Gary Lewis / For The BulletinPalaver Pete loads a lever action rifle prior to shooting a stage at “The Mission.” The Horse Ridge Pistoleros and the Pine Mountain Posse hold cowboy action events at the COSSA Park east of Bend.

A couple of years ago, digging through a box of old family photos, I discovered a newspaper clipping about Paul Cunningham, my grandma’s uncle. His visage had been carved on a totem pole on Whidbey Island, Washington, and I remembered what grandma had to say about him.

He was a big game hunter, a lover of fine rifles and fast horses and a friend of Buffalo Bill Cody. He was a frontier policeman in the 1870s and 1880s and a poet. He wore his hair to his shoulders, a Van Dyke beard, a collar and a bow tie and wrote under the pen name Peppercorn.

It was easy to find information and pictures on Ancestry.com, and then I searched back through other relatives and ancestors. It struck me that these people, throughout the 1700s and 1800s, always lived on the frontier, moving West when it got too crowded. And a lot of them were solid people who married for life, worked hard and went to church on Sunday.

I went to church on Sunday with the Horse Ridge Pistoleros at the COSSA Park. The mission is really just a plywood facade painted to look like the front of an adobe building. There is a wooden cross, a church bell and a plywood vulture perched on the corner of the building. A sign reads Espirtu del Juego, which means something like spirit of the game.

I introduced myself as Peppercorn to Palaver Pete, Big Casino, Whisperin’ Wade, Hoss, Dirt Digger and a bunch of other folks I already knew. You see, a cowboy is way better off coming up with his own handle than to let a bunch of ornery hombres come up with one for him.

I flashed my badge to prove my bona fides. I’d registered the nickname with the Single Action Shooting Society. I was probably the only one with a six-digit badge number. There are over 100,000 members in SASS, and each has a unique nickname. Any SASS member can find a place to shoot any weekend in any state in the U.S. and in several foreign countries.

At the heart of SASS and cowboy action is a three-gun competition. Each participant assumes the identity of a character from the Old West or from a B-Western. Most opt for an 1880s style with two six-guns, a lever-action rifle and a shotgun. Because I know a few of the guns my character owned and I know how he dressed, I can interpret the rest. For my armament, I have a matched set of Model 1873 single actions from Pietta and Traditions, a Winchester 73 and a side-by-side shotgun.

I arrived at The Mission and was confronted by an array of steel bad guy targets.

I rested my hands on my guns while one of the other men held the timer. I shot each target, first with the left gun then with the right, shooting both empty. Then I picked up the rifle, hit each target again and picked up the shotgun. There was one shotgun target on the left and two on the right. The last one launched a clay pigeon, which I powdered. I wasn’t fast and maybe I wasn’t smooth, but I shot it clean, meaning I hit every target.

Cowboy-action shooting is a combination of historical re-enactment and cowboy matinee. There are a number of categories for competitors, including age-based, duelist, gunfighter, classic cowboy/cowgirl, B-Western and black powder.

Participants are supposed to dress in clothing typical of the late 1800s, a B-Western movie or a Western series. Short sleeve shirts, tank tops, long sleeve T-shirts, designer jeans, ball caps and tennis shoes are not allowed. The rules are posted at www.sassnet.com.

There are about 15 SASS affiliated clubs in Oregon. The Horse Ridge Pistoleros and Pine Mountain Posse meet at the COSSA Park east of Bend. A new one, the Old 97 Railroad Rangers, is forming at the Redmond Rod & Gun Club.

It seems like cowboy-action shooting is a good way to connect with a family’s past and American history at the same time. All the clubs are happy to welcome new members and loan out gear to get a greenhorn started. They’re even happier to come up with a nickname for you. All in the spirit of the game.

— Gary Lewis is the host of Frontier Unlimited TV and author of John Nosler — Going Ballistic, Fishing Mount Hood Country, Hunting Oregon and other titles. Contact Gary at www.GaryLewisOutdoors.com.