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Volume 5, Issue No. 6                                               June 2007

Roma Jane Shoots Clean, Dajango Slim Says, “Adios” & Lightning McCoy Kicks The Bucket At The June Shoot

The June shoot was a hum-dinger. There were lots of steel bad guys to shoot, on 1 stage each shooter could choose to shoot from close up or back a ways, and Roma Jane shot her 1st no miss match as an Ocoee Ranger.  It was a good day.  Unfortunately, 1 of our regular shooters said “Good bye”.  Dajango Slim is moving to Athens – Georgia, not Greece. And that’s a bit far to commute. We’ll miss him. But he says he’s not giving up Cowboy Shooting.  He’ll just have to do it some-where else.

Roma Jane Didn’t Miss

Dajango Slim Says Good Bye

Sometimes unexpected things happen at matches. Right off the bat, Lightning McCoy kicked the bucket. No, he ain’t dead. He was just clumsy, and kicked 1 of the stage buckets – accidentally. Dustin Clays quickly remarked, “I can see the newsletter now. Lightning kicks the bucket.”  Well, if he reads this, he’ll see it. Festus D. Deputy also wanted to go on record. At stage 3, each shooter could shoot targets from a short distance or a longer distance.  It seems that Festus shot his from the longer distance.  He said “(Marshal) Too Tall chickened (that ain’t the real word, but it’s close) out and shot’em from up close.  And he still beat me by only a couple of seconds.”  Giving shooters a choice to shoot long or short was a terrific idea.  Hopefully, we’ll see it again.

You’ve gotta load’em before you shoot’em.  L-R: Tio Don, Last Kiss & Tenn Critr.

Are these patriotic cowboys, or what?

If you were not at the shoot, we dispensed with awarding certificates in a group gathering.  They were presented individually as shooters registered to shoot.  And we didn’t do a lot of announcements.  And Deadman got busy earlier assigning posses. And we finished somewhere around 2:00 – 2:30 pm.  Simply stated, we had a terrific shoot, ended a bit earlier, and got out of the heat.  And we shot 5 complete stages while doing it. So if heat ain’t your thing, come on out and shoot with us. You can have a full shoot, a good time, and get away early.

Badlands Beck times Tennessee Tombstone shooting Outlaw

Cowboys & Cowgirl Having Lunch on the Range

How’d the shooting go? Very good. Here’s how. In the before match Buffalo Shoot, Calibre .45 won the Long Range Pistol Shoot. Kenesaw bested the other shooters in Long Range Single Shot Rifle competition.  And Marshal Too Tall won the .22 Cal. and Long Range Lever Action Rifle Shoots. Unpleasant was the main match Top Gun, and Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter. Here’s how the Top 10 Shooters stacked up: (1) Unpleasant (2) Marshal Too Tall (3) Pleasant (4) Polecat Carl (5) Dustin Clays (6) Ocoee Red (7) Festus D. Deputy (8) Tucson Tuco, (9) Cherokee Maddog and    (10) Widowmaker.  8 shooters shot Perfect Matches (no misses): Roma Jane, Marshal Too Tall, Polecat Carl, Dustin Clays, Tarantula Jack, Tucson Tuco, Awful Close and Deadman.

SHOOT RESULTS

TOP GUN – Unpleasant … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Calibre .45 … .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Single Shot Rifle –  Kenesaw … Long Range Lever Action Rifle – Marshal Too Tall

Duelist

1. Cherokee Maddog

2. Tarantula Jack

3. Horseshoe John

TO DATE, WE HAVE RECEIVED $344.17 IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUY PRIZES TO BE AWARDED AT OUR CHRISTMAS SHOOT AND FAMILY EVENT.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                           June 2007

THE REEL WEST, THE REAL WEST & THE WEST

OF OUR IMAGINATION

THE REEL WEST – Strother Martin  1919 – 1980

Strother Martin

Do you remember Strother Martin?  If not, shame on you.  Strother, or T-Bone as he was nicknamed in high school, was a rascally looking little feller who frequently played shady characters.  But he made the movies he appeared in better for his contribution.

T-Bone Martin was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1919 and grew up there. Although he didn’t look like an athlete, he was a champion diver in high school.  His swimming and diving in some way resulted in his class chums giving him the nickname “T-Bone Martin”.  In WWII, Strother served as a Navy swimming instructor, and after the War, he was on the Diving Team at the University of Michigan.  Eventually, he moved to Los Angles, where he worked as a swimming instructor and as an extra doing water scenes in movies.  After a time, he began getting bit parts and then graduated to being a “character actor”, and if you’ve seen him in his movie roles, he was sure a character. 

What’s his cowboy connection?  Well, ol’ Strother’s been in a bunch of cowboy flicks, on the big screen and on TV.  He was 1 of the bounty hunters in Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH.  And he was a horse trader who had to deal with the young gal in John Wayne’s TRUE GRIT.   And he was a cantankerous mining engineer in Bolivia who hired Paul Newman and Robert Redford as payroll guards in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.  And he was 1 of the villains in Raquel Welsh and Robert Culp’s HANNIE CAULDER. And he was in a bunch of other Westerns. And on TV he appeared on GUNSMOKE. And …. You get the drift.  Strother was a busy feller. His most famous movie line was spoken in a non-Western. As the prison warden in Paul Newman’s COOL HAND LUKE, Strother said,  “What we have here is failure to communicate.”  He said that just before he had a sharp shooter shoot Luke (Newman).

Strother Martin died in 1980.  He was 61.

THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – Owlhoot Hardin

Owlhoot Hardin

Owlhoot Hardin is a 1-handed shooter. His philosophy is a cowboy, or cowgirl, is supposed to stand up and shoot just like John Wayne and Roy Rogers and all them other cowboys.  None of that 2-handed stuff for him. Why? Well, it just ain’t cowboy. And Owlhoot has been shootin’ cowboy for years.  He shot his 1st cowboy match in 1994 at a Mule Camp Shoot.  After that, he started working to get Cowboy Shooting started in the Knoxville area.  The 1st match there had 6 or 8 shooters.  They passed the hat and pooled saddle money and bought some targets and stuff.  And, well, today the Smoky Mountain Shootists are alive and well. In 1999, Owlhoot became their Territorial Governor.

Of course Cowboy Shootin’ ain’t the only shootin’ Owlhoot’s practiced. He’s shot Bull’s Eye and PPC and high power rifle shootin’ competition. And he’s been a shootin’ instructor in the military and for TVA.  And he’s taught Cowboy Shootin’ to some familiar cowboys: Dustin Clays, Curly Bill, Double Eagle, Fast Harley and others.

How’d he get his alias? Here’s his reasoning, when selecting his alias: an owlhoot is a low-grade criminal, and that sorta fits. So, he became Owlhoot Hardin. And as Owlhoot, he’s shot Mule Camp several times and several state shoots and a bunch of local shoots.  He prefers the state and local shoots. And he prefers something else: real, live Colt pistols.  Just look in his holsters, and you’ll see some real classy shootin’ irons.  And the feller shootin’ them is a classy feller himself. You can tell that by just lookin’ at him, if you can see him through all that smoke.  He’s become a black powder shooter.

THE REAL WEST – Mickey Free

1847 – 1915

Have you ever heard of Mickey Free? Well, if you’ve seen the 2-part TV movie MR. HORN, starring David Carradine, or taken time to read about either Tom Horn, or Al Sieber, or the Apache wars, you have.  Otherwise, you’ve probably never heard of him.

Mickey was born Felix Telles in Mexico sometime around 1847.  His papa was either Irish or part Irish and his mama was Mexican.  His papa was killed when he was still a pup, and his mama found a new feller and moved to Arizona, taking little Felix along with her. But Felix didn’t grow up to be a farmer.  Nope.  In 1861 when he was 14, a band of Apaches captured Felix.  Of course his capture led to bloody battles between the Americans and the Apaches.  While they were fighting each other, his captors traded him to a member of another tribe, the White Mountain Apaches at San Carlos Indian Reservation. The feller who traded for Felix freed him, and he was adopted as a White Mountain Apache. From his new pappy, Felix learned the skills and lifestyle of the Apache. He became, in essence, tres hombres (3 men): he spoke American, Spanish, and Apache.  Add that to his Apache skills that he’d learned, and he was well equipped to become a scout in the Apache wars between the Yankee Army and the warrior Apaches.

Sgt. Mickey Free

In 1872, Mickey became a Sergeant of Scouts.  Somewhere along the way, he’d ceased being Felix and became Mickey Free, named after a character in a then popular novel.  Mickey became 1 of Al Sieber’s scouts, and a very good one.  He was tough, he knew the Apache and the country, and he earned his pay. Folks said that Mickey was part Irish, part Mexican and all SOB.  (That last part ain’t really what they said, but it’s all the Rev. Adam Jones will let me write.)  Mickey served as a scout during various campaigns in the Apache wars, several times against Geronimo, until 1893, when the conflict ended. After that, he moved to the White Mountain Apache reservation, where he married and had a passel of young’uns. He died there in 1915.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 3                                          June 2007

Have Gun, Will Travel

Do you remember Paladin, Richard Boone’s alter ego? Well, most of us do. He’d flip out his business card, Have Gun Will Travel, pack his guns, put on his gunslick duds and hit the trail to do battle with bad guys.  That’s sorta what several Ocoee Rangers have done in the last few weeks. They’ve hit the trail to fight steel badguys. On our May shoot day, paw Pleasant and his boys, Pyro and little Unpleasant, journeyed west to Mississippi and shot in the Mississippi State Cowboy Shooting Championship with the Mississippi River Rangers. Last Kiss and her trail pardner, Fast Harley, were also shooters in that match, and so were Sheriff Donald and Deadeye Daisy. Last Kiss placed 1st in the Lady Gunfighter category. Here’s how all these Ocoee Rangers placed, in a field of 196 shooters: Unpleasant (24), Pleasant (34), Pyro (50), Fast Harley (63), Last Kiss (84), Sheriff Donald (95), and Deadeye Daisy (169).

Pleasant and Unpleasant

Last Kiss & Fast Harley

During that same week, south and east of the Missippi Shooters, several other regular Ocoee Rangers shooters helped battle steel badguys at the Shoot Out At Mule Camp, just south of Atlanta. Killin’ Time placed 1st in the Lady Duelist category, and her shootin’ pardner, Rusty Spur Slim, placed 1st in the Frontier category, shootin’ black powder and cap & ball pistols. Of course they had company from other shooters frequently seen on the Ocoee Rangers range.  Here’s how they fared in overall competition in a field of 415 shooters: Sunshine Billy (28), Widowmaker (90), Rusty Spur Slim (95), Polecat Carl (116), Tabasco JOT (123), Judge’m All Duncan (162), Wildcat Wilkey (201), and Killin’ Time (203).

A few weeks later and down south in Sorrento, Louisiana, Deadman buckled on his six-guns, drug out his double barrel shotgun and ‘73 Winchester and helped Blayde & KD Hollister, former Ocoee Rangers, and their Deadwood Marshals fight their steel outlaws. Nope, it wasn’t a championship shoot.  It was just a small Cowboy Shooting Club’s monthly shoot.  But they have an in-place small-town setup with lots of targets.  They also have a pond that sometimes has a resident alligator in it. Nope. It wasn’t there the day Deadman was in town. In a field of 17 shooters, Deadman did about normal: he was somewhere near the middle and didn’t miss any targets, although he did manage to acquire a procedural on the last stage.  But he ain’t too smart anyway; Horseshoe John and T-Bone will attest to that. Here’s how he and his young’uns placed: Blayde Hollister (5), Deadman (10), and KD Hollister (17).

The Deadwood Marshals of Sorrento, Louisiana.

Kneeling L-R:  Blayde Hollister & Deadman.  KD Hollister is standing behind Deadman. The Galvez Kid is standing in the last row at the left, wearing a white hat.

KD Holllister took a goodly amount of ribbin’.  At the May Deadwood Marshal’s shoot, she flicked the lever of her rifle while shootin’ a stage, and the hot brass went up in the air — and then down the front of her dress. She did a Cajun 2-step until she could pull her gun-belts away and let the hot cartridge fall to the ground.  1 of the cowboys kiddin’ her was the Galvez Kid. He placed 1st at the June shoot when Deadman visited them and 42nd when he shot with Last Kiss and the gang at the Mississippi State Championship shoot.

What does all this mean?  Well, it means that Cowboy Shooting is fun in lots of places, in big regional shoots – like Mule Camp, and state championship shoots – like the Mississippi State shoot, and at small monthly shoots – like the Sorrento cowboys’ / Deadwood Marshals’ shoot.

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Volume 5, Issue No. 5                                                        May, 2007

Ocoee Rangers Celebrate John Wayne’s

100th Birthday

The Ocoee Rangers’ May Shoot was a celebration of John Wayne’s 100th birthday.  Sure he died years ago, technically.  But if a feller looked at all the folks wearing cowboy hats and shootin’ western six-guns, he’d have to conclude that there’s a little bit of John Wayne in all of us Cowboy Action Shooters. And why not?  We all need role models, even Linc.  And the characters that John Wayne portrayed were worthy of being role models. So what if he had quirks, just like Marshal Too Tall and the rest of us. Tennessee Hoss whipped up scenarios that gave us a chance to remember the Duke in memory of his movies and in gunsmoke as we battled the steel bad guys and won the day, just like John Wayne did.

While folks were still registering, Festus D. Deputy circulated amongst the crowd to select the cowboy to receive the Best John Wayne Look Award, a box set John Wayne knife and buckle.  Lightning McCoy was selected. He was wearing a leather vest, yellow bandana down in front, big buckle on his pants belt, white hat and he topped it off with a .45-.70 cartridge in his gun belt.  Big and Deadman gave him a run for the roses, but Lightning prevailed. 

Contrary to Colonel Allison’s accusation, these 3 cowboys are not wearing pink: it’s John Wayne Red.  L-R: Big, Deadman and Lightning McCoy.

But there were other Duke looks.  Moonshine Roberts was sporting a cavalry shirt complete with Captain’s shoulder boards.  And Tin Pot had another Duke look, and an unusual one:  he was dressed in a top hat like the Duke wore when he was pretending to be a gunrunner in THE COMANCHEROS.

Tin Pot as John Wayne masquerading as gun-runner Ed McBain in THE COMANCHEROS.

How’d the shootin’ go? Just fine. Marshal Too Tall was the Top Gun for the day, closely followed by Festus D. Deputy and Fiddleback. And Katydid, daughter of Cactus Red,took on the steel bad guys as a Junior Cowgirl Shooter, her 1st with us.  And she shot very well. 

Proud papa, Cactus Red, and  daughter, Katydid.

The Top 10 Shooters were: (1) Marshal Too Tall (2) Festus D. Deputy (3) Fiddleback (4) Slater (5) Curly Bill (6) Tennessee Mongo (7) Yankee Dutchman (8) Ocoee Red (9) Double Eagle and (10) Horseshoe John.  3 cowboys shot matches with no misses: Ruckus Roy, Deadman and Rebel.

We had several visiting shooters, including Rebel, Oracle’s brother, and Black Lung Bart, an active duty member of Uncle Sam’s Army, who recently returned from duty in Iraq. All seemed to have a good time on the range.  In all, we had 60 shooters.  It was an excellent day for shooting with our cowboy & cowgirl shootin’ friends.

Black Lung Bart, visiting soldier

SHOOT RESULTS

TOP GUN – Marshal Too Tall … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Sundance McNeyman… .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Single Shot Rifle … Oracle … Long Range Lever Action Rifle – Marshal Too Tall

TO DATE, WE HAVE RECEIVED $307.10 IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUY PRIZES TO BE AWARDED AT OUR CHRISTMAS SHOOT AND FAMILY EVENT.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                                       May 2007

THE REEL WEST – 

JOHN WAYNE  (May 1907 – June 1979)  Was Born 100 Years Ago This Month

John Wayne

100 years ago this month, Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa. His mother was sorta nuts-o, so when his brother was born, she took the Robert away from Marion and gave it to her new kid.  That left Marion with only 1 name. So, his parents gave him a new middle name, Michael.  Marion’s pop was a druggist, and not a very successful one. So in 1911, the family left Iowa and moved to southern California.  That gave Marion’s pop a chance to go fail in a new place. And he did. But, it ultimately gave Marion an opportunity to attend college at the University of Southern California, where he played a couple of years on the football team. He learned to surf, and a surfing injury caused him to lose his football scholarship.  No scholarship = no college.  So, Marion left school and went to work.

While he was at USC playing football, Marion met Ward Bond, another player, and they became lifelong friends.  During summers, they’d worked for a movie company.  So Marion, then called Duke, named after a dog he’d had, went to work for the movie company full time for $35 a week. While lifting, tugging and carrying stuff around, he met John Ford, who became his mentor and life long friend.  Eventually, Duke began playing bit parts and 2 years after his employment with the movie company, he was selected to play the lead in THE BIG TRAIL.  But a cowboy hero couldn’t have a girl’s name like Marion.  So, the director gave him a new one: John Wayne.

THE BIG TRAIL was a flop at the box office. But it gave Duke a raise in pay to $75 a week, while it was filming.  And the studio taught him to ride and other western skills.  So, with his new cowboy skills and his nifty new name, he was launched.  Sorta.  He became a B-Western silver screen cowboy for about 9 years.  And believe it or not, he became the very 1st singing cowboy, Singin’ Sandy. It’s true.  Of course it wasn’t his voice.  Remember old time cowboy Bob Steel?  His brother dubbed the singing voice (even dubbed it was awful) for Duke.  (Somehow, the dog’s name was his favorite name, and he always used it.  Good thing the dog wasn’t named Rover.)

In 1939 John Ford cast Duke as the Ringo Kid in STAGECOACH.  Ford had decided to use Duke in the role, but he asked him who he though would be good in the role.  Duke suggested Lloyd Nolan. (Lloyd Nolan?) Ford responded, “You dumb SOB. (That ain’t what he said, but the Rev. Adam Jones wouldn’t want the real thing said here.) I’m putting you in the role.”  That was Duke’s 1st big successful role, even if he was billed down below the lead gal and the drunk doc.  Future roles developed, slowly at 1st.  But eventually, John Wayne became a superstar.  In fact, he became an American Icon.

John Wayne – Spirit of the American West and the Cowboy

John Wayne never served in the military.  But he became the most recognized actor of all time in military roles.  And he wasn’t a cowboy, but he came to epitomize the Western Spirit of the Cowboy. John Wayne died in 1979, but you wouldn’t know it.  His movies, and especially his Westerns, are seen daily.  Think of Western movies, and most folks think of John Wayne.  And it’s not just us senior cowboys who’re keeping him alive by watching and buying his movies.  Young folks who like Westerns, and unfortunately there are not enough of them, think of him also, along with Clint Eastwood. But as long as us older folks are alive, John Wayne will be alive.

John Wayne did 1 thing that us folks who fought in the Viet Nam conflict should always remember.  In 1967, he put up his own money and made the 1st Viet Nam War Movie, THE GREEN BERETS. At that time, movies about Viet Nam and those of us in country weren’t popular with the critics, or the media or the hippies or lots of other folks.  It would take many years for that to happen.  But he made his movie when it counted. THE GREEN BERETS wasn’t a good movie, but the fact that he made it, when he made it, made it a great movie for some of us. He supported us when Jane Fonda was having her picture taken at a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun emplacement. John Wayne rode tall in the saddle and still does.  Hopefully, he’ll ride forever.

THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – CURLY BILL

Curly Bill

Curly Bill has been Cowboy Shootin’ for 7 or 8 years.  He can’t exactly remember.  But he remembers that he started in Knoxville, back when the Smoky Mountain Shootists had only about 15 – 25 members. Startin’ out, he shot Ruger Vaqueros, in .45 cal., “and I didn’t have enough sense to down load.  Double Eagle has the 1st good rifle I ever had.” But Curly Bill’s kept at it.  Now, he shoots .38’s and .38-40’s. “And since I started Outlaw shootin’, I shoot the larger stuff.”  That means he’s back to .45’s. “I used to shoot Traditional, and all I thought about was competing.  Now, I look at it for overall enjoyment.  I had a good run, but I was missing out on what this sport had to offer.”

“I’ve always had curly hair.  Some of my pool shootin’ buddies called me curly. So when I looked for an alias, I tried Curly Bill.  But SASS already had one.  So, I tacked on Kelly.  But  I don’t use the full name around here.”

Curly Bill is a cowboy of many talents.  He’s a good shooter, an accomplished gunsmith and an excellent leather craftsman. “I’ve done gunsmith work most of my adult life. I started in leather, because I couldn’t get what I wanted. I like the leatherwork better than gunsmithing.  It’s turned into a love.  Jerry Harper (Vinegaroon) helped me get started.  A lot of people don’t know that Jerry does leather.”

Who’s his favorite movie cowboy?  “John Wayne.  My 2nd is Ben Johnson.”  Curly Bill is a cowboy with talent and taste.

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Shoot Results – May 2007

* Katydid is shown separately. As a Jr. Cowgirl hasn’t moved up to shotgun shootin’ yet, and her paw didn’t elect to be her designated shotgun shooter.  So, she competed with herself and played the game.  And she’s a credit to the Ocoee Rangers – as a young shooter and as a shootin’ pardner of us all.

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Volume 5, Issue No. 4                                     April 2007

April- A Terrific Day & A Terrific Shoot!

1 of our favorite cowgirls rejoined us for the April shoot: Dagnabit Deb. She’s not up to shootin’ yet, but she ventured out, dressed cowgirl and kept score for her posse.  It was plum terrific to have her back.  And the match was a good one.  The scenarios were crisp and quick, and the bonuses were shootin’ bonuses. 71 shooters participated, and Last Kiss showed bunches of us macho cowboys that cowgirls can shoot:  she placed 17th overall. And another cowgirl, Mrs. Pleasant, joined us and shot her 1st match. Like her other half and her boys, she shot very well.  Of course the secret of her shootin’ success is obvious.  No, it ain’t coaching from her cowboys:  it’s her nifty lookin’ cowgirl hat. And our littlest cowgirl shot with us again:  Applesauce.  She did good. Roma Jane was also back, after being away for a while. (Maybe that’s why Long Gulch, her other half, shot so well: he finished 5th overall.) She shot well, placing 1st in Lady Traditional class and 41st in a field of 71 shooters.

Lightning Draws A Bead. “When You Say That, Smile.”

Before the main match started, the Buffalo Shooters unlimbered their guns and started shootin’.  Buckskin Rigsby won the Long Range Pistol Shoot.  Marshal Too Tall won the .22 Cal. and Long Range Single Shot Rifle Shoots. But in the Long Range Pistol Caliber Rifle Shoot, Too Tall had to shoot off against Fast Harley before winning that event also.  The main match Top Gun was Unpleasant, 1 of Mrs. Pleasant’s little boys. And guess who was 2nd? Pleasant – old paw. Here’s how the Top 10 Shooters stacked up: (1) Unpleasant (2) Pleasant (3) Festus D. Deputy (4) Fiddleback (5) Long Gulch (6) Marshal Too Tall (7) Cherokee Maddog (8) Slater (9) T-Bone Angus and (10) Ocoee Red.  9 cowboys shot Perfect Matches (no misses): Festus D. Deputy, Long Gulch, Cool Waters, Horseshoe John, Keystone, Deadman, Squire Shooter, Sundance McNeyman and Tennessee Jake.

Dead Beat Shoots the Varmints While Lightning McCoy Looks On

MAY – JOHN WAYNE SHOOT & Look Alike Contest

May is the month of John Wayne’s 100th Birthday. So, we’re gonna have a John Wayne Shoot. Tennessee Hoss has written 5 stages related to John Wayne Westerns.  Don’t worry.  You don’t have to climb into a saddle, but you’ll get your chance to tell Ned Pepper to fill his hand and do other John Wayne stuff as you shoot the stages.

To spiff up the shoot a little, we encourage folks to dress like John Wayne for the shoot.  Of course if you don’t want to dress like the Duke, that’s ok.  But it would add a little something extra it you do.

A box set John Wayne Knife & Buckle will be awarded to the person for the best John Wayne- like costume. No ties.  If it gets to a tie, the top 2 will shoot off for the award using Deadman’s big loop ’92 Winchester.

APRIL SHOOT RESULTS

TOP GUN – Unpleasant … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Buckskin Rigsby … .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Single Shot Rifle … Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Rifle Pistol Cartridge … Marshal Too Tall

TO DATE, WE HAVE RECEIVED $269.85 IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUY PRIZES TO BE AWARDED AT OUR CHRISTMAS SHOOT  AND FAMILY EVENT.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                 April 2007

The Reel West, The Real West and the West of Our Imagination

THE REEL WEST – Frankie Lane  (1913 – 2007)

Frankie Lane – He Made Several Westerns Better

I know. Frankie Lane was not a movie cowboy. He was a singer.  He did some acting, and he appeared in Westerns a couple of times.  But he was mostly a singer.  But as a singer, he made some Westerns much more memorable by his theme songs.

Frankie was born Francesco Paolo Lo Vecchico in Chicago.  How’s that for a name?  Thank goodness for new names in show business.  Anyway, Frankie grew up in Chicago’s little Italy and became a choirboy singer. Later he went to see an Al Jolson movie and decided that he was going to become a professional singer.  And he did. Of course it didn’t happen over night. He banged around in nightspots, and then in 1943, he moved to tinsel town: Hollywood.

Frankie’s singing career went big time, and he appeared in movies, had his own TV show, and did some guest spots on TV, 1 of which was on RAWHIDE. But to Cowboy Action Shooters, and us Western movie fans, Frankie will always be remembered for singing the theme song on TV’s RAWHIDE. (Ala, Rawhide Rex, who was influenced by the series.) But he also sang the theme songs in GUNFIGHT AT OK CORRAL (the song was the best part of the movie), 3:10 TO YUMA (again, the song is the best part of the movie), MAN WITHOUT A STAR (a very good movie and a good song), and BLAZING SADDLES (an excellent song in a classic comedy Western).  And in addition to RAWHIDE, Frankie sang theme songs for other TV Westerns: GUNSLINGER in 1961 and RANGO in 1967.

Frankie’s entertainment career spanned 70 years.  He died in February of 2007.

THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – Double Eagle Dave

Double Eagle

Double Eagle watched his 1st Cowboy Shooting Match at an Ocoee Rangers shoot in Nov. 2005.  Someone, he doesn’t remember who, strapped guns on him and had him shoot the last 2 stages.  The following day, he galloped over to T-Bone’s place and bought cowboy guns.  The following Saturday, he shot at War Trace.  The rest is history.

“I started shooting 5 ½ inch stainless Rugers in .357, but now I shoot everything from Rugers to Colts to clones.  I started shooting a 92 Winchester, but now I have 92’s, 94’s, Yellowboys and 73’s.  I started shooting a double barrel shotgun, but I rarely shoot them now, even though I have about a half dozen of them.  When I shoot Outlaw, I shoot a lever action shotgun.  I still have about about 7 pairs of Rugers.  They’re workhorses and can really take abuse.  But Owlhoot (Hardin) got me into the money.  He likes Colts, and he got me into them, and they’re expensive. I have about 7 pairs of Colts.”

How’d he get his alias?  Here’s how he explains it. “I used to play golf as part of a 4-some.  One Saturday before I quit, I quit playing golf when I started Cowboy Shooting, I shot an eagle on 1 hole.  Then on the next hole, I sunk 1 from about 80 yards out for another eagle.  SASS already had a Double Eagle. So, I tacked Dave onto it and became Double Eagle Dave.  Around here, I drop the Dave. I went to matches a long time before I saw anyone with a SASS number bigger than mine.  But now, I see a lot of them.

In 2005, Double Eagle shot at SASS’s End of Trail shoot.  He plans to retire on May 1, 2007, and in 2008, he, Owlhoot Hardin and Vinegaroon plan to drive out and shoot End Of Trail for his 2nd time.  He also, after his retirement, plans to shoot a lot of the regional Cowboy Shoots.  Double Eagle is a fine feller to shoot with, even if he does shoot mouse loads.

THE REAL WEST – Captain Thomas W. Custer, U.S. Army (1845 – 1876)

Capt. Tom Custer

Have you ever heard of Tom Custer?  If you know a little about Old West History, you’ll probably say, “Sure.  He was General George Armstrong Custer’s little brother.”  And you’d be right.  But you would have short-changed Tom. He was more that than that.  Much more.

Tom Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio in 1845.  When he was 16 years old, the War of Northern Aggression was in full swing, so Tom joined the Yankee Army as a private in the Ohio Voluntary Infantry and was in combat at Stones River, Missionary Ridge, and in the Atlanta Campaign.  In 1864, he mustered out as a Corporal.  But his Army service wasn’t over.  He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Michigan Calvary and became his brother George’s aide-de-camp for the last year of the war.

A General Officer’s aide-de-camp must stay close to his General at all times, and George Custer, no matter what else folks might say about him, lead from the front, especially in charging formations.  So, Tom saw plenty of action. When the war ended, Tom was barely 20 years old, and he had so distinguished himself in action that he had successively been promoted to brevet ranks of Captain, Major, and then Lieutenant Colonel of Volunteers.  He’d been wounded in action.  And he was 1 of only 19 U.S. soldiers in history to have won the Medal Of Honor twice. How ‘bout that?  That ain’t being just a tag-along younger brother.

After the War ended, Tom was given the Regular Army rank of 1st Lieutenant in the 7th US Cavalry. Brother George was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 7th. In 1868, Tom was wounded in action fighting Indians. Later, he served in South Carolina during Yankee Reconstruction, and in 1873 and 1874 served in exploration assignments in the Yellowstone and Black Hills expeditions. In 1875, Tom was promoted to Captain and given command of Co. C of the 7th Cavalry.  In 1876, the 7th Cavalry marched out of Ft. Lincoln to participate in action against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne.  Tom, once again, served as George’s aide-de-camp.  On June 25, 1876, Tom was killed in action in the Battle at Little Bighorn, along with his brothers George and Boston and brother-in-law James Calhoun. 

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The Ocoee Ranger page 3             April 2007

2007 SMOKY MOUNTAIN SHOOT-OUT AT OAKRIDGE A FUN SHOOT!

SOME OF THE OCOEE RANGERS SHOOTERS. 

 Front: Horseshoe John.  Middle Row  L-R: Festus D. Deputy, Ocoee Red, Tucson Tuco and Purly.      Back Row L-R: Deadman, Double Eagle and Marshal Too Tall.

If you participated in the Knoxville Area cowboys’ & cowgirls’ SHOOT-OUT AT OAKRIDGE, you had a fun shoot.  If you didn’t, you might want to consider shooting the event next year.  It was a fast, colorful, interesting and very enjoyable experience.  The weather was great.  The props were terrific. And the targets were out there far enough to be interesting to shoot. And there were bonuses … to be earned by shooting and knocking down targets.  Of course not everyone could knock’em down.  1 gentleman cowboy, shooting a beautiful Colt SSA, hit a target solid with his butterfly .45 cal. load, and it just smiled at him.  The bullet bounced back and wasn’t even much deformed.  But he sure looked stylish shooting, and he had a blast.  Who was he?  That’s another story, and he’ll have to tell it.

Marshal Too Tall shoots, Big Six Henderson observes, and “the Arm” times

Would you believe that the Knoxville cowfolk trusted Rawhide Rex to be a Stage Marshal?  Yep.  And he did a fine job.  Others who held similar jobs are Keystone, Badlands Beck, Fiddleback and Lightning McCoy. And on the day before the main match began, Last Kiss and Fast Harley sponsored a side match. And Lightning was the MC at the Awards Dinner.

How did the Ocoee Rangers shoot?  Not bad.  Last Kiss won the Lady Gunfighter event, out-shooting her competition. Not to be outdone, S.A. Pondwater placed 1st in the Modern class and was ranked 6th in overall competition. Dustin Clays placed 2nd in the Classic Cowboy class, closely followed by Cherokee Maddog in 3rd place. And speakin’ of Gunfighters, Widowmaker placed 2nd in the class, and Fast Harley was 3rd. Rusty Spur Slim was No. 2 in the Frontiersman class. That means he shot his pistol targets with cap & ball pistols and black powder. Also shootin’ black powder, Judge’m All Duncan placed 2nd in the Frontier Cartridge class. Of course you can’t have a cowboy shoot in this area without Outlaws.  Badlands Beck placed 2nd as an Outlaw, and Loose Cinch was 3rd. Horseshoe John, shootin’ as a Sr. Duelist, placed 2nd, and Tabasco JOT was 2nd in the Silver Senior class. Tennessee Ted was 3rd in the Duelist category. And 4 shooters in the field of 153 shot a clean match, no misses in 2 days of shootin’.  Deadman was 1 of those.  Here’s how Ocoee Rangers ranked in overall shootin’ for the 2 days, in a field of 153 shooters:

STAGE MARSHALS.

L-R:  Badlands Beck, Lightning McCoy & Fiddleback. 

L-R: Keystone & Rawhide Rex

Curly Bill, a “dandy” on the Range.

Here’s the secret of Fast Harley’s Shootin’ Success; a smooch from his shootin’ pardner, Last Kiss.  Forget it cowboys! She ain’t goin’ to kiss you just so you can shoot better!

SHOOTING RESULTS OF OCOEE RANGERS SHOOTERS

Position  /  Shooter

  6 – S.A. Pondwater

17 – Marshal Too Tall

19 – Festus D. Deputy

23 – Fiddleback

30 – Tabasco JOT

32 – Ocoee Red

34 – Dustin Clays

36 – Lightning McCoy

37 – Cherokee Maddog

41 – Horseshoe John

43 – Widowmaker

45 – Dajango Slim

48 – Fast Harley

50 – Judge’m All Duncan

59 – Long Gulch

61 – Rusty Spur Slim

65 – Last Kiss

72 – Killin’ Time

74 – Badlands Beck

Position /   Shooter

  78 – Red Neckerson

  79 – Sheriff Donald

  83 – Loose Cinch

  87 – Deadman

  88 – Tennessee Ted

  90 – Purly

  92 – Rawhide Rex

  98 – Bittercreek Jack

100 – TN Tombstone

105 – Double Eagle

106 – Tucson Tuco

108 – Big

116 – Boondock Saint

124 – Yazoo City Gal

128 – Irish Jake

137 – Top Dollar Bill

139 – Owlhoot Hardin

141 – Colonel Mortimer

144 – Deadeye Daisy

AWARDS DINNER – CELEBRITIES & OTHER FOLKS

Mesquite Millie, Hoppy & Topper

(Topper’s the horse, for you young cowfolk)

Dustin Clays, 2d Place Double Duelist & His Mrs.

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Volume 5, Issue No. 3                                 March, 2007

Who Could Have Asked For A Better Day?

On March 24th, the sun rose in the east and moved across the range to the west – sometimes. It’s true. The big, round target that moves across one of the ranges on the cable was painted yellow and moved across the range as shooters shot their rifle targets.  The trick was to miss the sun: if you hit it, it was a miss.  But sometimes, the sun would get stuck and either moved slowly, or stayed in the east.  Maybe that’s what happens in Alaska when they have them long days and nights. In any event, 68 shooters participated in a terrific shoot.  The weather couldn’t have been better.  The Rev. Adam Jones even commented that if it didn’t rain before long, we might have to pray for rain on shoot day. Ouch! And it was an eventful day:  Outrider showed up wearing a new hat, Coffee Joe – make that Ah Ah Choo – showed up to shoot in a Chinese bathrobe and funny blue hat with a pigtail, and Donsie Darlin’ and Fiddleback announced that they are gonna be parents. 

No.  It ain’t Hey Boy shootin’ at Paladin or Hop Sing shootin’ at Hoss & Little Joe. It’s Coffee Joe shootin’ as Ah Ah Choo.

Awful Close shoots his ’73 Winchester as Ocoee Red times. Awful Close shot a clean – no misses – match.

S.A. Pondwater was the Top Gun of the day and won the pre-shoot side match. His pop, Tabasco JOT, won the Senior competition and shot a no-miss match in doing so. Last Kiss was the top shootin’ cowgirl.  Interestingly, Fast Harley and Last Kiss placed 16th and 17th overall. We haven’t had that happen with a shootin’ couple before. In the Buffalo Shoot, Marshal Too Tall won the Long Range Single Shot Rifle shoot and the 25 Yards .22 Cal. competition, and somebody named Dave won the Long Range Pistol competition. The Top 10 Shooters were (1) S.A. Pondwater (2) Ocoee Red (3) Widowmaker (4) Polecat Carl (5) Tabasco JOT (6) Unpleasant (7) Fiddleback (8) Slater (9) Cherokee Maddog and (10) Pleasant.  8 cowboys shot No-Miss matches: Polecat Carl, Tabasco JOT, Lightning McCoy, Moonshine Roberts, Awful Close, Deadman, Tellico, and Bad Eye Tom.

Pop and Mom to be – Fiddleback and Donsie Darlin

SHOOT RESULTS

TOP GUN – S.A. Pondwater … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – David … .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Single Shot Rifle … Marshal Too Tall

Outlaw

1. Badlands Beck

2. Rawhide Rex

3. Curly Bill

Tellico shot his 1st no-miss match at the Cleveland Range TO DATE, WE HAVE RECEIVED $168.10 IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUY PRIZES TO BE AWARDED AT OUR ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SHOOT AND FAMILY EVENT.

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The Ocoee Ranger page 2                          March 2007

THE REEL WEST, REAL WEST AND THE WEST

OF OUR IMAGINATION

THE REEL WEST – Harry Woods   1889 – 1968

You’ve probably never heard the name Harry Woods.  But in the heyday of B – Westerns, ol’ Harry was a very familiar face. And he even appeared in some A – movies. Born Harry Woods, imagine that, in the Old West town of Cleveland, Ohio, he began his working life as a millinery salesman.  That’s funny when you consider that a lady’s garment peddler became, for many years, 1 of the most recognizable cowboy villain faces in the movies.

Harry Woods

Around1920, Harry and his clan moved to Hollywood, CA, and Harry found himself a non-acting job working for a movie company. Somewhere along the way, he got a movie part portraying a villain.  He played that part convincingly. He was a natural. Shucks, if you remember Harry, and folks like Owlhoot and Big might, he looked every bit the menacing bad-guy.  His movie career trotted off down the trail and lasted for 35 years. Harry later said that he appeared in about 500 movies, mostly Westerns, and bit the dust in about 300 of them.  Joel McCrea disposed of Harry in Cecil B. Demille’s UNION PACIFIC.  Harry played a low-down-polecat in that movie. (No offense intended, Polecat Carl.) But that movie’s not shown much.  The next time you watch John Wayne in TALL IN THE SADDLE, look for Harry.  He’s a villain in that one.  Ol’ Duke beats the tar out of Harry in the middle of the street, when Harry’s trying to make Duke go for his pistol. Harry also appeared with John Wayne in John Ford’s SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON. The Indians shot him full of arrows in that flick.

When I was growing up, I always thought Walt Disney’s cartoon villain Black Pete/Peg Pete was patterned after Harry Woods.  Pete had the same gruff manner and dark, mean, sneering look.  Not long ago, I saw Morgan Woodward, another frequent Western movie villain, in an interview on the Western Channel.  Ol’ Morgan said that a really good villain made movies more interesting and made the hero look really good.  Harry was excellent in his portrayals.  He joined the Posse In The Sky in 1968. And here’s a question for Big and Owlhoot:  if Harry always played a villain in his movies, is he riding with the Posse, or are they chasing him?

THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – Big

100 years ago when I was a young feller in Knoxville, the most well-known and popular disc jockey on the radio was “Big” Johnny Pirkle. He went on to become a concert promoter and radio station owner. And he’s still Big and he’s still a celebrity of sorts; he’s a cowboy shooter – and a classy one at that. And did you know that Big shares a common background with Chris, the character that Yul Brenner played in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN? No, he doesn’t wear all black.  And he has hair, something Chris was missing. The answer, according to Lightning McCoy:  Big, as a young feller, drove a hearse for a local funeral home. Chris drove 1 in the beginning of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. How about that?

Big

When Cowboy Action Shooting came to Knoxville, Big was 1of the early members of the Smoky Mountain Shootists Society, the Knoxville Cowboys. How’d he get his alias?  Here’s how Lightning McCoy explains it. “ If you ask him where the alias “BIG” came from, he’ll tell you ‘cause when he asked SASS for the name “Slim”, they said that it was already taken. (It really came from a real old west character, “Big Foot Wallace”.)  That’s how his humor works, at 6’3″ and weighing in near the high end of the 200 lb. range. It’s really funny to hear him explain it.”

If you’ve shot with Big, you’ve probably discovered the following: (1) he knows guns (2) he enjoys shooting and (3) he doesn’t shoot butterfly loads.  Nope. The sound of his guns is louder than the clang when his bullets hit the targets, and the hit-sound is “clang”, not “dink”. Ol’ Big is a fine feller to shoot with.

THE REAL WEST – Henry Newton Brown  1857 – 1884

Henry Brown was born in Rolla, Missouri in 1857.  Orphaned early in life, he was raised by relatives. Then when he was 17, he headed west.  Henry became a cowboy in several places.  And along the way, he became a pistolero.  Eventually, he drifted to Lincoln, New Mexico and became 1 of Billy the Kid’s compadres in the Lincoln County War.

Henry Brown

It’s said that Henry was 1 of Billy’s pals who helped him shoot Sheriff William Brady, after Brady participated in or allowed the murder of John Tunstall. And Henry was among the group of Regulators when Billy and his pals shot and killed Buckshot Roberts. When Billy and the Tunstall-McSween supporters were cornered in the McSween home, surrounded by shooting opponents and the house was set fire, Henry covered Billy and his friends from the coal shed and escaped with them. With McSween’s death in that shootout, the Lincoln Co. war effectively ended. But Henry and Billy continued to ride together, rustling horses and cows for a living.

Eventually, Henry left Billy and went to Texas, became a cowboy and later a deputy lawman.  But that didn’t last long.  He drifted north, working a number of jobs, and in 1882, the town council in Caldwell, KS appointed him Assistant Marshal.  Caldwell had experienced several killings, and Henry was hired to enforce the law, with his gun if necessary.  And he did. 6 months later, Henry was promoted to Marshal.  He hired 1 of his gunslick buddies as his deputy, and together they cleaned up Caldwell.  He married a local gal, bought a house and became respectable.  In appreciation, the town council gave him a fancy, elaborately engraved Winchester rifle. But Henry spent more money than he made.  So, he planned a solution to the hole in his pocketbook:  he, his deputy, and 2 other fellers went to Medicine Lodge, KS, a neighboring town, and tried to rob the bank.  Henry shot and killed the banker.  His deputy shot and mortally wounded a cashier, and they hit the trail without any money.  Soon captured, they were returned to jail.  That night, vigilantes came calling and invited Henry and his friends to come out and play a game of stretch the rope. Henry declined and tried to run away to play hide and go seek, but several disappointed playmates shot him full of holes.  Henry’s 3 pals accompanied their new friends to the edge of town, where they were strung up to an elm tree. So ended the colorful career of Henry Brown.