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Volume 5, Issue No. 12                                           December 2007

Ocoee Rangers Annual Christmas Shoot & Family Event – 2007

Twas a week and a smidgen before Christmas and … well, it was sorta noisy, ‘cause the Ocoee Rangers were having their Annual Christmas Shoot.  And most of the cowgirls and cowboys were dressed spiffier than usual, ‘cause they were goin’ to an After Shoot Event to celebrate the season and another good year of Cowboy Action Shooting in Cleveland.

Of course Christmas is for children, as the song goes. And what are Cowboy & Cowgirl Shooters but big kids. And kids look to Santa for surprises during the holiday season. And Santa has helpers, lots of helpers.  And some of them were on the range, shooting.

Front: Widowmaker … Standing L – R : Sheriff Donald, Deadeye Daisy, Tennessee Tombstone, Horseshoe John

The scenarios we shot were fast and fun. And the shooters were colorful and some were fast, real fast. With the bonus points available on the Christmas Tree stage, some shooters actually had minus scores for that stage. The Top Gun of the day was Unpleasant. The Top Cowgirl Shooter was Last Kiss. The Top 10 Shooters were (1) Unpleasant (2) Dustin Clays (3) Marshal Too Tall  (4) Ocoee Red (5) Widowmaker (6) Festus D. Deputy (7) Lightning McCoy (8) Tin Pot (9) Pleasant (10) T – Bone Angus.  15 shooters had no-miss matches: Dustin Clays, Marshal Too Tall, Pleasant, Horseshoe John, Limp Along Charlie, Sheriff Donald, Linc, Deadman, Roma Jane, Awful Close, Sundance McNeyman, Tarheel, Owlhoot Hardin, Tennessee Jake and Honest Charlie. Sundance McNeyman captured 1st place in the Long Range Single Shot Rifle and Long Range Pistol competitions of the Buffalo shoot and Marshall Too Tall placed 1st in the .22 cal. and Lever Action Rifle competitions.

Here are the category winners:

Squire Shooter & His Lady

Oracle

Ranger Roger Shoots & Limp Along Charlie Times

Lightning Mc Coy

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                                            December 2007

AFTER SHOOT EVENT & ANNUAL AWARDS PRESENTATION

As 2007 closes, it was appropriate that we gathered after the December Shoot and celebrated our friendships and the moments of camaraderie that we’ve had on the ranges in Cleveland, Oak Ridge, Ringgold, and elsewhere throughout the year. And, of course, it was a time to present Annual Awards to cowboys and cowgirls for their accomplishments.

The 1st award presented was The 2007 Spirit Of The Game Award. That went to Horseshoe John. Horseshoe John is a top hand in conducting Ocoee Ranger shoots, serving as our Ranger Master for the last 5 years. Each Friday before our shoots, he supervises the setting up of the range and makes adjustments to target angles to minimize bounce back of projectiles hitting all those steel cowboys.  That became quite a chore from August through November this year. While shoeing a large horse, it spooked and trampled him 3 times. But he cowboyed up and did his thing, although he couldn’t complete 1 match. And he’s a regular shooter not only in Cleveland, but also with the Smoky Mountain Shootist Society and the Tennessee Mountain Marauders.

Horseshoe John, Spirit of the Game Award Recipient, and Last Kiss, Top Cowgirl Shooter

Then we presented shooting awards, finishing with the 2007 Top Gun Award. This year, there was a tie.  We hadn’t fashioned a tie breaking mechanism. So, 2 awards were presented to the Top shooters: Unpleasant and Marshal Too Tall. Most of us will never win a Top Gun Award. So, the picture below shows what they look like. Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter of 2007.

Top Gun Awards – 2007

Going into this year, we were asked to consider changing the shooting awards.  Instead of recognizing the Top 10 Shooters, we were asked to recognize the Top 3 Shooters in each of our shooting categories. And so we did. Of course we didn’t have 3 shooters in some categories. We also continued to recognize the Top 5 Accurate Shooters. In order to be eligible to receive an award, a shooter must have shot in at least 5 Ocoee Ranger monthly matches from January through November. At each monthly match, placement points are awarded in each category. 1st place in the category gets 3 points. 2nd gets 2 points. And 3rd gets 1 point. Here are the category winners for 2007.

Ocoee Red with 2007 TOP GUN Winners.

L-R: Marshal Too Tall, Ocoee Red, Unpleasant

B-Western

1. Tio Don

2. T-Bone Angus

The Top 5 Most Accurate Shooters are the shooters who throughout 2007 had the fewest misses per stage / match. Here are the 2007 Top 5 Most Accurate Shooters: (1) Deadman (2) Pleasant (3) Tennessee Hoss (4) Lightning McCoy and Polecat Carl (5) Owlhoot Hardin.

Owlhoot Hardin – An Accurate Shooting Black Powder Duelist

the event – Prizes – sponsors – how long it lasted this year

this year, we made an effort to not take all afternoon to have the post shoot event. And we were successful.  If you stayed away because you thought it’d take too long, you missed a good time.  We shot 3 very good, fast moving stages. Then we journeyed over to the Golden Corral Restaurant. We got there a little after 1:00 pm, or at least most of us did. And we finished a little before 3:00 pm. We had a tasty lunch. And we presented awards.  And we drew tickets to award prizes to folks who had shot at least 1 match with us in 2007, including the December match, and in the drawing, Dustin Clays helped keep things moving. We weren’t rushed. But we didn’t dawdle.  Most of the prizes awarded were purchased from contributions from shooters at monthly shoots from January through October.  Double Eagle took the loot, did some cowboy shopping, and bought all kinds of nifty stuff. AND WE HAD 4 VERY GENEROUS SPONSORS WHO DONATED PRIZES: STARLINE BRASS, TRIMS & BRIMS, SADDLEBAG BULLETS, OUTRIDER’S LEATHER CRAFTS. See page 3 for sponsor contact information. Please remember our sponsors when you buy cowboy shooting stuff.

Sponsor Contact Information:

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Volume 5, Issue No. 11                                                   November, 2007

70 Chilly Cowboys & Cowgirls Shoot A Real Nifty November Match

Marshal Too Tall made a comment that has to start this yarn. When asked who won the Long Range Pistol Competition in the Buffalo Shoot, he said, “Nobody. None of us could hit the target.” How ‘bout that? An honest cowboy.  If he’d been a deer hunter or fisherman, he’d have finished, “but you should have seen the 1 that got away.” Anyway, it was a fun match, although a bit chilly. But that gave several cowboys a chance to wear their cowboy winter coats, and some layered cowboys a chance to walk around coatless looking macho. Of course coats were off for shooting.

Shadrack Jones shoots  Henry Rifle, Black Powder Style – I Know You See A Gate, But This Is An Authentic Henry Rifle Style.

Owlhoot Hardin pointed out that since he’d suggested we recognize the Black Powder Duelist category, lots of folks were shooting it: 7 shot BPD Saturday. Of course there were other cowfolk shooting 1 handed. If you count all the categories in which folks shoot 1 handed (classic, duelist, gunfighter, outlaw, black powder duelist, and the lady’s categories for some of these, we had 26 of the 70 shooters shooting 1 handed.  That’s counting Ben Shot who shoots in the Senior category but shoots duelist style.

Calico Nicole, daughter of Bad Arm Slim and granddaughter of Bad Eye Tom shot her 1st cowboy shooting match, and she did very well. Talking about shooting, Calico said she had a good teacher, her grandfather. Bad Eye Tom told Mesquite Milllie that he started her off with 3 things: exposure to the loading table, the unloading table and working with a timer. He bought a timer so she’d not be intimated by it when she started shooting matches. Bad Arm Slim, Bad Eye’s son, said that his dad did a good job working with Calico.  And if you watched her shoot, you could see it. The smile on Calico’s face below seems to say 2 things: (1) her granddaddy did a good job of training and (2) she enjoys cowgirl shooting.

The TOP GUN for the day was Unpleasant. The Top 10 Shooters were (1) Unpleasant (2) Festus D. Deputy (3) Marshal Too Tall  (4) Ocoee Red (5) Risin’ Outlaw (6) Tabasco JOT (7) Judge’m All Duncan (8) Widowmaker (9) Pleasant (10) Keystone.  11 cowboys had no-miss matches: Marshal Too Tall, Tabasco JOT, Polecat Carl, Fast Harley, Moonshine Roberts, Awful Close, Sundance McNeyman, Deadman, Tennessee Hoss, Tenn Smoke and Bad Eye Tom.  Outrider captured 1st place in the Long Range Rifle competition of the Buffalo shoot and Marshall Too Tall placed 1st in the .22 cal. and Lever Action Rifle competition. Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter.

Family Shooters. L-R: Bad Arm Slim, Calico Nicole, Bad Eye Tom

Here are the category winners:

Traditional

1. Upleasant

2. Moonshine Roberts

3. Yankee Dutchman

1-Handed Shooters. L-R:

El Carrera – Classic Cowboy & Owlhoot Hardin – Black Powder Duelist

Last, but not least, we had 1 other Junior shooter who helped us shoot turkeys in our 5 stages: Bulls Eye. He was a credit to his posse and along with Calico Nicole is the future of Cowboy Action Shooting. Look around at the next match, and take a look at the demographics of our group. (How’s that word, Owlhoot?) We could just about call ourselves the Silver Haired Daddies, to take a song title from Gene Autry.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                                November 2007

THE REEL WEST, THE REAL WEST AND THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION

THE REEL WEST – BRIAN KEITH (1921 – 1997)

Brian Keith was born in New Jersey in 1921 and got into show business when he was only 3.  But that wasn’t surprising. After all, both his parents were actors. After high school, Brian joined the Marines and served in WWII. Upon his release from active duty, he went in search of acting work and found it. In the ensuing years, he appeared on stage, in the movies and on TV.  He’s probably best remembered for 1 of his TV roles: he was Uncle Bill on FAMILY AFFAIR.  But in his long career, Brian played a lot of other roles. He was in bunches of Westerns on the big screen and on the living room screen. Sometimes he was a sidekick, and sometimes a hero and sometimes he was a real convincing bad guy.

Do you remember any of his Westerns? He was the hero in DEADLY COMPANIONS, with Maureen O’Hara. And he appeared with her and Jimmy Stewart in RARE BREED. And he was in NEVADA SMITH.  And if you want to see him as a real mean gunman, take a look at THE VIOLENT MEN, an excellent Western with Glenn Ford. For 1 season, he starred in THE WESTERNER, a TV series directed by Sam Peckinpah. Shucks, after that, Sam wanted Brian to play the role of Deke Thornton (the part Robert Ryan had) in THE WILD BUNCH. Unfortunately, Brian was tied up with FAMILY AFFAIR at the time. If you’ve seen THE MOUNTAINMEN, Brian appeared as Charlton Heston’s pardner.  The critics didn’t think much of that movie, but it was excellent. The script is good, and the scenery is terrific: the movie is shot in the Grand Tetons / Jackson Hole, WY area. Give it a look, if you haven’t seen it. In all, Brian appeared in more than 42 Western roles in the movies and on TV.

Brian died of a self inflected gunshot wound in 1997. His daughter had died of suicide 2 weeks before, and he’d been given only a few weeks to live due to a medical condition. So, he exercised his option and chose his time to join the ghost riding cowboy posse in the sky. But you can still see him and his infectious smile on TV’s Westerns Channel.

THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – S. A. PONDWATER

Have you ever wondered what the S.A. in Pondwater’s name stood for? Well, it sure ain’t reflective of his shootin’ ability.  According to Pondwater, S.A. stands for “Slow As”. But he doesn’t shoot slow. He’s 1 of our best and fastest shooters.  What does he shoot? “I shoot .357 magnums in both my pistols and in my rifle. I shoot a 12 Ga. ‘97 shotgun.”

How long has he been shooting Cowboy? “I started Cowboy Shooting in 2003. But I took 2 years off to build my house. Then I started shooting heavily in 2005.  I’ve always shot Modern. When I first started, there wasn’t a lot of competition in the Modern category at the local level. There still isn’t. But when you get to the State level, that changes.  I shot Mule Camp in “06 and shot the Tennessee State Match in ’05 and ’06. But I didn’t shoot in ’07. My youngest son was born about then, and I stayed home to help my wife.” Ol’ Pondwater has 2 sons (18 months and 7 weeks old) and a daughter (3 years old). “I’m getting my kids ready to start Cowboy Shooting when they get old enough.” That’s a proud papa, and 1 who’s planning ahead.

How did he get started in Cowboy Shooting? “My dad (Tabasco JOT) taught me all I know about Cowboy Shooting. I shot my 1st match in Griffin, GA with Doc Holiday’s Immortals. My uncle, Rough Edge, shoots there.  I have some other relatives who also shoot Cowboy. What do I like best about Cowboy Shooting? I get to spend time with my dad. And when I’m Cowboy Shooting, I forget about life’s pressures. I just think about shooting.” He must think good, ‘cause he shoots very well. So does his dad.

THE REAL WEST – CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864 – 1926)

Charles Marion Russell, the cowboy artist, was 1 of the great American Western artists. Born in Missouri, he dropped out of school when he was 16 and went to Montana to work on a ranch. And he fell in love with the American West. He worked as a cowboy, but not very hard, and was befriended by an old former mountainman, and met Indians, and generally learned 1st hand about the West. Charlie was working in Montana in 1886 -1887 when the blizzards wiped out the open range cattle business.  In fact that storm launched his career as an artist. He painted a post card size picture of a starving longhorn cow standing in the snow and surrounded by wolves. The picture was circulated, and he became known for his ability to draw and paint. Later, he painted a full sized version of that picture and called it Waiting For A Chinook. In 1893, Charlie gave up working as a cowboy, although he still considered himself to be one, and married Nancy Cooper, his partner for the remainder of his life.

Charlie was a lazy, friendly sort of feller with a gift for gab, who could spin a story and paint what he’d seen and imagined the West to be, a West that would soon be gone. Nancy, on the other hand, was industrious and had an ability to organize, push Charlie a bit, and to promote his art work. And with his natural talent and romantic interest in the subjects he painted, and her promoter’s ability, he became a successful painter and later a sculptor. Nancy arranged art showings in New York, London (England, not Kentucky) and other places, and folks took a shine to Charlie’s work.  For a while they lived in California, where more folks lived with money to spend and walls to decorate. But Charlie’s heart called him back to Montana, and they returned to Great Falls, where he established a studio to continue his work.

Charlie’s work fit right in with the Western novels and Wild West Shows that were attracting a public that wanted to hear about and see the Wild West.  Then silent Western movies appeared, and Charlie’s paintings helped Hollywood see what real cowboys looked like. In his lifetime, Charlie created more than 2,000 paintings, drawings and bronze sculptures showing cowboys, Indians, animals and landscapes of the American West.  He died in 1926 in Great Falls, Montana. 

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The Ocoee Ranger page 3                                               November 2007

ANNUAL OCOEE RANGERS CHRISTMAS SHOOT & FAMILY EVENT DECEMBER 15th

Hey, pardners.  Plan to attend our Annual Christmas Shoot and family event on December 15th. We’ll shoot 3 Christmas theme stages.  Then we’ll put up all the targets and stuff and ride down the trail to the Golden Corral restaurant, where we’ll have a Dutch Treat Lunch, and then we’ll present Annual Awards. Last, but not least, we’ll draw for prizes.  Anyone who has shot at least 1 match during 2007 is eligible to be included in the drawing for prizes. Ol’ Double Eagle has been shoppin’ at emporiums all over the place to round up spiffy prizes for cowboys and cowgirls to win, and sponsors Outrider’s Leather Products, Saddle Bag Bullets/Cool Waters, and Starline Brass have donated some nice prizes.

Memories of the 2006 Ocoee Rangers Annual Christmas Shoot & Family Event L-R: Double Eagle (our shopper), Bad Eye Tom (our Santa) & Deadeye Daisy (our Reindeer Helper)

Speaking of winning, here are a few of the performance awards that we’ll present:  the Annual Spirit of the Game Award. Top Gun of the Year (Competition for this was very close, with the November match deciding who won. Nope. We won’t tell who won until we award the trophy.) We’ll also present shooting category awards, and other performance awards.

Nope! We won’t have a gift exchange this year.  We’ve outgrown that. It was just too time consuming. This year, we should have a fun event, and not take all day to do it.  COME OUT AND PARTICIPATE. INVITE YOUR SPOUSE OR SPECIAL PERSON AND YOUR YOUNGSTERS. LET THEM MEET YOUR PLAYMATES.  AFTER ALL, WE’RE ALL CIVILIZED … Well, sometimes there’s some doubt about Dead Beat, when he gets decked out in all them dead animal hides.  But he usually cleans up real nice for the Christmas Whing-Ding.

DIRECTIONS TO THE GOLDEN CORRAL ·         From the range / Chattanooga direction, take I-75 North to exit 27, the Paul Huff Parkway.

·         Turn right at the top of the exit ramp and go straight ahead about     2.5 miles. 

·         You’ll pass Walmart on your right, and the Cleveland Mall on your left.

·         Go straight ahead through the traffic light just beyond where you see the Mall and Walmart.

·         The Golden Corral is about 200 yards ahead on your right.

OCOEE RANGERS PARTICIPATE IN POSSUM TROT KY – TN STATE BLACK POWDER CHAMPIONSHIP SHOOT IN OCTOBER

The weekend of our October Shoot, several Ocoee Rangers participated in the KY – TN State Black Powder Championship Shoot, held at Possum Trot, and they did very well in the competition.  Last Kiss and Fast Harley both won the 1st Place  TN State Black Powder cowboy and cowgirl Gunfighter titles. Last Kiss was the 1st Place Lady Shooter in overall cowgirl competition. Double Eagle won the 1st Place Black Powder Duelist competition, making him the overall Black Powder Duelist winner and the TN State Black Powder Duelist champion. Curly Bill won the 1st Place Black Powder Outlaw competition, making him the overall Black Powder Outlaw  winner and the TN State Black Powder Outlaw champion.

Curly Bill – TN State Champion Black Powder Outlaw Shooter

Double Eagle – TN State Champion Black Powder Duelist

L-R: Fast Harley & Last Kiss – TN State Champion Black Powder Gunfighters