CC Moonshine

Howdy all, Misty and I both shot the match and enjoyed it for what it was. Target distances were fine but I found some of the stage movement odd in choice combined with odd target sequences on some stages. But I think the vast majority of the SDQ's occurred with 170 violations. Ben Avery SC doesn't present many options for downrange movement so the lateral movement with the firearms leaves a high degree of SDQ's during that movement with firearms in hand. Not to splash fuel on the flame but I ran the timer a great deal for both WB and CAS at EOT and rifle last would have been zero issue picking up for all the shooters I ran. All in all I feel EOT-WB was more of a success then in the past with a great number of new to WB shooters. It was also very encouraging talking with so many folks that have WB firing up in their home areas for the first time. I felt the WB-TG meeting was productive and we had great participation. Have a great week everyone, CC

Hi All, I just thought this was a good story to share to put into context the changes made to Wild Bunch and how it is affecting the game. As most of you know, we own a retail gun store next to Paradise Pass SASS Club. Yesterday I had a current SASS CAS shooter come in, he has been in SASS for 1 year. He started with CAS and then jumped in late last year into a WB match we offered after a CAS shoot. He already had the 1911 ( he owns more then one) and he used his CAS 38 rifle and double barrel. He had a fantastic time and shot WB every time we offered it after. He came in yesterday and purchased a very nice Winchester Model 12 we had. He expressed how much he enjoyed WB and had saved up for the Model 12. He is very excited about the direction WB is headed and very happy to have found CAS and WB with SASS. I'm super excited to see how things grow in 2025 and was happy to have this testimonial to share. Everyone have a good week and see some of you at EOT, CC Moonshine

Hi Seth, Yes what a shame, there just aren't enough weekends for all the great shoots.

Hi all ! We held our monthly CAS match (5 stages) yesterday and a 3 stage WB match after. While it is still very cold here (20's-30's) we had a super time ! We had 15 CAS shooters and 7 WB shooters, 47% of the CAS shooters stuck around to shoot WB !!! As a survey note: All but one WB shooter used 38 rifle and CAS loads, we had zero issues. Misty Moonshine shot her first WB stages in preparation for a season filled with trips involving CAS and WB! She did excellent and came in 5th overall out of 7 ! She really enjoyed it and both of us are looking forward to WB at EOT. We held a Paradise Pass Committee meeting after all the shooting and it was decided that in the spring we would start offering Wild Bunch on it's own stand alone date, being the 2nd Saturday of the month, starting in May. No other CAS clubs in our area shoot on that weekend and we feel we can draw folks in from a good distance. Also we worked on plans for the Indiana State WB and CAS Championship! Get signed up for the WB Indiana Championship on our website : Paradise Pass Regulators It will be 10 awesome stages over 2 days ! June 12th and 13th! Those that sign up will also get an awesome T-shirt ( if you haven't ever gotten a T-shirt from PPR, we only purchase the softest, highest quality shirts for all events) and our Fireworks event on the 13th is absolutely awesome ( bigger then some towns fireworks shows), cookouts, and an amazing banquet on site on the 14th! It's going to be an epic event ! Have a super week everyone, CC Moonshine

Hello, Contact Ruby Ruthless at the SASS Headquarters. She can help you sort out the mystery. Rudy is out of the office today, but should return tomorrow.

Howdy all, Indiana will be hosting a 2 day Wild Bunch match on June 12 and 13th, 2025 Also the Indiana State SASS CAS championship on the 13th-15th, 2025. So this will be a 5 great days of shooting. Camping on site, banquet on site, huge fireworks show, lots of vendors and just a fantastic time ! Two Bear Arms Gun Shop is right on the property with over 700 guns in stock to look at. All the stages are covered and there is a ton of space on the property for everything ! visit our websites at: Paradise Pass Two Bear Arms gun Shop Look forward to seeing everyone, CC Moonshine

Hi Squibber, I sure hope you guys have a fantastic match ! I wish it wasn't a 3 day drive for us! But I'll see you at EOT. Take care, CC

Hi Artemus, Establishing a full new WB-ROC was a big step forward, and they have been hard at edits and clarity issues from the go. Prior to 2024 there was 20-24 WB clubs with matches posted yearly, Now with the WB-TG process as a matrix there are 43-53 clubs actively developing WB programs, more clubs at least offering it as a side match, or mini match, or building to a stand alone monthly event. Several States are actively bring back or starting WB Championships (Indiana will have a 2 day, 10 stage WB State Championship June 12,13- 2025) as an example. I have spoken, texted, or emailed with many SASS members looking for information on starting WB at their clubs. TG involvement at this point has been promising, and we are looking forward to both the CAS and WB TG meetings at EOT 2025 will be an awesome year to organize and gather feedback from TG's and their club members on rules and helping clubs launch WB programs I appreciate that. I'm shooting WB again and have always enjoyed WB, as I mentioned before, our club (Paradise Pass) offered WB as a side match clear back in roughly 2008 or 09, then we tried making it part of our CAS match as a category. We had it as a mini match several times for Indiana State (we have hosted 15 state matches), we have held the State Championship last year and this year are expanding it to 10 stages in two days. I gunsmith all the 1911's that come into our gun shop, I carry one every day, and Misty and I own several, this is not new or hard for us to dive into. Santa even brought Misty a new Ruger SR1911 and a fantastic Model 12 so as time allows she will be joining us. I am for sure shooting EOT WB, Landrun, and several other matches this year as we travel. I hope this year becomes the year that everyone rallies to build WB as a collective group and we can set a great future for the sport. Have a super day everyone, CC Moonshine

Hi Sarsaparilla, I'm not sure who else did or didn't extend congratulations to you, but I shook your hand and congratulated you in person and we talked for a few minutes, but I am kind of forgettable I guess...…. AGAIN, in writing, congratulations on the Championship. As for photos, you were not the only one taking pictures just fyi. Artemus, By the editors laying out the digital Cowboy Chronicle with the photos and articles does not reflect any "standing" or ranking of anything. I personally thought the Wild Bunch coverage and photos in the article were very good.

Good day all, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and new year day. I truly hope that 2025 is not the "year of offense" at every corner. Wild Bunch made fantastic strides last year and will make even bigger advances this year. But if we are, 2 days into the new year, going to start the back sliding to criticize every detail of every perceived offensive item you can find, then it's going to be a rough long year. How about maybe offering to write articles for the Chronicle about WB, how about submitting pictures to SASS to use, how about posting some good engagement type posts on the CAS wire and here in the WB wire, how about finding just a few good things to say about all that has been already done. How about sending a private email to Misty Moonshine with a concern or suggestion, instead of posting it in the forum and get a reply from her before setting the pace in here. Has it accrued to you that new potential Wild Bunch shooters come onto the WB wire and see post threads like this, do you think this would encourage them to hang out and become a part of Wild Bunch? I'm a huge supporter of Wild Bunch and even spent 5 office hours yesterday working on our club website and scheduling details for the Indiana Wild Bunch State Championship coming up in June. But threads like this one just totally suck the life out of me. I look forward to seeing many of you at EOT,

Howdy all, Just wondering! What 1911 do you use in Wild Bunch? How many 1911's do you own? If you carry a 1911 for CCW what one and why? When did you first shoot a 1911? I just thought it would be fun to know. As for me, I currently use a Colt series 80 1911 for WB, I also have a very old Remington Rand that sometime I will use it for a match or two. I currently have 11 x 1911 ( 9mm, 45 acp, and 10 mm) and really enjoy them. I carry my newest one almost every day. It is a Springfield TRP carry fastback. I first fired my friends dad's 1911 on a camping/ hunting trip when I was about 15 years old. Loved them ever since. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance if you reply, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. CC Moonshine

Hello all, I hope all is well for all of you. Understand that the lawyers and legal advice from the insurance companies for all target manufacturers are going to "strongly recommended" a 10 yard or more distance. They are also taking into account, the wear vs. value of your purchase. More distance will make for lighter impact impressions, and the targets will "last longer" for increased perceived value. SASS does not mandate minimum or maximum distances, SASS recommends distances. Match Directors need to design a safe (first), fun and entertaining match for the members in order to get them to return. The hard part in this, is as with anything that is entertaining, or not a necessity to live, it's subjective to each person. Think of movies or TV shows, pick a movie and you can find a percent that loved it, a percent that thought it was good, a percent that thought it could be better, and a percent that hated it. Match Directors need to work with attempting to provide an event that no one hates and that the majority like or loves. We all love a challenge, but we also need to leave a range not feeling defeated. In 2006 when we started Paradise Pass, we had a MD that thought if he could have no clean shooters he was doing his job. He wanted the match to be a epic challenge and it lost it's appeal for most shooters. Number were tanking, and after a couple years, we made a change. Once we set the matches for roughly 20% clean shooters our attendance tripled ( sometimes as many as 75 monthly shooters). Absolute proof of concept, more people enjoyed the matches. Challenge of a match can come in many forms. Our concept (just one of many that work) is to provide one hard element per stage. Examples: Far targets Closer but small targets High round count Wide spread target sequence Hard sweep or sequence Heavy gun transition Lots of movement Just to name a few. We set our CAS targets from 3 to 9 yards and our rifle from 12 to 20. Our WB will use some of our CAS stages and focus on our rifle targets for pistol, but will also sweep the close targets sometimes with a mag (7 rds). for our State match we will add some longer distance targets to the lineup, and then pull them before the CAS match. Most of our steel here is brand new in the past few years and is 16 x 16 or 20 x 20 AR 550 steel. There will no doubt be a million opinions on all of this, and that's all great. It's like favor and toppings for ice cream, we all have our favorites. At the end of the day, I think we are all very blessed to have shooting sports, friends in the game, and the ability to go to matches and enjoy. I hope I didn't run of course to much. Thanks and everyone have a fantastic weekend, CC

Hi, For the record so everyone is aware of the numbers. WB historically had/ has less then .07% the number of shooters then CAS. It may be as low as (.04%). It is the belief that the changes will entice CAS shooters to easily jump over and try WB. It is working and has created an uptick that is notable and will be measurable next year for sure. Anyone can paint a good or bad picture in what was changed, but I know that SASS, The SASS Board, and many long standing SASS members have received great replies from hundreds of people on the new direction. It's now in the hands of the WB-TG's and WB-ROC to guide the future and that was exactly what Misty Moonshine wanted. Those that left, left on their own and in my opinion abandoned ship prematurely and had no interest in helping shape the future. Again, without changes, WB was not an option to continue, the participation rate was to low for the resources needed to keep it going. So it needed change or moved to a side match only event. Now, the TG's (the voice of the masses) can guide the WB program and make it the game the people want. If you want to be part of the solution then become a TG or at least talk at length with a WB-TG. BTW, EOT numbers in 2024 were down because several boycotted the event over the rule changes and we knew that would be the case. Land Run had low numbers because of two hurricanes in the southern states that caused a big number of cancellations the final 10 days. Cowboy numbers are still growing every month and SASS as a whole is doing well. We are very optimistic that WB will continue to grow over the next few years and settle into a sport that still resembles the original intent but has a flavor that current shooters want. We all want it to thrive. Thanks for reading and have a super weekend, CC Moonshine

Contact your TG, they can provide information from the minutes provided for the TG's from SASS. It is posted in the WB-TG forum for TG's.

Hi Doc, I know that more then one person has suggested that change. Be sure your WB-TG knows about your thoughts. Thanks, CC