Is CAS fading into the sunset??

[Russell40]

14 to 15 years ago when I was shooting CAS, it seemed to be all the rage with leather goods and weapons being sold every where. Now that I'm about to get back into it, I've noticed that many of the leather shops have dried up and the weapons manufacters are cutting back on many of the models.
My question is, is CAS fading into the sunset?? I hope not!

[Jefro]

My question is, is CAS fading into the sunset?? I hope not!

Howdy Russell, naw I don't think so, times have changed, plus the economy has been in the tank since 08. Most of the top vendors are still around you just have to look for them, some found they could not make it on CAS alone. I think CAS peaked around 06, it was bound to happen as fast as it was growing. A couple of new games are starting to grow, CFDA and Wild Bunch. Wild Bunch is bringing in a few of the 1911 shooters, so it's all good. We are still having a blast, glad yer back. Good Luck


Jefro Relax-Enjoy

[PJ Hardtack]

With my SASS #9854, I've been around the corral for a while ..... that dates from the days of one gun, usually .44 or .45, and we prided ourselves on shooting 'real' cowboy loads at longer distances on knock down targets.

My first CAS pistol was a 5 1/2" Ruger SS Vaquero .44 magnum as that was about all that was available. I still have it, paired with the same gun in blue. I matched it up with a Browning B92, also in .44 mag, both loaded to .44 Spl. level. Then I got busy with other things and took a break from the sport.

When I came back, it was TWO pistols, wimp loads and short stroke kits. Sure, you could still shoot what you wanted, but the character of the game had changed to 'IPSC in Cowboy Boots'. The equipment race was on ..... and ongoing.

But the upside was that there was now available a plethora of guns, leather, clothes, bullet types, CAS powders and very good people doing very good work at affordable prices.

People come, people go, but the game goes on, riding the economic tide, political issues and social pressures. The guns of the west built our nations and will be there long after the antis have failed to disarm us.

[Advertising]

[Bugscuffle]

Weare prettylucky here in San Antonio. The attitude here " This is fun! let's keep going". The emphasis is on the fun of shooting and the companionship. We just go out and have a good time. Equipment is relegated to the "spirited discourse" catagory. Yeah, we argue about what is best or fastest or prettyest, but we focus on having a good safe time.

[PJ Hardtack]

What concerns me more is the absence of younger new shooters. At any event I go to, the shooters are mostly paunchy old grey beards. I'm in that category - grey haired, minus the paunch!
They've got the money for the guns, and for them it's a big nostalgia kick. I noticed that in reenactment circles as well - most people are much older than their historic personas. It was a big deal when we once had 5 teen aged girls at an encampment. Chaotic, but historically correct.

The westward push was largely a young man's game - "Go west, young man", said Horace Greeley (I think). Older, more established folks stayed home. The antis are playing a waiting game, waiting for the last good ol' boy/gal to die off and then there will be no one left to play Cowboy any more.

Right now in Kanuckistan, kids don't play 'Cowboys & Indians' any more, (or shoot BB guns in the back yard) as it results in the arrival of a SWAT team. I wish I was joking about this, but I'm not.
It happened to the son of friends who had given him a Star Wars plastic pistol as a b'day present. Someone made a 'man-with-a-gun' call and he was taken down by three armed RCMP with drawn guns! Kids get suspended from school for pointing a finger at someone and saying "Bang!"
I think we should encourage kids to play 'Cowboys & Indians' by buying them the guns if necessary, and organizing them into factions to rob the bank, hold up the stage, attack the fort, the Cavalry arriving in the nick of time. Hell, we'll even let the Indians win once in a while. This will accomplish the following:

- get them off their duffs, away from i pods, i phones, etc.
- give them healthy outdoor recreation and social interaction
- it will do the same for adults
- it will cost the police a small fortune, money better spent benefiting society in some way
- it will result in law suits from parents outraged, their kids traumatized by masked men waving guns
- it will result in further law suits from citizens denied protection while cops are taking down moppets armed with cap pistols

[Pancho Peacemaker]

I know lots of "core" members at many clubs are getting on in years.  For some, health is declining and I know of more than a handful of regular CAS shooters who've passed on in the past couple of years.  Point is:  we ain't getting any younger.

If this sport is to last, we must ALL make efforts at bringing in and maintaining the interest of youth shooters.

[St. George]

Unless C&WAS as a whole can somehow convince young shooters that it's not a game for their Grandpas and Great-Grandpas, who grew up with the various Westerns, and whose formats gave them heroes to emulate and imaginations to play out-of-doors, and if it can convince them to spend the money on increasingly more expensive outfits and ammunition - it'll die on the vine.

Today's potential crop of young shooters didn't grow up playing outside, and theirs are more 'anti-heroes' than anything, thanks to video gaming.

Plus, they're more prone to do something 'socially relevant' - if they do anything at all - because it's perceived as popular, where 'playing with guns' and the shooting sports is becoming suspect along all social strata, and besides, there are better ways for them to spend their money at this stage of their lives - like car payments and student loan repayment and dating and just plain 'Life' and what goes along with it..

Buying guns and gear and ammunition and paying for transportation comes once everything else is taken care of.

Sadly, there aren't enough 'good' Westerns out there for them to attaining popular status, and what with current trends in social networking and gaming - their lives are pretty good already - with little need to go 'out'.


Scouts Out

[Marshal Deadwood]

Not shooting related, but it kinda supports what St George said about 'gaming.' I have a friend that I meet once in a while at events,,,and he was telling me that after his divorce that the wife was really reasonable and that he could come visit his son just about anytime he wished. He was talking to his son on the phone and the subject of baseball came up and Dad said 'wanna play some ball ?' Jr said SURE !

Well dad digs the old gloves out, finds a bat,,stops by Walmarts for a couple new baseballs and drives on over to see JR. He's getting the 'gear' out of the car and Jr says 'What's that for ? We can play baseball on the X-Box.'

It's a different world now for sure.

Deadwood

[Rye Miles]

14 to 15 years ago when I was shooting CAS, it seemed to be all the rage with leather goods and weapons being sold every where. Now that I'm about to get back into it, I've noticed that many of the leather shops have dried up and the weapons manufacters are cutting back on many of the models.
My question is, is CAS fading into the sunset?? I hope not!

Seems to me there are more choices for guns and gear than ever before. I started 15 yrs. ago too and there wasn't half the stuff available that there is now. Rye

[Foothills]

Howdy......
I have been shootin CAS from 1999 steady until 2006.
I have shot every now and again sense then.
I have the "BIG A" in my left knee,right hip and both hands 
I am about done...can't seem to get up the energy and get out there and endure the pain...

Vern / Foothills...

[Sam Cobra]

As a newbie myself, I will throw my 2 cents in..I don't know what that adds up to with inflation   
It looks like the local shooters were mostly older than me and I am in my mid 40's.  There was a father son team but mostly older.  Most of the friends I have mentioned CAS to seem interested until they find out it takes 4 guns to play the game.  Maybe a Working Cowboy, 2 gun class would help, or even a pistol beginner class would help.  At least get folks out to try it and meet everybody, and then possibly get hooked.  Maybe that wouldn't help, because all the other things you mentioned are correct.  I think the lack of quality westerns hurts too.  I was just talking to my wife this morning about it.  We saw a piece of JackAss The Movie with our free Showtime weekend  .  For those that don't know it is a bunch of young idiots doing stupid stunts, that are dangerous, gross and basically idiotic.  But the show was very popular with the MTV crowd.  A lot of mornings I will watch an old Paladin episode with my morning coffee.  Paladin is tough, honest, resourceful, educated, courageous etc and gets into all kinds of adventures.  Kids used to grow up with that kinda role model, now they grow up watching idiots push themselves over a bank in a grocery cart..

[Trap]

  Sam C.  See the post "I'm going to start shooting NCOWS" It may help.

[RickB]

I've been an NCOWS member for a long time now and I've seen CAS rise and fall. It's true that most kids these days don't get into the whole Cowboy culture. They have too many video games and crap shows to emulate. Their universe is filled with garbage, not that ours wasn't, but ours at least had hero's.

The last few shoots I went to there were some young people who were interested in shooting and the dressing up part. Mostly the shooting. Their ages were from 15 to into their 20s. With more and better westerns on TV and in the Movies (True Grit, Blacktorn, The Warrior Way, Hell On Wheels, etc) I can see a possibility that more may become interested in the old West and maybe translate that into WAS/CAS. My son (age 16) is wanting to learn to shoot and I will see if I can get him interested in joining NCOWS and joining us in some shoots. He's been watching some of my old horse operas with me lately and is starting to like cowboy movies. He loves Hell on Wheels and watches it with me and the wife every Sunday.

I agree that sometimes the gear race is a bit off putting. For a new member it appears very expensive to buy all the guns and outfits and then pay to attend shoots. We in NCOWS need to stress that the individual has a while to build up their outfit and gear and that we don't expect them to be 100% the first shoot. Heck, I'm still building up my outfit. 

It helps to attend gun shows and other events that can showcase our sport/hobby. Local members have staged train holdups and events around the Boone train (an old steam train used at the Boone Scenic railroad to give visitors a ride to see what steam trains are like).  Maybe give some talks to local Boy Scouts about CAS/WAS might get some interested in our events. Put up flyers at local gun stores advertising the shoots so others who might not even know we exist can come and watch and ask all the questions they can think of.

If we want our hobby and sport to grow we might have to advertise a bit to let people know we exist. Our groups need to get out where people can see us and interested parties may be able to get some face time with members who can give them the specs of our sport.

Those are my ideas. I'm sure others have better ones.

[Sam Cobra]

Good points RickB.  I am a gun guy and shooter but I didn't know CAS existed until I saw it on Cowboys or one of the outdoor channel shooting shows just a couple of years ago.

[maarty]

I know lots of "core" members at many clubs are getting on in years.  For some, health is declining and I know of more than a handful of regular CAS shooters who've passed on in the past couple of years.  Point is:  we ain't getting any younger.

If this sport is to last, we must ALL make efforts at bringing in and maintaining the interest of youth shooters.

At our local club shoots, most weekends there are two or three kids under 15yrs, another that is 18yrs, our top shooter is 19yrs old, there's often another who's in his early twenties then there's a jump to late thirties and over.
We encourage the kids to bring their friends, even if they just come along a couple of times maybe one in ten of them will decide to take up the game either now or in the next ten years.

The problem is that CAS has always been seen as the retirement pool for IPSC shooters here, when they are too old for the running and dodging of IPSC they come over to CAS.

[Beauregard Hooligan]

I started shooting CAS in '94. The first outfit I shot with was Murietta Posse. The Murietta folks had 42 shooters today, including me. That's quite a bit less than 18 years ago. But, the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center has six Cowboy groups shooting there on alternating Saturdays and Sundays. Then there are the Two Rivers Posse folks shooting in Manteca, and the River City Regulators still shooting outside Davis. That's a whole bunch of cowboys and cowgirls shooting inside a 60 mile radius. I'm not even counting the folks shooting in the Bay area. CAS is still very much here and now, despite some folks continuing the tired old tradition of trying to fraction out the herd under a "me is best" banner. 

[Green River Powell aka RonC]

This thread hits home for me.

First, the only CAS related range is quite some distance from me, and there are no CAS activities at the outdoor range I belong to. I just don't have the time to haul out to the CAS range on a regular basis.

I just hit 65 years old and I will be honest: Looking around at the CAS participants, I see too many people who look like me (age and girth-wise). It makes me think that I am out there trying to recapture my youth, at least the illusion of the youth that I have pictured in my mind. This introspection makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.

I have not gone all out on my wardrobe - just enough to get by. It was fun at first, but now I feel like I am wearing a Halloween costume. I feel like a fake. I am not a cowboy and have never lived on a ranch (a farm, yes; a ranch, no). I feel pretentious in a cowboy hat and boots. Prior to CAS, the last time I wore a cowboy shirt, I was going to hoe-down themed, High School party back East.

All I can claim is that I love to shoot single action and thoroughly enjoy lever action rifles. I can do that alone at the range I frequent, but then I miss the camaraderie with other people who like single action shooting.

If I could just go in blue jeans and walking shoes, wearing any hat that would keep the sun off my bald pate, and shoot and compete, I would be very happy and enjoy my CAS activities more.

This is how I feel and I do not judge anyone who does enjoy the entire dressing up component.

Ron

[PJ Hardtack]

Ron C

Most of us are wanna-be 'urban cowboys'. I've known very few real Cowboys in the sport, but they are easy to spot. They look comfortable in work worn clothes, sweat stained hats and manure covered boots.
They couldn't care less about winning, but you get the feeling that if lead was flying for real, these are the guys you'd want to be with. They say what they mean and mean what they say - when they speak at all.

It's the 'Cowboy Way', the unspoken values of what it means to be a man of your word that most of us like about CAS/NCOWS.
The dress up part is the icing on the cake - you pays you money - you takes you choice. We get a chance to become our own heroes, something we don't get to do in real life.

If the 'Spirit of the Game' doesn't attract you, perhaps you need to look elsewhere.

[Jefro]

If I could just go in blue jeans and walking shoes, wearing any hat that would keep the sun off my bald pate, and shoot and compete, I would be very happy and enjoy my CAS activities more.

Ron

Howdy Green River, you can, minimal dress is all that's required for SASS, unless you are in one of the two costume categories, "B-Western and Classic Cowboy". In all other categories blue jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a pair of leather shoes or work boots is all that's required. In fact that combination was once used as an example in the early shooters handbook. Find ya a palm leaf hat or wide brim fedora to keep the sun off and yer good to go, in fact hats and boots are not required except in the two costume categories. Remember there were more than cowboys from that era. There were bartenders, sod busters, store clerks, miners, railroaders, bankers...etc...etc.. Throw yer jeans on, find you a SASS club and come on out and join the fun. Good Luck
SASS Affilated Clubs

As the Judge once said;
"Everybody seems to think we're a period shoot, but we're not. We're a fantasy cowboy acting shoot." - Judge Roy Bean


Jefro Relax-Enjoy

[Green River Powell aka RonC]

Thanks for the comments, PJ Hardtack and Jefro!

When I have gone to shoots, everyone was decked out in their Cowboy movie finery. I felt very under dressed. What Jefro recommended as dress: blue jeans, long sleeve shirt and work boots would work very well for me.

I'd like to shoot my Hawken and Longrifle muzzle loaders at more primitive gatherings, but I don't want to stimulate the ladies too much by wearing buckskins. I'm too old to have to push them all away.

Ron