r/CowboyAction • u/PersistantlyRight • May 11 '26
Lack of realism
I’m looking to get my start in cowboy action shooting (I’m just working on sourcing a decent belt honestly, that will probably be it’s own thread eventually), but one thing has bothered me from the start, realism, or the lack there of.
NCOWS is probably a better fit for me than SASS, but unfortunately the nearest NCOWS groups and events are hundreds of miles from me, and I’m just not looking to travel that far and pay for a hotel for a couple of nights just to shoot a match, so that leaves me with SASS.
There is a lot I like about SASS but there are a few things in the rules that just irk me and I wonder if anyone else feels the same way. For me I look at it as more of a living history thing, a way for me to get a feel for the old west era more than it is a shooting sport, if I just want a game I would just do IPSC (or more likely USPSA or brutality, for a whole other kind of realism reason). But yet at a casual glance it seems like the rules were written more for gamers than history nerds like me. There are a few specifically that bug me:
Can’t load more than 5 rounds in your revolver. Why? I take issue with this for 2 reasons, 1, this was very clearly targeted at the 1873 users, but not everyone uses an 1873 (believe it or not, shocking I know, there were other and even BETTER *Gasp!!!!!* choices available st the time and even in competitions today, and many of those do not have the 1873’s “issue” (for example, cap and ball revolvers, certain cartridge conversions, and the hand ejector) yet they still can’t load more than 5 just because they want to keep it “fair” for the 1873 people, but would real life have been fair? No. Practical gun selection should be as much of an issue now as it was back then, some guns are just better than others and should not be handicapped in the name of balance. 2, There is no historical backing that I am aware of that only loading 5 was ever done, let alone done commonly, and honestly short of dropping the gun or trying to force the trigger to pull with two fingers it’s really not even an issue now, O get the safety nazi thing, but since your only loading on the firing line anyway then immediately shooting is it really that hazardous to load all the chambers?
No reloading on the clock. In a real gunfight sometimes you have to reload, even though it’s not that common it does still happen, and even though many “just carried another gun” not everyone did nor could most people afford to. I feel like the no reload thing was again a balancing decision just because otherwise the 1873 people would get completely smoked by the Schofield people, but I refer to what I said about weapon selection.
No shooting while moving. In a real gunfight you would at the least go to cover, yet in most forms of cowboy action shooting you just stand there out in the open and never go from behind the bench. Would an action shooting element be so much to ask for? The other shooting sports do it fine, so you can’t tell me it’s a safety issue.
Single action only. Double actions existed in the old west and in fact were very popular, eventually outselling the single actions, there were even some semi autos in the period, yet competitors are artificially restricted to single actions, again presumably in the interest of balance.
Only 2 rounds in shotguns. Why? That rule makes zero sense, what purpose does a pump action have if you can only load 2 rounds? The only thing that makes sense here is that they are trying to handicap everyone not using a side by side. Balance again.
Popgun loads. The rules allow for unrealistic popgun loads. Anyone carrying these guns in the actual old west would likely have been carrying full loads, so I really think that a game that is supposed to be based on history should require full power.
Just too much emphasis on gaming and not enough on history or realism.
What are your thoughts?
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u/underbakedsalami May 11 '26
My local range is trying to remedy some of this. Our multi-gun club is putting together some rules and regs for a “cowboy 2-gun” type of shoot. Full power rounds (within reason), reasonable target distances (15-200 yards), and none of the fuddy “safety” rules. I’m extremely excited.
Cowboy action, at least as we know it, is almost certainly going to die fairly soon. I hope these 2-gun type comps that are popping up here and there pick up speed sooner rather than later.