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Cowboy Mounted Shooting
Cowboy Mounted Shooting is an offshoot of Single Action Shooting (or Cowboy Shooting). Here, a competitor is required to mount a horse through a course of fire while carrying the same equipment required in Single Action Shooting.
Sounds hard, right? It is.
Cowboy Mounted Shooting is challenging. Here, a rider will have to compete in a timed event to shoot around 10 balloon targets with firearms loaded with black powder blank ammunition.
The stages designed for cowboy mounted shooters are often called “Mounted Revolver Competitions”. A mounted shooter will need 1900’s period-correct revolvers with 5 blanks per firearm.
There is also another form of Cowboy Mounted Shooting called the “Mounted Rifle”. Here, instead of just using a revolver, a rider would have to draw a lever-action pump from a scabbard and engage 5 rifle targets.
The third type is a competition where the rider will need a single revolver and a double-barrel shotgun to engage 7 targets.
Modern day Cowboy Mounted Shooting was first developed by Phil Spangenberger and Jim Rogers. Spangenberger is an Old West historian, researcher and writer with an innate love for the Old West. In his spare time, he would often shoot balloons with Old West firearms. Jim Rogers, on the other hand, is the founder of C.A.S-S.A.S.S Single Action Shooting Society. Rogers was the person who approached Spangenberger for help in developing the sport of Cowboy Mounted Shooting.
What is Mounted Shooting?
Imagine a cowboy, or cowgirl, riding a horse with guns a blazing as he gallops away on a patterned course of fire...
What a sight, right?
That is Mounted Shooting.
Mounted Shooting is one of the fastest equestrian sports and is a total spin-off of the ever-growing sport of Single Action Shooting.
The sport of Mounted Shooting is an interesting one. It combines certain elements of the Wild West, along with a huge amount of equestrian and sharpshooting skills.
In this sport, as with Single Action Shooting, mounted shooters are required to take on the use of an alias. This alias will be like your trademark and this is how you will be called in every SASS event and competition. The alias needs to be related to the Old West, either by history or fiction (books, movies).
There are various divisions in Mounted Shooting. There is the Divisions 1-5, Ladies 1-5, Junior, Senior Limited, Senior Open, Junior and Cart Divisions. Regardless of the division you will be assigned to, all new mounted shooters will start at level 1. As you rank better over time, you will be promoted to the next level until you reach the highest possible level.
Mounted Shooting is a fun and exciting sport, whether to join or to experience. And the dressing up will be the best part of all! Imagine sporting a look that cowboys used to wear in the Old West back in the early 1900s!
If you’re a huge fan of the Old West and would like to experience how it was like back then, then join a local club. If you’re no expert on a horse, you can always try your luck with Single Action Shooting.
It’s an experience to remember for a lifetime!
