed away) except one and in 2016 he asked that the club donate their steel to another local club that was still holding SASS matches, which we did. I helped him haul it away. Very sad, I always liked those guys and enjoyed their company but I think it foretold the future of the sport.

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