Cowboy Action Shooting

[BlindJustice]

Cowboy Action shooting competition has a certain allure for any of us who are the first TV Gen. All the westerns in the 1950s/60s Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Maverick, CHeyenne, The Lawman, et al. As well as Cow Opera in all it's guises John Wayn, and many other leading men took their
roles wearing the garb of the western cowboy/lawman.

I would like to see more of a division in the competition, of "SHow & Go."
THe "Show" category could be the loaded down loads, & very fast fire. The
"Go" category would be real world loads for On the Trail.

A trick cartridge for Cowboy Action.

.45 Cowboy Special - a .45 Colt case cut down from aprox. 1.3" to
0.898 inches. With the lessened case capacity it's easier to load with black
powder as well as noting it has the same O.A.L. case length as .45 ACP &
.45 AUto RIm. A few Gunsmith shops specialize in offering .45 Cowboy Special brass. One, I found also converts Marlin 1894 Lever Action from .45 Colt to .45 Cowboy SPecial. They have a shortened "Spoon/Carrier" that allows this shorter O.A>L. loaded cartrdge to be transferred from the
tubular magazine, back and up and forward into the breech/chamber. As a result of the shorter "Spoon/Carrier" the lever stroke is reduced. THe stroike is not as far down or as far back up, so they coined the term, "Short Stroker." It's a trick lever gun for Cowboy Action as well as being louder
with the big .45 Bore. Instead of a 20 " Bbl. 10 cap. .45 Colt you have a
12 shot .45 Cowboy Special SS Or you could cut down the 20" Bbl. just far enough to have the same number of rounds but a quicker handling gun
that might look like a Stagecoach gun.

I grew up in E. Wash. State, on the Farm, some livestock, as well as horse clubs and western dress presentation and trail rides etc.

Randall

 

[tinygnat219]

Ze,

Hate to admit it but that is about where I'm at now too, especially since buying a "fix -er up" type house so if I'm going to pull a full weekend day away from working on "El Rancho Zespectre" I'd better be having one heck of a fun time!

I COMPLETELY understand where you are coming from. I hate driving an hour or so only to get involved in a speedster style game.

This is one reason I shoot Blackpowder Shotgun shells, had holsters made for a pair of 1895 Nagant revolvers, and think of clever insults to hurl at the targets.
Ze, if you'd like, we can do a fun weekend sometime. Bring the spouse up this way, we can hit the Sudlersville Saturday match, and then go to "The Cove" out there beyond Winchester and spend Sunday shooting various pieces of produce.

Or, You guys could come up this way and we let the womenfolk drag us around wherever they want doing whatever they want on Saturday, and then Sunday we hit the Bull Run Public Shooting Center and burn through some shotgun ammo hitting clays.

Whatever, I find it's the company you keep that keeps things interesting!
TJ

 

[mainmech48]

BlindJustice: Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to just use the .45 S&W (Schofield) round?

 

[ZeSpectre]

Ze, if you'd like, we can do a fun weekend sometime. Bring the spouse up this way, we can hit the Sudlersville Saturday match, and then go to "The Cove" out there beyond Winchester and spend Sunday shooting various pieces of produce.

When it cools back down you are on!

 

[Hawk]

BlindJustice: Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to just use the .45 S&W (Schofield) round?

Another option was mentioned on SASSWire that would not have occured to me: they simply mix Goex with Grits and use the existing .45 case capacity.

Yup.
Grits.

I read it ten times to be sure. I'm assuming they're not using "grits" as a code word for something else. I've never loaded breakfast cereal before - should make for some interesting questions for the reloading forum. Wouldn't apply to me though - I think the existing case capacity is, as Goldilocks would say, "just right".

 

[ZeSpectre]

Really, Grits.
I had a thread a while back where I'd come back from a CAS shoot and was cleaning my guns and there was all this weird white stuff all over my guns.

Everyone here tried to help but nobody could figure out what the heck the stuff might be.

Finally I contacted the supplier I bought the "cowboy loads" from and sure enough he fills in the extra space in the .357 Magnum shells with grits.

The rounds sure shot fine in competition though.

 

[Griff56]

You read it correctly. Cream of Wheat to fill the case.
Allsorts of tricks on the SASS wire forum.

 

[tinygnat219]

Finally I contacted the supplier I bought the "cowboy loads" from and sure enough he fills in the extra space in the .357 Magnum shells with grits.

Wow! That brings a new meaning to the movie "True Grit"

 

[mec]

That a given "fastest growing shooting sport" will start to taper off because of gamesmanship is easy to predict. Specialized equipment narrows the playing field until only the dedicated gamesmen are left.
This happened with Metallic Silhoette which was set up to let the average hunter or handgun shooter compete with his regular using gun. When the specialty pistols that looked like chair legs and wore high mag scopes showed up, the traditional shooters went somewhere else. Same thing happened with IPSC.
Nevertheless, CAS shooters say that the sport is still going strong and growing. Economic factors will probably cause a decline in all of the leisure time activities, particularly those that require a lot of road time.

 

[Titus]

Fillers like Cream of Wheat are nothing new. I would expect the old-fashioned folks at a CAS match to know that one.

 

[Jim Watson]

they simply mix Goex with Grits and use the existing .45 case capacity.

NOOOOO
They don't MIX Goex with Grits, they measure in the powder and put the grits (Cream of Wheat, insulation caulk rod, shotshell GREX, etc.) ON TOP of the powder with enough compression to PREVENT mixing.


CAS draws in a lot of people with little or no prior shooting experience, and ammo prices generate a lot of inexperienced handloaders. Quality can be awful. Like the guy who blew up a gun and was just sure the powder "detonated" because he was just SURE he could not possibly have double charged a round. So some knowledgeable handloaders watched him at work. Sure enough, he never got close to double charging the powder. But eventually he repeated his error and got two bullets in one case. A good trick, but he managed it.

 

[Hawk]

Nice to know.

My plan is to only mix Goex with more Goex.