News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Big Casino is fast and accurate in Wild Bunch Action Shooting.
"There were still a few trails for the kind that would be cold before they'd be tame. They called them The Wild Bunch."
Director Sam Peckinpah's 1969 masterpiece "The Wild Bunch" told a bloody and poignant story of bad - yet strangely honorable - men, swept before the irresistible tide of civilization to the Mexican border c. 1913, in the midst of a violent revolution.
Last weekend a band of much friendlier men (and women) escaped encroaching civilization to the sage flats and craggy hills of the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association range near Millican to lay it on the line in the Oregon State Wild Bunch Shootout championships.
Wild Bunch Action Shooting is an outgrowth of Cowboy Action Shooting that allows the updated armaments appropriate to the 1913 setting of the classic Western movie. Competitors fire three guns - a 1911 Colt .45 automatic pistol; an 1897 Winchester 12 ga. pump-action shotgun; and a lever-action carbine - on a course of steel clangers.
There are penalties for each miss; the fastest time wins.
"Some people can miss really fast and some people hit really slow," said Don Emerson, known in the Cowboy Action Shooting world as Big Casino. "It's just trying to balance that."
It's all for fun and glory. There's no money in it, no sponsorships or endorsements. In fact, with the outlay for guns, period clothing and especially ammo, it can be an expensive sport to get involved in.
But the fun more than compensates. The shooters are friendly (except to their targets) and happy to help a competitor or a greenhorn out. One shooter's shotgun broke down on the range on Sunday and a competitor stepped up to loan him his.
"Half of it's social," Big Casino allows, noting that a chili contest fed the shooters, who relaxed Saturday evening with cigars and stories.
That's not to say the shooters ain't serious. They come from Colorado, Washington, California and Idaho to test their skill. Unfortunately for the travelers, the local club, The Horse Ridge Pistoleros, is a bunch of tough hombres. They boast a Wild Bunch team world champion in 17-year-old Last Chance Morales, and club co-founder Texas Jack (Jerry Koch) has been a consistent winner for years.
"Our club is really blessed with some talented shooters," said Mohave Mick, himself a champion shooter.
Pecos Bill chimed in to note that "We're called the club of champions."
The Horse Ridge Pistoleros was named Club of the Year 2009 by the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), the sanctioning body for the sport.
That's no small honor. There are 600 clubs worldwide, about 95,000 SASS members, and it's been the fastest growing segment of the shooting sports for several years.
"Doc Sawbones from up in Sisters got us started," Texas Jack said, recalling the club's origins in the early to mid-1990s. "He's the reason we started shooting."
He was referring to Holm Neumann, an early member of SASS (#181) who is now a pioneer in reintroducing horseback archery to the U.S. Neumann is currently in the Kingdom of Jordan, promoting that sport on the international stage.
Women play an active role in most clubs and are competitive as shooters.
Leggs Ballou (aka Vicki Koch) shoots the traditional Cowboy Action Shooting, but she understands the growing popularity of the relatively new Wild Bunch branch of the sport.
"For a lot of people, this is their passion because they shoot the 1911 - and it's the 100th anniversary of the 1911," she said.
The Horse Ridge Pistoleros are always welcoming to folks who are interested in joining the fun.
The SASS Oregon State Championships in traditional Cowboy Action Shooting are scheduled at the COSSA range July 21-24. For more information on the Horse Ridge Pistoleros, visit http://www.hrp-sass.com. For information on Wild Bunch Action Shooting, visit http://www.sassnet.com/wildbunch.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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