FALL 2019
shotmanySAA revolvers and replicas and
have yet to find one with fixed sights that
shot exactly to the point of aim. At least
knowing where the gun hits allows you to
hold your sights in the correct spot before
pulling the trigger.
During this phase of the shooting evalu-
ation, there were no glitches, so my next
step was to take The Shootist to a Single
Action Shooting Society (SASS) match.
Southern Indiana is home to the Pleasant
Valley Renegades, a hale and hearty group
ofcowfolkswhoputona goodshoot.The
matchI attendedasLaVistaBill(SASS
#11869) consisted of six stages, and the
group broke up into two posses. I paired
The Shootist with another laser-engraved,
4¾-inch-barreled .45 Colt I own. The Duke
tended to favor the Winchester Model 1892
lever gun, so I brought along a reproduction
in .45 Colt. My scattergun was a double-
barreled, 12-gauge coach gun with open
chokes. And I used all three of the test .45
Colt loads in the sixguns and 1892 carbine.
The weather was good for an early
spring day, and my shooting wasn’t too
bad either—slow but accurate. I progressed
through the various stages, shooting at
fixed steel targets with the handguns and
rifle and knocked over poppers with the
shotgun.SinceI knewTheShootist’s point
ofimpact,I helda littlehighandwas
rewarded with a ding for each trigger pull.
Generally, the handgun targets were 7 yards
away,butonthefourthstage,anoversized
cowboy-shapedtarget 25 yardsawayhadto
beengagedwitha handgunanda rifle.That
lone target proved to be the undoing of
some competitors that day, but I prevailed.
At the end of the day, after the guns and
gear were put away—along with a bunch of
hot dogs, potato salad and soda—the scores
were tabulated and prizes awarded. I wasn’t
expecting much, but I ended up in third
place in the Senior shooting category. But I
was even more impressed to be in a group
with four other shooters who had “cleaned”
38 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
THE SHOOTIST
EMF Great Western II Shootist
Load Velocity Accuracy
Black Hills 250 RNFP 849 2.40
HSM 200 CowboyActionRNFP 813 1.92
Remington 250 Performance WheelGun 833 2.03
Bulletweightmeasuredin grains,velocityin fpsbychronograph
and accuracy in inches for best five-shot groups at 15 yards.
PERFORMANCE
The author tested The Shootist with three
different .45 Colt loads (left) as well as a
handsome Galco Gunleather rig (above).
