Zootshooting

[Nathan Flowers]

Except that you would never want to shoot wearing vintage clothing. Shooting gets you dirty and deposits lead dust in your clothes. You would have to have those clothes cleaned after every time you wore them shooting. Not the kind of wear and tear I'd want to put my vintage through!

That is true. Perhaps a happy medium? Modern clothes, tailored more like vintage. Frankly, shooting sports like this, and cowboy action, are a bit silly (to me), but it's all in good fun. Anything to get more folks firing.

 

[David Conwill]

I could be wrong, but hasn't the popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting actually increased the supply of good reproduction Victorian-era clothing?

Perhaps if "Zootshooting" (what a name, I preferred G-man Action Shooting) catches on it will mean a similar increase in good reproduction Golden Era clothing.

-Dave

 

[VintageRed]

There's lots of good repro GE clothing going on...just check out the sewing threads over in the Powder Room. Those ladies have talent!



~D.

 

[DeaconKC]

I'm trying to figure out what kind of character I'm going to be. Old fat guys aren't very stylish........

 

[Story]

I'm trying to figure out what kind of character I'm going to be. Old fat guys aren't very stylish........

I'll take "Who was Sydney Greenstreet?" for $400, Alex.

PS: Any man who wears a red fez with a linen suit to the range is gonna get serious style points. :-D

 

[DeaconKC]

I bow to your wisdom sir!

 

[Diamondback]

That is true. Perhaps a happy medium? Modern clothes, tailored more like vintage. Frankly, shooting sports like this, and cowboy action, are a bit silly (to me), but it's all in good fun. Anything to get more folks firing.

If it helps, try thinking of it as just another form of "reenacting", a kind of "living history" demonstration on the firing-line.

Thank you sir, for your explanation as well. Someone else was kind enough to shoot me (excuse the pun) a PM with similar information. I feel much more knowledgeable now.

On an aside, I do love your sig phrase. I'll have to keep that one in mind.


~Red

Quite welcome, ma'am--if you're really into the complications of "Rock & Roll" you might check out MachineGunBoards.com (tell 'em "nedry" sent ya). As for the sig, it's a chopped-down version of one I lifted from another guy on the gunboards--IIRC, the guy I lifted it from was a retired sniper, who every few weeks alternated between that and "Sniper Motto: Reach Out And Touch Someone"...

 

[warbird]

I could be wrong, but hasn't the popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting actually increased the supply of good reproduction Victorian-era clothing?

Perhaps if "Zootshooting" (what a name, I preferred G-man Action Shooting) catches on it will mean a similar increase in good reproduction Golden Era clothing.

-Dave

Yes you are correct. And it's not just the clothing, but also the firearms. There are so many more choices now (in the last 15 yrs) for every type of pistol and rifle from the "mountain man" to 1900 it is just astounding.

S&W also has recreated "new" old designs, remanufacturing a number of the revolvers they made in the first half of the 20th century.

In general though I'd say it is a lot easier to recreate this golden era from both a clothing perspective to a firearm one.

Also there is tremendous latitude given in SASS to the style of clothing you wear, from formal to less formal cowhand style etc. In the winter folks are likely to wear more formal attire and felt hats, in the summer it changes to less formal and panama or straw hats.

But, for me when I competed or still do sometimes, in Cowboy Action I went out and bought a pair of single action pistols and customized them to my liking within the rules they adhere to. But, for this golden 20th century shooting I doubt I would have to buy anything and probably a lot of shooters could easily do that. Auto Ordnance would probably sell more if it got popular, but I would certainly argue that forcing that type of weapon or class to compete would be a mistake. The only way for it to be successful would be to have pistol, rifle and shotgun and the special class can be a side class. This is done in cowboy also as there are special classes for those who want to buy nice Sharp's rifles and shoot long range stuff. But that's my opinion.

The name kinda sucks to me, zootsuits were not the primary attire of gangsters or G Men. It has possibilities as a neat subculture of the shooting world, but I don't like that particular group's model. But I will say you have to give a lot of leeway on clothing, not so on guns, because as I said even in cowboy action the more folk get into it the more they will buy the stuff for it, but that takes quite a while to happen.

All that said, would I shoot it? Sure I'll shoot just about anywhere, anytime and I do. A semi auto Tommy is fine for that stuff, but full auto Thompson's should be shot for special occasions and otherwise kept in vaults. They are rare now and we need to keep all that are still around in good shape. Shot yes, every month, no.

 

[Cody Pendant]

2 fun activities in one!

I love Zoot suits, I love guns. I love the idea of wearing Zoot suits and shooting guns! I have 4 Zoots just like the one's they are wearing. I can't imagine why you guys don't love their clothes. There a really fun outfit to wear. Don't you ever wear an outfit out just for fun or as a "costume"? I do for dancing swing and sometimes just out dancing at a club. Always causes a stir at the local Honkey-tonk! Had a gal trying to steal my 22" purple pheasant hat feather while we were on the dance floor a few weeks ago. Held on to the wife tight to stop her from whacking the gal in the eye with her high heel when she caught her reaching for it.:rage:
Now, which suit do I wear first? Purple I'm feelin Purple!

 

[Viola]

I'm rather more fond of the PI with the 3-inch .38 snubnose, bit more within my means than a Tommy anyway, but it looks like a pretty fun game at any rate.

 

[Story]

Zootshooters in

In Duster (the seated gent)'s own words - Yesterday we held the first Zootshooters event east of the Mississippi. A group of us shooters from Mass and R.I put on a match. We had four Capers (Stages). It was a two gun match. Pistol or revolver typical of the 20's-30's. Thompson or another semi-auto or that era, or pistol cartridge lever gun. We also had one Caper with a snubby as a third gun.

 

[Diamondback]

If y'all really wanted to be 'period' you'd only feed that Choppa with XX sticks or drums--the XXX (30-round) only came to be during WWII to replace the unreliable-in-the-field drums.

----------------
Now playing: Visual Music, James Hannigan and Andrew Sega - Bretonia Space Suite
via FoxyTunes

 

[DerMann]

Hahahaha, wonderful.

Funny thing is that I had my Pandora station on 'When Fools Rush In' right before I started the video, so that freaked me out a little bit.

Nice to see one of the gentlemen has a fully automatic Thompson, even if it looks to be an M1A1, which is technically an anachronism.

 

[Levallois]

Interesting new hobby/sport - and not any more silly than the game of golf IMHO. It will be interesting to see how it evolves. The cowboy action folks started out small and what's their membership now - close to 100,000?

John

 

[Talbot]

If it helps, try thinking of it as just another form of "reenacting", a kind of "living history" demonstration on the firing-line.


Quite welcome, ma'am--if you're really into the complications of "Rock & Roll" you might check out MachineGunBoards.com (tell 'em "nedry" sent ya). As for the sig, it's a chopped-down version of one I lifted from another guy on the gunboards--IIRC, the guy I lifted it from was a retired sniper, who every few weeks alternated between that and "Sniper Motto: Reach Out And Touch Someone"...

I have a mate in TX who has a licence to manufacture firearms for the Armed Forces. Gatling guns last time I visited. Compulsive collector with more items than he can keep track of. Nice guy though, he gave me a new Ruger 380 when I was there, but I had to decline - couldn't get it home. He's building some 50 cal rifles at the moment for his own amusement and to give to some buddies. "Gun control means never having to say, I missed you"

 

[Incorporeal13]

That was wonderful!
Not only did I enjoy the shooting, firearms, and clothing, but I was thrilled that there was a female in on it, too!

 

[carebear]

Some of the biggest growth in the shooting sports has been among women.

A welcome change, I've spent wayyyyy too much time hanging out with guys like Dback and Story in my shooting career.

 

[DutchIndo]

That looks like fun, I always wanted to do something similar but with Carbines and Garands. Why should the Cowboy Action shooters have all the fun ? I guess it would be PIC with the targets I guess.

 

[carebear]

Some kind of Korean-era shooting?

 

[Story]

He's building some 50 cal rifles at the moment for his own amusement and to give to some buddies.

Is he using the WWII UK .55 Boys AT rifles as a building base?

More years than I care to remember ago, I apprenticed with a guy that was converted several to .50 cal., with heavy barrels we lathed down to Boys profiles. I rolled the cartridges as carefully as Cuban cigars. They were used as baseline test weapons, vs. the Barrett (now seen in places like Iraq and A-stan).

A welcome change, I've spent wayyyyy too much time hanging out with guys like Dback and Story in my shooting career.

Oh, you're hilarious.

But true - I don't look so good in a dress and heels. My cleavage, it be hairy..