I am curious....why did you try BP cowboy and what do you like?

[JL McGillicuddy]

I just got a curious streak on after getting told I was bug-nuts a couple of times in the last week.

Why did you try BP in Cowboy Action Shooting? 

What are you after when you shoot?  Are you trying to place or just make a ruckus?

What are your happiest memories from CAS shooting BP?

For me, I think trying it was a sort of "what the heck, why not?" moment.  A BP shooter here in the area loaded me up a batch of ammo when I mentioned curiousity about BP cowboy action and I had a good time. 

When I shoot, yes, I check my times.  I don't worry about it nearly as much when I shoot BP, though.  I think my main goal is to shake things up.  My loads were developed to be fire throwers and major target hammers.  I like to hear a chorus of "HOLY CRAP!" behind me when I shoot BP loads.  Makes it all the more fun.

One of my happiest moments shooting BP was first time, first stage.  I registered traditional (year long contest at the club where you had to shoot the category you registered in or not have that match's points count) and hadn't warned anyone that I had BP ammo.  First stage started with the shotgun and one spotter was just down wind of me.  "Stand By!  BEEP!  BOOM!! BOOM!!....Hack! Cough! Cough!"
I was happy as a hog in slop.  I talked to the spotter later and apologized for the surprise.

The other was at this past weekend's match.  Listening to the catcalling and hollering as I shot and having one of the acknowledged Big Boomers in our area come to me and ask "Just how much powder did you get in that thing, anyway?"  That was a really happy feeling.

I guess I am just a chaos hound. 

What about you?

Jack Lee

[Leo Tanner]

I was lured cause that's what the guys we are re-creating used fer the most part.
     I can't imagin a Civil War re-enactment with smokeless powder just the same as I can't imagine a WWII re-enactment with plumes of soot spouting from M-1s and 1911s.
     A cowboy movie without smoke an fire would make ya scratch yer head.  Some folks wouldn't be able ta put there finger on it, but all would sense something was off.
     I guess it's the history--doin things the way they used ta be done that gives me my kicks.
   
      And yeah, gotta say the spectacle of it all is a helluv allot a fun


Leo

[Lucky Irish Tom]

I started in CAS in 2000, and have shot in almost every category. About 2 years ago I was watching some of my friends shoot BPP and they seemed to be having a ball.  I asked several questions about cleaning and about loading Holy Black.  I had a match coming up the following month, the last one we would shoot at that range.  Developers had bought the land.  I had just gotten 2 cap and ball pistols so one of my friends said let's shoot Frontiersman, I figured what the heck.  First stage Smoke and BOOM, kilt a pistol target and 3 of the 4 rifle targets, never had a bigger smile on my face.  Once  the bug bit  me I haven't looked back.  I don't care about time any more or where I place, there's a certain satisfaction to hearing the spotters say, "Did you see if he missed any?" 

[Plum Loco]

Well I am not going to be the fastest in the shoots , found this out long ago   
Blackpowder is more correct to the time period , so along with burning BP in the CW re-enacting , it just seemed better and more fun to shoot the equiptment and ammo , just as they did years ago .    This is for fun 

[Wills Point Pete]

 Well, at my age I am not going to set any speed records. So I may as well have a little fun. Plus I am learning something new. After nearly fifty years of studying and practicing handloading the learning of working with black powder and soft lead alloys keeps me interested. I've done the sub-half inch varmint rifle groups, I've done the death ray hunting rifles and the bad guy killer handguns.
Now I'm just playing BOOM-CLANG! instead of pop-tink.
Please note that I have no quarrel with the pop-tink gang. If I were thirty years younger I'd be shooting lighly loaded .38s and going for the speed.
An extra advantage is that working with 250 grain full charge BP rounds in .45 Colt has improved my shooting with my smokeless powder defense revolvers. The recoil of a five shot .357 Mag seems lighter than it used to feel.

[Arcey]

BOOM, fire, smoke 'n stink. 'Nuff said.

[Bristow Kid]

I started loading my cowboy ammo with BP cause I was already using it in my long range buffalo gun so it seamed like the thing to do. 

Happy memory #1 was the first time I fired my double barrel with bp made so much smoke even I was coughing.

Happy memory #2 was shooting an out house stage and the concusion from my shotgun blast with BP popped my ear plugs out killed my time putting them back in but oh what fun.


Happy memory #3 was just a couple of weeks ago at my local monthly shoot.  The lady keeping score commented that when I shot she could feel the ground shake.

And like AArcey so elloquently put it BOOM, fire, smoke and the smell of BP in the air It doesnt get any better then this.

[Cuts Crooked]

Been shootin front stuffers since I wuz a younker so progression to BP cartridge wuz a given!

Best memory #1 wuz Winning the "Spirit of the Game" award at my first state championship!!!!!!!

Best memory #2 wuz winning my state championship!!

[Adirondack Jack]

I kinda got BACK into BP in a sideways sorta way.  I'd played with patched ball front stuffers years ago, and had a '61 Navy that was fun, but for CAS, I ran smokeless.  then I got a bug to try some all brass shells for the shotgun, and after a time, found they would work harden and not give a reliable "bang" despite good compression when loaded with smokeless.  So, I stuffed em with 777 and ran the loud and smoky shotshells along with smokeless in pistol and rifle.  Then it occurred to me I was "halfway" to FC, so might as well go all smoky.

Then of course I decided a full case of 777 was ridiculous in .45 Colts, and REALLY got myself sideways in "fixing" that issue.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

First handgun I ever owned was a brass framed 1851 Navy I bought from Navy Arms when I was just a kid in 1968. Taught myself how to use it from reading articles in the gun magazines of the day. I used to have a ball wondering around the woods with it blasting away at targets of opportunity like tree stumps.

When I started shooting CAS I was shooting Smokeless and didn't really want to mess with Black Powder because of the rust, cleaning, and fuss involved. But a friend was shooting BP and it looked like so much fun that I just found myself loading up some BP one day and fooling around with pan lubing and all that stuff. A few years later and here I am, a self appointed expert on all things Black Powder. Guess it was just meant to be.

[Grapeshot]

I started shooting BP when I was in High School with a friends Muzzle Loading Brown Bess.  After Joining the Air Force I got a couple of front stuffers and a brace of .44 C&B pistols and was doing the N-SSA thing for a couple of years.

I started SASS with Smokeless, but had tried my hand with BP Shotshells at a local Skeet Club some years before.

After a few years of watching the BP shooters having so much fun, I tried it with an 1860 Henry and a pair of 1860 Colt Armies at several of the matches.  It still took me a couple of years to go all the way with shooting BP in all my SASS guns and even getting a couple of clean matches along the way.

[Bead Swinger]

At my first shoot, there were two of us sharing an 1860 Army, and a Confederate brass-frame copy of a .36 Remington, and I had a Spencer Rifle. I was using really tame (did I say 'Piff-Ting'?) smokeless loads in the Spencer. Then I discovered that most everyone else was using smokeless.

Happy memory #1: Watching the 56-56 Spencer belch smoke and fire with the few BP loads I brough. Someone called out 'That's a rifle'.  Now its BP or Subs only. 

Having always loved the plume of smoke that my 45-70 would make, I was always set on trying BP. 'Been very happy that the pistols I bought take it pretty well (1873 OT and NMR in 44R).

Happy memory #2: Watching the target dissappear the first time I fired BP in the 12Ga. I couldn't tell if I hit anything, nor could anyone else. 'Didn't care either.  That was the fun part. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to the PA State BP shoot this summer, and see what a whole shoot full of Smoke & Fire will do.

[Oliver Loving]

After buying a couple of braces of vaquero's I got to watching some of the guys whats been shooting awhile and how much dad blame smoke them guns was a making.   Looked like a heck of a good ol time so I got to thinking.   Since my alias died at age 57 in 1867 I begun to think he most likely shot black powder firearms since no smokeless was around.  Also not many cartridge guns around then either.  So I got me a pair of 58 Remmies New model navies and begun to practise.  Now I'm a loading shotgun shells and everything else.   

I guess what I like is being true to the era and my character.  Time don't matter, cause I'll even talk to the time keeper when I miss something really bad.  Also when I shoot in the mine shaft after the second shot I can't see most of the targets outside and just blast away.  Aint no bad guys gonna come a running in the shaft from my direction with all the lead pouring through the opening.  Misses and time don't matter a bit.  And shucks I can't get but one procedural on a stage.

Happy shoot fella and keep the black on ya hands.  Let em know whos the real cowboys in the town.

[Sunwapta Haze]

'Cause I didn't know any better!    Well not really.   I did check out some CAS sites before I got started in this game 3 years ago. 

CAS is the only "competitive" shooting sport I've ever been involved with.  I never owned a pistol 'til I bought my '75 Remmies.  I didn't have a pistol caliber rifle either but I did have a couple of usable shotguns.   Being somewhat frugal (some would say cheap) I really wanted to use an original mule earred Damascas barrelled double which was deemed to be safe (by knowlegable gunsmiths) for use with BP rounds.  So if'n I was going to load BP shotshells, why not use BP for everything.  And so it was - I have never shot a match with anything but the One True Powder.

Fond memory #1 - The day I figured out how to get my Remmies to run thorugh more than 7 rounds before fouling out (I have since shot a 10 stage match without cleaning the revolvers) 

Fond memory # 2 - Meeting other BP shooters and chewing the fat with them. 

Fond memory # 3 - Shooting trap at my local range with my original '87 Winchester and BP rounds - I started off in the 5th position and so was last to shoot - I clearly remember the "WHAT THE H*** "    after I unleased the first round. 

Fond memory # 4 - Beating "Big Nose Bob", a well respected and awesome BP shooter in Western Canada, at the SASS Regionals in 2006 (we placed 1, 2 respectively in the Frontier Cartridge class) and finishing behind him in 2007 (again we were 1 and 2).

Fond memory # 5 - Watching the growth in BP shooters in our local club (Alberta Frontier Shootists).  It has gone from me being the only one in 2005 to maybe 6 or 7 this year.  I"ll find out next week at our first match of the year.  I like to think that I have had some impact on the choices being made by those coming to the Darkside. 

[Andrew Quigley]

I started in CAS with bp. Bought a couple of 58 Remingtons and figured since i was using black in them I ought to d o the same in my other guns. Problably haven't shot smokeless in a half dozen matches in nearly 8yrs.
Most memorable BP moment had to be the time Shotgun Hannah was timing me. Was shooting the first pistol and on about the thrid shot one of the spent caps flew off the nipple and down the front of her shirt. She let out a yell and then hollered " Quigley your hot nipple just went down my shirt!!"
I couldn't shoot for laughing! Think my time on that stage was a club record for the slowest stage ever and most misses.

[Ransom Gaer]

What's this smokeless powder some of youare talking about?  It'll never catch on.

In all seriousness(at least as serious as I care to be), wgen I started shooting CAS I figured I'd just shoot blackpowder.  It fits the period and most of the shooting I did before I discovered CAS was with blackpowder.  So it just seemed natural to me.  I also like the BOOM, smoke and flame.

Then I discovered that I could just by shooting BP in CAS, drive some smokeless shooters crazy.  I've gotten the usual lines about having to wear a gasmask or hold their breath from the RO when I shoot.  I just grin when they say that.  There is a certain theatrical quality to shooting BP that I enjoy too.  Another thing I have found interesting is the curiosity some have about what I am doing.  I shoot Frontiersman normally so I use a pair of 1860 Armies as my main match pistols and I regularly get questions about the loading technique I use.  It is something they are not use to and it draws attention.

Best BP memory has to be shooting on the ALL BP Posse at Winter Range in 2007.  What I blast shooting with like minded folks.

Last Sunday I shot with a new club.  I just moved to Mississippi and shot over in Alabama.  One of the guys on my posse was shooting some real Warthog loads with BP.  It was fun to watch.  I'll be back.

Ransom Gaer

[litl rooster]

BOOM, fire, smoke 'n stink. 'Nuff said.

Heard-seen- and smelled, Lincoln County Reg and Wildcat Will at the matches that's all it took

[Dusty Morningwood]

Bought my forst muzzle-loader in 1972 when I was 15 (A real cheap Kentucky-style made in Spain).  Then a C&B revolver a year later.  Went on Arkansas' first "primitive" hunt.  Hard to imagine then these inline, scoped, pellet-pill spewing monstrosities!  Kind of fell out of it in high school and college, but bought a Sile (FIE) .45-70 Sharps in 1988 and started loading BP in it a few years later.

Being a fan of frontier and western history, it has always been the guns and period technology for me, so smokeless is not an option.  My .44 Open Tops kick like they ought to and now both my 66 and Henry have been converted to shoot .44 Russians.  I know, not quite the same as the .44 RF, but close enough for me.  Smoke, fire, ka-boom.  That's my game.

[Flinch Morningwood]

I came to CAS by way of 18th century re-enacting...so the authenticity of the sport was a big draw for me.  I try to be as authentic as possible in my clothes, equipement, etc and so BP was just the natural course.

This just goes for me but I kind of feel that if I don't use BP, I'm just a guy dressing in funny clothes shooting guns.

...That and it's really fun to be one of the few that make some smoke!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy!

My first "old" gun was an (Uberti) 1860 Army Colt that I bought about '74 or '75 for the princely sum of $75 or so.  (I still have the receipt ... somewhere.  )  I went 'thru a lot of $2/lb Goex and $.95 caps back then.  And some Pyrodex, too.  Those 2 were the ONLY powders available.

The wonderful flames and smoke "hooked" me.  I still have it and shoot it regularly.  I joined CAS about 10 years ago, first SASS, then NCOWS.  I started using smokeyless powder, but as much fun as that IS, I knew there was more, just waitin' in a can of BP!  Now, that's all I shoot except in VERY rare times of non-CAS guns.


Memories?  There's so many good ones, I can't really pick.

The stable has grown, but so has the fun!