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What Is SASS Doing To Promote Our Game Among The Over 55 crowd?


Bart Solo

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I'm not sure what the answer would be to appeal to a 15yr old or 25yr old as well as a 55yr old shooter, otherwise I'd give that specific advice.

 

That makes me feel better, you are no smarter than us ol farts on this subject of finding appeal to all ages. :D

 

 

I DO KNOW, that by and large, the "Hollywood Cowboy" genre misses the mark for young western culture folks (myself included - even having watched these shows as a kid myself - I'd never wear it as CAS/SASS costume). Cowboys are still cool, but "heroes by design" are not. 15yr old shooters, 25yr old shooters, and 55yr old shooters, in my expectation, can appreciate heroes like Rooster Cogburn or Wyatt Earp, or Jesse James, Billy the Kid, etc - so that's common ground to build upon. Unfortunately, those don't seem to be the 'heroes' that get most of the attention, in my experience. The younger shooters won't relate to older shooter's affections for Hop Along Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, or Roy Rogers. It even surprised me this weekend that none of the high school guys at the practice I held could correctly match up Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans, Tanto, the Lone Ranger, and Silver... And just think how recently the Johnny Depp/Armie Hammer Lone Ranger film was! But they all could quote lines from Tombstone...

 

I am not a fan of Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger, Tanto and the above. Before my time and I am old. I am more a Matt Dillion, Bonanza, John Wayne era. Billy the Kid and Jesse James are bad guys, wearing black hats and their character was doomed for a short life, which it was. I suppose most people like the 'good guy' image, rather than the 'bad guy'.

 

 

 

Based on the conversation direction that Madd Mike, and your own comments took from my statements about the "watered down" feeling at SASS events, I think I did not make my intention in that statement very clear. Hopefully this is more clear: The shooting in SASS is very real, and without question builds shooting skills and gun handling fundamentals at a very high level - that was NOT to what I was referring. What I am talking about is the difference in MENTALITY and "je ne sais quoi" that accompanies the shooting. The way things are written, and the attitude among shooters that I have seen around the country for CAS/SASS - including here on the wire - is VERY different than in other action shooting sports. Granted, there are competition-focused shooters that are universally similar across any shooting sport, but the aire around the rest of shooters and presentation is just different. In SASS, it's scripted more like a Charles Ingalls fist fight, where violence and the implication of killing is intentionally and vehemently diluted.

 

Got it!,

Little House on the Prairie is not Cowboy, but I understand your parallel thought. Don't forget the Walton's. Both were mushy rich sugary sweet shows. Yuck!! I agree, watered down in that since. SASS is compose of approximate 25% females, of which majority are grandmothers. I suspect that has an influence, plus what little kids are involved with parents/grandparents. So gory blood & guts descriptions/scenerios are toned down.

 

 

Heck, it wasn't a few months ago we had a thread on here with a shooter complaining that we should not shoot cartoonized dog shaped targets as "hounds of hell" because it wasn't politically correct, and how many times have we kicked around the debate about shooting cowboy or especially "Indian" shaped targets.

 

Yep, a sign of the times of someone slipping through and being PC.

 

It has not been uncommon, in my experience, for 3 gun matches stage descriptions to describe "kill the guys on the back row first, then front row". The relevancy of the shooting gets diluted when you're instructed to holler some movie line from the back of your whiskey barrel horse with a broomstick head and fend off raiders. Comparatively, 3 gun stages where you start seated in a junkyard car, then have to fight off a carjacker - kill the guy and shoot his buddies as they run up to his aide... I can appreciate the idea that "violence" never should take center stage, but we're shooting real guns with stages sometimes scripted to be killing invaders, it really shouldn't be a question whether a dog shaped "hell hound" target is politically correct or not. Shooting is R rated, making it G-rated is a turn off to a lot of new shooters. (let alone the fact that the shooting often takes backseat to other aspects of SASS).

 

Point taken, but a Rambo mentality sport doesn't appeal to me, but obvious to others.

Rambo & Little House are both fictional situations and I guess it just depends on which appeals to you but probably not both.

 

 

With all of that said (and with my previous posts, Lord knows it was a lot to say!), my matter of thinking is based around "Western Culture" folks, i.e. farm and ranch kids. I would honestly assume, in visiting shoots around the country, that I'm not necessarily talking about a demographic that really applies universally. In Kansas, my home turf, most folks are farm and ranch folks, or at least have family that is/was, so most SASS shooters have some exposure to that lifestyle, or even live it every day. On the other hand, I recognize that in certain parts of the country, SASS clubs might not have a single member that have ever sat on a real horse. So maybe the demographic that I've mentioned as "accessible to SASS Marketing" isn't really a large contributor to the overall membership. My demographic that I have the most contact with that I think has a relevant interest in CAS/SASS is the 15 - 30 something Midwest "cowboy", as in real live working and riding cowboys. I would assume, however, that this particular demographic might not make up a large portion of SASS's membership.

 

Point taken again. Farm & ranch folks are more attune to horses, guns, trucks, mudding ,shooting, death, and down to earth work. However, the farm & ranch adults & kids are more 'a matter of fact' concerning firearms. Rifle are used as tools, not play. Rifles are for hunting,, varmit control and such. Pistols??? Not really a useful use and thus not much knowledge of . Or at least what I observe in my local. Then you take city folk. I hate to generalize but many a house hold doesn't have firearms, nor a place to shoot and the ones that do have firearms, they don't use. Thus as generations pass by, there is even fewer knowledgeable/skilled shooters. However, a pistol is more desirable for city folks from the self protection standpoint and desire.

 

For what it is worth, huge/big/medium/small city and suburban folks way out number rural/very small community population. No surprise, noting new but that is the source to draw future shooters from.

 

 

As to the popularity of cowboy video games, your understanding of the current market is lacking (as if this REALLY has a huge bearing on the future of SASS).

 

1) First off, my original comment said that Red Dead Revolver was successful in the early 2000's, but I also point out the success of Red Dead Redemption, it's sequel. Red Dead Redemption, released in 2010 with 'downloads' following in short years after has been incredibly successful on the on the current gaming platforms. Granted, that's 4yrs old, but again, it enjoyed epic success, and was even crowned as "Game of the Year". Red Dead Redemption 2 is slated for a 2014 release. So yes, Red Dead REVOLVER is 14yrs old, and was an epic hit on Xbox. Red Dead Redemption is 4yrs old and was an epic hit on xbox 360 and PS3, with a Sequel to come out this year, much anticipated in the industry.

 

2) Beyond that, here's some feedback from a younger "Gamer" kid that I know that I asked about this subject over the weekend - he shoes my horses and enjoys video games, cast ye not a stone at his house. The current market tolerance for video game variety is very fickle, and most genre's only have one or two hot games at the top. Red Dead has effectively mastered the cowboy game genre, much like Call of Duty has done in the military genre, or assassins creed has done in the 'fantasy' genre, Madden NFL in football, Grand Theft Auto in "anarchy", EA Sports NBA Live in basketball, and so on and so forth.... Each genre only has room for one or two successful games, as the market tends to be very fickle, and buyers won't settle for "second best". As such, there really aren't many genres that have multiple successful games. The fact that there is ONE flagship cowboy video game series suggests that Cowboy Video games - as gritty and outlandish as they might be - are alive and well. There's another western game series with releases in 2007, 09, and 2011 that has had respectable success as well, "Call of Juarez", but moreso successful on PC platform.

Have a great day. Keep the post coming. Who knows, we may stumble onto something useful.

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First post.

 

I'm 37 and just bought a used Uberti Stallion yesterday. I can't wait to get a few more things and go to my first event with my wife and three kids.

 

I've read through this thread and have some thoughts.

 

1. The draw of SASS is NOT about guns and shooting. It is about wanting to be a COWBOY. It's about meeting like minded people who enjoy the wild west culture. The shooting and the competition are secondary to the cowboy theme. If you want to market SASS, you need to find people who want to be a cowboy.

 

2. The vast majority of youngsters (college age and down) have had no exposure to the wild west culture and will have zero interest in SASS. You can safely ignore them as a target for marketing efforts. It's a sad sad thing, but it is true.

 

3. The majority of 30s-40s most likely had exposure to wild west culture growing up, but will have little to no interest in SASS. Don't worry about them, you wouldn't like them anyway. They spend all their time pushing their kids too hard in sports and watching reality television. Besides, all their disposable income goes toward leasing BMWs and Range Rovers.

 

4. But, there are a LOT of 30s-40s who don't follow the typical main-stream American model listed in #3. These folks grew up watching John Wayne and actually know what color Little Joe's horse was. These people have kids and careers, but are also interested in wholesome family entertainment. They are your best bet in terms of marketing SASS.

 

5. You will find the folks from #4 at CHURCHES. The type of people who grew up watching westerns with their dad will most likely have solid values and will typically attend church regularly. I know that my church is filled with conservative, gun-toting, western-watching dads who are looking for any opportunity to get their kids involved in wholesome activities related to outdoors/shooting/hunting/fishing etc. If a local club did a father/son intro to cowboy action day in my area .... and they advertised at a handful of local churches .... the event would be a huge success.

 

6. Gearing up for a noobie is expensive and overwhelming. But there are things SASS could easily do to help here. SASS could do a better job at informing first timers that they don't need to own four guns before they can go to an event. My brother went to his first event just planning to watch, but people were literally throwing guns at him and shoving him to the line. I'd guess this is fairly common. Also, a SASS approved "starter kit" for belts/holsters/shellholders that is priced around $50 would sell like hot cakes. Heck, it doesn't even have to be real leather .... it just needs to be functional and not look like a Halloween costume. The last thing I want to do after spending thousands on guns is drop another $250 on leather. Sure, I'll eventually get a nice rig, but I sure wish there was a cheap alternative just to get started.

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I got into CAS for the guns and competition. ..not to be a "cowboy"

 

I'm not a church goer...and getting started in CAS is cheap compared to many other sports related activities. ..

 

Sooooo...There ya go!

 

Phantom

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Maybe local clubs could put an add in their little local penny savers and news papers for cowboy day where people could come look and see what the thing is all about maybe set up a senerio and run some of the willing ones thru..

 

I think there are alot of people that have clubs right near them that have never even heard of CAS, in fact I know this to be true, getting the local word out would help..

 

Have a Boyscout day, for the local scouts and give them a forum on shooting cowboy action then let them have a go, next thing ya know, dad will want to know what was that CAS thing you kids did again??

 

After the last stage at the N.J State shoot we had our B Scout brass picker shoot my wifes little .32's he got 10 hits and was totally wound up everyone cheered and he was elated.. These kinds of things can work...

 

Just a thought.. Spades H.

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In this day and age, if someone wants to discover Cowboy Action Shooting, they will.

 

Fillmore

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In this day and age, if someone wants to discover Cowboy Action Shooting, they will.

 

Fillmore

 

Ok. ;);)

 

A friend told me about it, untill then I had never heard of it. the best thing is that the club I used to shoot my hunting guns at every yr is where it was go figure I never knew... I know what it is now.. :D Thanx Trader Flint...

 

I also think word of mouth has brought in more shooters to this game than any other way..

 

I myself have gotten 2 people this yr to come have a look see, they had never heard of it before I told them.. One of them is going to try it this spring with my extra guns...

 

Spades H. I know i never would have looked for it, because I'd never heard of it!! -_-

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First post.

 

I'm 37 and just bought a used Uberti Stallion yesterday. I can't wait to get a few more things and go to my first event with my wife and three kids.

 

I've read through this thread and have some thoughts.

 

1. The draw of SASS is NOT about guns and shooting. It is about wanting to be a COWBOY. It's about meeting like minded people who enjoy the wild west culture. The shooting and the competition are secondary to the cowboy theme. If you want to market SASS, you need to find people who want to be a cowboy.

 

2. The vast majority of youngsters (college age and down) have had no exposure to the wild west culture and will have zero interest in SASS. You can safely ignore them as a target for marketing efforts. It's a sad sad thing, but it is true.

 

3. The majority of 30s-40s most likely had exposure to wild west culture growing up, but will have little to no interest in SASS. Don't worry about them, you wouldn't like them anyway. They spend all their time pushing their kids too hard in sports and watching reality television. Besides, all their disposable income goes toward leasing BMWs and Range Rovers.

 

4. But, there are a LOT of 30s-40s who don't follow the typical main-stream American model listed in #3. These folks grew up watching John Wayne and actually know what color Little Joe's horse was. These people have kids and careers, but are also interested in wholesome family entertainment. They are your best bet in terms of marketing SASS.

 

5. You will find the folks from #4 at CHURCHES. The type of people who grew up watching westerns with their dad will most likely have solid values and will typically attend church regularly. I know that my church is filled with conservative, gun-toting, western-watching dads who are looking for any opportunity to get their kids involved in wholesome activities related to outdoors/shooting/hunting/fishing etc. If a local club did a father/son intro to cowboy action day in my area .... and they advertised at a handful of local churches .... the event would be a huge success.

 

6. Gearing up for a noobie is expensive and overwhelming. But there are things SASS could easily do to help here. SASS could do a better job at informing first timers that they don't need to own four guns before they can go to an event. My brother went to his first event just planning to watch, but people were literally throwing guns at him and shoving him to the line. I'd guess this is fairly common. Also, a SASS approved "starter kit" for belts/holsters/shellholders that is priced around $50 would sell like hot cakes. Heck, it doesn't even have to be real leather .... it just needs to be functional and not look like a Halloween costume. The last thing I want to do after spending thousands on guns is drop another $250 on leather. Sure, I'll eventually get a nice rig, but I sure wish there was a cheap alternative just to get started.

 

Welcome BankRoll from a fellow 37 year old churchgoer. It took me a couple years to build up my arsenal, just take your time and accept every offer to borrow guns to try out what works for you. I made my brother and Dad come to my first match to watch and they now almost have their arsenal completed.

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Arsenal. ..?

yep. 19th century assault guns! ;)

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Welcome BankRoll from a fellow 37 year old churchgoer. It took me a couple years to build up my arsenal, just take your time and accept every offer to borrow guns to try out what works for you. I made my brother and Dad come to my first match to watch and they now almost have their arsenal completed.

 

Just to clarify pard, in this world of PC some hesitate to use terms such as arsenal to descrbe the collection of guns used in this game so as to not upset the anti gun crowd..

 

Or give the wrong impression of CAS and its participants, while the term itself can be per dictionary description correct it can be infered by some as sort of a military type term used to describe a large collection of assault / military type guns...

 

Weapons is also a word that will bring out some offence here on the wire, I'm sure we all know what you ment about collecting your cowboy guns to play this game just thought I'd let you know for future discussions here on the wire..

 

By the way welcome to the game pard!!! ;)

 

 

Spades H.

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Ok. ;);)

 

A friend told me about it, untill then I had never heard of it. the best thing is that the club I used to shoot my hunting guns at every yr is where it was go figure I never knew... I know what it is now.. :D Thanx Trader Flint...

 

I also think word of mouth has brought in more shooters to this game than any other way..

 

I myself have gotten 2 people this yr to come have a look see, they had never heard of it before I told them.. One of them is going to try it this spring with my extra guns...

 

Spades H. I know i never would have looked for it, because I'd never heard of it!! -_-

 

 

Ok. ;);)

 

A friend told me about it, untill then I had never heard of it. the best thing is that the club I used to shoot my hunting guns at every yr is where it was go figure I never knew... I know what it is now.. :D Thanx Trader Flint...

 

I also think word of mouth has brought in more shooters to this game than any other way..

 

I myself have gotten 2 people this yr to come have a look see, they had never heard of it before I told them.. One of them is going to try it this spring with my extra guns...

 

Spades H. I know i never would have looked for it, because I'd never heard of it!! -_-

And yet, here you are. You're right, word of mouth is the ticket. When you advertise, and do open house and all that, you get people who think SASS is really cool, who have no guns and no money. Or, having money, ain't spending it on cowboy guns. They stay only as long as the loaners and free ammo hold out. Been there, done that, tired of it.

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And yet, here you are. You're right, word of mouth is the ticket. When you advertise, and do open house and all that, you get people who think SASS is really cool, who have no guns and no money. Or, having money, ain't spending it on cowboy guns. They stay only as long as the loaners and free ammo hold out. Been there, done that, tired of it.

 

Hello Newt,

 

Not sure what your 1st sentence means??

 

I'm sure you are right about some shooting till the freebees run out.. I guess there will always be some like this, however the ones we win over are the way we can help to bring new shooters to this game..

 

Sounds like you had a bad experince. Sorry to hear this, hope you where successful with some of the people you tryed to get started in the game... Seems like you put the time in fer sure. ;)

 

 

 

Spades H.

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My two cents: You do have to think about who has the money or the credit to pay the price of entry, which is steep. Usually, that's the older people. I started 2 years ago at 65YO. My wife & I were at the Memphis Sport Shooting Association & passed the Cowboy range (which I had always planned to see what was about). There were tons of RV's, so when we finished shooting our Glocks & M1A's, AR, etc., we stopped by. There were 100-125 people dressed head to toe, & Sagebrush Jim came up & immediately started talked to us. I was hooked immediately, & I like the idea of buying lots of new guns, cowboy gear, cart, etc., etc. Not because I necessarily could afford the stuff, but because I like to buy new toys. I have shot almost every weekend for almost 2 years now, & I think it's the most fun thing I've ever done, including 60+ motorcycles since I was 14, bowling, & lots of other stuff.

 

Now, my wife & my son are also involved. I think we older guys with the resources for the price of entry are often the people to influence & help our friends & family to get involved also. RV mags marketing is a great idea! AARP might be a great vehicle.

 

What if each club had some loaner equipment to encourage new shooters? How about a stack of info sheets & contact info to give anybody who shows up to watch? Let's make it easy for them to do the research. I always see club members offering to let watchers shoot their guns, & I think that's great! I think the list of contact names is crucial to give the new watchers some people to ask the million questions.

 

I think we market to everyone, but remember the demographic that likely has the money to spend.

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Hello Newt,

 

Not sure what your 1st sentence means??

 

I'm sure you are right about some shooting till the freebees run out.. I guess there will always be some like this, however the ones we win over are the way we can help to bring new shooters to this game..

 

Sounds like you had a bad experince. Sorry to hear this, hope you where successful with some of the people you tryed to get started in the game... Seems like you put the time in fer sure. ;)

 

 

 

Spades H.

I just meant you hadn't heard of it until a friend mentioned it, and now you're a shooter. That's the method that seems to work best. You wouldn't invite a friend out if you didn't think he might take to it, and he won't expect to use your stuff forever; he'll start putting together his own stuff. I've decided inviting out the general public is a waste of time. Doing that, my club is 0 for God knows how many. One guy used my wife's guns and shot free ammo for 2 or 3 matches. Then one balmy day (she is the ultimate fair weather shooter) she decided to shoot. This guy shows up looking for his guns and ammo, and lo and behold, there's this broad wearing his rig. We offered to share, but he said that was too much hassle and left. Never saw him again. Cracked me up.

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I just meant you hadn't heard of it until a friend mentioned it, and now you're a shooter. That's the method that seems to work best. You wouldn't invite a friend out if you didn't think he might take to it, and he won't expect to use your stuff forever; he'll start putting together his own stuff. I've decided inviting out the general public is a waste of time. Doing that, my club is 0 for God knows how many. One guy used my wife's guns and shot free ammo for 2 or 3 matches. Then one balmy day (she is the ultimate fair weather shooter) she decided to shoot. This guy shows up looking for his guns and ammo, and lo and behold, there's this broad wearing his rig. We offered to share, but he said that was too much hassle and left. Never saw him again. Cracked me up.

 

Yea I see your point Newt, the 2 guys I refered to are my age and showed excitment when I explained where i was going for the weekends, and both of them are already gun guys and have no compusions about buying more guns.. :lol::lol:

 

As far as the guy you speak of, well i've got the word for him TURD!!!! <_< I can see by yer # you've probably seen it all, enough said, i'm old enough now to listen to wisdom. ;)

 

Spades H.

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