COWS was active from 1999 thru the 2024 shooting season. See Details In About Tab for our History Affiliated, and NRA affiliated Club. We shot at the Central Ozarks Practical Shooters Range, and was active from 1999 thru 2024. History
During the winter of 1998, Victor Rainey (Iron Tree), Aaron Breazeale (the Pawnee Kid) and Tom Breazeale (XS Chance) discussed the need for a cowboy action shooting
club in the Waynesville - St. In the spring of 1999 a meeting was advertised and held at Banning's Blackpowder and Gun Shop near Crocker. At that meeting it was decided to form a cowboy action shooting club. During the meeting, Aaron Breazeale remarked that the Central Ozarks Practical Shooters was neat when shortened to C.O.P.S. We could be the Central Ozarks Western Shooters and be called C.O.W.S. The name stuck and by the end of the meeting thirteen people had joined the newly formed club. These thirteen people are represented by the thirteen riders on the club logo. Following meetings with several area clubs while looking for a place to shoot, we met with the Central Ozarks Practical Shooters. It turned out very well, we affiliated with C.O.P.S. and have had the pleasure of use of a dedicated 100 acre shooting range since our very first match in 1999. Our first match was a weather disaster, Banning's Blackpowder and Gun Shop had set up a tent with cowboy articles and we had a nice turnout for the first game. Then the rain and wind came, water ran in streams across the ground the tent threatened to fall.. but we survived and the weather gods have smiled since that day. Our monthly games, on the third Sunday from March to October, were usually attended by 25-35 shooters plus spectators. We hold a special game in October to mark the end of another season. The Hanging Tree Shootout (HTS) is a one-day event with fun stages and big lunch HTS held its trademark afternoon Last Man Standing elimination match using single action revolvers and shotguns. Two shooters face ten poppers each with the first to get all the poppers down the winner of that round. In the Club's early years, several members decided to celebrate the old west by doing gunfight reenactments. The Over the Hill Gang has since performed at many community events in Waynesville, Richland, Crocker, Rolla, Doolittle, Newburg, Lebanon, Eminence, and Edgar Springs. We welcome participants and spectators at C.O.W.S. events and we always strive for a family atmosphere. So bring the family an come see a cowboy action shooting match and experience the hospitality of the old west. The Central Ozarks Western Shooters is a Missouri Non Profit Cooperation and affiliated with: Single Action Shooting Society, Central Ozarks Practical Shooters, and the National Rifle Association
(History provided by XS Chance - One of the Original Thirteen)
