Another shoot leaves WSRC Sparta IL

The blows keep coming.

Another major shoot will not be held at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta this year....

Jerry Willis•
Thu, Apr 20, 2017
Another major shoot will not be held at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta this year.
The annual Illinois state SASS championship is off. Actually, it was not held in Sparta last year, either, because the complex was closed.
However, this year’s shoot is canceled because of the cost that must be paid by the local sponsoring team, the Kaskaskia Cowboys.
One of the Randolph County club’s original members and Vice President Richard Cavalier of Sparta said the Single Action Shooting Society is getting greedy and over regulating everything.
“We won’t have the state championships here any more,” said Cavalier. “SASS wanted more money.”
He said the local club usually pays SASS $5 per club participant for the championships, with about 130 shooters taking part. This year, it wanted $7.50 per member. He said the Cowboys usually pay SASS $3,000 to $4,000 in various charges and fees to hold a state shoot.

Cavalier said SASS also mandated that the club hold a fundraiser for SASS and hold a costume contest and furnish a prize and trophies. “We will have some kind of big shoot, but it will not be the state championship,” said Cavalier. “We hope to build our new shoot into something major.”

He said right now the Cowboys have about 60 participants for a summer shoot that will be held June 9-10. It will be known as the Sparta Summer Shootout.
“It will be an open format,” said Cavalier, “open to anyone. They won’t have to be a SASS member, but we will use their rules.”
For Old West shoots, the Cowboys also pay the state $6 per shooter and charge the shooters $12 each.

The local club shoots the second Saturday of the month. It has about 90 members.
SASS is the governing body for Cowboy Action Shooting and Wild Bunch Shooting. The County Journal was unable to contact anyone with SASS by press time.
SASS was the first organization to hold a shoot at the Sparta complex in 2005 and held the Illinois championships there through 2015.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program trapshooting organization has also moved its big national shoot for youngsters from Sparta to Ohio.

 

There is a big Cow Boy action shoot at Ben Avery here in Arizona every year, love to go and check out the vendors and can always find something I have to have ... I bought an Elk Skin coat (she was asking $1200 I offered $600 and she took it ) a few years ago, wore it once being as even in the dead of winter its to warm ... They seem like a great group of people and always friendly and informative ... Sad day for the organization I'm sure ... The State of Illinois is still in trouble financially so nothing would surprise me ... Wish them all the best ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

uh, the beef was between the local club and SASS, and they won't hold a state championship shoot because of the fees SASS wants. 130 shooters is a "major" shoot?

 

1,900 is a GAH?

 

tomk, No business can afford to loose 130 paying customers. You apparently never owned or ran a viable business. Roger C.

 

You assume attendance will drop to zero because one event is no longer a SASS state champion event. The Kaskaskai Cowboys still hold shoots at the WSRC in Sparta, and have scheduled an alternate event. I won't even address your latter comment which was even less informed and more presumptuous.

 

They are still shooting at WSRC but they are not calling it a State Championship due to the SASS costs, this has nothing to do with WSRC. If they had the state championship anywhere, the cost would be the same.

 

That's the point. The WSRC didn't loose a client, SASS did.