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Volume 1, Issue No. 5 (Web Edition) July 2003 |
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61 SHOOTERS DEFEND THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION AT JULY SHOOT |
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Match day started sorta slow. Only five cowboys participated in the buffalo shoot. Tri placed 1st in the Open Sight Category. Marshal Too Tall placed 1st in the Peep Sight Category, but it didn’t count because he was the only entry in the category. Mesquite Millie was registering shooters, and at 9:30 the Posse Leaders and Assistants started their pre-match stage walk-through. At that time, only 39 shooters were registered. Posse Leaders for 5 posses were doing the walk through, and it looked like we’d have |
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three posses. Then, BAM! Folks started rolling in, and within a few minutes, 61 shooters were registered. Sorta! One of them cowboys could have been called Dos Hombres, On July 27, Colonel Allison, our Senior Cowboy, celebrated his 80th birthday. Congratulations, Colonel. |
| (Two Men) ‘cause he has two SASS memberships, and two separate aliases (D Q Jones & Curly Top), and he registered twice and paid two entry fees, and he shot in two categories: Gunfighter and Duelist. Now, Curly Top sounds like a character in a Shirley Temple movie, but ol’ Curly Top shot very well. He finished 2nd overall, shootin’ Duelist, and his shadow, D Q Jones, finished 3rd overall shootin’ Gunfighter. So, don’t make no jokes about the feller’s name. The stages were mind twisters, and there were more procedurals than we’ve ever had in a single match. On Stage #1, shooters were supposed to purposely miss the center pistol cowboy target, Law-dog Sundance (named after our own Sundance McNeyman). In the scenario, that target was supposed to get away, and each cowboy & cowgirl got a 5 second bonus at the end of the stage for saying, “That law-dog Sundance got away.” Well unfortunately Sundance didn’t get away. Sixty shooters, including Dos Hombres, shot the stage, and none of them hit Sundance. The target was untouched, black, not smudged. It looked new. Then the last shooter of the day for Stage #1 came to the line, climbed aboard ol’ Splinter the wonder horse, grabbed his six-gun and swept the pistol targets. And oops, there was a bullet mark right in the middle of ol’ Sundance’’s chest. That showed two things: 1. Law-dog Sundance didn’t really get away, and 2. Deadman ain’t too smart. But he did get the 5 second bonus for saying that Sundance got away. That just don’t seem right, does it? It’s like denyin’ the crime. |
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Amongst our visitors were four cowboys from North Carolina. They were impressive lookin’ hombres. All wore black shirts, brown pants, white hats, and high top black boots with three red diamonds on the tops. At their club shoots, the Gunpowder Creek Regulators, their stages all involve guardin’ the 3 Diamonds Mine, or protectin’ gold shipments from the 3 Diamonds mine. They must be purty good at guardin’ the gold, |
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L-R: Pocko, Ripshin (Regulators’ Range Master), Sixgun Shookster, Horsetrader, (Pres-Gunpowder Creek Regulators ‘cause the 3 Diamonds Company evidently pays it’s Regulators well |
| for their efforts. Them boots shore looked good, and so did the rest of their shootin’ duds.Several other cowboys and cowgirls also ventured out to shoot with us, and we hope they’ll come back and play the game with us again.Speaking of cowgirls, Flossie, the First Lady of Ocoee Ranger shootin’, shot purty good. She only missed three targets. That ain’t bad. If them Regulators ever need help guardin’t that gold, they might want to send Flossie a telley-graph to come over to NC and help’em. And Killin’ Time, another sharp shootin’ cowgirl finished 34th overall, shootin’ Duelist. To learn more about the Gunpowder Creek Regulators visit their website at www.gunpowdercreek.com |
| Cruel Hand Luke and Dutch Al had a very good day: They shot all five stages without a miss. That means they didn’t miss any targets and wipe’em out with extra shots. They did it right the 1st time and didn’t miss. What was their secret trick? Well, Dutch Al kept his to himself. Cruel Hand Luke didn’t say anything, but some folks commented it was probably because he had a bag tied on one foot that matched the color of his shirt. |
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All joking aside, Cruel Hand Luke demonstrated mature range safety discipline at the July Shoot. He shoots pretty fast, as in fast enough to be our Top Gun in July. But on one of his stages, he fired a squib load. The bullet went just far enough into the barrel of his pistol to allow the cylinder to turn. Before the Posse Leader and his helpers could yell “Stop Shootin’!,” Cruel Hand Luke had already stopped. That means the cowboy is conscious of what he’s doing even when shooting fast. |
| Bulldog Hood also had an interesting day. On one stage, he experienced a malfunction with one of his pistols. Bein’ a gentleman cowboy, ol’ Plesant loaned Bulldog one of his pistols. Well, that gun malfunctioned also. |
| Special thanks are in order to several cowfolks: Horseshoe John and his set up crew (sorry, we don’t have names) the posse leaders (the Catoosa Kid, Tinker Chapley & Marshal Too Tall, Tri & Double Eagle, Horseshoe John and T-Bone; and Mrs. Loose Cinch (this lady does an excellent job as a scorekeeper). |
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SHOOT RESULTS |
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Traditional Duelist Cruel Hand Luke Curly Top Cool Waters Dutch Al Dustin Clays Horseshoe John Modern Black Powder Tarheel T-Bone Angus Catoosa Kid Black Powder Joe (Coffee Joe) Cowgirl Senior Killin’ Time Linc Abagail Rose Rev. Adam Jones Summer Dove Sheriff Donald Gunfighter Buffalo Shoot D.Q. Jones (Open Sight) Tri Pleasant Loose Cinch |
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| OCOEE RANGERS MONTHLY SHOOT IS THE 4th SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH |
| Don’t forget that the Ocoee Rangers shoot on the 4th Saturday each month. The Buffalo Shoot starts at 8:30 am. The Posse Leaders walk through is at 9:00 am. The Safety Meeting is at 10:00 am then we shoot. You must be present at the Safety to shoot. Be sure to bring plenty of ammo and pack your good humor too! |
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Newletter Editors: Deadman & Mesquite Millie Website Editor: Tennessee Justice |
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Volume 1, Issue No. 5 (Web Edition) July 2003 |
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TOP TEN SHOOTERS |
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| Top Gun – Cruel Hand Luke – Top Gun |
| Curly Top |
| D. Q. Jones |
| Cool Waters |
| Dustin Clays |
| Pleasant |
| Ocoee Red |
| Lucky Larry |
| Badlands Beck |
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Sixgun Shookster |
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COWBOY ACTION SHOOTING IS A FAMILY SPORTING ACTIVITY |
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3 GENERATIONS OF COWBOYS |
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The Wesley family. L-R: Izzy Ded Yet, Sixes, Whip Wesley |
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On July 11th, Blayde Hollister got himself married. Yeah, he ain’t single no more. Blayde’s dressed as dapper as Bat Masterson would’ve. Blayde Hollister has been shootin’ with us since 1998. KD (pronounced – Kaddie) visited with us in November 2002 as an observer and said she enjoyed our game. Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Blayde Hollister. Blayde is the son of Mesquite Millie and Deadman. |
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OCOEE RANGER BADGES |
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Good Day Pards, Received the first order of Ocoee Ranger badges, and they look great. I did not receive them in time to get the badges to our June shoot. Now that people have seen them, I imagine that some more folks will order once they see the badges. Neil Swendsboe at Starpacker, our badge supplier, sent me the following message: “Glad you like the badges and they met your expectation. The price will |
| remain $52.00 until 12-30-03 (special price extension). January 1, 2004 the price will increase to $58.50. So, no hurry!” If you have not seen a badge yet, look around at the next shoot. About 29 of us will be wearing the new badge. Contact me if you want to order one, or tell someone else to contact me if they want to order you an Ocoee Ranger badge for Christmas. |
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Happy Trails, Tri |
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Dont forget – our next Ocoee Rangers’ shoot on August 23rd. The cook will be there. Hamburgers, hotdogs, the trimmin’s and soft drinks and water are available at a very reasonable price. |
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SHOOT! MAGAZINE TO LIST OCOEE RANGERS SHOOTS |
| Beginning in the September/October edition, the good folks at Shoot! Magazine will be listing Ocoee Ranger monthly shoot information in each edition of their magazine, with no charge for the service. If you’ve never read Shoot! Magazine, pick up a copy at the magazine rack at the mall and give it a look. Shoot! Magazine specializes in western shooting: SASS, silhouette, muzzle loading, etc. and it’s an excellent magazine. Ol’ Deadman has been a Shoot! Magazine subscriber for several years and recommends the magazine to anyone interested in Cowboy Action Shooting. |
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SHOOT THROUGH PASSES FOR OCOEE RANGERS SHOOTS |
| Have you ever had a cowboy shootin’ Saturday come up, and you really wanted to shoot, but you had something you had to do in the afternoon – and you didn’t go shoot or you left early? Well pardner, don’t let that stop you from shootin’ and completing the match. Get a “Shoot Through” pass from Mesquite Millie or Deadman, when you register to shoot. When you get to the first stage, give your posse leader your shoot through pass (your special scoring sheet), and the posse leader will let you shoot early in the stage. Then take your “Shoot Through Pass”, and go to another stage. When you get there, give it to the posse leader, and he’ll let you shoot and go to another stage. Etc. Etc. That way, you can shoot a complete match. And you can take as much or as little time as you need to have a fun shoot and still meet your commitment. |
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Remember: |
| 1. To get a “Shoot Through Pass”, tell Mesquite Millie or Deadman that you need one when you register to shoot. |
| 2. Other folks have used them before you. Don’t worry about being strange or unique by using one. |
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3. In a year, you only get to play cowboy or cowgirl and shoot 12 times, unless you visit another group. So take advantage of your opportunity to shoot as an Ocoee Ranger. |
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Volume 1, Issue No. 5 (Web Edition) July 2003 |
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The reel West, the real West and the West of our imagination |
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Alan Ladd was a little feller who made a number of movies, most of which weren’t Westerns. But he made a few Westerns, two of which were very good and one was excellent. In WHISPERING SMITH, Alan played Whispering Smith, a railroad trouble-shooter who was tall in the saddle and quick on the draw. Well, quick on the draw is more like it. The movie was good enough that another short feller played the part in a short-lived TV Western series: Audie Murphy. The other very good Western that Alan did was BRANDED. In that movie, he played a gunslick who started out to swindle a rancher, but fell for his daughter and reformed. The excellent Western that Alan did |
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Alan Ladd in buckskins as Shane was SHANE . recognized as one of all time classic |
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Western movies. In that movie, Alan wore buckskins, a gun belt adorned with silver conchoes, and carried a white handled, 7 ½ inch Colt. Trying to hang up his six-gun, he hung up his buckskin outfit and tried his hand at farming. But in the end, he put the buckskins and six-gun back on and saved the day by shooting all the villains. Then, “he road back into the heart of the great and glowing west from whence he had come. And he was Shane.” With those words, that’s how the book ended. Most folks still remember Alan Ladd as Shane. All 5 feet 6 inches of him. After all, a person makes an impression on others, and size has nothing to do with it …. In reel life or in real life. |
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| THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION | |||||||||
| Dead Beat | |||||||||
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Dead Beat is a Cowboy Action Shooter who took a page from the scripts of the many Western movie heroes who wore buckskins. There were the Ranger Rider, and TV’s Wild Bill Hickok, and Kit Carson, and Shane, and the list goes on. When you look at ol’ Dead Beat in his buckskin shootin’ outfit, he’s a little like these cowboys. He doesn’t talk much. He has that steely stare of the gunfighter, but his gray hair makes him a little different. Shucks, in the real West, most of the gunfighters were dead before they were 40. The real shootists used black powder when they did their shootin’, and so does Dead Beat. If you visit a Cowboy Action Shoot with the Ocoee Rangers Dead Beat in buckskins |
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or with the Smoky Mountain Shootists Society (the Knoxville cowboys & cowgirls) and you see a big cloud of smoke and you follow it to its source, it just might be that ol’ Deat Beat is shootin’ his guns and playing the cowboy shootin’ game. Say, “Howdy”, if you see him. He’s a friendly sort of feller. |
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James Butler Hickok |
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James Butler Hickok was one of the most legendary figures of the Old West, and he still is. In his adventurous life, he was a scout for the Yankees in the War of Northern aggression against the South, an employee of the pony express company, a cowtown marshal during the cattle drive days, a gambler, a prospector – though mostly at the card tables, a stage performer with Buffalo Bill Cody, and a man of the American West. Jim dressed sorta fancy, no matter what his role. In the cowtowns, he wore long dress coats, dress trousers, and a wide brimmed hat. In the stage productions in which he appeared, playing a genuine hero of the plains, he often wore buckins, and a wide brimmed hat. Sometimes, he wore holsters, and sometimes a red sash. James Hickok as Wild Bill Hickok But no matter how he dressed, he carried two Colt .36 cal. |
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| Navy revolvers with ivory handles. At the end of his life, his eyesight was waning. For | |||||||||
| you cowboys who ain’t read nothin’ for some time, that means his eyes didn’t see so good. But he continued to roam and to ply his trade at the gambling table. He met his end in Deadwood, South Dakota at the No. 10 Saloon. Jim was holding 2 black aces and 2 black 8’s, (so they say) when Jack McCall sneaked up behind him and shot him through the back of the head, killing him instantly. | |||||||||
| Jim became famous and remains so as “Wild Bill Hickok”. No one really knows how he got that name, although there are several stories about it. The hand of cards that he was said to be holding when he was killed became famous as “the dead man’s hand”. He was 39 years old when he was killed. Jim died there in Deadwood, but “Wild Bill” Hickok will live in legend and Old West history forever. | |||||||||
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Till next month…happy trails. |
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Newletter Editors: Deadman & Mesquite Millie Website Editor: Tennessee Justice |
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