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Who Got You Started?


Bronc

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Just a conversation topic. Who or how did you get started?

 

Me: Jerry Hendrick, Concho SASS 16 (I think). Was a friend of my wife's where she boarded her horse across the freeway from Disneyland. I had read an article about CAS in Guns and Ammo and mentioned to her that it looked like fun. She said "Jerry does that", in all innocence to what she started. After talking to him he invited me to a match at Coto De Caza, this was 1989. I sold a 1911 and bought a single action and with borrowed guns shot the next match at Coto. The rest is kind of a blur of friends, good times and great memories. Been gone awhile and coming back to make some new ones.

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Huckleberry and George Emmett put on a SASS presentation at Sportsman's Warehouse in Milwaukee. I sold some modern guns to fund some old timey guns and have been hooked ever since. Couple of years later Johnny McCrae got me hooked on NCOWS. It's all kind of addicting!

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Naildriver, Judge Parkers Marshals Fort Smith

 

I just noticed others were adding more information, so I am going to edit and do the same. I got my SASS name and number several years before I actually started shooting, but due to some family obstacles I didn't try things out for some time. I finally decided it was time to shoot or sell my guns. I pulled up at the range and almost drove off because I didn't know anybody there, but I got out anyway. Driver welcomed me along with everyone else at the match and he made it a point to put me on his posse and work with me from the get go. Along the way I have had help from many members at the club, but without Driver's effort that first day I probably wouldn't have come back. He continues to work with new shooters to this day and has brought many new shooters to our club.

Edited by C.S. Brady, SASS #63699
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Tucson Stu of the Rockford Regulators. I was looking at a AWA Longhorn and he was working the counter at Gander Mountain. We talked for a few minutes and he handed me a brochure for a new club they just started in Rockford. Went to the match that week and two months later had bought all my gear and shot my first match there. That was when you could start for $1500. I was 20 years old. Stu passed away last November.

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Jones and Wild Firing Whitey up at Norco with the Cowboys. Laylow Kerley had a huge impact at first match also, probably wouldn't be in CAS if it weren't for those three.

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Somebody left a "Chronicle" at the morning meeting table where I worked. Read it and thought it looked like a way cool game to play.

It took ten years to gather the guns and build a cart while still working, moving and building a house. Went to my first match and haven't looked back. Will be going into my 5th season next spring.

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A feller named Second Chance.. :)

He provided guns, leather and ammo for my first few matches..

That was in the fall towards the end of our season in Illinois..

He taught me reloading over the winter..

I jumped in with both feet..

 

By next Spring.. I had my guns, leather, clothes, reloading equipment and supplies..

That was about 13 or 14 years ago..

 

Rance ;)

Thinkin that was an expensive winter.. :)

Edited by Rance - SASS # 54090
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A friend of mine "Little Bob" was his alias. This was back in 1996, he was so stoked up about this cowboy shoot he found he got me excited. I had a Ruger Blackhawk, bought myself a Win 94 and a Stoeger sg and went with another pard of mine. (Only used one pistol back then) Got hooked! Little Bob no longer shoots, he quit because of his retail job Saturdays are a big day for him. (car sales) I'm still chugging along and I will until I just can't anymore!!

Edited by Rye Miles #13621
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THE Billy Boots got me started! He cannot know the depth of gratitude I have for him doing so! Not only did he introduce me to the sport, he also introduced to me to some of the best people in it. Helped me get the proper gear to begin with and saved me so much headache and frustration by doing so!

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My oldest brother, Bluewater Ringer. He also got me into BPCR before CAS.

 

I think he's just trying to prevent my retirement.

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Local group of about 10 shooters.

Then the Southern Missouri Rangers.

I was shooting 41 Mag Rugers at a match when I heard a godawful explosion behind me. I jerked around and saw an 1858 Remington sticking out of a cloud of smoke. I haven't shot a smokeless round since.

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I was introduced to Cowboy Action shooting by an old friend Gary Tryon who has since passed and this was in 1987. I then joined SASS in Feb 1988.

 

My first SASS Cowboy Action Match was at Cow Town, Arizona in 1989. Took me some time to get going as I had to borrow a Rifle and shotgun from some friends. Only had Modern and Traditional category's back then. I used my old Ruger Blackhawk 3 screw. Wife shoots it now.

 

Those were good times and lots of memories. Still shooting and still enjoying this activity and meeting old and new friends.

Edited by Jackrabbit Joe #414
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!2 years ago I was elected President of the 4 Corners Rifle Pistol Club (Pres for 3 years) and decided I was going to go at least once to every shooting activity the club was doing. CAS was one of them and Captain Kelso was running it (still is) Mike MADE Me (LOL) shoot one stage and the rest is history, as they say. I have shot competitively in Trap, Skeet, live pigeons, benchrest and Bulls Eye Pistol and CAS is still the most fun. :wub:

Edited by Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life
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I was touring through a gun show and stopped at this table that had some gun leather, a few cowboy shirts and pants, and a pistol or two. The vendor had laid out some PAPER Chronicles on an adjoining table. We struck up a conversation and I left with a couple copies of the paper, a holster rig, and a '97 shotgun some guy was selling. I gave $250.00 for the shotgun, $150.00 for the holster rig, (a San Pedro left handed cross draw rig and firehose canvas shotgun belt) and a couple copies of the Chronicle.

 

The vendor's name was Dutch Brandenburg and his alias was Judge John Lynchlaw! That was the summer of 2003. I had a .45 Blackhawk convertible, a 7 1/2" Blackhawk that belonged to my dad, a Winchester '94 trapper, and one of those old Norinco 99 hammer doubles. The barrel on the '97 had been hacksawed and needed dressing and a new front sight installed.

 

I went to my first match at Wartrace in August. I met a gunsmith, (Willy McCoy) who offered to fix the '97 for a few bucks. I had it back in a week. By Christmas the '94 and the Norinco were gone. Replaced by a worked '92 and the '97. I also found another Blackhawk convertible for $250.00.

 

You can STILL get into this game fairly inexpensively if you're patient. Out of all of my guns, I was only gifted that first convertible Blackhawk, and I see good S.A.S.S. guns sold every time I look for GREAT prices!!

 

Thanks to Dutch for getting me started and traveling with me when it was all new to me!! Judge John Lynchlaw is a pard to ride the river with!!

Edited by Blackwater 53393
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Mack Hacker, loaned me guns until I bought them. He needed a newbie to sell his un-wanted guns to: it worked! Went to match and shot last three stages! Been hooked since then. That was 2013 (I think), we are going to our first Winter Range in 2017!

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DSC_0685_zpsjdqqloso.jpg

 

We got a Roku wifi interface for our TV and started watching stuff on YouTube. We hit on a couple of cowboy action shooting videos. This lead us to the SASS website where I located the nearest club. Mary and I went to check it out. Doolin Riggs was the first to come up and great us. I got his email address and we corresponded and he answered my questions.

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!2 years ago I was elected President of the 4 Corners Rifle Pistol Club (Pres for 3 years) and decided I was going to go at least once to every shooting activity the club was doing. CAS was one of them and Captain Kelso was running it (still is) Mike MADE Me (LOL) shoot one stage and the rest is history, as they say. I have shot competitively in Trap, Skeet, live pigeons, benchrest and Bulls Eye Pistol and CAS is still the most fun. :wub:

Captain

Kelso was at the first match I attended in July 1996, at the Buffalo Creek Cowboys. Pegleg Pete was the person responsible for dragging me to the match. Pegleg past away five years ago, we think about him often.

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Was out in Wyoming with a bunch of friends on a Cattle Drive, true city slickers 😄. At the end of the drive we took a side trip to an old town called South Pass City and this is where I met for the first time members of SASS. They were all deck out telling stories of how the town used to operate and we got to talking, I of course notice their badges and asked what the single action shooting society was all about. The rest is history. Now the whole family is shooting Cowboy Action.

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Johnny Shiloh - I showed up at Firelands Peacemakers in Rochester, OH one Saturday 12 years ago with a pair Vaqueros and needing to borrow a rifle & shotgun. He loaned me the long guns & coached me thru the first match. Still shooting so apparently I enjoyed the experience ! :D :D

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Me. :D I had quit shooting in about 1978, moving on to fishing and then flying model airplanes. I met a man that lived at the north end of Lake Ray Roberts on 40 acres. He invited a bunch of us up to fly in his pasture, shoot some skeet and plink at cans. I still had a Savage 311 in 20 gauge, so took that along. This was early 1998. It rekindled my desire to shoot, so began looking around for things to buy because I am seriously effected with GASS. Picked up a 3 Screw in 357, then found a deal on a Hawes 357 in pawn shop. Started looking around on the web and found this thing called Cowboy Action shooting. I studied it for a couple of days and saw that it was possible to shoot every weekend in the North Texas area, so figured I'd give it a try. Picked up two rifles in the mean time, a Rossi and a Marlin, both in 357. Went to Comanche Valley Vigilantes match in March of 1998 and had a whale of a time. Been shooting it every since. By the way, those used prices on my stuff in 1998 (IIRC)?

 

3 Screw, 6 1/2 inch barrel, $250

Hawes 6/12 inch, $125

Savage 311 20 gauge, $175

Rossi 357 carbine, $200

Marlin 357 carbine, $225

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Wolf Bane via an episode of Shooting Gallery on the Outdoor Channel introduced me to SASS

 

Goody, T-Bone and lots of other fine folks at the Bar 3 got me thru my first match.

 

Yusta B introduced me to the Dark side.

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Dangit, had the whole three volume series typed up and lost it.

In summary -

Bro in law first told me about the game. He had only heard about it, and is just now getting going with it, though I've drug him to a match here and there.

 

First match 'just to watch' Coyote Gulch Cowboys, Boulder, CO. Welcomed and talked into trying it, I was hooked. Partial list of folks who made me feel welcome and included: Jinglebob Gerri, Diamond Curly, Ten and Eight, Badger, Scraggs, and a host of others.

 

Second match (first match shooting) with Pawnee Station. Special 5th Saturday match where I could shoot the .22s that I already had, I didn't have any proper cowboy guns....yet. GW Ryder was tasked with being my mentor for the day and loaned me his shotgun as I didn't have a shotgun. Over the next couple of matches GW, Red River Wrangler and Sweet Lil loaned me guns as I got my irons together.

 

When I started I thought the costuming was a bit, well, silly and wore the minimum. Now while I shoot age based, I wear more than enough I could shoot Classic if I had the big bore irons for it.

 

Man I love this game.

Edited by Grizzly Dave
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Like Blackwater I saw a table at a Gun Show in SoCal at the Orange County Fairgrounds. At the time I hung out with a bunch of "tactical" types but the video that was playing at the table intrigued me. These guys, and gals, were Combat Shooting (that's what I call it anyway) Combat Shooting with Cowboy Guns! OMG, I was hooked! :D

 

Funny thing is, I didn't talk to anyone there about it and I don't know who was at that table but I now wish I did. I went home, did the research, joined SASS and started buying guns. It took me a year and a half to put together everything I needed. My "tactical" friends all shunned me...I have been much happier since. :lol:

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Watching shootin shows on the TUBE one sunday back in 98.Saw the Cowboy Shootin Got a phone # Called .Talked to Durango Gunsmith.Went to a match & got HOOKED.Started shootin with people like Evil Roy Wicked Felina,Durango Kid ,Cervesa Slim.

Shot my first big match in Cortez .Helped put on by Capt. Kelso.Drew a door prize of a membership to SASS.Got my Badge that day from the JUDGE..Been shootin ever since.Shootin Classic Cowboy befor it became a class..

Largo

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The first time I ever heard of Cowboy Action Shooting was also on an episode of Shooting Gallery on the Outdoor Channel. When I watched that episode I thought to myself, I bet I would like that, but didn't pursue it. About a month later I walked into a small local gun shop and on the counter next to the single actions was a stack of business cards advertising a local Cowboy club. I asked the owner of the gun shop about this club, not knowing CAS clubs even existed in my area, and he informed me that he also shot Cowboy Action there. He then went into the back and came back out with a Cowboy Chronicle that he said I could have. I went home, did some research, made some phone calls, showed up and watched, asked a million questions, started buying guns and gear and have never looked back. I will take the love of CAS with me to my grave.

 

And That's No BS from

Major BS Walker

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I also first saw Cowboy Shooting on TV and I'm still a relative newcomer to the game. There was an ad in a local paper in October 2011 about a local gun club starting up a Cowboy "posse". A buddy of mine (Bobtown Cooter) and I decided to go to that meeting. I left feeling totally intimidated and wondering if I should get into this even though I wanted to. Went home and did some research on the internet and started getting my outfit ready. At the time I had a second generation Colt 45, a Cimarron Thunder 45, and a Henry Big Boy 45. The following March I wanted to go to a club to see how it was done so my wife and I drove for over three hours on a cold Saturday morning to the Big Iron Rangers in Middletown, OH. We were in costume and right away everyone invited me to shoot. I hadn't taken any guns with me. I declined and said I just wanted to watch and ask questions. I asked a lot of questions that day and several cowboys just kept referring me to some guy named Lassiter. I had no idea who he was at the time. I kind of latched on to him that day and he patiently answered all my questions. Fast forward to June 2012 and the Brown Township Regulators had their first informal shoot and introduction to Cowboy Action Shooting. By then I had already acquired a pair of Vaqueros, an Uberti 73 and a Stoeger SxS that you had to whack over the back of a pickup truck to open. In July 2012 I shot my first match. Many trips to Maurader's website and aftermarket suppliers, my guns were reasonably slicked up for competition. In 2013 I drug my lovely wife, Cayenne Kay, kicking and screaming, to a match. Sage Chick was her first Posse Marshall. Something clicked in her and now we shoot 30-35 matches a year. Many guns later she wins the awards and seems my job is relegated to loading her ammo, cleaning her guns and driving her to matches. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way. Got to travel some more and made a lot of some of the best friends in the world.

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I have always been a big traditional archery hunter, taking game all across this country with a stick and string. When my son was born, I found that I couldn't hunt, or at least properly and still be home for dinner. So I dusted off some of the old hand guns and tried out this steel shooting thing a friend was talking about. It was pretty fun, but then I asked if I could use my single action (a black hawk in 45 colt used for backup in bear country) just for fun and to see how proficient I was with it. They said no because it was too hard to clear on the line, and that I should look into something called cowboy action shooting. I had never heard of it, so I checked it out and went to a match the next weekend. I have been to a lot of cowboy matches and spent a lot of money along the way, but I haven't been back to that steel shoot since. Maybe they should have let me shoot that black hawk just once.

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i kind of fell into it by accident, noticed a bunch of cowboys at the gun range (rio salado) watched a few times then shot 2 matches, moved to tucson, Ol Deadeye (miss him and how his loads used to set off car alarms), T.A. Chance, Silverado, and Wily Yankee helped tons, but Desert Lobo has taken me under his wing the most with blackpowder.

Rafe

Edited by Rafe Conager SASS #56958
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Going to visit my folks in Green Valley AZ, and they took my wife, young son and I to Tombstone and then to Old Tucson Studio's and I was hooked from there! Came back to FL, checked out any clubs and found the one that I have listed in my signature, although I am not an active member currently. Had a Colt New Frontier and a Winchester 94, the Colt in .44 spcl and the Winchester in both spcl/mag. Volunteered to help out with the scouring and that is when I got my SASS alias, Nimble Fingers, from Jeremiah Longknife. I ordered a Ruger Vaquero in 44mag, got a cheap belt out of Shotgun news, and borrowed a shotgun until my lovely wife bought me a Baikal for Father's Day, and I have been shooting off and on ever since.

 

I now have a much better outfit, look like the Duke when I do shoot, and I have even gotten my son involved but we are both too busy to fully participate. My Mother thinks I haven't grown up, and I tried to get my Dad interested when one of the last times I took him to a shoot in the desert, you guys in AZ are so lucky! Had a great time, he laughed with a bunch of the shooters, and I got "yelled" at for not bringing my irons to shoot!

 

Where else can you go and pretend you are in a Western, walking around healed, unless you are in AZ!

 

Nimbles (dreaming of another vacation with those mountains)

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I was in Gander Mountain buying a Winchester 9422 .

The guy billing me out was Deuce Stevens .

I was telling him Im a big fan of Single action guns .

And I am a Cowboy at heart.

 

Deuce asked me if I ever herd of SASS and cowboy action shooting .

I said NO .

Deuce said there was a shoot that weekend in Rockford.

And I should come check it out .

 

I went to the shoot and WOW !

This is what Im all about .

 

Deuce said you will need a Pistol caliber rifle.

And Two Pistols and a Shotgun.

Some holsters and a gun cart .

 

I said I have everything except a gun cart.

 

My buddy Scott who is a wood worker said he would help me build a gun cart.

I had a gun cart and was at the next shoot .

 

I still have the same gun cart.

And five complet sets of guns to play the game.

 

Im Not in the fast game .

But Im in the fun game for life !

 

Thank you Steve for all your help threw out the years.

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