Previous to 1999, there had been many discussions about Cowboy Action Shooting, but no formal organization or plans had materialized. In May of that year, I invited 10 die-hard wild west enthusiasts together in Somero, Finland to form The Classic Old Western Society (COWS), an organization created to promote CAS.

Today one of those 10 founder members, only one remains in COWS, and it's the undersigned. Although the initial focus of the meeting was in CAS, from the beginning it was clear that the general emphasis would be on gathering together people who share a common interest in the Wild West era. This was evident from the wide range of Wild-West enthusiasts present at the first meeting, who included interested in gun collecting, history, western-style riding, fast-draw and gunplay, as well as gun dealers and western merchandise dealers.

History
At the first meeting the society's guidelines were defined, with the general idea being to promote the exciting history of the American Wild West in various ways, such as:

* Collecting or shooting authentic or replica pieces
* Studying old west clothing, music, food
* Studying Indian culture
* Practicing western riding
* Learning about Finnish immigrants in United States during 1800's.

No rigid time-limits were defined, although the wild west era is thought to encompass the second half of the 1800's. Even with this general timeline as a guide, COWS has a few members that are interested in periods extending back to the mountain-man era and the Revolutionary War era of the late 1700's.

Growth
With a defined organization in place, the next step was to gain publicity and increase membership. With the enthusiastic co-operation of several Finnish gun-magazines, COWS is now well-known by most of these magazines' readership. This cooperation has resulted in good coverage of CAS in the printed media. COWS encourages its members with writing abilities to frequently contribute articles about CAS to these magazines. As information about COWS has become spread, membership has also grown to a current level of over 200 members and of those more than 50 active shooters.

COWS also publishes its own magazine called "The COWS Chronicle". This magazine includes articles about CAS, guns, gear, the real old west and information and reports about COWS events, shooting matches and gun shows. Additional information is found on the official COWS website, currently at http://www.cows-finland.org .

On
this website you can find information about:

* CAS in Finland (cowboy-ammunta Suomessa)
* Fast draw (pikaveto)
* Competition results (tulosluettelot)
* Vihtavuori reloading chart for CAS-loads (Vihtavuoren cowboy-lataustaulukko)
* Historical articles (lännen historiaa)
* Wanted/for sale-section
* etc.

Currently, those sections are available only in Finnish. Luckily the photographs can be viewed in any language.

Events
During it's two year existence COWS has organized or participated in several wild west events. Not all of them have been shooting matches. One of the main events COWS organized was the first annual Western Weekend, a two-day wild west get-together. Last year it was held in Ähtäri, geographically near in the center of Finland. It was a weekend full of entertainment related to the old west, with the sound of gunshots and smoke when the bank was robbed, or whenever there was a saloon fight. There was live country-music, line-dancing, horse-riding, teepees, mountain men, indians, knife and tomahawk throwing, bullwhipping, rope throwing, fast-draw competitions, even entertainment for the kids.

Main COWS-organized event is probably the North Star Trails , which is the Finnish championships for CAS and traditional fast-draw, held always near the end of July.

Future plans
COWS is working on becoming a SASS-affiliated club. The CAS rule book COWS uses is adopted from SASS and then modified to meet the requirements of Finnish laws. To become an SASS affiliate, COWS need to have at least 50% of its membership join SASS, and encourages members to join. We were aware that new rules for foreign affiliated clubs was under consideration, but that information never come to our awareness. So this year our SASS-members in Finland started a SASS affiliated club called SASS-Finland. And in future COWS and SASS-Finland will work in close collaboration with CAS-shooting. After the proposed changes, COWS will probably be closer to becoming a part of this world-wide organization which represents the great sport of CAS.

We have also established a new section called COWS Buckskinner committee, so now there will be more competitions also for muzzleloaders, trappers, mountainmen and indians.

If you have any questions about COWS or CAS in Finland, don't hesitate to contact us by e-mail.

Mad Dog Reno (C.O.W.S #2)
Founder member in CLASSIC OLD WESTERN SOCIETY of Finland
Vice president 1999 and executive committee member.
The President in 2000 - 2002 and executive committee member.
Vice president 2003 and executive committee member.
The President in 2004 and executive committee member.
In charge Buckskinners committee 2005

My home page: http://personal.inet.fi/private/maddogreno/
Email: maddog.reno@pp.inet.fi