Return of the Gunfighter

[dime_novel_hero]

I had decided that, after a three year hiatus, I would go back to Cowboy Action Shooting. Even though the pictures and videos I had seen online showed that my fellow shooters never followed COVID masking or social distancing protocols, I have been vaccinated and boosted, the event is almost entirely outside in open air, and I would be masking and social distancing. The risk would be low. Probably lower than my weekly shopping trips.

The first steps were preparation, getting the gear together, making sure my gunleather was ready, ensuring I had enough ammo. In the meantime I would occasionally make trips to gun shows (not spending a lot of time there because of plague hubris) to stock up. At first, ammo was difficult to find. Recall the Black Lives Matter protests, which led to right-wing “they’re coming for our guns again” panic, which lead to stockpiling, which led to shortages, which led to conspiracies, which lead to even more stockpiling, later, rinse, repeat. The manufacturers seem to have sorted most of that out, ramped up production, and gotten more ammo on the shelves but, just as other corporations have taken advantage of inflation fears to price gouge, so too have gun and ammo manufacturers. The boxes of 45 ammo I had in storage from the before times were marked at $28 a box. My most recent boxes were $50.

I thought I had one box of shotgun ammo, which would be just barely enough for the match, but I was able to find another box, so I would be good.

What was not good, out of all my gear, was my pocket watch. Essentially sitting in a box for three years, I took it out and was able to give it two turns before it stopped, which did not bode well. It ran for about an hour and then stopped. I’ll need to find a watchmaker to look at it. In the meantime, I pulled out my Red Banner “going out of country sale” Molnija that I got back in the 90s.

On site, unloading my car, another shooter pulled up next to my car and started unloading. He was a new guy, only recently getting involved in cowboy action. He noted the katana in my gun rack and said that he had considered bringing his. He concurred on my reasoning for not participating for three years (COVID and no one following the rules). He liked the western version of the Mandalorian theme I had playing on my MP3. We talked about where season three was going and I introduced him to “The Heroine’s Journey” and Gail Carriger.

“Basically, at this point, you’re me.”

Amongst the conservatism that is CAS, it’s refreshing to meet someone not part of that gun culture.

When it came to actually start shooting, I had asked to be put at the top of the stage order. And so, I was placed in the middle of the lineup. And they got my name wrong again.

It’s VITRUVIUS. Not Vesuvius. IT, not ES. Clearly written. Vitruvius was a Roman architect and siege engineer to Julius Caesar. Not a volcano.

Most refer to me as Pike then, so there’s that at least.

It’s surprising how heavy the hammer got in three years. First stage it seemed exceptionally hard to pull the hammer back. My thumb got more used to the return to that activity before too long but what did not recover was reloading the M1887. I just could not get the hang of loading both shotgun shells into the chamber. And it was something that I had picked up pretty well when I first got the gun. I wasn’t fast then, but I was, at least, not fumbling. In at least one case, I threw away one round altogether because I couldn’t get them both in correctly, and then for the next reload just loaded a single round.

The rest of the transitions and shooting wasn’t too bad so the entirely of my sucky performance was squarely on the M1887 shotgun reload.

Watch on YouTube

Separate from my performance, someone had a box of shotgun ammo he was selling for $11 a box or $10 a box if you bought to lot of eight boxes. As I said, I had only two boxes and so was going to shop anyway so I gave him my cash and now have enough shotgun ammo for most of this season. He handed me a handful of extras saying that he was getting old and he was moving to an ultra-light load as these punched a little too hard for him.

The last stage of the day, I loaded up with a pair of what I had been using (Federal Field & Target, 1 1/8 oz ,#7 1/2, 1200 fps) with what I had just bought (Fiocchi Target, 1 1/8 oz, #7 1/2, 1200 fps) so I could compare them one right after the other. Turns out that the Fiocci punched noticeably harder than the Federals even though the stats on the box were identical. A faster burning powder, I suspect. I’m getting old, too, so when I work my way through these I’ll probably been looking into ultra-light loads as well.

How to judge my performance for the day objectively.

Grey Squirrel is typically one of the top shooters at any Logans Ferry match. His total time for the day was 136.65. I was 21st out of 24 shooters and had a total time of 361.80. By every measure, I suck. But I shoot Duelist (that is, one handed) while Grey Squirrel shoots two handed, holding down the trigger while his left hand thumbs the hammer. Shooting that way is much, much faster. Plus he’s got a slicked up lever gun and a hammerless shotgun, which is much, much faster than my M1887, even before my issues with loading.

Let’s say I compare myself to others in my class. There were four Duelist shooters, and I came in third (ahead of the new guy). The top duelist time was 187.85, roughly twice as fast as me. While I might aspire to times like that, I won’t be able to make it unless I drop the M1887 for a hammerless double barrel and slick up my rifle and pistols.

And do a fuck ton of practicing.

Each match is different. Each stage is different. Most of the other competitors shoot in an entirely different style from me, and with very different guns. There seems no way to compare my performance to theirs and not even a good way to compare my performance to my own on a previous match or even a previous stage, again, because each is entirely different. Yellow Peril Tactical says times and splits and, while I can get un-comparable times, I can’t get splits.

So, what I need to do is practice and, in that practice regimen, have a “standard” stage that runs the same way every time so that I can actually measure times and splits in an objective way. But, more importantly, because the M1887 reload was the bulk of my wasted time, I need to practice that more than anything else. I have inert weighted shells so that is something I can definitely do. I’ll just need to buckle down, set up a table in the back yard, and do the thing.

For a more generalized practice, I looked into some dry fire apps for my phone. None of them would do the thing that I needed, and the shot timers that would work were not sensitive enough (not hearing the hammer drop on a snap cap) or too sensitive (interpreting the clicks of the hammer draw as “shots”). I’ll keep looking for something like that but have also been considering getting a pistol in 22 so I can shoot more cheaply than the $1 a round my 45 ammo is costing now.

Ouch. I knew this was an expensive sport but saying “$1 a round” highlights just how expensive. $1 a pistol/rifle round x 20 rounds per stage x 6 stages + 1 box of shotgun ammo + the match fee = an expensive weekend activity to do once a month. Buying a 22 Heritage Rough Rider to practice would cost about the same as the amount of ammo I expend on a single match.

I’m going to, in a sense, save that much money next month as I will have to work weekends for May and miss that match.