Long Hunter SASS #20389L

Wise words from Phantom on both counts. Junk and serial numbers.

Lol, yes indeed Billy. :-) Look forward to shooting with you next year. We have a lot of catching up to do.

Abilene, It was either 2003 or 2004. All of us that entered EOT received an exemption letter before the match from their state attorneys office. It allowed us to bring our lever guns in to the state in case we were stopped by law enforcement. The law made any gun capable of holding 10 rounds illegal. So for at least a short time, lever guns capable of holding 10 rounds were illegal in California.

Well said Creeker. There's not a thing you said I would disagree with. We all have our preferences but we're all individuals and there's nothing wrong with that. It would be a boring world if everyone agreed on everything. Like you, get a little tired of the people saying they're not competitive and then complain about those that are. I'll come out of the closet, I'm competitive and enjoy every minute of it. But that doesn't take away from my fun when someone else isn't. There are many examples over the years where the fun non-competitive shooters have made my match enjoyable and had me belly laughing at times. Love to shoot with those truly fun people. But they're very few people that way. Most just use the "I'm Not Competitive" phrase to make themselves feel better. The one thing I think most of these people miss, is no one really cares if they're good or not. Just have fun and be supportive of the other people you interact with on the posse. You'll be respected for your actions, not your stage times. No one really cares about stage times except for the people shooting them. :-)

I’ve been referenced in this post so guess I’ll reply. Never said I was going to quit because of modifications to guns, targets too close or any other reason. Like slicked up guns as much as anyone. Do think we should have a variety on target placement and stage design. The in your face Bordertown targets are occasionally fun but all the time gets boring to “ME”. Not speaking for anyone else. To say I should shoot head targets at these matches to increase my fun isn’t realistic. I’m a competitor and want to compare my skill set to other competitors. To do this everyone needs to shoot the same targets. To say a stage was unfair because there was a miss-able target on it is a head shaker. I’ll never get that one if everyone shoots the same target. Before anyone jumps me, I think the average stage should be set around the SASS minimums with some closer and some out a little more. Maybe a mix of all three on one stage. Also vary the heights and distance between targets. Add some movement but don’t make it a track meet. Occasionally carry a bag of gold from beginning to last station. It makes for interesting gun transitions. Have a clay bird popper with an optional stationary target for makeup if missed to preserve a clean match. The old days with 25-35 yard rifle targets and 10-15 yard pistol targets are gone and I haven’t missed them. A lot of those targets were 12-14 inches. Nor have I missed the SG targets you had to see color on the bottom to be counted as a hit. Always wanted the shortest counters for that one. :-) This is an action shooting sport. As such, variety makes it entertainment to “ME”. Long Hunter

Howdy Long Colt, I truly believe the explosion of categories over the years has contributed to the downturn in the fun factor. It used to be maybe 15-20 percent of the attendees might place in a category. Now the pressure is on everyone to place regardless of how small their category is. My wife doesn’t like to shoot because she just wants to have fun with no pressure on how she finishes. Knowing her category will be less than 10, she’ll have to get up and go up front. She’s embarrassed if she finishes at the bottom and doesn’t want to practice to get any better. Since it puts pressure on her to do better when she’s only there for the fun, she just quit all together. Why this game decided everyone must be a winner like a kindergarten soccer league is beyond me. Let the competitors compete, and let the people who are there for fun, have fun. Everyone will be a winner………………and have fun. And I’ve heard for 20+ years when someone doesn’t like the current system, go join NCOWS. Please be respectful of someone else’s opinion without asking them to leave. My .02 cents.

That young man is the real deal for sure. Proud to see him set a new world record. He'll set many more records as time passes with his skill and determination. Congrats Matt!! Long Hunter Colt, You build some of the most beautiful rigs I've ever seen. Excellent!!

Some of you are obviously adding words in my mouth that was not posted nor said by me. So here is another clarification: I never implied that all mods should be illegal. The short stroked and slicked up guns are safe and a pleasure to shoot . A very simple declaration of what I said would be to put the external safety in the off position with a round in the chamber. Is it in the same condition as it was when it left the factory? If the answer is yes, then it is a safe gun. Smokestack, please don't compare apples to oranges. And it's a little insulting for you to bring my or anyone's business in to this discussion. Marlin added the two piece pin so the gun wouldn't fire without the locking bolt being installed in the gun. If someone removes it, then they are personally responsible. If SASS knows they removed it, it should be declared an illegal, unsafe gun and so stated in the rules and the shooter disqualified. I know of two AD's with Rugers with the transfer bars removed. Both were caused by leaving a round under the chamber at the loading table. 1. The person laid their pistols on the table and went to cart. Came back and dropped one while holstering in a hurry to get to the line. The round went off and did not hit anyone. 2. The person was called to the expediting area and attempted to rest the long guns on their holstered pistols. The shotgun butt set off a round in the holstered gun that landed by the shooters feet. Again, no one was hurt. Can't count the number of times I've witnessed a shooter on the firing line leaving a live round under the hammer from the loading table. If the first four rounds from the revolver fires, then a click and the then the last round fires, the hammer was resting on the first round when they went to the line. If it goes click and then the five rounds are fired, it was resting on the last round. Also, no where did I post the targets should be set at extremely far distances. Simply follow SASS's own minimum guidelines.

Just to clarify, the lever safety has nothing to do with the links I mentioned in my post. As far as Colt, their design was based on an 1873 revolver. Ruger's are a modern design. Have no idea but maybe Colts are somehow grandfathered in by law. It will take someone way smarter than me to answer that one. As far as modifications, how far do we go. I can build you an 1873 that will fire when the lever safety in depressed. No need to even put a finger in the trigger guard. Just because I can certainly doesn't mean I should nor would I show anyone else how to do it. Already have seen some SA's with hammer notches ground completely off so no need to pull the trigger. Some say you must remove the transfer bar in a Ruger to short stroke it. That's not the case. They can be short stroked with it left in the gun. Some say it makes them more reliable due to breakage. Every less part in any gun will remove a potential breakage problem but Ruger hasn't had a problem with their transfer bars breaking in over 10 years. Uberti did get the message and now have built in safeties in their SA design.

Howdy, It’s been several years since I’ve posted on the SASS wire even though I’ve followed it all along. Always like to keep up with old friends and see how they’re doing. Now to the point of posting now. This years EOT sounded like it would have been fun to shoot since they’re finally moving the targets back out and making people use a little brain power to work their way through a stage. The dumbfounding thing that changed over the last few years is saying a stage was unfair because there was a missable target on it. Or it took too much thinking. Remember visiting with Hipshot around 2001 and he stated at that time a World Champion should be diverse in all skills. That means close, far, up and down, movement, reloading on the clock, hit a bird from flippers and launched plus transitions. Most think the multitude of categories is a good thing. I disagree. The reason is, it puts pressure on everyone to place as high as possible so they’re not embarrassed by placing last or towards the bottom of their very small category. In the older days with fewer categories there were always at least 10 in the bulk of them, so the bottom didn’t have to go up front and divulge their finish. They could simply have fun and learn from the experience and try for a top ten at the next match. It used to be a win to even get to the top 10 in a category. Years ago, the top shooters in SASS were well respected by the other shooting sports and manufactures due to the diverse skills it took to be successful. I realize a lot of people here don’t care, but you should. Advertising dollars comes with this respect which means a healthy prosperous SASS and more shooters in our game. In today’s SASS, some gun mods have reached the point of dangerous for the sake of a few milliseconds in time saved. In my opinion, these have come about due to extremely close targets that requires the shooter only to have the ability to operate the firearm as fast as possible. Sight picture and trigger control were thrown out the window. If SASS intends to continue this trend of moving targets back out and make it a shooting match instead of an operating match, you’ll see me back at the major cowboy matches. And it’s not just me. I’ve visited with many old friends that left SASS for this very reason. Some of the well-known mods are removing the transfer bar from Rugers and the lever assist links put in the 73’s. It doesn’t take but one accident with the Ruger or a blown up 73 to bankrupt SASS. If someone gets hurt or even killed by these mods, a family member can sue not only the gunsmith and the person that owns the gun, but also SASS for knowingly allowing these mods in their game and on their range. The signed waiver by the shooters will not be worth the paper it’s written on. It’s a long story, but I sat on a witness stand 35 years ago for 6+ hours and the company I worked for lost millions. They supplied power to a county fair facility but didn’t owned anything behind the primary metering. Two county employees were killed. The reason they lost was because they knowingly provided power to an unsafe facility. SASS is knowingly providing a venue for guns the manufactures have deemed unsafe. For the good of SASS, my hope is they will move the targets out and stagger a few. Most of these mods would not help a competitor and would go away if they do. Long Hunter SASS #20389