Well, we have a good start at Winter Range. The Association of Arizona Gunslingers, Inc run a 6 lane 5 day Town Alley at the SASS National Championship. We will have hundreds of SASS shooters walk by and some will try our sport and get hooked. We are giving away two Colt 45s suitable for fastdraw to SASS competitors, provided by Bob James and the club. Hundreds of the public will also come by. We don't make money on this event but we sure infect some with the urge to shoot Cowboy Fastdraw.
The Pitch: Because Cowboy Fastdraw is a combination of quickness, accuracy, and mental toughness, a new competitor has the opportunity to be competitive and win right a way. In what other sport can a newcomer go up against a World Champion and win. Where else can a novice become one of the top ten competitors in the world in a very competitive sport even if he or she starts in the his or her late sixties. I started SASS and CFDA at the same time and soon became mostly a CFDA shooter. I could practice SASS 24 hour a day and never be competitive, but in CFDA because it is a sport that requires quickness, accuracy and mental toughness, I am competitive. I knew I had arrived several years ago, when at Tombstone a much quicker opponent moaned when he saw he had drawn me.
The ability to be a gunslinger is not determined just on speed only. At a recent jackpot shoot we had a match with 9 year old against a 3 shooter. They were evenly matched. The 9 year old had a speed rating of .185 and a accuracy rating of .80 for a total rating of .985. The three shooter was .62 speed and accuracy of .38 for a total rating of 1.0. This would be before you factor in mental toughness. They drew each other twice and split the matches each winning once. A gunfighter rating of 1.0 or higher will put you in the top 10% of our shooters. You can get there by being a 3 shooter shooting 30% or a 7 shooter shooting 70%, those are evenly matched gunslingers, the match being determined by mental toughness.
The Blocker: Recently some of the speed has gotten frustrated and has started some new competitions. These new events are really just a 1/3 of a match. They have eliminated accuracy and mental toughness from the event. They are just speed exhibitions. I think in 2016 we have already seen a deterioration of the abilities of some of our best shooters because of these events. If you don't compete in a full event (quickness, accuracy, mental toughness) your ability to do so will be hurt. I have a good friend who tells me to be quiet because the speed is easier to handle when infected by grailfever.
Anyway got to go get holstered up, those SASS shooters need to hear the pitch.
The blocker target can be useful. We've used them at fun natches where we want to do something different. Set up a series of five targets, (for example) at varying yardages, mix small disks, large disks, and have a blocker as a "stop plate" Use your imagination, but you've got to hit all the other targets before you hit the stop plate. It's great fun, and combines USPSA, SASS, and Cowhoy shooting.
ReplyDeleteI love a regular 4X 3/5 match as much as anyone. But, it's also fun to mix it up a little bit and show the shooters something different.