EMPTY SADDLES IN THE OLD CORRAL
You’ve heard the old cowboy song, EMPTY SADDLES IN THE OLD CORRAL, haven’t you? Well at the May shoot, some shooters learned why those old saddles were empty. Those cowboys were probably shooting cap & ball pistols, and they didn’t fire. The caps snapped, and no ball flew out of the barrel, or the cap didn’t activate at all, or the cylinder had to be hand turned after the 1st or 2nd shot. And it was dangerous behind the hammer, as well as in front of the muzzle. Keystone, who shot Frontier (C&B) had 3 blisters on 1 hand from hot caps and a hot cylinder. Fast Harley, who at various times used a Walker Colt, Dragoon Colt, and an 1858 Remington revolver, had blood streaming from 1 hand in a photo after he’d been shooting. Oh, remember the good old days? But the cloud of smoke when the black powder shooters shoot sure makes good, interesting photos.
Fast Harley Aiming His Walker Colt. Notice Blood On His Left Hand? Caps Cut.
Take a gander at the photo below, showing Keystone sending smoke, flame and a round ball down range with his ’51 Colt revolver. Wild Bill Hickok’s favorite hand guns were ’51 Colts. He used them even after conversion Colts and the famous Peacemaker were available. He didn’t live long enough to have to consider a long term use of the ’73 SAA Colt: he was killed in 1876 only a few days after the Custer massacre.
Keystone Shooting Frontier & Lightning McCoy Squinting Through The Smoke.
The TOP GUN was UNPLEASANT, and the TOP LADY SHOOTER was ANITA MARGARITA. The Top 10 Shooters were (1) Unpleasant (2) Marshal Too Tall (3) Happy Pappy (4) Polecat Carl (5) Ocoee Red (6) Tucson Tuco (7) Purly (8) Anita Margarita (9) Tin Pot and (10) Clancy O’Conall.
13 shooters shot No Misses Matches: Mae Berry, Hoss Carpenter, Johnny Lightfoot, Tin Pot, Happy Pappy, Deadman, Lucky Lightburne, Moonshine Roberts, Tennessee Mongo, Yankee Dutchman, Lightning McCoy, Marshal Too Tall and Unpleasant.
67 shooters shot the May Ocoee Rangers match.
SHOOT RESULTS:
TOP GUN: Unpleasant
TOP LADY SHOOTER: Anita Margarita
Buckaroo: (1) Trooper Troy (2) Jon Autry
Young Gun: (1) Tatar Salad
Elder Statesman: (1) Wildcat Wilkey (2) Rev Adam Jones (3) Linc
Lady B-Western: (1) Mrs. Pleasant
Lady Duelist: (1) Mae Berry
Lady Senior: (1) Roma Jane (2) Santa Fe Gal (3) Cotton Ginnie
Lady 49er: (1) Lulu McGoo (2) Shez A Pistol
Lady Wrangler: (1) Anita Margarita (2) Miss Kitty Kat
Cowgirl: (1) the Duchess (2) Wild Cherry
Silver Senior: (1) Tucson Tuco (2) Purly (3) Tin Pot
Silver Senior Duelist: (1) Horseshoe John (2) Hoss Carpenter
Senior: (1) Marshal Too Tall (2) Ocoee Red (3) Sledge
Senior Double Duelist: (1) Sudden Sam (2) Double Eagle (3) Pop Dawson
Senior Gunfighter: (1) Yankee Dutchman (2) Lightning McCoy (3) El Carrera
49er: (1) Happy Pappy (2) Lucky Lightburne (3) Smokin’ Dave
Gunfighter: (1) Clancy O’Conall (2) Outcast (3) Last Kiss
Outlaw: (1) Rawhide Rex (2) Loose Cinch (3) Buckeye Red
Duelist: (1) Rusty Spur Slim (2) Ranger Roger
Frontier (Cap & Ball): (1) Jackalope (2) Keystone (3) Fast Harley
Frontier Cartridge: (1) Coffee Joe
Frontier Cartridge Duelist: (1) Long Gulch
Wrangler: (1) Undertaker (2) TN Mongo (3) Moonshine Roberts
B-Western: (1) Marshal W.D. (2) Sundance McNeyman
Modern: (1) Polecat Carl
Cowboy: (1) Unpleasant (2) Curly Bill ( (3) Sacramento
Double Duelist: (1) Johnny Lightfoot
BUFFALO SHOOT
Buffalo Shoot Long Range Single Shot Rifle: Yankee Dutchman
Long Range Pistol: Sundance McNeyman
Lever Action Rifle: Marshal Too Tall
Buffalo Shoot .22 Cal: Unpleasant
Whenever we stage a photo like the one above of Fast Harley, the shooter is always very uncomfortable pointing the pistol at the word scratcher with the camera: he’s not uncomfortable, but the pistoleer is. While we were discussing that discomfort, Tin Pot explained the reason for discomfort. He said that his daddy taught him to never point a gun at anything he didn’t want to shoot. He left that hanging. Adding 1 + 1 and getting 11, we concluded that the reason the pistol packers were uncomfortable was that they really wanted to shoot the cameraman, but good judgment caused them not to. The real look was frustration, not discomfort.
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