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Volume 6, Issue No. 4                                                                  April, 2008

APRIL SHOOTERS REVEAL SHOOTING SECRETS

Have you ever wondered about the tricks that cowboys and cowgirls use to shoot successfully? They all have their secrets.  For example, Last Kiss carries a green rabbit’s foot from her gunbelt. It evidently helps, because she placed 9^th in April and was once again the Top Cowgirl Shooter. But others have their techniques too. Some are sneaky, like Oracle.

Oracle: He’s sneaking up on the target, masquerading as an umbrella covered picnic table Others are a bit more discrete: like Marshal Too Tall. He sticks his right thumb up in the air to test the wind current before he shoots. It works.

Too Tall & his magic thumb Horseshoe John does it a little differently also.  He apparently closes his eyes and sings to the targets.

Horseshoe John shoots gunfighter with what appear to be closed eyes and apparently singing, probably: “2 little horses came to town, 1 was white and 1 was brown.”

With Mrs. Dee Lighting, it’s all in the name: Lightning.

Mrs. Dee Lightning, timed by Lightning McCoy, her other half. Look closely and you’ll see she’s shooting a Colt Lightning rifle. Lightning can strike the same place more than once.

But not everyone needs a personal touch. Some, like Deacon Red, just stand up on their hind legs and shoot. But the import thing is that they all have fun: lots of it.

Deacon Red shoots his targets the plain way.

The TOP GUN at the April Shoot was S.A. Pondwater. He’s Tabasco JOT’s little cowboy, at least to Tabasco. Both Pondwater and Tabasco placed in the Top 10 shooters, and between the 2 of them they missed only 1 shot. Another father and son 2-some also placed in the Top 10: Unpleasant placed 2nd and Pleasant 3rd, and both shot clean.

The Top 10 Shooters were: (1) S.A. Pondwater (2) Unpleasant (3) Pleasant (4) Festus D. Deputy (5) Marshal Too Tall (6) Tabasco JOT (7) Ocoee Red (8) Widowmaker (9) Last Kiss and (10) Fast Harley.

6 cowboys shot no-misses matches: Unpleasant, Pleasant, Tabasco JOT, Limp Along Charlie, Tellico and Josey Buckhorn. In the Buffalo Shoot, Marshal Too Tall won the Long Range Lever Action Rifle & Single Shot Rifle events. Sundance McNeyman won the Long Range Pistol, and Outrider won the .22 Cal. competitions. 

Here are the shooting results by categories:

Silver Sr. Gunfighter   

 1. Horseshoe John

Money Raised Year To Date For Prizes In Drawing At Annual December Christmas Shoot Event: $254.26 Page 2

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The Ocoee Ranger Page 2                                                                            April, 2008

and red, advertising Arbuckle’s coffee. Arbuckle didn’t mean anything to me then, but it was a most familiar name because we would go out and check that thermometer most mornings and evenings during the winter.  And while I never had a cup of Arbuckle coffee, I knew that the day had to start with a cup of hot coffee.  I was a confirmed coffee drinker by the time I was six and dimly understood that the morning coffee consumed before we ate breakfast had something of a ceremonial aspect to it.

Grandma and grandpa drank their coffee from a saucer.  They could pour from their cups and never spill a drop, never have coffee run down the sides of their cups.  It was a skill I never mastered.  But the important thing to me was that I was a part of the ceremony along with all the rest of the family gathered around the kitchen table.  It was a good time, a warm time.  And though it was also hard times, I think everybody drew a measure of comfort from sharing that morning coffee.

But all that was about to change.  One of my strongest childhood memories is of the whole family, uncles, aunts, cousins, all sitting around that big kitchen table silently drinking coffee into the night as we listened to the radio bearing the reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  I was only seven, but I knew the world had just changed forever for all of us.

When Grandpa died in 1982, I removed the old Arbuckle thermometer from the back porch where it had hung throughout my life and most of his and took it home with me.  It was now dull and badly faded and covered with a patina of rust.  And though I did not come to appreciate Arbuckle coffee as one of the enduring symbols of the old west until much later, the Arbuckle thermometer was a symbol of the many times during the war when grandpa, grandma and I would sit at the big table alone and drink our coffee and wonder and worry about the boys in the family who were scattered to France, the Pacific, and the high seas.  We would learn in due time that one had been strafed by a Zero in the Aleutians and had taken three bullets, one had floated wounded for two days in the Coral Sea when his destroyer went down, and one was in a German POW camp where he lost his toes to frostbite.

Though scarred and broken two of the boys came home, and by my 12th birthday they joined us once again drinking coffee at the kitchen table.  But it wasn’t the same anymore.  The lights may have come on again all over the world, but at our house it stayed dark for a long time.

Today, as I drink my morning coffee, I realize in a great many homes across this country there are families once again taking what comfort they can from their morning cup while they worry and wonder and pray for their missing loved ones in harm’s way just as we did when I was a boy.  And my heart is with them today, just as it was back then.         

THE REAL WEST  – Temple Houston     1860 – 1905

Temple Houston was the next to last of Sam Houston’s young’uns. And he was a rounder. Born in 1860, he was only 3 years old when his father died. But just as Sam was a scrapper and dabbler in politics, young Temple did the same. Like his paw, he could speak several Indian dialects. But unlike his paw, he could sling a sixgun.  That skill coupled with his education and profession made him a double rascal: he was a gunfighter and a lawyer. Imagine that. Gunfighers were supposed to shoot snakes, and some folks consider lawyers snakes, so Temple probably had to work real hard at not shooting himself. (How’s that for Marshal Too Tall reasoning?)

Temple Houston

After he graduated from Baylor University in 1880, he was appointed a District Attorney in the Texas panhandle. Sure he was young and inexperienced, but he was a Houston. And that counted, just like being a Kennedy does today. He went on to serve in the Texas legislature and then practice law. But who cares about that.

Temple often wore Prince Albert coats, like Wild Bill Hickok. And he was a crack shot, like Wild Bill Hickok … and Owlhoot Hardin.  And he wore his hair shoulder length, like Wild Bill Hickok and Owlhoot Hardin. And he was a silver tongued devil in his oratory like ….. No Hickok wasn’t silver tongued, but Owlhoot Hardin is.

In 1 court case, Temple was appointed by the Court to represent a horse thief and given only a few minutes to talk with him in a small room. When the bailiff came to fetch Temple and his client, the horse thief was gone and the window was open. The client was guilty, and evidently the best advice Temple could give him was to run. He did.

Jeffrey Hunter as

Temple Houston

In another case, Temple represented Minnie Stacey, a prostitute who ran a cat house. Obviously guilty, Temple compared her to the gal Jesus asked the crowd to cast the first stone at.  He also blamed men for making her what she was. His closing summation resulted in Minnie going free.  And when Temple died at the ripe old age of 45, in 1905, Minnie sent 1 of the most elaborate floral arrangements present.

Temple was buried in Oklahoma, but like many Old West characters, he didn’t stay dead.  Edna Ferber used him as the model for Yancy Cravat, in her novel CIMMARON, which was made into Western movies twice. The first starred Richard Dix and was the 1st Western to win an Academy

Award. The 2nd starred Glenn Ford. Then in 1963, Warner Brothers cast Jeffrey Hunter to portray Temple Houston in the TV Western Series, TEMPLE HOUSTON. It lasted 1 season, but it didn’t catch on. The fact was that there were a lot of TV Westerns back then, and some of them just didn’t make it. But unlike the others, it was based on a real life, quick shooting Texas gunfighter.

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Volume 6, Issue No. 3                                                   March, 2008

EASTER COWBOYS & COWGIRLS HAVE FUN IN THE SUN

The Easter Bunny was all that was missing at the Ocoee Rangers March – Easter shoot.  But if he’d been wearing a cowboy hat; we might not have been able to tell him from ….. Marshal Too Tall, unless we saw them shoot.  Too Tall would have won that contest.   (Festus would probably say, “Don’t jump to that conclusion too fast.”) Anyway, we had 77 shooters participate in the match. And the match was challenging. Perhaps it was a bit too challenging: 33 procedurals were chalked up by shooters. But it was active. And amongst all the shooting, 5 cowboys shot matches with no misses: Unpleasant, D.Q. Jones, Moonshine Roberts, Tennessee Hoss, and Tellico.

Front Row L-R: Sundance McNeyman, Tellico, Marshal Too Tall, Ocoee Red, Ben Shot ……………Back Row L-R: Tucson Tuco, El Carrera, Horseshoe John, Mesquite Millie, Lightning McCoy, Tennessee Jake, Squire Shooter, Purly D.Q. Jones was back with us, after a long spell recuperating from a non-shooting related injury.  It was good to have him back on the range.  And Prescious Commodity was visiting with her Popa, T-Bone Angus. Back when she was an-at-home cowgirl, she was a regular shooter with us.  But she grew up and moved away.  So, now she visits ol” dad and us occasionally.

The TOP GUN of the day was Unpleasant, ol’ Pleasant’s little boy, at least in Pleasant’s mind. Unpleasant placed 1st while shooting a clean match. Rootin’ Tootin’ cowgirl Last Kiss was the TOP COWGIRL SHOOTER. And in the Buffalo Shoot, for the 1st time in ages, Marshal Too Tall was bested by all Buffalo Shooters and won only a smile and friendly competition. Pleasant won the Long Range Lever Action Rifle event. Sundance won the Long Range Pistol, .22 Cal. and Long Range Single Shot Rifle competition. The TOP 10 SHOOTERS were: (1) Unpleasant (2) Festus D. Deputy (3) Marshal Too Tall (4) Rusty Spur Slim (5) D.Q. Jones (6) Ocoee Red (7) Pleasant (8) T-Bone Angus (9) Widowmaker and (10) Clancy O’Conall. Here are the other shoot results:

Lady 49er 1. Roma Jane

Tapatia Gal & El Chivo, visitors from the North Alabama Regulators

Prescious Commodity & T-Bone Angus (daughter & dad)

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                                                                    March 2008                             More Memories On The Range

Photos capture bits of history, and friendships, and action, and … you get the drift. Here are a few more captured bits of Ocoee Rangers Cowboy & Cowgirl Action Shooting. (We decided to put something different on page 2 in Feb & March.)

Jack Rabbit Bob (L) and Horseshoe John trade smiles while they talk about a new Colt Lightning rifle reproduction that Bob sold Horseshoe. From the smiles, who could guess that the rifle wasn’t working well? That’s called “the Spirit of the Game”. Bob made it right.

Owlhoot Hardin (L) and Kenesaw (he dropped the “Kid” from his alias) the day we first recognized Black Powder Duelist as an Ocoee Rangers shoot category. Owlhoot was responsible for us recognizing the category.

Some folks suggested that the Rev. Adam Jones be given a procedural for each stage he shot the first time he showed up with a Buntline Special and used it in the match.  Their reason?  Shucks, his muzzle was half way to the pistol targets, even when he stood where everyone else stood. Maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. But this look showed that we had a preacher with attitude.  So, we just let him shoot. And it’s paid off.  After all, he’s responsible for keeping rain away when we shoot.  And he’s done a very good job of it. But he says he’s not responsible for hot or cold: just rain.

This was made the day Calico Nicole, granddaughter of Bad Eye Tom and daughter of Bad Arm Slim, shot her first match. She’s a welcome addition to our gang. Without young shooters like her, Dandy Diamond, Marshal W.D. and others, there won’t be a future for Cowboy Action Shooting.

How’s this for a colorful memory. Tio Don (L), Last Kiss and Tennessee Critr at the loading table. Don and Last Kiss are ready to shoot, and the Critr is making sure their shootin’ irons are safely loaded with the right number of cartridges.

Good guys do wear black, as demonstrated by Tucson Tuco. And they shoot good while they look good, just like he’s doing with his ’73 Winchester.

Horseshoe John appears to be explaining why he missed to Mesquite Millie.  Whatever he said, the look on Purly’s face says that he doesn’t believe a work of it.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 3                                                          March 2008 LOOSE CINCH … 1ST PLACE OUTLAW AT RAID ON ANDERSONVILLE SHOOT

Loose Cinch Holds Rewards For Being The Top Outlaw Shooter At The Raid On Andersonville

Several Ocoee Ranger shooters journeyed over to Anderson, SC and participated in the Raid on Andersonville shoot. And it was challenging. The

shooting competition was fierce, but so was the weather. 175 Shooters did their thing in 40 degree temperature and with 40 miles per hour winds. But ol’ Loose Cinch showed that hot or cold, windy or not, he was an Outlaw Shooter to be reckoned with He placed 1st in the Outlaw category, finishing 300 seconds ahead of the 2nd place Outlaw.

Judge’m All Duncan and Yazoo City Gal But Yazoo City Gal wasn’t just listening to the wind blow.  She placed 1st in the Lady Duelist competition and only missed 2 shots in 10 stages of shooting. Her other half, Judge’m All Duncan, placed 1st in Frontier Cartridge Duelist completion. Doc Duncan, Judge’m All’s brother, placed 2nd among Gunfighters, and his wife, Yankee Red, placed 2nd in Ladies’ Frontier Cartridge shooting.

OUT ON THE RANGE If you’re a Western movie fan, you know that it takes “good” villains to make the hero look heroic.  So the most successful movie cowboy heroes appeared with real “good” bad guys. Each month, the Ocoee Rangers square off against class villains, the Leadmine Valley Steel Cowboys. But it takes classy looking cowboys and cowgirls to go out and challenge the bad guys. And we’ve got’em. Here are a few.  Notice that the good guys and the bad guys are basically done up in black.

The Opponents – The Leadmine Valley Gang

Front L-R: Tucson Tuco & Marshal Too Tall … Back L-R: TN Jake, Lightning McCoy & El Carrera