The Decline of SASS

This is a PM I received by an individual who asked to be kept anonymous. To protect his identity I have of course excluded his name as well as editing the content of his message to eliminate clues to who he is.What he says is very very telling.

Hello,


Joe,

I have decided to contact you off line for various reasons. One is that I gave up my SASS membership after years with them, so I no longer actually have a voice as I don't "belong". Also, I do not wish to incur the wrath of the SASS Gods.

I hear and agree with what you are trying to bring to the attention of the people that are involved in SASS. Two words for you on that score, "forget it"! They just don't get it. I’ve seen how SASS started and how CAS was first conducted.

I must say that for the first couple of years I was duly impressed with SASS. Most of the folks that showed up at End of Trail back in the early days were trying to dress as close to historically accurate as research, time, and money would allow. Many of the firearms being used were originals or close copies of originals. Clothing and accouterments were either originals or extremely close copies there of. There were no "B" western cowboys to be seen.

Then something changed. Some of the people involved just sort of took over. They incorporated and started charging for everything from your entrance fee to a drink of water. They referred to SASS as a "club" in the beginning. But in reality it was no more then a business, and the people that participated no more then cash cows.

I have been to all but a few End of Trails, and it has surely changed. It used to be free to just go look and shop, then they started charging at the gate. They use to beg [companies]to come set up in the early days of the shoots, and they provided a building to set up in. Last year it cost two thousand dollars to purchase a space at End of Trail. Then they said that if you weren't a SASS member you couldn't sell at End of Trail.

The heads of the corporation rake in the cash, then ask for volunteers to do the clean up and the running and so on. What a scam!

They also tout that they have about 55,000 members world wide. But they never retire a number! So how many do they really have? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Maybe less then those figures? Nobody but the corporate offices knows.

The whole idea of a venue to shoot antique firearms and copies thereof has been lost to the years. And regardless of what Judge Roy Bean says, SASS did not start out as IPSC for old firearms. It just went in that direction to draw large amounts money from corporate sponsors. And originally you were not allowed to win if you were sponsored by a business of any type.

The elitists were already alive and well by that time. Those with lower badge numbers were setting themselves apart from those over about 500. Then they started issuing special badges to certain people so one could tell at a glance who were the "chosen". I found the practice childish, and I quit.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that the reason for SASS in the first place has been lost. I have seen it degenerate into a circus rather then a way to hold on to something that is fast fading away. With political correctness creeping into everything these days, it's not socially acceptable to celebrate the conquering of a continent. So instead of trying to relive an era that is fast fading, they have turned it into "a fantasy game"! It is of course a fantasy game, but in the beginning it had some sort of goal. A purpose if you wish.

I read some of the posts on the SASS wire, and even respond to a few. I have never read more pure and simple tripe on any other board. From bad and sometimes dangerous reloading information, to a bountiful lack of knowledge on everything from firearms history to American History. I wonder if some of the folks have ever read a book on the subject they are giving information on. It's akin to asking a total stranger how to perform heart surgery, because someone you're with just had a heart attack. I even question some of the advice given by the so called "experts". Why they haven't blown themselves up is a mystery. I shoot black powder almost exclusively, and have for about forty years. I shudder at the recommendations on loading this class "A" explosive given out by folks that have dinked with the stuff for a year or two. Once again, "Don't these people crack a book? I wish I had all this great information when I started reloading with it! But I sure as hell wouldn't ask basically a bunch of strangers how to handle something that goes boom! Who knows how many or if there even are branches on their family tree! They may have ever even owned a firearm for all I know.

The way they write on the wire it sounds more like a pre-school rather then serious shooters exchanging information on obsolete weapons and the accouterments that go along with the overall aspect of the sport.

Winnies? Remmies? Darksiders? Lords of the Black Soot? Preacher and Sooth Sayer of the Black Arts? Stealth Bullet Societies? Give me a really Large Break! It sounds like a bunch of Junior High kids talking about Star Trek and Star Wars. I expect to see them carrying their firearms in a Big Bird holster set next. It will go along well with their Holly Hobbie gun cart I suppose.

I've been shooting obsolete firearms now for most of my life. In those years I've attempted to emulate how it was done in the Victorian era. As Monte Walsh said in the movie by the same name, "I'll not spit on my whole life". And that's what I see a vast majority of the people involved in SASS doing. They stand for nothing. They no more have an interest in preserving a long gone way of life than they do being poked in the eye with a sharp stick. SASS has done nothing for anyone other then put some money in the pockets of a few that saw there was a dollar to be turned early on. There are wolves in this world, and there are sheep. So far a handful of wolves found out it is better to shear the sheep and sell the wool than to just eat them outright. That's good business. But it does nothing to promote, support, or recapture a time when America was a nation in flux. When folks either made it or failed according to their choices. When some people found the firearm helped or hindered that success.

So here's to Island Girl that shot a match dressed as Super Girl. And to Gunzilla that has taken outfitting to the lowest level. Here’s to all the little "Winnie" and "Remmie shooters that speak as if they were just learning to walk. Here's to the bad information that is thrown out on the SASS wire everyday because some people don't have the wherewithal to go to a library or buy a book or two, let alone actually read one. Here's to the people that actually believe Remington made a Model 1858 revolver, when in fact what they own is the Remington New Model Army of 1863. Here's to the manufacturer that took a Topper shotgun and called it the 1871 Buffalo Classic and sold a ton of them to naïve people that believe there actually was a firearm of this design in 1871. Here's to the folks that "just are in for the fun" and don't care if they win or not. Here’s to the ones that win every time because of corporate sponsors and free gear and ammunition and bucks aplenty so they have nothing to do but shoot.

In other words, here's to the apathy reigns supreme because most folks have nothing to do on the weekend but run around in their pseudo-Victorian clothes and proclaim they are "Cowboys". Here is to the folks that never researched a spec of what they wear or carry in their holster, yet tell the ignorant public, "Yeah, this is what they looked like in the 1880's". I know this as I see it all played out daily on the streets where I live. Here is to pure blind ignorance of the whole shootin' match (pun intended).

Joe, I have went on much longer then I was going to. But I have to admit I feel the same way you do about most of the same things concerning SASS. But bear in mind, SASS is a for profit corporation. It's like selling wine or whiskey. If you allow enough people to drink from the bottle, and just keep adding water to accommodate them all, it's bound to be thinned out to the point where nobody is drinking anything but water. And thanks to the powers that be, that is what happened to SASS. It has been diluted to the point that most folks don't know or want to know where, why, what or who started SASS. Just pay your $35.00 dollars a year and have 55,000(?) new friends.
Good luck on your crusade Joe. But as for me, I walked a long time ago. National Congress of Old West Shootists is were SASS was. But then, it's run by the members and not a board of money men.


P.S. I don't usually get involved with these matters. It really doesn't effect my way of doing things, nor do I give two bits the way other people think of SASS, or the way they do things.

I have met some mighty find folks through SASS. That's a fact.
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