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Guest
editorial by: Smith n' Jones - Cowboy
action shooting, Western-action shooting, mounted shooting, call it
what you will, I continue to be amazed at the impact our sport has
had, and continues to have, on the shooting industry as a whole.
Recently, Chucky, Kid Durham, Marshal's Lady, and I
returned from Shot Show 2004 held at the Las Vegas Convention Center
in LV, Nevada.
As I was driving Ol' Dollar back to Idaho my mind kept
reviewing the events of the weekend, and I couldn't help but
compare what we had seen during the four day show to my first Shot
Show as a representative of Shoot! Magazine in January of 2000.
While
the 2000 Shot Show was not the first that I had attended, it was the
first wherein I had a specific agenda for the entire four days, that
being contacting as many firearms and equipment manufacturers,
potential advertisers, and retailers of our magazine as possible
with the intent of getting this fledging periodical off the ground
and flying.
While CAS was by no means a new sport, it was in the middle
of its greatest growth spurt.
At the time, SASS membership was growing by about a thousand
shooters a month with no signs of slowing down.
What I really noticed during our first year at Shot Show was
that while Chucky and I were dressed each day in complete cowboy
shootin' attire, there were very few others in attendance dressed
likewise.
There were a lot of cowboy hats, but few CAS shooters under
them.
Many of the vendors at that first show had guns and gear
associated with cowboy shooting (mostly the "big boys" like
Ruger, Marlin, Cimarron, and Uberti) but not much else.
Because Shot Show is all about "everything shooting,"
cowboy "stuff" was, and continues to be, a small slice of the
big pie.
But the really big difference is what was there in 2004 in
regards to CAS.
At
this year's show the number of booths that contained guns, ammo,
gear, and trappings for the CAS shooter had to be near five fold
what it was that first year.
And not just new enterprises testing the CAS waters, but some
of the established companies who are getting in the game came as
quite a surprise also.
Most notably were Beretta USA with their new Stampede SAA
available in three different finishes and most of the popular
calibers, and
Taurus USA with their U.S. offices located in Miami, Florida.
This Brazilian firearms company managed to slip in under the radar
of speculation and expectation with not one, but two CAS friendly
firearms; a new single-action revolver they call the Gaucho and
their own version of the much copied Colt Lightning rifle that they
are calling the Taurus Thunderbolt. Editorial
Continued
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