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.

All members are encouraged to submit suggestions on rule changes and additions. Please do so, as soon as possible, to: members@historic3gun.com.

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://sandovalsportingrange.com.

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!

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Welcome to the first Historic 3-Gun newsletter. We want to keep our members informed about H3G happenings and what is planned as we continue to grow.

In the interim, please feel free to contact any board member or email us at members@historic3gun.com.

We are extremely fortunate to have three renowned and knowledgeable shooters as Members Emeritus to help guide us as we begin and grow.
They are: Evil Roy, Happy Jack and Texas Jack Morales, A great big thanks go out to each of them.

The Board of Directors
Dusty Boddams, EJ Waltermire, Hondo Tweed, Hoodoo Brown, Shell Stuffer and Tully Mars

Amicus Counsel
Legendary Lawman and Serenity

Our Social Media People
CN Double, Loonatic and The Spaniard

Historic 3-Gun was conceived to fill a void in action shooting. The H3G goal is to have a safe, fun and friendly shooting sport while offering some challenges and allowing a variety of older firearms. Thus, the saying, “Historic 3-Gun is 3 gun with vintage technology.”

We want to make it clear that we have nothing against any other shooting sport nor are we trying to ‘steal’ shooters from any other sport. Our goal is to offer another venue for all interested shooters to shoot historic firearms.

We encourage Wild Bunch shooters to shoot with us where they can shoot with us using WB rules.

Historic 3-Gun is run by shooters for shooters. We have tried to keep the dues as low as possible in fairness to our loyal members. We do not charge sanctioning fees to matches that would have to be paid by our shooters. All board members, including amicus counsel pay annual dues.

Hoodoo Brown, Board Chair

This year, the Bear Creek Volunteers will once again be holding Pershing’s Pursuit, the annual Wild Bunch and state Historic 3-Gun championship from September 19-21. It will be held at the Liberty Range, Walnut Shade, MO. Again, it will be orchestrated by Artemus Von Schutze and Sarsaparilla. It is a beautiful range and a great shoot. They put on with a variety of specialty matches on Sept 19th, followed by two days of H3G competition on the 20th and 21st. Lots of variety with both fast and furious as well as some challenging targets. Come for the shooting and the camaraderie at this great match.

For more information and application: Bear Creek Volunteers Website or Bear Creek Volunteers Facebook Page.

For the first time, Shell Stuffer and Back 40, along with their gang of volunteers will be putting on the North American Historic 3-Gun Championship October 10-12.  It is being held at Shell Stuffer’s club, the Sandoval Sporting Range in Sandoval, IL.

This range is a hidden gem with 11 shooting bays and long range to 200 yards.  There is free camping on the range, and the range will be available to registered participants of this match for a few days ahead of time for practice and testing firearms.  As usual, specialty matches will be on Friday with the main match on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information on all these events, visit our events calendar.

For Illinois, call Shell Stuffer at (618) 267-6952 or Back 50 at (618) 663-7423.

Please let us know if you are coming but you can pay when you arrive.

The Henry Homesteader (HH) is a wood stocked, alloy framed, blowback, semi-automatic 9mm carbine. It retains a classic look from a bygone era. The HH does not look tactical. It possesses more than a passing resemblance to the 1907 Winchester that was chambered in the far more powerful 351WSL. Looking at all the magazines and online reviews, the HH receives glowing reviews. Its uses as stated are for home defense, plinking and perhaps a truck gun. While these are all good and worthy uses, what about using them in competition? Would the HH be competitive? Would reliability be a factor? What about accuracy? Would the factory sights be usable? Armchair quarterbacking is a great and fun pastime. It can be enjoyable stating, with authority, what would work best and why something wouldn’t work or be as good as it should. The only problem is that you might be wrong!

Historic 3-Gun (H3G)

The best way to judge the HH would be using it in competition! Enter Historic 3 Gun (H3G). This organization’s byline is “3-gun using vintage technology.”

Historic 3-Gun has different divisions centered on the 1911 and using different long arms depending on which division a competitor is in. An example would be the Audie Murphy Division allowing M1 carbines, or Modern Division allowing pistol caliber lever action rifles.

Bootlegger is the division where the Henry Homesteader fits. The Bootlegger Division offers quite a number of different firearms options, including different handguns and pistol caliber carbines such as the Thompson, Suomi, and other various lever, pump and semi-automatic action in many calibers. The Henry Homesteader serves well in this category. We will consider H3G as a good testing ground since many of these rifles are in use at these matches.

The HH fits into the style and time frame for bootlegger division. It has the classic looks of the 1907 Winchester without the expense and headaches.

Quality 07’s are expensive. The 10-round original magazines are expensive, although they work and are high quality. Hand loading is mandatory. Brass must be made from something else. The bullet is of a unique design and diameter. Velocity can be reduced to about 1550 and remain reliable. Overcoming these challenges results in a fun rifle, but the Henry Homesteader will give you the same general look, without any of the headaches!

So, what have we learned about the Henry Homesteader in competition. For Historic 3-Gun competitions, the rifle is usable right out of the box. It has no reliability issues. Mine had a fair amount of preservative covering from the factory but it seems no one else has had that problem. Just clean and oil to make ready for competition.

From the factory, the HH has a good looking finish that is black, not flat, yet not too shiny. The walnut furniture is not glossy but has a pleasant sheen. It has a recoil pad and sling swivels. It has Henry’s answer to checkering that allows a better purchase that’s not traditional line checkering but still allows a good grip and it looks great. If you like, an old cotton sling or 1” leather looks right and is practical.

A great feature is that the HH can be set up with right or left bolt charging handle and magazine control. For a right-handed user the bolt operation on the left side works well along with the magazine release, allowing all operations with the left hand, including magazine changes, while maintaining control of rifle with the right hand.

The safety is perfectly located on top at back of receiver and is extremely easy to use. This is important when placing a rifle into a safety container as the rifle must be placed on safe if loaded.

The rifle has a bolt hold open device that’s easy to use. The rifle is easy to maintain and simple to field strip. Glock magazines are used almost 100% in this region. The HH will also take a proprietary magazine with the exchange of a different mag well. These are probably in use where magazine capacity is limited by law. Sig Sauer and Smith & Wesson magazines can also be used with the appropriate adapter. The sights from the factory are good. They are blade front and a barrel mounted peep sight that at first view look too far forward to work properly but after very little shooting, the sights easily become natural.

At the front of the barrel, you will find a cap covering a threaded end that is suitable for a silencer or muzzle brake. A steel muzzle brake is used by many shooters on the 16” barrel helping the carbine not look as stubby and help the balance a little. It also looks cool!

9mm fmj ammunition is ubiquitous and can be used for practice and competition. HH is hand loader friendly, and shoots lead about as well as jacketed.

I’m sure there’s exceptions, but every HH I’ve used and every Homesteader owner I have talked to, the HH has worked out of the box with Glock magazines and just about all have had a good to excellent trigger pull.

Modern competition

For all the above reasons, the HH is ready for modern competition. It is also pre tapped and ready for optics. A small red dot would be handy and fast although we use iron sights in Historic 3-Gun.

We have also been using the HH successfully at local PCC matches. The carbine is fast, fun and competitive with the added benefit of standing out from the plethora of AR platform carbines.

I’m Dusty Boddams and that’s the Boddam line!