I have been a SASS member for several years and today I finally joined the Lincoln County Regulators here in NM and shot my first match. First off, I have never met a friendlier and more helpful bunch of folks! Out of the blue, one of the guys just up and gave me a nice leather wrap for lever of my rifle.  I am not sure where I placed as yet, but it was nowhere near the top, that's for sure.....A couple of the shooters were FAST and I mean FAST! There was one shooter that emptied his 73 lever action so fast that I think he had 10 empty casings in the air at one time....Did I mention these guys were FAST???

There were lots of beautiful guns being used. Most were shooting .45LC's, several were shooting .38 specials (The uber fast guys) and then me shooting .44 specials out of my .44 magnums. One guy was shooting a Kirst converted Uberti 1858 New Army with an 8" barrel in .45LC. His other revolver was a Uberti copy of an 1860 Colt Open Top also in .45LC. Out of the bunch, there was one guy shooting all .45LC black powder loads. It took a bit for the range to clear after his run.....

I learned that I need to tune up my shooting irons. My brand new Rossi 92 in .44 magnum failed miserably right out of the gate. I had shot one time before to get it sighted in and had no problems at all. However in the rifle stage of my first match, I had several failures to extract. It definitely needs the Steve's Gunz tune up kit with a new extractor/ejector spring. Lucky for me, I had brought along my Winchester 94 in .44 magnum as a back up. The 94 did fine, but I two occasions where I threw a live round out as I worked the action. This is apparently a common problem with the 94 action being too long for the pistol length cartridge.

My shotgun is an old 12 gauge double barrel Rossi "Overland Coach Gun" that I have had for many years. I think I need to have the chambers polished out a bit as the empties were sticking in them after firing. I did have one stage where I had some misfires, but a second strike set them off. I think that was due to cheap shotgun ammo (USA ammo from Big 5)..... Having to cock the hammers was time consuming compared to the hammerless double barrel shotguns. The shooters with the Norinco pump action 97's did not seem to have any advantage as they were limited to two rounds at a time....After the first two rounds, all of them utilized the "Combat load" technique of throwing the round into the open action, so effectively they were shooting a pump action single shot. One shooter had a reproduction 1887 lever action shotgun and he seemed to smoke pretty much everyone with it....  

Both of my old Ruger Vaqueros worked great and I am very happy with them. I am running a 7-1/2" in a crossdraw rig and a 4-5/8" in my strong side rig. I never missed with my 7-1/2", but I did have a couple of misses with my 4-5/8". The longer barrels seem to just reach right out and tag those targets pretty easily. I have Bisley Vaquero with a 7-1/2" barrel that I had made up a couple years ago. I may end up using that instead of my 4-5/8" in future matches....

All in all, I had a great day and I am looking forward to my next shoot........

Congratulations, first match is the toughest.

Before you have that Rossi coach gun worked on, buy some Winchester AA light target loads.  If they don't fall out when you tip up the barrels, then get the chambers polished.  All of the cheap shotshells use steel case heads that will stick in just about every doublegun.

I will try that......Thanks!

Well, I tried some Winchester AA target loads in my Rossi and the shells do not come out of the left barrel on their own......I think there may be a burr on the extractor.....I will try using a little crocus clothe on it to see if that helps any.....

Welcome to the addiction!
Real life is the true "Alternate Reality" after you spend some time in Cowboy World.
It's the BEST group of people on the planet!
Welcome aboard!!!!

Thanks!

You're right, these Cowboy shooters are a great group of guys (And gals!).....all very friendly and helpful, even to a "Northern Yankee" like myself.....!

Wrap that crocus cloth around a wooden dowel and then chuck the dowel up in an electric drill.  Polish those chambers until they're mirror bright.  Then stick with the AA hulls.  Get in the habit of carrying a chamber swab in your gun cart and swabbing the chambers after every stage.  One tiny little speck of dust is enough to cause a hull to stick.  Getting old shells out and new shells into your shotgun will go MILES toward improving your stage times.

In my experience, with several double guns, AA hulls always hang up eventually.  It might be one out of ten or one out of two.  But, they'll always cost you a match.

Get some Remington STS and never look back.

Hulls hang up because they are eccentric.  The thicker the wall of the hull, the less apt they are to become oval rather than cylindrical.  STS is your huckleberry.

Thanks, I will look into the Remington STS loads....

I have shot several matches since my first post and have worked on my guns and my technique. I decided to try my Steven Model 311, 12 gauge double barrel instead of the Rossi. This change dropped my time down a little as now I don't have to cock the external hammers like I did on the Rossi. The empty case also come out a lot easier too.



I bought myself a pair of  Ruger NV's in .45 Colt with 7-1/2" barrels to use in place of my .44 magnums. Both of these are in stainless steel. Unfortunately, my lovely bride decided to join the CAS group and she ended up taking this pair for herself!



I ended up horse trading into a nice original stainless Ruger Bisley Vaquero in .45 Colt with a 5-1/2" barrel. I also picked up a Howell's conversion cylinder in .45 Colt for my Pietta New Army. I used both of these in the last match and came in third overall for the shoot!





I also bought a Uberti 1873 short rifle in .45 Colt. It has a 20" octagon barrel. The action is very slick and faster than my Rossi 92. So for now, my lovely bride and I are sharing the rifle and shotgun, until I can find her a 20 gauge Stoeger double barrel and maybe another 73' lever action.....

Bwaaaaaa ha ha ha...............Welcome to the wonderful world of SASS   Trust me, you're NOT alone.  We've all been there.  Most of us are STILL there.

Yeah, my CAS buddies got a laugh when I showed them my new pistolas and then later on, my lovely bride showed up at the match with them! Luckily for me, she wants to get her own shotgun and rifle, so I get to buy more guns and that is never a bad thing......!

You remember the Fram slogan, "Pay me now or pay me later"?  I might be able to help you save some $$$ in the long run.  My wife and I both started with Stoegers.  They're good solid guns but, there's a very good chance you'll reach the limit of their performance pretty soon.  If you can, try to find another shooter who's got a Johnny Meadows SKB and see if he'll let you give it a test run.  

I was at a match and had Johnny on my posse.  After three or four stages he got frustrated watching me wrestle with my Stoeger.  He came up and said to me. "You've got over a thousand dollars in that slicked up rifle,  you've also got over a thousand dollars wrapped up in those slicked up pistols, why are you skimping on one third of your arsenal?"  He then asked me to use his shotgun on the next stage.  Oooooo BOY, what a difference.  Immediately after the match I ordered an SKB 200 from him.  Buying that shotgun caused the shotgun to go from my worst gun on a stage to my best.  I guarantee it'll cost more initially but, it'll be well worth the price.   Johnny's one of the nicest men you'll ever meet and a darn good guy to deal with.  

Tell him Philly Slim sent you.

They pretty active here in NM?
I have always wanted to do that.

Yep, they sure are! The headquarters for SASS is in Edgewood, NM. It's called "Founders Ranch". They hold several large cowboy action shooting matches a year.

SASS

Founders Ranch

Last time I checked there were around 17 SASS affiliated cowboy action shooting groups in NM. If you want to IM me your location, I can let you know which one is close to you and who to contact at that club. These shoot matches once a month. Our group here in Lincoln County shoots on the second Saturday of each month.

While not a cheap sport to get into, it is a lot of fun. I would suggest that you go and watch a match or two in your area and see how they run and what folks are using in the way of guns, leather and clothing.....