Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosWith shells flying through the air, Chance Koch, 16, of Redmond fires his rifle at a target during a timed contest at a Cowboy Action Shooting Club gathering at the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association range near Millican last week.
Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Cowboy Action Shooting event features Old West costumes, guns
Nationally competitive Bend club participates in international Single Action Shooting Society shootouts
By Katie Brauns / The Bulletin
Published: March 02. 2010 4:00AM PSTPerhaps they see themselves in an old Western movie, starring as outlaw Billy the Kid or sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Perhaps they wish to pay homage to a time period, to the history of the American West. Perhaps they just like to shoot guns — fast.
Whatever the reason, Horse Ridge Pistoleros gather religiously in the desert twice a month for matches, year-round. The club members shoot single-action revolvers, pistol-caliber, lever-action rifles, and old-time shotguns — all while dressed in late-19th-century garb. The get-ups are fictional. But the guns and ammunition are quite real.
“It’s basically a re-enactment of pre-1900s, and the whole idea is you get to shoot period weapons ... and you are required to dress the part,” said Don Emerson (alias Big Casino), clad in an old-time sheriff’s outfit. Emerson, 56 and of Bend, is the club marshal (aka president), which is fitting to his occupation as a Bend Police officer. “You can dress like a cowboy, you can dress like a towny, marshal, a saloon girl — anything you want, as long as it’s (from) that period.”
On a recent frigid Sunday morning, the bright sun was beginning to warm the air at the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association shooting grounds, located in the brown, sagebrush hills some 25 miles southeast of Bend near the tiny town of Millican. About 15 COSSA members were on hand to do their Old West thing.
The shooting event may seem like a childhood backyard game. But Cowboy Action Shooting is not make-believe playtime. Rather, it is a sport with national and world competitions hosted by the parent organization Single Action Shooting Society (SASS). More than 750 SASS clubs exist worldwide, from Australia to Hungary to Hawaii.
“You shoot for competition, it’s not fast-draw in any way,” noted Emerson, as the spurred boots of impersonated generals and cowboys clinked around him. Then, suddenly, the loud clang of bullets hitting metal targets cut through the quiet.
“It’s time and accuracy,” Emerson continued. “You start the clock and you start shooting your targets and if you hit, you’re clean, and if you miss, you add five seconds to your total time. The person at the end of the day that has the fastest time is the overall winner.”
The electronic timer is sanctioned by SASS. It pauses automatically between shots and records a total time — from the start to the last shot — and records intervals between shots.
More than 20 categories of shooting exist within the scope of SASS competition. Categories are based on age of participant and style of shooting. The three most common styles are traditional, which is shooting one gun with two hands; duelist, which is shooting one-handed; and gunfighter, which is shooting two guns simultaneously.
“You can come out here and you can compete as hard as you want,” said Emerson. “You can come out and have nothing but fun and nobody cares. ... A lot of people just enjoy dressing up and having the old weapons. ... Others are really into the competition part of it.”
Horse Ridge Pistoleros, the Central Oregon affiliate of SASS, was founded in 1995 by Emerson, Mike Walsh and Jerry Koch.
“We’ve all been involved in shooting sports,” said Walsh, 63, of Bend, referring to club members. “And a lot of us have an interest in our history, and this is a part of our history. So when we got a chance to come out and shoot some old guns the old way, we jumped at it. It’s been rather infectious all these (15) years, and we’ve met a lot of nice people along the way from all over the country at different shoots.”
The local club has nearly 100 members. Their ages range from 16 to 75, but most are in their 50s and 60s. About 20 die-hard shooters show for competition throughout the winter months.
“The folks that we shoot with are so much fun,” said club member Vicki Koch, of Redmond and the wife of Jerry Koch. “You’ve got attorneys, policemen, doctors, waiters and waitresses. It’s just a whole spectrum of people from different backgrounds that are together, and everybody is just out to have a good time. You wouldn’t know who the doctor or attorney or waiter or waitress was.
“When you are out here, you are out here to be a cowboy.”
Most of the club members travel twice a month, from March to September, for tournaments around the United States. Regionally they compete in Idaho, Washington, Montana and Alaska. Six of the Horse Ridge Pistoleros are state-champion cowboy action shooters, five are regional champions, and one is a world champion.
Bend’s Mick Howard is a state champion. Jerry and Vicki Koch and their son, Chance, are all state and regional champions, as are Bill Stanley, of Bend, and Emerson, the club president. Chance Koch is also a world champion in the young gun (age 17 and younger) category.
“It’s a good family sport and it also prepares you for other shooting sports,” said Chance Koch, 16, who has been shooting since he was 12 years old and is interested in competing in U.S. Practical Shooting Association events in the future.
Several local shooters plan to travel to New Mexico in late June for the World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting & Wild West Jubilee. The local club will host the Great Northwest SASS Wildbunch Championship June 4-6, and its annual Shootout at Horse Ridge and SASS Governor’s Cup will be held in July.
“Our club alone is doing 36 matches this year, so you are looking at an average of three a month,” noted Vicki Koch.
“The first time I shot a match I fell in love with it,” she added. “It’s addictive.”
Katie Brauns can be reached at 541-383-0393 or at kbrauns@bendbulletin.com.
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