Abe E.S. Corpus

Four good stages with a Texas Star and a tombstone plate rack.

The Belton Gun Club hosts Wild Bunch matches in months with five Saturdays. When that date is on or near a holiday they gauge the willingness of shooters to come out. Several of us said “yes” to shooting on Halloween so it’s on the calendar. The stages will be posted prior to the match and all of the information you need is available at www.beltonbushwhackers.com

Moonshine Cowboy Action Shooters is a SASS-affiliated club that holds a monthly CAS match on the first Sunday of the month with a start time of 11:00 a.m. Location is 2600 SC Hwy 11, Travelers Rest, SC (about three miles from Hwy 25 North). They do not have a website but there is a Facebook Group. The old group “Moonshine at Dark Corner” is not the current group. To encourage cowboy shooters to “give it a try”, they have allowed shooters to use a 1911 pistol at the September match and will again at their October 4 cowboy match. I was at the September match where half of the shooters “went Wild”. Their first “dedicated” Wild Bunch match is scheduled for Saturday, November 28, 2026 with an earlier start time (first round downrange at 10:00 a.m.). I can help field questions and provide contact information for the club’s Wild Bunch point man “Lazy Eye”. The club is convenient to Western North Carolina as well. If you are in the region and enjoy Wild Bunch, let’s support this effort!

I understand that they will follow WB protocols at the October “mixed match” and allow the shooter to insert a magazine at the LT.

The TO gave the command to insert the magazine BEFORE the beep. When the TO remembered or the shooter reminded him. The shooter began the stage with the pistol in Condition Three.

The MD of a local CAS club had the impression that WBAS rules allowed shooters to have a magazine in the holstered pistol at all times during the match. I assured him that I had never seen this at a match (except of course when the shooter is called to the stage from the LT). I was reviewing the SHB to determine what penalty might apply if a participant was walking around with a magazine inserted. Some relevant rules: ”All firearms will remain unloaded except while under direct observation of a designated person on the firing line or in the designated loading and unloading area.” p.22 This does not address an empty magazine inserted in the gun, or a magazine with rounds, since a Wild Bunch firearm is not “loaded” until a round is chambered. I think the answer is under “1911 PISTOL-RANGE OPERATIONS” 1911 Operations at the Loading Table ”A magazine will be inserted in the 1911, with the chamber empty/clear.” p. 15 ”At the end of the course of fire, the 1911 must be shown clear on the firing line [requiring removal of the magazine]…Place the cleared, safe pistol in the holster.” pp 14-15 Arguably inserting a magazine (whether containing ammunition or not) at other times is a SDQ for “Failure to adhere to loading and unloading procedures.” p 29 What say you?

I don’t think I have ever heard CAS awards announced as (for example) “Men’s Duelist”. Of course not, because there are no men’s only categories. The WBAS handbook has always, to my knowledge, included the same language: There are no men’s only categories. Despite that I often see category signup sheets, scoresheets and awards for “Men’s Modern” and the like. I just saw a photo of buckles to be awarded at the SE Regionals, same thing. If an accomplished lady shooter chose to compete in a base category and won, would she want an award with that label. It’s just inconsistent with the SHB that we say we follow.

I shot the local club’s “mixed” match yesterday and it was fun. They plan to have a mixed match in October, then a real Wild Bunch match in November. The MD wrote a club rule that WB shooters would not insert a magazine at the LT. Instead, the shooter would stage the rifle and shotgun, then the TO would give a “load and make ready” command. On the second stage the TO forgot to give me the command and I forgot to remind him (being accustomed to inserting a mag at the LT). The pistol was not the first gun so I had to insert a magazine on the clock. It became something of a game for the WB shooters to see if the TO would remember.

The club in question doesn’t have a large enough turnout for two posses. Plus I expect they want all attendees to get a sense of the game, not just those that are shooting the WB firearms. I would also recommend that they add one or two shotgun targets to the CAS four. I’d probably add static clays-less confusion for the cowboy shooters.

A club in my are is hoping to start Wild Bunch matches on a different weekend than their cowboy match. I salute their willingness to take this on. As a first step they plan to let shooters choose to shoot their monthly CAS match using Wild Bunch firearms, loading five rounds into the 1911 magazines. As much as I enjoy Wild Bunch I have avoided “five round” matches. I’m sure It would “train” me into a SDQ. I don’t usually have any trouble shooting my revolvers with five, or my 1911 with seven because the guns are dissimilar. What say the group? One alternative might be to set up one or two extra (Wild Bunch only) pistol targets on the stage, maybe a different shape or color than the rest, and have the Wild Bunch shooters engage them with two of the seven rounds. Yes, it throws the scores off, but so does a pump shotgun with the magazine loaded.

Procedural for firing more rounds than required by the stage instructions.

One challenge is that the line between an “athletic shoe” and a lace-up work boot/hiking boot is pretty blurry.

I saw that language. The way I read it, if boots are worn they must conform to the rule that lists prohibited items. George Baylor wrote an article about Wild Bunch costuming that includes a photo of an army issued leather “walking shoe”. Not a boot, but legal under the general costuming language “typical of the late 19th and early 20th century”. See also the next sentence about “Edwardian period fashion” which would not be limited to boots.

Boots are not required in Wild Bunch. If you choose to wear boots they must be SASS legal. There are plenty of other types of footware that are appropriate. That’s before we consider allowances for medical reasons.

I hope neither game tries to write a rule against “shadow shooting”. How would one define it? I have not seen many instances of shooters holding up the group. Peer pressure seems to discourage it. It’s also difficult to define what constitutes “unsafe gun handling”. I think there’s one example in the CAS SHB. We have left this up to the clubs to sort out and I expect common sense has largely prevailed.