Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting Is Cowboy Action Dying?

I don't hear much about it anymore.

I believe it is dying. I have tons of CA guns and love them, but shoots have diminished in the past several years and attendance to those has fallen as well.

I hope it doesn’t die, but it is ailing severely…

Seems like it's on the wane here. I had been kind of interested in getting into it 15-20 years back, but never did. I'm not even sure if they do shoots around here anymore. I haven't seen them advertised at any of my local-ish LGS in years.

A lot of the bigger/online shooting retailers that used to carry a lot of CAS stuff haven't in quite a few years now, which is also a pretty fair indicator, imo.

I use to be pretty active. I gave it up up when SASS imposed period clothing rule.I have not followed it at out club, but don't see it on the schedule anymore

certain areas are still seeing good numbers of shooters with a fair amount of new shooters. Seems that the new shooters aren’t coming quite as fast as those aging out or moving on to other things. Early 2000’s saw a huge surge in new shooters and many vendors and manufacturers capitalized on that. Many of the current shooters have been at it a while and have the gear and guns they need, so the demand for new products isn’t what it was.

By the way there is no “period clothing rule” other than no ball caps, tennis shoe, tee shirts, etc. it is cowboy action shooting after all.

How many of those are cowboy?

It is alive and well here in the florida panhandle. I can shoot every weekend of the month and twice one weekend so 5 different clubs. We have new shooters/observers quite frequently. I am mentoring a new shooter right now. The high cost and scarcity of guns, ammo and reloading supplies has become a barrier to entry. Stuff is out there but isn't cheap. I knew about CAS 25 years ago but life happened and I didn't get into it then. Two years ago I heard someone talking about it in a local gun shop and got interested. I am really enjoying it. If you are letting the clothing requirement deter you from shooting you are just looking for an excuse. My first outfit came from the good will store, $2 pants, $1 shirt, $2 suspenders. I already had boots but you can find them at good will cheap also. Hat was $20 bucks at tractor supply.

Maybe the rules have been changed but it was what it was back then. At out club, to shoot,you had to be a member of SASS. Maybe your club doesn't enforce SASS rules. I am not looking for no damn excuse. Especially from rule makers that walk around in chaps and spurs at a gun range and wouldn't know which end of a rope to throw. . This was started as a competition where a fellow could outfit his kids and such and rapidly became something that was less than affordable for a family.


Maybe your club does not know about or doesn't enforce SASS rules. Mine did. You might want to read below before posting as you did


https://www.sassnet.com/Downloads/RO/SASSHandbook-16-2010.pdf

Here are the clothing rules for SASS.


SINGLE ACTION SHOOTING SOCIETY
Shooters Handbook
~3~
Copyright © Single Action Shooting Society, Inc 2010
Sixteenth Edition
CLOTHING AND ACCOUTERMENTS
Cowboy Action Shooting™ is a combination of historical reenactment and Saturday
morning at the matinee. Participants may choose the style of costume they wish to wear, but
all clothing must be typical of the late 19th century, a B-western movie, or Western television
series.
SASS puts a great deal of emphasis on costuming because it adds so much to the
uniqueness of our game and helps create a festive, informal atmosphere that supports the
friendly, fraternal feeling we encourage in our competitors.
All shooters must be in costume, and we encourage invited guests and family also to be
costumed. Shooters must remain in costume at all match events: dinners, award ceremonies,
dances, etcetera.
ALL clothing and equipment MUST be worn appropriately, how it was intended and how
it would have been worn in the OLD WEST or as seen on B-Western movies and televis

Probably need to dump my stock in stick horses.

Halloween with guns

I have no angst with dressing in "period" clothing but most of the cowboys of that era wore the clothes that don't look like the drugstore variety do. Boots?? They were fortunate to have shoes. Boots came after they made a little money.

I would think the biggest risk to any of these shooting sports will match the availability and price of Primers.

Cowboy Action is going the way of the black powder shoots. Here in Pa. in it's heyday there were monthly shoots at a great number of clubs lots of shooters, on weekends there were rendezvous all over the state. There were lots of guys who were competitive shooters and a group of period reenactor types more interested in costume and other things to recreate the mountain man long hunter period. Some of the groups imposed a strict primitive dress and equipment rule nothing that was not pre 1850 was allowed. This became a point of friction and many of the shooter types avoided going to the shoots that imposed the strict requirements. This slowly took a toll. Fewer shooters smaller shoots prizes got smaller and the sport faded to a shadow of what it was. There are still active monthly shoots and rendezvous but its is nowhere close to what it was. They would do well to ease up on enforcing rules and concentrate on encouraging participation. The shooting sports have serious problems with ammo and components not to mention travel costs etc. We need to make participation in what ever type of shooting easy and fun for all.

Jeans, a button up shirt, and leather boots are a SASS legal costume. Most folks wear a cowboy hat as well.

Exactly Pa Shooter. We had quite a few families where the father, mother and 2-3 kids were shooting, usually with only 2-3 sets of firearms. When the dress code/costume rule came along, those folks could not afford to outfit the entire family. Kids were usually wearing sneakers and ball caps , but we had a lot of youth shooters which you need to bring along. The wives got involved because of the kids. Those shooters dropped out. The other shooters dropped out in support of those friends.. The 40-50 shooters dwindled to 10-15

I'd say it hasn't peaked here in SC. My local club is hosting the state match coming up but I'm not sure about the participants. No doubt it's not as strong as GSSF, IDPA and USPSA.

We have about half the CAS clubs here in LA than we had a few years ago. My local club is no more. Now, if I still shot, it would be a 2 hr drive. I gave it up.

DF

I guess we are the exception around here, just in the last couple of months we have gained 6-8 new shooters and I have a couple more I am talking to about it. New club also just started up. Barrier is still finding guns, ammo and reloading supplies but with a little scrounging we are keeping everyone shooting. I have three guys sharing one set of guns right now.

I've only been to one CAS shindig, and it was ok.
Everybody was really friendly, and if you showed
an interest in a particular firearm or something,
they would all go out of their way to explain or
demonstrate something or let you pop off a
couple of shots at a range
That's comparing my experience with a couple of
buckskin/black powder clubs a brother in law and
I were interested in back in the 80's.
I'd arranged to meet up with the president of the
club at a weekend rendezvous they were having,
and when we got there they were already in the
midst of one of the events, so we had to stand
not quite an hour and wait on the guy. After it
was done he just did an introduction and rushed
away to some other something and left us standing
again. The other people kinda snubbed us as
well and pretty much ignored us. They were
also obsessed with one up manship as far as
who had the newest and most expensive gear
and were always talking about having a so-and-so
new gun built, etc.
The few times we went, none of the people
would be portraying the same period as the
last. The same dozen top dogs in the club would
go from french and indian, to southwest, then
back to fur trade, then to revolutionary war,
then to southern mid 1800's plantation, etc.
It was a bfm to me. The last time we went,
my bil had made some clothing something,
moccasins I think, and whoever it was made
fun about some kind of snide comment, and
my bil asked if I didn't mind if we left.
We did leave and never attended anything
like that again. He sold all his BP stuff and
gun, but I still use all my BP stuff to hunt with,
I just stay away from snooty bast*rds

Ranger, sorry you had a bad experience.

From the clubs I’ve visited in and out of state, I’ve never felt other than welcomed. I think your experience is more of an isolated incident than the rule.

Would like to hear from others on that topic.

DF

I think Ranger was talking about his experience with a black powder re-enactor/rendezvous group. Cowboy action people are some of the nicest I have ever met.