Welcome to our second newsletter. It’s hard to believe that it has been two months since our inaugural edition. Since then, there has been a lot of activity.
For all those people who jumped on the membership bandwagon early, we appreciate your support. Renewal notices have been sent. If you have not yet renewed, please consider renewing. For those who have not yet joined, please consider becoming a member of Historic 3-Gun.
2026 Rules
All members are encouraged to submit suggestions on rule changes and additions. Please do so, as soon as possible, to: members@historic3gun.com.
Recent Major Matches
The Missouri State Historic 3-Gun 2025 Championship, Pershing’s Pursuit, was put on by the Bear Creek Volunteers on their beautiful range near Branson, MO. It was held on the third weekend of September. As usual, there were specialty matches on Friday followed by 10 great stages on Saturday and Sunday followed by the awards. Lunches were supplied all three days with a great banquet on Saturday evening. As always, the shooting was a lot of fun. It was a great blend of challenging and fast and furious stages. https://bearcreekvolunteers.com.
The North American Historic 3-Gun 2025 Championship was put on by the boys from Illinois, Shell Stuffer and Back 40. It was held at the Sandoval Shooting Range, Sandoval IL on the first weekend of October. There were lots of specialty matches including some interesting new ones and lots of long-range action on Friday followed by another great 10 stage match on Saturday and Sunday. The ladies of Sandoval put on a spectacular lunch on each of the three days and dinner Friday and Saturday evenings. There was even a campfire on Friday night. https://sandovalshootingrange.com.
Looking back while looking forward
The Cowtown Cowboy Shooters’ Association (CCSA) is operated by Barbwire and Zona. The first multi-day Historic 3-Gun match of 2025 was held by CCSA on February 15-16. This is a unique match that encourages all H3G and Wild Bunch shooters to participate. Only pistol caliber rounds are allowed on this range. Standard rules allow starting in Condition 1 if you are qualified. Everyone is allowed to move with a loaded firearm as long as the finger is outside the trigger guard. Shotgun targets may be re-engaged. This match is just over a week before the start of SASS® End of Trail®, so it is well attended. This year there were 44 shooters at the Cowtown H3G/WB match.
The CCSA range is part of a larger Cowtown Range. The following is a short history of the range, taken from the CCSA website. For the complete history see: History of Cowtown | Welcome to Cowtown!
Cowtown Range, originally known as “A Day in the West” and later as “Cowtown” was built in the seventies by Ron Nix, a Hollywood stuntman who moved to Arizona with his wife and a dream to create a real old west atmosphere.
He brought a lot with him – stuntmen, rodeos, public performances, Civil War reenactments and completing a western town which served as the basic set for a lot of movies and western events. The reenactments opened the door for cowboy action shooting® which is where CCSA comes in.
In 1984 the Club held the first ever sanctioned Arizona State Championship of Cowboy Shooting. Three years later, in 1987, the Single Action Shooting Society® was formed and adopted CCSA rules.
The shooting venue is named FORT SNOW of the ARIZONA TERRITORY after Don Snow, one of the original founders of the club. Don Snow became ill in 1993 and until his death in December of 2000, he made Cowtown literally his life and it is for his often-heroic efforts that the original concept still exists.
The 2026 match is scheduled for February 14-15. Come and have fun. It is always a great match.
Spring H3G multi-day shoots (check our website for details)
February 14-15, 2026 – Arizona State, Cowtown, AZ
March 20-22, 2026 – Texas International, Bowie, TX
April 10-12, 2026 – World Championship, Oklahoma City Gun Club, Arcadia, OK
Historic 3-Gun Range Officer Certification Program
We have tested our proposed RO Certification and made some adjustments. We will be rolling out the program in January and will announce the start in our January newsletter.
This program will consist of 3 phases.
Phase I
Home Study Course – The RO Candidate will download the PowerPoint RO Home Study Material and review both the Shooter’s Handbook and the Home Study PowerPoint. They will then take the open book RO Phase I exam. The exam will be returned for marking. A mark of 80% is required to pass. If the candidate does not pass, they may review the material again and take a new, different exam.
Phase II
Practical Classroom Course – The RO Candidate must demonstrate to the instructor that they understand the concept of using the timer and safely assisting the shooter through the course of fire. Discussion will include how to mentally prepare yourself for each stage to be able to safely assist the shooter through the course of fire. This will take one to two hours.
Phase III
Range Confirmation – The RO Candidate must RO at least 3 shooters at each of 2 different H3G matches and be signed off by the Match Director or an RO Instructor that they have demonstrated, by example, being a good Range Officer/Timer Operator and clearly demonstrated how to safely assist a shooter through a course of fire. Not every candidate will have sufficient experience being a timer operator. Phase III is an opportunity for candidates to practice being a Range Officer while having someone coach them and able to give them advice and assistance. Candidates are encouraged to act as an RO as much as is necessary to be signed off as a competent Range Officer.
The Thompson carbine: Preparation for competition in Historic 3-Gun
The semi auto Thompson carbine has been manufactured since the 1970’s by various makers. The early guns were made by Auto-Ordnance. They are now produced by Kahr Firearms Group (www.kahr.com), which bought out Auto-Ordnance. They offer many different models consisting of different finishes and magazines.
From our perspective, a competitor will most likely buy either an M1 Thompson that is a reproduction of the WWII version with straight forearm, no Cutts compensator and uses only stick magazines, or a Deluxe Thompson that will accept drum or stick magazines and has the Cutts compensator and vertical foregrip. The great news is that both of these are available in both a steel or alloy frame.
The deluxe model weighs about 13 pounds for the steel version while the alloy version weighs about 9.5 pounds. The alloy version is a considerable weight savings when shooting the carbine, especially in competition.
The Thompson is nicely finished including a walnut stock. They are well built and can be used for target practice right out of the box. However, in my view, out of the box they do need some modifications to make them competition ready. If your goal is to compete using an iconic firearm not only in Historic 3-Gun, Bootlegger Division, but in modern PCC matches under the iron sight division.
Right from the start, I was pleasantly surprised when I received my Thompson. It came in its own foam-lined plastic case and the fit and finish on everything was great. They are very easy to field strip, clean and reassemble.
The following comments and ideas are my experience and what worked for me with the M1 Thompson lightweight model. These guns are blowback type action with a heavy bolt. Pulling the bolt back to cock it requires great strength. Cocking it was made even more difficult because of the factory supplied small bolt handle. The simple solution for me was replacing several of the factory springs. I obtained the replacements from Howell Industries. I also obtained a large cocking handle from Kahr. With these 2 modifications, cocking the Thompson became normal.
To be fair, I have seen several of these guns that ran very well right out of the box without modification. Unfortunately, mine was not one of them. My feed ramp needed a minor amount of work including some polish to make it work 100%.
The factory sights are good, but I chose to file my front sight down a bit to get it shooting accurately at 25 yards through the peep. If you don’t want to file the front, the rear sight also has a shallow notch on top that, when used, makes it right on the money.
I also could not adjust to the length of pull. When bringing the carbine up to my shoulder, the stock would catch in my armpit so the carbine, as it was raised, would have to be pushed out and up to get it to shoulder properly. I’m such a smart guy that I wanted to modify the pull length but chicken enough to not want to cut that beautiful stock. My solution was to buy a WWII stock. It shortened the length of the pull by one inch, and it has a very nice higher comb. I then cut it to the length I wanted and had a leather butt cover made. Well, I was so proud of my work, except the stock did not fit the gun. Dang it! However, after sitting down and thinking about it for a while, with the use of drills, files and Acra Glass epoxy, the WWII surplus stock worked. While I am by no means recommending all of this, with these changes the carbine is smoother and faster handling, reliable and shoots accurately.
Next, the little beast must be fed. Kahr makes correct factory magazines up to 30 rounds in stick form and if you possess the Deluxe model, they make 50 and 100 round drums that make the Thompson roar. The great thing is, surplus magazines that are new or used and are in great condition, are still available through several sources. These 20 and 30 round magazines can be made to work perfectly by making the hole for the magazine catch more oblong. Another option, according to the internet, is to change the mag catch to an original from WWII. I just modified the hole slightly to make my magazines work. The Original Thompson magazine is very robust and will not wear out. Buy a few 20’s as they are very handy for competition where you’re grounding the carbine in barrels or working around obstacles. It is recommended that you also buy several 30 rounders as they are useful in the PCC type stages and matches.
One important thing you must have is a sling. preferably a Kerr canvas sling. Yes, they are very cool looking but also very practical.
That’s really all it takes to make this gun a perfect competitor. Doing these few tweaks enhanced the Thompson and made it work well for me. None of the above modifications has to be completed to enjoy the carbine but for me, for competition and other uses, it paid great dividends in enjoyment.
I’m Dusty Boddams and that’s the Boddam line.