Bessemer Vigilance Committee

The Bessemer Vigilance Committee is one of eight cowboy action shooting clubs in Wyoming, hosting monthly matches where adults compete in Old West-themed gunfighting competitions. The club takes its name from the vanished ghost town on Casper's outskirts and draws shooters from across the region.

Matches feature multiple stages—typically four Old West scenarios per competition—where shooters engage targets in a specific order with a timer running. Scenarios include poker games gone bad, farmhouse assaults by gangs led by villains like "Slick Willy," and raids on the Bessemer Jailhouse wagon. Accuracy matters more than speed. Each miss costs five seconds; hitting targets out of order costs ten seconds.

"It's a bunch of adults, or people who call themselves adults, playing." — Eaton Flowers, club president

Competitors shoot single-action pistols (like .45 Colt or .38 Special), Winchester reproduction rifles, and 12-gauge double-barrel shotguns. Most shooters use modern replicas of firearms from the American frontier era (late 1800s). Shooters compete in multiple categories:

• •Two-handed gunfighters – Traditional stance
• •Duelist – One gun at a time
• •Gunfight style – Alternating shots between two revolvers

Many shooters customize Old West costumes and adopt character aliases ("Smokewagon Bill," "Wild Iris," "Wyoming Roy," "Morning Glory"). Ladies compete too—the club hosted a 2005 SASS Ladies Indoor World Champion.

Matches run the first Sunday of every month at the Cowboy Shooter's Range at Stuckenhoff's Sport Shooting Complex in Casper. Registration begins at 10:30 a.m. with safety briefing. Shooters vie for fastest times at four stages, with awards for top men, women, and gents (senior competitors).

Most shooters spend close to $100 per match when ammunition and reloading supplies are factored in. Participants fire roughly 100 rounds per competition.

The Bessemer Vigilance Committee is sanctioned by the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), which has tens of thousands of members across North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. SASS sets rules, maintains scoring standards, and recognizes top competitors. The club competes under official SASS guidelines to ensure consistency across all affiliated clubs.

The sport attracts a diverse crowd—traveling shooters, locals reliving Old West fantasies, and competitive performers. One regular participant, Nevada native "Jasper Agate," travels throughout the year hitting matches from New Hampshire to northern California to southern California and Tucson. His wife is a traveling nurse, so they time competitions around her work schedule.

Costumes are part of the appeal. Shooters invest in authentic or fantastical Old West outfits. The camaraderie is genuine—competitors often know each other only by their aliases and may not know real names despite competing together for years.

Other Wyoming cowboy action shooting clubs operate in Buffalo, Cheyenne, Cody, Gillette, Lander, Powell, and Wheatland. The Seventh Annual Lawdogs vs. Cowboys match happens in June, and Jailbreak competitions typically run July 25–27 at Stuckenhoff's with 10-stage matches and three-stage "Wild Bunch" variants.