Hellhound: Wild Bunch World Champion, Winchester Model 12 & Competing with Borrowed Guns

Estimated reading time: 5 min

World Champion on Borrowed Guns

[00:47]

Hellhound was still two hours outside of Los Angeles when he called in, driving home from End of Trail 2026 at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix. He had just taken the overall win in the Wild Bunch Modern category, which made him the Wild Bunch World Champion. The crew congratulated him on a fine finish in the cowboy match as well, though by his own account the cowboy result was not what he had been aiming for.

What makes the Wild Bunch win particularly striking is that his own rifle went down early in the match. He spent the better part of the competition borrowing rifles from fellow competitors, cycling through three or four guns he had never shot before. He still won. As one of the hosts put it, that is all the more impressive given that he was shooting guns he did not even know. The crew noted he walked away with two awards: the large category plate and a smaller piece recognizing the overall championship, the kind you can actually wear.

Training for Speed: Transitions and Clean Manipulation

[02:56]

When asked about his training regimen, Hellhound described a focus on transition drills: one-shot sequences moving from rifle to pistol, pistol to rifle, and through the shotgun. The emphasis is not just on raw speed but on clean, efficient firearm manipulation between guns. His framing of it was precise: the time you do not spend transitioning is time that never appears on the clock. There is no risk of a miss during a transition, so every smooth handoff is free time.

One of the hosts who watched him shoot at End of Trail noted that moving from stage to stage, Hellhound’s loads and transitions looked completely seamless. There was no visible gap between finishing one stage and being ready for the next. That kind of economy does not happen without deliberate, repetitive practice on the exact moments where most competitors bleed time without realizing it.

Winchester Model 12 vs. 1897: Why He Shoots What He Shoots

[04:38]

The Wild Bunch match allows competitors to run either a Winchester Model 1897 or a Winchester Model 12 shotgun. The Model 12 carries roughly 30 fewer parts than the 1897, which translates directly to fewer things that can fail during a match. Hellhound confirmed he ran the Model 12 in the Wild Bunch match for exactly that reason.

In the main cowboy match, however, he shoots the Model 1897. As 1897s become increasingly scarce and more competitors migrate toward side-by-side shotguns as a substitute, the question of why someone sticks with the 1897 comes up often. His answer was simple: it is more fun. He tried the double barrel and went back. When a gun is not costing you time on the clock, enjoyment is a perfectly legitimate reason to keep running it.

He also confirmed he slam fires the 1897 in most situations, holding the trigger depressed and working the action to fire on each forward stroke. On stages with tougher or more distant targets he will shift to deliberate trigger pulls, but for a standard stage the slam fire technique is his default. Watching it in person, as one of the hosts described, the shotgun sounds like a continuous string of hits rather than individual shots.

The Top Gun Shootoff and the Black Powder Problem

[08:08]

The rifle trouble that plagued Hellhound’s match carried into the Top Gun shootoff. A fellow competitor offered him the use of a rifle, but there was a condition: it had been run on black powder for the main match and was loaded accordingly. Hellhound accepted, stepped into the Top Gun shootoff against the best competitors at the World Championship, and shot it with black powder.

He said he could not see anything after the first shot. A single black powder discharge in an enclosed or calm-air shooting environment produces a cloud that can obscure the target entirely. The experience gave him a new level of respect for traditional black powder competitors who shoot entire matches under those conditions. The crew echoed that sentiment without hesitation. Competing in any shootoff, let alone the Top Gun final, while navigating smoke between shots is a different discipline entirely.

Cowboy Action Shooting in Germany and the International Scene

[09:09]

Hellhound competes in multiple shooting disciplines but keeps coming back to cowboy action for a reason he stated without hesitation: the people. It is, as one of the hosts noted, one of the oldest sayings in the sport. You come for the shooting, you stay for the people. For a competitor traveling from Germany to Phoenix for a week of matches, that community is the pull.

Cowboy action shooting in Germany runs mostly indoors, with a handful of matches spread across the country for those willing to travel. Wild Bunch shooting is less developed there than in the United States. Germany does maintain a dedicated category for pre-1880 cowboy shooting, run without short strokes and with period-correct equipment. As one of the crew remarked, those are serious competitors by any measure.

The SASS European Championship rotates from country to country each year. Hellhound singled out Italy as a favorite, citing the range, the weather, the food, and a match schedule that does not require a 5:30 AM wakeup. The 2027 European Championship is set for Italy, a detail that prompted at least one of the hosts to start making travel plans on air. For those looking to compete or simply experience cowboy action at the international level, Border Town also earned a mention as Hellhound’s favorite match, praised for being big, close, and fast.

The takeaway from the conversation is the same one the show has been making all hour: cowboy action shooting is not a dying American pastime. There are world-class competitors flying in from Europe, a functioning international championship circuit, and a community strong enough to keep drawing people back year after year. If you want to find a local club to start your own trail, SASS maintains a full club locator on their site.