All About Cowboy Action Shooting
Chapter One " Our Cowboys Have Always Been Heros"

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"I came up with that name," Creigh explains, "and Bill Hahn designed, built and handled all the artwork and such for the sets and props."

Creigh is quick to acknowledge the efforts of many others who contributed to the rearing of his brainchild, which doubtless would have died aborning without a dedicated Board of Directors. "We (i.e., the Board) were given the name 'The Wild Bunch' at 'End of Trail '86," Creigh recalls. "I set up a team event of 75 targets, and the only rue was that they all had to be knocked down safely. I called stage, 'The Wild Bunch'. After every team had shot the stage, the shooters all insisted that the Board of Directors shoot I, too. Well, we did, and we won the event. Some wag yelled out 'The Wild Bunch has won the Wild Bunch shoot,' and the name stuck."

By 1988, Creigh and Boyd Davis were the only original board members still serving, but by then the sport had grown large enough to require a governing body. In 1989, the nine-member Wild Bunch organized the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), with Harper Creigh assigned SASS bade Number One. Choosing his registered alias to honor the hero of his favorite file, Creigh became his alter ego: Judge Roy Bean.

As the number of SASS affiliated local clubs grew, so did the need for local representation in the development of match and club rules and policy. This led to the creation of the Territorial Governors, who were elected from among the members of local SASS clubs. A consensus of this august body is required in order to effect changes in SASS rules. With over 250 local SASS clubs at this writing, consensus is not always easily achieved.

SASS members are informed, advised and entertained bi-monthly by The Cowboy Chronicle, the journal of the Single Action Shooting Society. Much more than a clubby newspaper. "The Chronicle" has become an institution to its thousands of readers, many of whom first learned about the Cowboy Action movement from its pages. Virtually all the major related businesses now advertise in The Cowboy Chronicle, whose readers have come to trust its recommendations and reportage. The SASS publications staff also produces the SASS Rule Book, End of Trail publications and the Territorial Governor Bulletin. Many cowboy auctioneers learn about the sport from the SASS Web Site (www.sassnet.com), which averages over a million visits a year. Cyber Space Cowboys (and girls) communicate and conspire via the SASS Bulletin Board, which further promotes fellowship and membership growth. Since The Judge and his co-founding fathers started the Single Action Shooting Society, the organization has grown to over 30,000 members in all 50 states and 18 foreign countries. Hundreds of membership applications and requests for new local club start-ups pour in to SASS headquarters monthly.

In response to the game's mushrooming popularity, SASS expanded its national Cowboy Action Shooting Championship program in 1999 to include seven SASS regional events: Northwest, Southwest, High Plains, South-Central, Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. This annual cycle of matches begins in May in Gainesville, Georgia, with the Southeast Regional, known as "the Shootout at Mule Camp." The Winter Range National Championships are held in February at Phoenix, Arizona, and the year ends in April with the World Championships in Norco (CA) at Colt's End of Trail.

Called by gun and outdoor writers and the shooting industry, "The fastest growing shooting sport in the country," Cowboy Action Shooting-or Western Action Shooting, as it is sometimes called by other organizations-now influences whole industries in the areas of fashion, firearms, ammunition and related items. With the sponsorship of major players throughout the industry, End of Trail has matured into one of the premier shooting matches in the world. "To keep the game from getting too serious, we require period clothing and gear and the use of aliases." Says Harper Creigh. Humor is a major component of this relaxing and therapeutic game and central to its burgeoning popularity. It was decided early on that no money would ever be awarded at the End of Trail World Championships or other SASS sanctioned matches. This was surely "Judge Bean's" most Solomon-like decision.

Since that Saturday afternoon two decades ago, the Father of Cowboy Action Shooting has helped guide the growth of his brainchild into maturity and a new century. It's important to him that his creation remain the safe, fun-filled and educational amateur family recreation that he helped design. While the shooting match remains the nucleus of a Cowboy or Western Action event, and whereas the old-time firearms are first-rate fun for serious (and not-so-serious) competitors, Cowboy Actioneering encompasses many other activities representing a critically important and deeply held Western philosophy-the Cowboy Way, the Code of the West, the Spirit of the Game. These qualities represent Harper Creigh's philosophy and the guiding principle of Cowboy Actioneers. May it always be so.

"The hardest part is keeping it pure and honest," says Judge Roy Bean, sounding vaguely like Paul Newman, "…'n runnin' off the cheaters n' complainers. A few years ago, somebody called me 'The Conscience of Cowboy Action Shooting'. It's a hair shirt I wear proudly, because I feel that Cowboy Action Shooting is my child and I want it to grow straight and true. With all the great godfathers and godmothers it has, it can't go any other way."

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