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SASS, The Early Days


McCandless

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5a88c3314762c_ChinaCampDeadlyRedlyMontanaDanandDocHolidayatEndofTrailCotoDeCaza1988.jpg.2cf7f9dfc68162111301c8f7942cf2a9.jpg

China Camp, Deadly Redly, Montana Dan and Doc Holiday at End of Trail, Coto De Caza, 1988 

 

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Winners of the THREE shooting categories at EoT 1988: Black Powder - Hangfire Hank, Traditional - Lucky Smucky, and Modern - Deadly Redly 

 

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Irish Clementine, Montana Belle, Cholla, Calamity Jo and Kid Sticks, Top Lady Shooters 1988 EoT 

 

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End of Trail, 1988. Top Lady was Kid Sticks and Top Gun Winner was Lucky Smucky 

 

These are excerpts from an album on my FaceBook site Cowboy Action Shooting Gallery   But since a lot of folks don't have a FB account

I posted a few of them here.  Just a bit of SASS history.  

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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5a88c76e1fd87_FebruarymatchatCotoDeCaza2nd-Dr.WillardB.SlipsnakeTopGun-LuckySmucky3rd-Brazosand5th-Greybeard.jpg.ef961386db6b265e618fc78f311dd06e.jpg

February match at Coto De Caza, 2nd - Dr. Willard T. Slipsnake, Top Gun - Lucky Smucky,

3rd - Brazos and 5th - Greybeard

 

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Calamity Jo - Top Lady Shooter at Feb. Coto De Caza match, 1988 

 

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Special Awards: .32 caliber derringer to Steel Shot (L.) for 32nd place. .22 caliber derringer to Tombstone Tex for 22nd place. The "Harper" cowboy target was won by Diamond Lil Davis,  Coto De Caza, Feb. 1988 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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5a88cb886a31d_AliasDocHolidayHipshotDurangoKidandLuckySmucky.jpg.1243ff14939bab8bc4f74351149bb97a.jpg

The Top 5 Traditional shooters at EoT 1988. Alias, Doc Holiday, Hipshot, Durango Kid and Lucky Smucky.

 

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The Top Five Black Powder shooters at EoT, 1988. Los Altos Red, Shotgun Red, Dead Eye Dick, Dr. Willard T. Slipsnake and Hang Fire Hank

 

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The Top Five Modern shooters, EoT 1988. Tex, Brazos, Appaloosa, Bufford and Deadly Redly 

Edited by McCandless
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West End Gun Club match, Feb, 1988. Rear: Brazos, Paydirt and Greybeard. Front: Great Dane and Lucky Smucky

 

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Match Winners at the West End Gun Club March 1988 match were: Rear: 2nd - Great Dane, 1st - Greybeard (and winner of the pistol), 3rd - Paydirt.

4th - Deaf John (kneeling)

 

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Top Lady Shooters at the Feb. West End Gun Club match,  Irish Clementine, Kid Sticks and Miss Fire

 

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Top lady Shooters at the March and April West End Gun Club matches. Irish Clementine, Miss Fire and Calamity Joan

 

Edited by McCandless
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January match at Coto De Caza. Pistols were given away at this match... a .44 cal pistol to the 44th place and a .36 cal, to the 36th place finisher.

R.J. Poteet, Heavy Duty (aka Big Jake, SASS #1001) and AKA are pictured with the new hardware.

 

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4 hours ago, Chinaman,SASS32908 said:
  1. Good pics.       Wonder how many of these pards are still Cowboy’un.

 

I was thinking the same thing.  I wonder if “Hipshot” is the same one who currently posts on the Wire?  Easy enough to do a name search for the others. 

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1 hour ago, Sgt. Saywut said:

 

I was thinking the same thing.  I wonder if “Hipshot” is the same one who currently posts on the Wire?  Easy enough to do a name search for the others. 

Yep, that's the same Hipshot, SASS #7 

 

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4 hours ago, Sgt. Saywut said:

 

I was thinking the same thing.  I wonder if “Hipshot” is the same one who currently posts on the Wire?  Easy enough to do a name search for the others. 

I see Hipshot at Norco occasionally and he’ll be at WR and EOT, one of the originals and a great pard. We had a memorial for Deaf John out at Pala a few years ago. SASS #1001 Big Jake posts here occasionally and lives up in the Anaheim area I believe. Tex, of course, is still quite active in SASS. A couple of the other characters in the pictures look familiar.

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We here in North Texas are blessed(:rolleyes:) with getting to shoot with Griff SASS # 383(IIRC). He started in California back in the day and talks about Smucky and others all the time.

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5a884d2e3a7d0_GreyFox(Canada)shootingStage4atEoT1988..jpg.a75386305f92bd2d5ed9d102b8b40f37.jpg

Grey Fox (Canada), shooting Stage 4 at EoT 1988.

"This stage made use of special reactive targets, where once you shot the first target, the second target was automatically set in motion.

The second target was available to be hit for only a very short time"

 

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Appaloosa, coming out of the 'Territorial Prison'. EoT, 1988

"Sunday was reserved for team events, the story line started with a "jail break".

 

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EoT, 1988 team events. Lucky Smucky and Doc Holiday are pictured, fighting off the posse that has come to take them back to territorial prison.

 

Edited by McCandless
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5a886f364bbb7_CrazyPatsettingtargetsatCotoDeCaza1988.thumb.jpg.d0580e48560e2e1f5b47b8551856b02b.jpg

Crazy Pat setting targets at Coto De Caza, 1988

 

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Paydirt, Thumper and Medium John at a team event, Camp Pendleton 1988

 

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Sassy Kassy and Hangfire Hank, Top Lady and Top Men's shooters, Arizona State Championship, 1988

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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5a88703aaa5f0_BitsyGrydermakesshortworkofahandfulofcardcheatsonStage1of1988EoT..jpg.58c68f39d1485632f1b965e546909ec2.jpg

 

Bitsy Gryder makes short work of a handful of card cheats on Stage 1 of 1988 EoT. 

 

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Bucolic Buffalo getting ready to use his shotgun and Stage 3 at EoT 1988, using a beautiful stage coach as a prop.

 

"All the stages were TWO gun affairs. On Friday all stages required use of pistol and shotgun. On Saturday, each stage used pistol and rifle."

 

 

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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8 hours ago, Goody, SASS #26190 said:

We here in North Texas are blessed(:rolleyes:) with getting to shoot with Griff SASS # 93 (IIRC) {fixed that, you didn't}  He started in California back in the day and talks about Smucky and others all the time.

I try not to...   and you'd only be blessed if you got to shoot with my wife...  Actually, I appreciate y'all puttin up with my infrequent visits.  '88 was the last year that BP required C&B revolvers... and I learned that one shouldn't first shoot a big match with a "new" gun!  I thought a new 1858 Remington would be an improvement over my 1851... it wasn't!

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5a899fdd08074_BigFritzFastFritzSmallGlassedFritzandRedFritz..jpg.71aa1fc567bf7af4a510dcd1491365c3.jpg

Four of the five international shooters at EoT 1988 came from Germany and were all named "Fritz"!

Big Fritz, Fast Fritz, Small Glassed Fritz and Red Fritz.

 

 

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50 minutes ago, McCandless said:

5a899fdd08074_BigFritzFastFritzSmallGlassedFritzandRedFritz..jpg.71aa1fc567bf7af4a510dcd1491365c3.jpg

Four of the five international shooters at EoT 1988 came from Germany and were all named "Fritz"!

Big Fritz, Fast Fritz, Small Glassed Fritz and Red Fritz.

 

 

'On The' didn't come over?;)

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William Bruce and Jake the Snake, at the first annual Rail Head match, July 1988

In Williams, Arizona. Sponsored by the Los Vaqueros Cowboy Club from Tucson.

 

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"The range at Buckskinner Park consists of piney woods surrounding a small lake at 7,000 feet elevation.

There was plenty of camping area in the park, although the downtown hotels were only a five minute drive away."

 

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The Judge and R.J. Poteet, up early to check out the range. Rail Head, 1988

The lake and some long range targets are behind them.

 

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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Alias, pictured at Stage 1 of Rail Head, 1988

 

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The Top Gun at Rail Head 1988 was Grey Beard (r) followed by Lucky Smucky, Big Jim (aka The Butcher), The Durango Kid and Tex

 

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The Top Lady was Snake Bait Kate (r.) followed by Fanny Saddlebriar, Sierra and Sassy Kassy

 

 

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Slowly, the evolution of SASS shooting began...  At Showdown '88 at the West End Gun Club, "there was movement on some of the stages.  All featured generous sized targets at modest distances.  These were undoubtedly the "easiest" stages yet, and represented the "new" image, which was built up in practice matches over the previous year.  All stages were designed to be handled by less experienced shooters, but offered enough challenge to the top competitors to keep things interesting for everyone."

 

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Yosemite, welcoming one and all to Showdown '88 at the West End Gun Club.

 

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West End was wall to wall campers. The adjacent area looked like an RV facility on a Labor Day weekend!

 

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Stage 1 was a two gun scenario set in an 1880's Chinese laundry. The shooter realizes a holdup is in progress, drops his bundle of laundry

and chases the bad guys through the lines of drying clothes. Stumpy is pictured blazing away with pistol and shotgun.  At this point, SASS

stages were still run with two guns. In this one, a pistol and a shotgun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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"As always, there are lots of ways to shoot a stage. If you look closely, you will also see there are lots of ways to carry ammunition as well."

 

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Grey Beard is pictured on Stage 5, at The Showdown '88. It "was a classic buffalo shoot, from a wagon seat. A herd of ten buffalo is located some seventy yards

down range. Whoever shoots the most buffalo the fastest wins!"

 

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Saturday night, The Showdown sponsored a barbecue dinner and square dancing.

Pecos Pop and Pecos Pullet were the lead dancers.

 

 

Edited by McCandless
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23 minutes ago, McCandless said:

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, McCandless said:

0f.thumb.jpg.7a6ac1ee73b6c8e00eca194c16bc40fe.jpg

"As always, there are lots of ways to shoot a stage. If you look closely, you will also see there are lots of ways to carry ammunition as well."

 

 

 

 

 

So, you USED to be able to do that? Reckon why they changed the rule. Seems harmless enough to me.

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4 hours ago, McCandless said:

0f.thumb.jpg.7a6ac1ee73b6c8e00eca194c16bc40fe.jpg

"As always, there are lots of ways to shoot a stage. If you look closely, you will also see there are lots of ways to carry ammunition as well."

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite ammo pouch.

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8 hours ago, Goody, SASS #26190 said:

So, you USED to be able to do that? Reckon why they changed the rule. Seems harmless enough to me.

Distinct disadvantage for some... 

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4 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

So how many of these old-timers were using short-stroke kits and firing mouse fart loads?

Nada, zip, zero on the short-stroke.  But... they weren't far in the future.  Define "mouse fart" load.  At this time there was a fps floor, IIRC 650fps.    That was changed to 400fps and then we got the "power factor".  

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