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

Howdy Doc, It was a very good and productive TG meeting. I think roughly 18 TG's were there plus some on Zoom. Some of the WB-ROC were there. Lots of topics were covered and the conversations carried on for days after around the range. The match was ok, it was setup to attempt to make a point by making it super close and not the normal WB challenge. But most had a great time anyway and recognized what was being done. Numbers were in the 80's, but several WB and CAS shooters from the hurricane areas cancelled the week prior for both events. So the numbers attending both matches were relative to the situation. My posse had an outstanding time and I sure enjoyed myself. Thanks, CC Moonshine

Awesome ! That's great that you jumped into WB, thanks to the new rules, I'm glad you got to try WB with your 87 ! Now that you know you like it, yes a Model 12 would be perfect for WB. Definitely a good option once you find one. Boggus doesn't care much for me, but he has good gun parts. 😂 Good luck and welcome, CC Moonshine

Hi Dan, Welcome to the group. I've been in SASS for 20+ years and I can assure you of two things. 1. Most of the folks in SASS (CAS and WB) are absolutely awesome and amazing people. They can and will become some of your favorite & best friends and you will look forward to seeing them at matches as much or more then shooting the match itself. Friendships with these kind of folks is rare outside of SASS, but it's the like minded "cowboy way" that makes these people so special and are 99% of SASS as a whole. It's the "do anything" to help attitude, the joy of seeing other friends shoot well in the matches, the laughter, the inside jokes, the sharing of experiences, the evenings around the campfires, being true supporters of each other and SASS, and always offering an encouraging word. 2. A few folks in SASS (CAS and WB) won't fit into #1. As for WB and the changes of late. Adding all SASS legal Shotguns and .38 rifle have shown great promise for the future. It's still to early to tell with pure confidence but the conversations we are having and the wave of contact that SASS is receiving about WB is a great sign. The TG meeting at the Nationals last week was excellent and productive, with several conversations carrying over that evening and the following days. I personally had no less then 20 conversations that were very productive, calm, and constructive regarding WB. The new WB-ROC is on task and the new TG program is in full swing with over 50 TG's world wide now and several clubs preparing to launch WB in the spring of 2025. There are many excellent topics being discussed by the TGs' for rules related to 2025 voting and the sport will move in the direction that the people (clubs, through their TG's) will vote for. Misty Moonshine has always been of the goal to "let the voice of the members guide the future". This is exactly how the future will go, the members will guide the direction. While we would love for 100% of the SASS members to be happy with 100% of SASS and rules and WB and CAS. Reality is that some aren't going to be happy with some changes or lack of changes. All we can do, is offer it out to the TG's and let them be the voice of the members at large. The loudest and most negative in opinion will not get anywhere, simply because they are unwilling to accept change and that the majority will decide through their TG's now. So in closing, I have found the greatest experience in SASS is to surround yourself with the folks that are in the first description I offered (1.) and enjoy. Thanks and have an outstanding balance to your week, CC Moonshine

Hi Doc, Thanks for the insight. Something to suggest to any of these clubs is what us and several other clubs around are trying. We shoot CAS once a month at PPR then right after the CAS match we have lunch (from our on site vendor) then start a 3 or 4 stage WB match. It's been well received and is averaging a dozen plus. Next spring I think we will try a once a month stand alone WB match. Some clubs as a starter are offering WB s a side match prior to the CAS match as just a stage event like .22 combo. The general conversations I had at Landrun were very encouraging at the number of clubs trying to get it started in some fashion. Good luck and thanks, CC

Hi Brad, Great question, I can say that with a good deal of confidence that there have been a very nice increase in new WB shooters from all over because of .38. I talk with and text with a lot of shooters and reports from them are that they are seeing new WB shooters because they can use their CAS main match rifle and ammo. This is informal at this time since we don't have a full shooting season yet with this in place, but at first glance it is ahead of projections. Fingers crossed it continues. Thanks and have a fantastic week, CC

Oh ok maybe you are correct. This was at the Michigan CAS state Championship. I guess I assumed it was one in the same. Thanks, CC

Thanks for the info Bruce, Remember, the current rules allowing CAS long guns does not effect the way you play the game ! continue shooting your 45 rifle !!! Ethen Callahan just won the Michigan WB championship with 45 rifle and the next 3 guys behind him were shooting 38's. That's the best part of the latest rule changes is that you can still play the way you want. Take care and thanks, CC

Hi El Chapo, I'll say something to SASS regarding it. Thanks for the input. CC

Hi Boggus, In many cases folks have problems because their spam grabs their confirmation email and they don't see it. Other tech issues could be their firewalls. Very seldom is it a site problem because it would affect everyone if it was a site issue. In any case a phone call during business hours to the SASS HQ or an email to them will usually get it cleared up within a day or so. Keep in mind that some days the SASS HQ has phones ringing non-stop and folks may have to leave a message if the girls are all on other lines. They will get a call back if they leave a message. At some point, WB wanted their very own forum away from the CAS wire (Not to be connected to the SASS/CAS forum) and here we are, so yes it is an additional process to end up here and requires the added step of signing up here and jumping thru the registration hoops. As for the five year ago statement, I can't imagine who wouldn't want to spend time with you on the range and at a dinner. 😂 Plus I don't think any of the staff had .40 cal. or larger rifles at the time. 😋 Just poking fun, I actually enjoyed having you with our posse at EOT last year. Seriously, we actually enjoy WB and want it to grow, so the conspiracy that we have spent 2 years working on ways to grow WB just because we want it to fail needs to end. SASS has tons of projects, programs, and daily tasks to complete. This effort to grow WB is exactly that, we want it to succeed. Have a great rest of your week Boggus, CC

Hi everyone, I'm personally curios as to where you shoot WB ( local club, or long distance or only big events)? How far do you have to travel for a one day shoot or a state match or bigger? How many clubs are within a reasonable distance for you to drive for a one day shoot? (both CAS and WB) How many shoots per year you attend and how many would you realistically attend if you had more choices in your driving range ? Any other helpful information on clubs that do or don't offer WB (they can remain nameless, not looking for to much info. on a specific club). Thanks in advance and have a super weekend ! CC