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Posted By: Soup Cowboy Shotguns - 08/19/19
Folks ,
Just wondering if anyone uses Winchester 97 Riot or Remington Model 10 riot guns in cowboy shooting .
Thank you
Soup
Posted By: Dirtfarmer Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/19/19
Win 97 is pretty popular, have not seen a Rem 10 in CAS use.

The ones I see, the one I have, were modified for CAS shooting. An original 97 riot gun may be worth a lot, depending on condition.

I would not subject a collector grade 97 riot gun to the rigors of regular CAS use...

DF
Posted By: shrapnel Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/19/19
Originally Posted by Soup
Folks ,
Just wondering if anyone uses Winchester 97 Riot or Remington Model 10 riot guns in cowboy shooting .
Thank you
Soup


They do, but really shouldn’t be allowed. The West wasn’t fought with or hunted with a model ‘97. I still use hammer guns...
Posted By: Border Doc Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/20/19

I hear you, Shrapnel, but the founding cowboy shootists who made the rules maybe didn't quite have the same thought. The 97 Winchester is popular. It hasn't been at all difficult to find "beater" 97s, at reasonable prices, and fix them up for the western events. I have several that have been resurrected from the junk bin, repaired, restocked and put back to use, including the winter rabbit hunts. The trench guns are valued classics, but you don't see many of them, or original Colts, either.

The cowboy shoots are games, anyhow, so the selection of a shotgun is just one of the many options available to the participants. Choosing a category (Classic Cowboy, Duelist, etc) often dictates what you shoot, or, for me, I chose my category according to the guns I already owned and then grew along with my friends to shoot a variety of old stuff. Whatever trips your trigger, and a tip of the sombrero to all those who shoot safely with class and style.
Posted By: Dirtfarmer Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/20/19
Border Doc,

Nice summary of CAS. I enjoyed it back when I was an active CAS shooter.

I put together some cool CAS ordinance, which for me was half the fun.

DF
Posted By: Naphtali Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/21/19
Can users fantasize they are using "heavy walled" Winchester Model 1893 pump guns to kind've squeak by? . . . Just a thought.
Originally Posted by shrapnel
Originally Posted by Soup
Folks ,
Just wondering if anyone uses Winchester 97 Riot or Remington Model 10 riot guns in cowboy shooting .
Thank you
Soup


They do, but really shouldn’t be allowed. The West wasn’t fought with or hunted with a model ‘97. I still use hammer guns...
Posted By: Turkeyrun Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/22/19
CAS rules say " any firearm designed and used prior to 1899, or clone thereof. "

Occassionally, see a 1887 lever action 12 ga., but they are rare.

Sanctioned matches are stricter on what is allowed, than local, fun matches. Though, some may comment or off their "expert" advice.

I only shoot at local, fun matches. I shoot Ruger Blackhawks. A gentleman tells me, " you should trade those for Vaqueros. Blackhawk has adjustable sights, therefore not authentic and banned from sanction matches. "

I say, " hmmm, but a stainless steel .357 IS authentic? "

He wouldn't talk to me, after that.

BTW, I use a double barrel, hammerless coachgun. Never considered getting a '97.
Posted By: Dirtfarmer Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 08/22/19
The 1887 lever gun can be fast, but requires a unique skill set. I've seen a couple of CAS shooters really fast with that gun. IMO, it's not that easy to master, thus not a common CAS shotgun.

Coyote Cap offered some tricked out, Chinese made 1887's that were really slick. I had a couple, moved them on down the road.

DF
Posted By: Ploughman Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 07/09/20
I've always wondered how many real 19th century Westerners managed to get by with a single-shot shot gun. Of course that's not the way Hollywood tells it...
Posted By: stuvwxyz Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 07/10/20
PLOUGHMAN , makes a very good point. I live in the west far from a 4 lane road, and have studied for decades the guns old west farmers and ranchers used. The single shot shotgun and single shot 22 rifle have done more to shorten the lives of game animals than any other single type of firearms from my observations. And one thing that us "out westers" dislike is this whole cowboy thing. There were VERY few cowboys then and now. It seems if you lived out west in the 1800's you were a cowboy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Many more miners, brick layers. lumberjacks, store keepers and farmers than cowboys. The cowboy life paid meager wages then and now so they used whatever was handed down or dirt cheap at the hardware stores.
Posted By: Ranger99 Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 07/10/20
Originally Posted by Ploughman
I've always wondered how many real 19th century Westerners managed to get by with a single-shot shot gun. Of course that's not the way Hollywood tells it...


I know my folks did, and they were here for it.
I still have an old one that's all but in pieces
with no wood. I imagine it got used for a
"play " gun for a couple of generations before
my daddy got it 60 or so years ago
They used what they could afford.
I can still remember how po'ed my grandpa
got when the dry goods store quit selling
shotgun shells by the piece
Posted By: stuvwxyz Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 07/10/20
RANGER, what a blast from the past. I recall our local gun shop used to sells ammo by the piece. I had forgotten all about that. An old miner came into the store when I was a kid and bought one 303 British cartridge for elk season. Good times. We laughed at him behind his back for being so cheap because even as a kid I could afford a whole box of 300 Savage's. Come to think about it that old geezer always had a elk hanging. Guess the last laugh was his.
Posted By: Ranger99 Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 07/10/20
Probably around 1972 near as I can recall
I can't think of any other place around there
that sold stuff like that back then
No Wally world back then to ruin everything.
I think they probably had a total of 6 or 7
long guns on the wall. No handguns. Nobody
around there bought handguns
I can't think of the last time I saw a dry goods
store or heard the term used
Posted By: Leanwolf Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 07/10/20
Originally Posted by Ploughman
I've always wondered how many real 19th century Westerners managed to get by with a single-shot shot gun. Of course that's not the way Hollywood tells it...


Many years ago, and I do mean many, when I was a kid, there was an old man in our little north Arkansas town who had been a U.S. Deputy Marshal under Federal Judge Isaac C. "Hanging Judge" Parker, working out of the Fort Smith district. He went out into the Oklahoma "nations" looking for "bad people."

He said he carried, in addition to his two .44-40 Colts, a 10 gauge Greener shotgun. Said it worked for him. wink

L.W.
Posted By: Mesa Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 10/10/20
If you like the period around when Leanwolf''s neighbor was working "the Nations," try reading Douglas Jones' novel "Winding Stair" and some of the his related books.

When I was a ranch kid in the 1940s and '50s, most ranchers still couldn't afford repeater or double shotguns.

Hunting birds was for "city people" (not a compliment where I lived and if you had called somebody "dude," you might have got some amateur dental work....). Nobody shot anything "on the wing," and the most common shotgun was a single shot .410, usually of the hardware store variety. But they worked, and worked, and worked, just like their owners.

The only place I ever saw cartridges sold as "loosies" was a the pawnshop on the wrong side of the tracks, tho.
Posted By: RIO7 Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 10/10/20
``
When i was a boy, we could buy .22 shorts for a nickle .22 long rifle was 19 cents a box and .410 shotgun shells 2 for a nickle; at the Rangely Exchange, hardware store and soda fountian, pawn shop in Rangley, Colorado. Rio7
Posted By: stuvwxyz Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 10/12/20
WOW RIO7, I didn't know anybody that claimed they grew up in Rangely.
Posted By: Dirtfarmer Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 10/20/20
The CAS game and associated ordinance, set up for speed, isn't the same ordinance seen on wagon trains and on farms back in the day. Texas Rangers and lawmen generally had state of the art guns based on vintage photos, farmers and ranchers, probably not so much.

Agree that a lot of cheap single shot guns were well represented; they used what they could afford and what was readily available. Besides, ammo was expensive and each shot had to count. I've read where shotgun shells had actually been sold individually, each one had to count.

DF
Posted By: 3040Krag Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 10/23/20
Originally Posted by Turkeyrun
CAS rules say " any firearm designed and used prior to 1899, or clone thereof. "

Occassionally, see a 1887 lever action 12 ga., but they are rare.

Sanctioned matches are stricter on what is allowed, than local, fun matches. Though, some may comment or off their "expert" advice.

I only shoot at local, fun matches. I shoot Ruger Blackhawks. A gentleman tells me, " you should trade those for Vaqueros. Blackhawk has adjustable sights, therefore not authentic and banned from sanction matches. "

I say, " hmmm, but a stainless steel .357 IS authentic? "

He wouldn't talk to me, after that.

BTW, I use a double barrel, hammerless coachgun. Never considered getting a '97.



Wouldn't a 1896 Mauser broom handle be legal then?
Posted By: Leanwolf Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 11/15/20
Originally Posted by 3040Krag
"Wouldn't a 1896 Mauser broom handle be legal then?"


Why not?? After all, in the western movie Joe Kidd, Lamarr (Don Stroud) carried and used one ... until Clint Eastwood took it away from him and used it on the dastardly villians. That flick was supposed to take place before 1899. grin

L.W.
Posted By: Dirtfarmer Re: Cowboy Shotguns - 11/17/20
My collection of cowboy shotguns before I got out of CAS and started thinning the herd.

DF

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