American Zoot Shooters..

[sinnsyk]

Some of you know, but for most it's news. My buddy Jason Huss and I have been working on a new shooting sport for over a year and this year we founded the "American Zoot Shooters Association". You'll hear more about this sport in the coming months, but here is a taste of what's to come:

American Zoot Shooters Association

American Zoot Shooters Association is bringing back the Roaring Twenties! AZSA is a multi-gun sport in which participants dress in 1920s costumes and compete against the clock engaging targets for the best possible score. Zoot Shooters must use firearms that are correct for the time surrounding Prohibition. Costumes may be of any character type reflecting the era (i.e. gangster, law enforcement, flapper, bootlegger, politician, etc.).

The predominant AZSA guns are Thompsons and 1911 pistols but other firearms may be considered. Though many shooters may already own a 1911 type pistol, most probably do not own a Thompson sub-machine gun. Fortunately, Kahr/Auto-Ordnance is reproducing high quality semi-automatic Tommy Guns that do not require special permits. If you are lucky (or wealthy) enough to own a legally registered, full-auto Tommy by all means use it providing the host range will allow it!

The competitions have multiple stages referred to as Capers. Each Caper has a specific course of direction in which the shooter must safely engage targets in the quickest amount of time. Capers may reflect a moment in history, a scene from a movie or part of a story that gives a feeling of going back to a time when gangsters made Tommy Guns roar! Most importantly participants must be safe, maintain good sportsmanship and have fun.

American Zoot Shooters Association invites anyone from all walks of life to come out and enjoy our sport. Many fascinating aspects of American history took place during the 1920s and 1930s. If you like guns, gangster movies, Jazz music, antique cars, swing dancing, murder mystery parties or having fun, then AZSA is for you! Everyone is encouraged to use their imagination and get involved.

American Zoot Shooters Association’s founders are not historians; please excuse any historical inaccuracies. Furthermore, AZSA does not condone criminals and gangsters or their activities. Shooting is a potentially dangerous sport and must be treated as such. All shooters must be instructed in safe gun handling before they are permitted to participate in an AZSA competition. Zoot Shooters is not affiliated with Kahr/Auto-Ordnance (yet).

We are working on the website and we are hoping to hold a major Zoot match in Colorado this coming summer; May-June.

In the mean-time, if you wanna learn more about and kept in the loop, drop me an email through henningshootsguns.com. When the website is ready, news will be posted on it. For now... enjoy the video and start dreaming... it's coming ;-)

[J-Ho]

Now that looks like a good time. So after the match do you get to drink a little bootleg whiskey? And what about a shotgun like the one Sean Connery had in the Untouchables?

[Neomet]

Okay, Emma is the only one who gets scored Major since she was the only one shooting in heels.

[sinnsyk]

We're definitely going to have lots of fun with this. We've already been enjoying ourselves and dressed up on more than one occasion. At my party this coming Saturday, Jason, myself and everone who shows up who owns a Zoot Suit will be wearing one. There will be various era-type guns used in matches for sure.

ps. That was Emma's very first shooting match - ever. She owns a revolver that she's shot on occasion before, but never fired a 45. I think it'll be easier to get spouses and your family excited about going to a zoot event than you typically will in bringing someone to an IPSC match. This is not so serious, but just a lot of fun. And you can dress up without even shooting..

Edited December 23, 2008 by sinnsyk

[RIIID]

I think I might have to get a BAR, trench shotgun, and a 1902 38 long slide.

Rich

[Graham Smith]

Damn, that looks like fun!

[HighVelocity]

That video put a HUGE smile on my face. Looks like more fun than CAS to me. Just another trunk full of gear to buy. Damn the luck.

Edited December 23, 2008 by HighVelocity

[sinnsyk]

I believe Alan (www.machineguntours.com) has a BAR. Jason, Alan and I will put on a match early in the summer and I'm sure we'll incorporate some fun prop guns. If any of you want to join us at this match, the main gear you'll need is a zoot suit... we got ours at Gentleman's collection in Denver. Complete suit (long jacket, pants, vest and shirt) was only $180. Hat, shoes and fitting is extra. Figure I spent just under $300 for a my suit with hat, extra shirt and fitting. I happened to have some classic Italian shoes that fit the bill. Jason had some cool Doc Martens with traction that worked really well.

As long as you're an USPSA, IDPA or SASS member you're good to join us. We have Tommy Guns and 1911s you can borrow so no need to stress out about having to get all the guns. If you have a 1911-45 bring it, for now we're not picky about how it's configured. All pistol shots are done with one hand only and the shooting itself is not meant to be difficult. We had some targets on a stage (not shown on the video) that was too hard (8" plate rack at 12 yds). Amazingly enough, my Springfield 45, 7 shot with those microscopic sights knocked those suckers down in 9 rounds. We will not be doing anything like that because we want people to have fun, be able to hit all targets without struggling forever to knock steel over. Rules aren't written in stone yet, but the way I've intended it, all pistol targets will be within 10 yards and rifle targets within 20. We use full IPSC targets and everything is based on time. Only one shot is required per target. For each C-hit there's a 1 second extra added to your time. For each D-hit it's 3 seconds and for a miss or no-shoot it's 5 seconds. My Springfield A1 45 with no magwell is not easy to reload and with only 7 rounds in the mags we're not trying to be IPSC shooters or make this into an IPSC match. Shooting in style and making mistakes is all parts of having good old fun. No penalties for being quick, after all that's the goal. But all pistol shooting in one-handed since two-handed is a modern shooting style and doesn't look right. Tommyguns are difficult to load up and unload so we help each other getting the ready and loaded / unloaded. We've been talking about making a longer third-hand which is needed to remove the drum mag. And I completely removed the rear sight on mine. It was just simply in the way. I use the notch in the charging handle as my rear notch and if I place the front in the dead center it shoots dead on a 20. A fair sense of point shooting will be important in this sport. Excessive aiming won't be necessary or help you that much. he he

[slavex]

love it! but in Canada Thompsons are a no go, semi auto or not. So we'll have to figure something else out. I'll be buying my new suit in the new year. I honestly thought I was the only shooter that loved those outfits. I think it will also go over much better than my custom made latex rubber fetish outfit.

[GentlemanJim]

Oh Man

Now I am going to have to buy TWO tommy guns

Well its cheaper than a new open or limited gun

If we can swing it...Nanci and I are in.

Jim

[BritinUSA]

Looks like a wanted poster:

Edited December 23, 2008 by BritinUSA

[fiddler]

love it! but in Canada Thompsons are a no go, semi auto or not. So we'll have to figure something else out. I'll be buying my new suit in the new year. I honestly thought I was the only shooter that loved those outfits. I think it will also go over much better than my custom made latex rubber fetish outfit.

TMI!

[sinnsyk]

Paul

You are wasting away your talent at IBM! Zoot Shooters will have to hire you.

[Jake Di Vita]

That is truly awesome brother.

You guys definitely know how to have some fun.

[Steve J]

love it! but in Canada Thompsons are a no go, semi auto or not. So we'll have to figure something else out. I'll be buying my new suit in the new year. I honestly thought I was the only shooter that loved those outfits. I think it will also go over much better than my custom made latex rubber fetish outfit.

TMI!

...and he goes by slavex. Yikes.

[sinnsyk]

...and Brian (Enos) will be sponsoring American Zoot Shooters by web-hosting our new website. Just to chime how cool Brian really is, he is already hosting henningshootsguns.com on his state-of-the-art server. The nice thing is if brianenos.com is down, then I'm down so it's easy to troubleshoot and quickly figure out if something's going on.

The video and the written presentation of Zoot Shooters (by Jason Huss) will be on the website along with more stuff. It'll be a week or two before I can get the website up and running and when it does I will naturally announce it - with the link. Emma and I have lots of cool pictures from our first match as well as individual pics from the photo shoot of the "original seven". Jason, myself, Emma, Adam and Adam's brother James (who also bought a suit and was supposed to join us, but unfortunately had to work on match day) will all be zooted up Saturday night at the party at my house. I think I'm gonna start calling James "the man who wasn't there"...

On a party note..

This morning I was climbing in my attic (breathing fiberglass..), running up the wire for my sub woofer across the room so we'll have a sexy 5.1 surround system for the party. I currently have SpeakerCraft left-center-right front speakers in the ceiling which sounds good combined with Infinity floors speakers in the rear. I've been surfing the web today to make it a 7.1. Anybody here into SpeakerCraft? I'd like to get two more "Aim8 Three" (or similar) in the ceiling in the back to get a fuller sound picture. I'm debating putting dipole wall-in speakers to replace my Infinity floor speakers, but unsure. Wondering if I should put a rear sub in as well (my receiver only has one sub-output so not sure how to add a sub)? Setup sounds great from the front, but I'd like to feel more sound in the rear and figuring out how to position rear speakers / what to put in the rear is the question. My couch is all the way in the back and though I'd like to put it forward I can't without making my living room a complete freak show.

If there are any audiophiles out there, any input?

[ken hebert]

Slight drift, but with a purpose: Anyone ever cut a little off the stock on a reproduction/copy of a Thompson? Reason I'm asking is that we have one in stock at the shop and the length of pull is more suited to Wilt Chamberlain than someone like me (6'0"). Every time I handle it I can't get over the idea of taking off about 2" from the rear...

Match video looked fun, think I could get into that..... Finally got that reason to buy a Thompson. BTW, what about shotguns...?

[sinnsyk]

An original would be tuff to cut, but the aftermarket Auto-Ordnance by Kahr wouldn't be so heart-breaking to saw. We definitely thought about it and Jason and I will talk to Kahr about making an actually comfortable shootable Tommy. Given they're not bad, but they can be made to operate a little easier and feel a lot better. Kahr sought out to make them as original as possible. We just need to tweak a few things to make them work well for our purpose.

[Duster]

A couple of us SASS shooters have been tossing this idea around. Thinking a semi-auto class (1911's) and a revolver class (pencil barreled revolvers). Then include a pump shotgun Winchester 97's or model 12's or whatever. What had us stumped was the rifle. Not many have a Thompson. Guns like Winchester 1905's and 1907's were around but used some odd calibers. Remington model 8's were in that time period. Then having a subbie side match.

Edited December 27, 2008 by Duster

[DaBird]

Henning ------ I just watched the vid --- as someone who grew up in Chicago I gotta say " I LIKE IT "

Here along the IL./Wis. state line , I have shot IPSC/IDPA/Pins/Steel/SASS and 3-Gun action matches with about 10 clubs within a hours drive of Chicago. I am going to see how much interest there is and try something along it locally.

Might become a pump shotgun and 1911 type of match as I know more people have SGs then pistol cal. rifles.

BTW -- a .38Super 1911 should be "legal" to use as they were State of the Art back then and some LEOs used them as "anti-armor" as Dillinger etc. were known to wear body armor. 38Super ---- ya,i'm a Gamer

Looks like fun --- DaBird

[sinnsyk]

One of the things we've wanted to do is keep is as simple as possible. Not many have a Thompson on hand, but with any sport, if you get into it, you'll get it. The Tommy is such an essential part of it that without it it won't be as fun. For our first match we had three tommies available and we shared them. I think it'll be necessary to bring people who want to have fun by sharing our equipment. It's not a super serious sport, but when I shoot, I give it everything I've got to shoot good. I'm competitive, no doubt about it, but I see this as a venue to relax a little and double up the fun factor. Any period gun can be used as a prop gun, but with Tommy and 1911 as the core of it. 38 super or 45 will of course be accepted. We're not going to get into major/minor as I don't think we'll have the same competitive advantage as we will in IPSC. I recognize there is a difference, but let's keep it a little open in the beginning and see where this takes us. If we're too strict on rules then it'll complicate things and we just want people to get a zoot, bring whatever 1911 they've got, borrow a Tommy from us if they need to and show up.

Jason, myself and Emma will be dressed in our zoots at the Shot Show in Orlando in a few weeks. If you're going and see gangsters walking around, good chance it's us..

We're zooting for a major match in Colorado this summer.. Hope to have the website up soon and details on our match will be on the site hopefully before February.

[Pitspitr]

I'm into CAS and I have a Tommy and I've been considering getting a 1911 for wild bunch matches so this looks like a riot (pun intended).

On the costuming side you mentioned gangsters, politicians, flappers and untouchables. I'm thinking "Farmboy" as in "CJ" In Bonnie and Clyde. Would that work as a starter costume?

Where are you guys from?

[DaBird]

Hey Hap ---- I just sent you a PM

[sinnsyk]

You can dress in any style you want and being original is of course part of the fun. If you are dressed in any manner that brings you mentally back to the 1920's you're in. We're in Colorado, Denver area. I live in Longmont and Jason in Denver. The shooting range is in Idaho Springs; about 40 minutes west of Denver. It's an old mining town set in the rockies so you'll get the vibe just being up there.

Jason, Emma and myself will be walking the Shot Show in our zoots so look for us Thursday and Friday. We're putting on a match this summer in Idaho Springs and the website will be up and running shortly. Brian just emailed me with the info to host it. Means I've got some work to do..

[Duster]

How about this as just a rough start:

St Valentines day class: 1911 pistol, 1927 Thompson, Pump shotgun.

Boogie class: Pencil barrel revolver, 1927 Thompson, Pump Shotgun.

Bonnie & Clyde Class: 1911 Pistol, Other period semi auto rifle or lever action, Pump Shotgun.

Untouchable class: Pencil Barrel revolver, Other period semi auto rifle or lever action, Pump Shotgun.

Snubble Side Match: Any snub nose revolver or .32 or .380 Semi auto shoots the pistol targets after the main match.

I think the big stumbling block is the Thompson. Not many people have them and even if you wanted to invest the $1000.00 or so they are in short supply. So alternate rifles are a must to get people initially involved. And then they may get a Thompson.

Edited January 1, 2009 by Duster