Texas International Historic 3 Guns 2024 Championship

A match made by shooters for shooters.

Texas International is the first major match held under the new rules and guidelines called Historic 3 Gun. A condensed version of the rules needs to be talked about a little before describing the match due to the freedoms allowed in stage design and development.

H3G is a new shooting sport designed from the ground up to focus on competition, fun and the use of classic firearms. H3G relies heavily on 3 gun nation / USPSA type rules to govern the safe use and movement of firearms while also having shooters dressed as soldiers and civilians from the southwest circa 1915 or so. Portraying the way folks looked while chasing Pancho Villa or bandits or bootleggers crossing the border adds another dimension to this already great sport.

Costuming can be as cheap and easy as desired. A bare minimum would be a cotton work shirt blue jeans and a pair of old boots. Costuming needs to be rugged and practical for competition. No kydex, plastic, tennis shoes, ball caps etc allowed.

The guns depend on the division chosen to compete in. Modern and traditional use pistol caliber lever actions along with the 1911 45 automatics either in United States government issue style or a customized Les Baer premier type pistol with beaver tail and enhanced features. No comps or mag wells. This is not an equipment race. Shotguns are 12 gauge Winchester model 12 or 97. The other divisions use the same pistols and shotguns but utilize different rifles. All the rifle caliber rifles use reduced loads with lead bullets to make them friendly to steel plate.

Doughboy
Bolt action as issued to any army of the world as used by the end of WW2.

Ranger
Rifle caliber lever action or remington model 14/141 pump.

Audie Murphy
M1 carbine original or reproduction. All above must make 150 minimum power factor.

Bootlegger
Our most open category using all service pistols as to the end of ww2 along with 1911 38 super/9mm, 1917 45 acp ,astra 600, broom handle, p-38, p-08 ,p-35 hi-power etc. carbines such as Soumi, Henry Homesteader, Thompson carbines, chiappa m1 in 9mm etc. All long guns must use wood furniture no plastic stocks allowed. Shotguns are any pump in 12,16 or 20. No magazine tubes longer than the barrel and must have wood furniture. All bootlegger firearms must make 110 power factor minimum.

H3G is an action shooting sport that has a broad appeal of competitors ranging from teenagers to septuagenarians. While we are moving and shooting thru our courses of fire we are not a track meet or endurance contest.

The 1911 is our most heavily used firearm.We start to the level of condition 1 and we move and shoot. A competitor needs at minimum 6 quality magazines along with mag pouches to carry them. As said earlier, a shooter will negotiate the stage engaging various targets at various distances and during the stage will abandon certain firearms after depleting the ammunition from them. Shooter will continue thru course of fire until completion.

The Texas International was held March 22-24, 2024 with all three days filled with activities. Friday saw 9 specialty matches in play and all were very popular. Specialty matches are not required to be shot but when a bunch of avid shooters gather to relax they shoot specialty matches. Most specialty matches are quick with a closed round count however there are exceptions with one being trench sweep where a shooter engages targets with the shotgun in a dry creek bottom with about 22 falling steel plates a ammo belt full of shotgun shells loading and shooting these targets while traveling on the path. The other we call Texas 36 which consists of 4 plate racks and 2 dueling trees. Knock down the plates and turn the trees. Fastest time with everything hit wins. Thumb busters : 10 shots from 2 single actions at 3 targets. Popgun: think 1903 colt pocket model 32acp type pistol 7 rounds fastest time. Wheelies: 1917 colt or Smith double action 12 shots total , reload on the clock. Then there are the various action military match contests such as BAMM (bolt action military match) using a end of ww2 or earlier issued bolt gun this match 5 targets at various distances with 10 shots. CAMM: (carbine action military match) M1 carbine shooting at a running man target 10 shots. GAMM : Garand action military match) Garand. shooting at running man with 8 rounds. A word about running man this is a commercial built electric target system on 60’ rails that runs back and fourth. LAMM (lever action military match) rifle caliber lever action also includes Remington pump model 14/141. 10 rounds on 5 targets with reload on the clock.

PCC4ME: this match features modern optics and iron sight pcc semi automatic action type carbines. About 74 targets must hit at least once all falling plate must fall and 1 mag change mandatory moving thru the course of fire until completion. The pcc match was held Saturday after lunch. Upon completing the day’s activities it was time to go to the banquet where Two Gun Johnnie knocked it out of the park with the finest BBQ and sides to be found anywhere. He has an authentic chuck wagon and routinely wins trophies in the food competitions. He also had great lunches ready for us during the match.

The Banquet was held at the International Artillery Museum in Saint Jo, Texas. This is the largest privately owned artillery museum in the United States . The facility has 10000 square feet under roof and contains large and small artillery guns from all over the world. It also has one of the most interesting gift shops ever seen! The Texas International guests were treated to open tours of all the big guns the owner and knowledgeable staff answered many, many questions and seemed happy to do so. A big thank you to the International artillery museum!

The main match consisted of 10 stages. 5 Saturday and 5 Sunday. All steel targets with an open round count to reengage a miss. Several stages left the competitors with the ability to attack the stage as they best saw fit with the only restrictions for safety. Stage 1 would be a classic example “ six rounds in shotgun, open round count pistol total 36 targets. Everything must be hit once” move as needed. Most stages used either pistol, shotgun or pistol, rifle with just a few stages having all 3 guns. The target distance, shapes and sizes were varied. Some stages required abandoning the pistol to use the long gun then reacquiring the pistol to finish the stage. One stage the pistol was placed in a holster on a mannequin and competitor had to use a rifle from a seated position then place the rifle muzzle down in a barrel ( we call a pickle barrel as slang because the blue barrels are food grade” ) move to the dummy retrieve pistol engage a short dueling tree move to that tree engage 8 targets with a double tap move to that set of targets and finish with 13 more targets. Exciting, safe and fun! After the match ended a great lunch was had. Trophies were handed out to the winners.

Another interesting aspect of H3G is there are division winners there is not an overall recognized winner. This is because of the varied divisions that H3G has available. We had 11 clean shooters thanks to reengagement. No match DQ’s or any problems. This well attended match saw competitors from Illinois, Oklahoma, Arizona, Canada and of course Texas. We are the Texas Doughboys (Facebook Texas Doughboys historic 3 gun ask to join) and we host a monthly match in Bowie, TX at gun runners shooting sports range and other clubs are picking up this exciting new gun sport including Oklahoma City, Branson, and southern Illinois plus several other states. The web site is “Historic 3 Gun.com” Ask your match director about H3G and get in on some iron sights fun.

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

Written by Joey Hurst life NRA, Life TSRA and and avid H3G shooter.