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Author Topic: When the West was properly Wild...  (Read 1456 times)

Offline Harry Faversham

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When the West was properly Wild...
« on: January 12, 2018, 07:27:03 PM »
Many moons ago Wargames Illustrated (If memory serves?) had a set of Wild West rules that were a tad different. You had two rival bunches, shacks, boulders and plenty of scatter cover. All much of a muchness so far, then came the stroke of genius. Each side moved then came firing... you measured how many inches to the target, transmorgified the range into feet and stepped onto the firing range!
 
Winchester= .177 Webley Premier

Colt=            .177 Gat pistol (smoothbore)

Bow=            .177 Gat pistol loaded with a feathered dart

Scattergun=  .177 Gat pistol loaded with three pellets


You took the shot at whatever distance equated to the tabletop, the targets ranged from blokes stood in the open, light cover, heavy cover and hidden behind doors or windows. A hit was a roll on the wound table a miss... a miss!
We had many a happy hour in the Emporium at this game. Introducing 'the Cowboy and his 'at' house rule. Ever notice how attached Cowboys are to their hats in the old movies? Even at full gallop they never blow off, iffen a Cowboy gets his hat shot off, he risks all to retrieve his headgear before carrying on the shootout! 'The Cowboy and his 'at' rule meant a hit on a Cowboys hat meant a dice roll to see how far said hat flew, the Cowboy had to retrieve his hat before getting back to leadslinging.   

Shooting and wargaming, how can you better that!!!???

W-eeell I've just had a great idea...

:o





"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"

"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"

Offline zippyfusenet

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2018, 10:53:03 PM »
It would be interesting and convenient to combine a shooting range with a wargaming venue. But. A lot of people I know mix wargaming with strong drink. I'm not sure how well wargaming, shooting and drunkenness would combine.

Maybe you should, um, reconsider this idea tomorrow morning.
You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

Offline Harry Faversham

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2018, 11:32:41 PM »
Sounds even better when you throw ale into the equation!

 :-*

Offline Harry Faversham

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2018, 11:46:28 PM »
Popguns sorted...













 :o

Offline FierceKitty

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2018, 12:24:38 AM »
Miniature Wargames did a couple of articles along these lines a few decades ago (I know, I was an eyewitness to the battle of Adrianople, and have Theoderic's autograph in blood on the back of a broken scutum), but they used a toy pistol, which reduced casualties among sozzled gamers; ammo was modified with a pin at the end to stick in the target for clear hit locations.
The laws of probability do not apply to my dice in wargames or to my finesses in bridge.

Offline zippyfusenet

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2018, 02:39:38 AM »
That's a handsome collection, Harry. You mentioned .177 cal above. Are these all airguns, in that caliber? I've thought about getting an air pistol, for something fun and different. Recommend anything?

Offline Harry Faversham

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2018, 05:02:51 AM »
Yep, they're all .177 popguns, using C02 sparklets in the grips of the pistols and the stock of the rifle. The Winchester and Colts are made by Umarex, the Remmy and Schofield by Crossman... I would highly recommend all of them, they look right, feel heavy and all have repro .45 bullets into which you load yer pellets!
We're planning to play the game with an inch on the tabletop converted to a yard on the shooting range, ranges at which these little popguns perform excellently.

:-*

Offline FifteensAway

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2018, 05:30:10 AM »
Sounds fun.  Might get you thrown out of a convention here in the states - or arrested.  Pity.  The price we pay for the arsenal in our closets.  Well, some of us.

Offline Harry Faversham

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2018, 08:30:51 AM »
Popgun shootouts will take place in my basement range/wargames room... all pefectly legal here in Blighty. During the summer we might take the game outdoors at my local shooting range using full bore black powder weapons.




 ::)
« Last Edit: January 13, 2018, 08:35:23 AM by Harry Faversham »

Offline Elbows

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2018, 01:08:58 PM »
My buddies and I have done some fake shootouts.  We stand side-by-side and run our sixguns against cardboard targets about 7-10 yards out, drawing and firing, etc.  I bought my best buddy a Uberti Colt Peacemaker copy, and myself a lovely 1851 Navy Conversion replica - but chambered for .38 special (cheap and fun to shoot).

Not my gun, but the same model:
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Offline zippyfusenet

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2018, 01:42:37 PM »
Popgun shootouts will take place in my basement range/wargames room.

I hope the mods don't mind a digression. I can take this to PM if it's a problem.

What's the length of your basement, Harry? One attraction of airguns for me is that I'd like to be able to shoot indoors at home. It's illegal to shoot a pellet gun outside in my yard, and showing the neighbors anything that looks like a firearm in my city tends to trigger hysterical 'man with a gun!' calls to the police, for good reason, actually.

But my longest indoor line-of-sight is only about 21 feet. That's enough range to challenge an old fat man who wears bifocals, but all the pellet traps that I've shopped recommend shooting from no closer than 30 or 40 feet, to prevent ricochet tragedies I suppose. One salesman thought I could get away with shooting from 7 yards if I use a pistol with really low muzzle velocity. I dunno.

What range do you shoot from with what MV, and what's your experience?

Offline Harry Faversham

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2018, 04:38:15 PM »
Basement's 12 yards/36 feet, and we shoot into a homemade backstop, that's the secret of not becoming a braille popgunnist!
We use a couple of layers of insulation board through which the pellets pass easily, a foot behind this is another two layers with piles of old newspaper sandwiched between them, then a layer of hardboard. Never had a pellet penetrate the hardboard or come back even using a .22 air rifle at under the UK legal limit of 12ft.lb.
Hope this helps?

:)
« Last Edit: January 13, 2018, 04:40:30 PM by Harry Faversham »

Offline zippyfusenet

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2018, 05:32:53 PM »
Thx.

Offline vodkafan

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2018, 02:12:10 PM »
Oh. For a minute there reading through I thought you were going to actually be shooting at each other over a wargames table in your basement  :o
I am going to build a wargames army, a big beautiful wargames army, and Mexico is going to pay for it.

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figures bought: 500+
figures painted: 57
9 vehicles painted
4 terrain pieces scratchbuilt

Offline dinohunterpoa

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Re: When the West was properly Wild...
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2018, 02:23:20 PM »

Use AirSoft guns (like the Umarex Colt Peacemaker) and shoot at the models on the table. But play safe and use safety googles!  ;)

No matter what the ruleset is being used, establish a Duelling Phase to settle the rules arguments among the players with the said guns. Effective AND fun!

« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 02:28:08 PM by dinohunterpoa »
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