Cowboy shooting in Prince George

fatbastard

fatbastard

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Prince George, BC
Well it is official

The Prince George Rod and Gun Club now has a Cowboy shooting section.
Monday night was the AGM and two Directors of the new section where voted in.
Don and John are the two directors and hope to have a meeting out at the range in April to get to meet any and all area Cowboy shooters.
Looking for range setup ideas and any help we can get.

Don:rockOn:
 
Great to have another club start up. There's lots of ideas around that cowboys are willing to share. Anything can be accomplished with determination.
We started with portable props & targets that I hauled from home to the range & home again for every shoot cause we used the pistol & rifle ranges. Now we have a permanent range to ourselves.
Wishing you all the best & hope to shoot there some day.
"High Country Amigo"
Valley Regulators
 
Great to hear you are getting things up and going. When it comes closer to shooting time let me know. If you guys are short on steel I may be able to bring some up for the day.

Steve
 
Nice to have a new clubs start up and new match to attend. Keep us updated on your progress. There is a good bunch of guys in Quesnel that would probably be willing to help with advice and stage scenarios.
 
We will be using a portable setup to state with. We will be sharing the Action bays with the IPSC.

We are hoping to build a village stage out at our Black Water Range next year.
But we need to get shooting first.

Any photos of ranges and stages out there??
Would be helpfull to see some of the shooting stages.

Don
 
Welcome to the sport. Some sites to google;
SASS.- handbooks for rules, stage options,range officer guidelines available for
download.

Alberta frontier shootists-new web site with some pics of stage fronts & targets.

Winter range-Good representation of stges and shooting bays. also under
photo heading they have excellent examples of stage set up
and scenario writing.

CAS City -More info & links than you will be able to absorb in the first year.
 
Congratulations are in order. It's a big undertaking but well worth the effort. When we built the Cowboy Range at Rocky Mountain House, we took hundreds of pictures of the construction process. An email address will get you as many as you want. Scenarios are yours for the asking and also any other help/information you might require. As Cariboo Lefty indicated, help is available from any of the CAS clubs, don't be afraid to ask. When we first started out, we stole as many scenarios as we could get our hands on and still do to this day, if we see something our members will enjoy, we bring it home. Check for Government/Provincial grants, Casinos' etc. This is a perfect place to aquire funding for your steel targets.
There's a ton of information available to you.

B Slim
AFS 15
SASS 17997
 
fatbastard said:
We will be using a portable setup to state with. We will be sharing the Action bays with the IPSC.

We are hoping to build a village stage out at our Black Water Range next year.
But we need to get shooting first.

Any photos of ranges and stages out there??
Would be helpfull to see some of the shooting stages.

Don
Click to expand...

I know the IPSC chapter in PG has quite a bit of steel. Is this available to you??

Also does anyone use paper targets or just steel??

John
 
IPSC has been kind to us just starting out with letting us us most of thier steel targets and plate rack.

They have been very supportive.

As for the paper targets not sure if any are used

Don
 
Maybe someone can chime in on the paper.??? Would be a cheap way to go :)

Nice of Shelldon and the guys to make all that steel available. I knew all those stories about him were bull...lol... :)

John
 
Paper is cheaper, but it takes time, slowing down the stage and it takes someone to apply patches.
We find steel is the better choice for all but close-up targets, where the danger of lead splash back is greater.
 
The Cold Lake Kid said:
Paper is cheaper, but it takes time, slowing down the stage and it takes someone to apply patches.
We find steel is the better choice for all but close-up targets, where the danger of lead splash back is greater.
Click to expand...

This is correct, like I said we use some carboard cutouts for the close in fightin as splash back is a big concern. As far as applying patches yes it is sort of a slow down but we just delegate a member or two to look after that and as far as I can tell in our stages and size of posse it has not been a big problem.
 
We shoot our pistol steel as close as 6 paces. If they are manufactured to hang properly there should be very very little splash. The only splash you should get is from a lip or stand hit. Most of the splash we get at one of our setups is from the 12-15 m shotgun stands.

Paper only makes sense to me if your range has bullet proof stage dividers, otherwise you have to shut down the whole shoot to go forward and attend to the targets. Very time consuming. I gues if you only use one stage at a time, it will work for you but where I shoot we always have 4 to 10 posses going at the same time.

If I can be so bold as to offer some advise to a new cowboy club I would start by saying use big targets (16'' to18 "or larger) of a thickness and quality that won't dent,pock or warp (all cause splashback) with use. Hang the target so that it swings freely (front to back only,not side to side as that will direct splash to the next bay) and a distinct slope front to back so that the slug is deflected down and away from the shooter on impact.

I has been well documented in the States that the size of targets will be very important to the continued sucsess of your club. It will become very apparent to you after a short while that a very small % of your shooters will become the speed demons that win all the time. Good or bad these are the guys that have sharp eyes, speend the money on good equipment and PRACTICE. Some clubs have tried to rein these guys back into the rest of the group by shrinking the targets and making it an acuracy contest. Guess what, the speed demeons will still win all the time because they PRACTICE. All the club has done is increase the miss count for the people who are there for the fun of the experience. This is discouraging and embarasing to some (especialy the new shooters) and they quit. While the entertainment value of the speed demons is an essential part of the equation ,we soon realize that the bread and butter and essential to the clubs success, are the folks that are there for the fun of it.

I am fortunate to belong to a club that was formed and nurtured by some very dedicated people long before I started and hundreds of shooter enjoy the laurels of thier work every year ( BSlim & Mustang to name a couple, take a moment to stand and be recognized).We can set up 10 stages of 25 large targets each for a shoot if needed but if I were just starting out I would rather set up as little as 6 in each stage that are big enough and use creative stage writing to mix up the scenarios. The same setup can be used with multiple scenarios. It may be hard to resist but don't scrimp on your steel- cut to what has been proven to work and add on to your count as finances allow. It will pay off in the long run.
 
Our annual Kamloops BC Palmers Gulch match usually has one stage or so that uses cardboard cutouts. It is a little slower to have to patch targets, but the options it allows is worth the effort. They can only be used in a bay that allows movement forward, but the stages can be written to allow paper targets to be engaged at the shooters discretion from quite far away, to as close as point blank. The average shooter can get as close as they please, and really open up, they seem to have a blast. By the way our match runs around 100 competitors, and we mostly manage to stay on schedule, so it doesn't slow the flow too much. Steel targets are necessary where forward movement is not safe, they also offer instant feedback as to hits and misses. Fingers is absolutely correct, anything you do to slow down the fast guys will really affect your average shooter, make targets big and close so that all your competitors can feel that they are having a fast run and you will have successful event. Just my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary.
 
X 2 on the large steel targets, as close as safety allows, (SASS guidelines).
It's a hoot for new shooters to hear that "Clang".
I notice even our fast shooters end up handicapping themselves by going too fast and missing.
Last year, I won a "Clean Match Award" for my efforts, something that doesn't get awarded very often in our posse.
We won't talk about time, OK?
But I do have a heck of a lot of fun!!
 
I have found over the years that shooting by yourself is not much fun. To get your club to grow, you need to realize you are in the entertainment business. The more fun the shooters have the more likely they will return, with their friends, with other shooters who haven't heard about CAS. Change is vital, as you grow, scenarios need to be modified, new props need to be built, there has to be something different for your guests. Someting new, exciting, things that will bring them back time after time. I give a lot of credit to the guys at PG for donating their time to build something all can enjoy.
B Slim
 
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