Sangamon County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois






Wild Bunch Matches

Phil Davis
SCRA Meeting - March 7, 2009
April 20211 GunNews



Photo Courtesy Long Nine Cowboys
Springfield, Illinois



Phil Davis made a few remarks about the Wild Bunch.  He explained that shooters use different models of guns for the Wild Bunch compared to Cowboy Action.  In the Wild Bunch you shoot a 1911 pistol in .45 caliber, a lever action rifle that must be at least .40 caliber and a model 97 shotgun of any configuration.

You have to have period clothing that is 1916 or older.  Davis wears his 1912-era  WWI uniform.  The rules for "Wild Bunch" are very similar to SASS in that you have to complete with three different weapons and you never finish on the rifle.

In Wild Bunch shooting you start off the stage with four rounds in your magazine tube but nothing in the chamber in your model 97 shotgun.  Also you carry two magazines loaded with five for your holstered 1911 pistol. It's carried with the hammer down on the unloaded chamber.

At the sound of the timer you usually will draw the pistol, charge it and hit five targets and reload from a completely unloaded gun. You cannot do what they call tactical reload in IPSC or IDPA where you fire four and kick it out.  You must have a completely dry gun and then change it.  Then you shoot your rifle and then your shotgun.

Davis said his first try at a Wild Bunch shoot kind of looked like a Sam Peckinpaugh movie, lots of muzzle blasts, lots of grass flying, and quite a bit of blood too.

He shot a WWI 1911 that had the very short grip safety.  The first time he drew, he came up and put his hand up high on the backstrap like he does with his IPSC gun.  By the time he got through the first magazine,  every time the gun would go off he would get a spray of blood from the web of his hand.  It looked like raw hamburger.

He found that after shooting cowboy for a little over a year, you would think that shooting targets so big and close it would be so simple to shoot a clean stage.

Bob Hayden remarked that he'd seen them shoot at a three foot or four foot circle four feet away and miss it.

Those are some of the differences between Wild Bunch shooting and regular SASS shooting.  Davis belongs to the Long Nine Cowboys based in Springfield.  If you want to go out they do the fourth Sunday of every month.  If you don't have the guns go out anyway.  You'll have five people fighting over who's going to lend you their guns.

In the summertime they shoot at the Lefthanders in Loami.  But they just had their last indoor shoot at Bullet Express.

One note:  The don't allow the use of black powder cartridges at Bullet Express.  They let them shoot it one year and the  acid ate their ventilation fans  They had to replace all four of their fans.


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