The False Bay Shooting Club was transformed into the Wild West last weekend during the 2019 national shoot of the Western Shooters of South Africa.
The shoot was hosted by the three Cape Town Clubs – Western Territory Rangers, Table Mountain Renegades and Northern Territory Rangers, from Friday March 22 till Sunday March 24.
Cowboys and cowgirls, gamblers, buckaroos, buckarettes and plains people from across the country tried their hand at shooting guns from around 1900, in various stages, each based on a shootout from a Western movie.
The Western Shooters of South Africa is about cowboy action shooting and wild bunch action shooting. Cowboy competitors dress up in cowboy gear that is either period correct or represents an outfit from a movie, be it a hero or a villain. They use firearms that can be recognised from the Western movies and series such as Colts, Winchesters and double barrel shotguns.
Wild bunch action shooting is based on the movie of the same name and wild bunch competitors would normally dress up in different outfits to represent a later era (1917). They use firearms such as Colt 1911 in .45 ACP, lever action rifle and an 1897 shotgun.
The club started in 2005 after former chairman, Brian Hoare aka Richmond P Hobson, wrote to one of South Africa’s biggest firearm publications, Man Magnum about cowboy action shooting, asking for like-minded or interested people to contact him.
A few months later the first meeting and shoot were held in Cape Town and the rest is history.
Mr Hoare, a Plumstead resident, said the initial turn-out was good and soon people realised that cowboy action shooting is fun for the entire family.