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AUGUST 2005
Ocoee Rangers shoot Texas star at august shoot!
In August, the Ocoee Rangers unveiled their new Texas Star Target. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see the center of the target stand between Ben Shot and Outrider, with 2 of the 5 arms visible. Before the shoot, a few shooters had seen 1. And a few more had heard about them, but very few had shot targets off a Texas Star rotating target stand. The Texas Star was a hum-dinger. What does that mean? Well, in order for a target to score as a hit, the paddle must be knocked off the arm of the star. If the paddle isn’t knocked off, it’s a miss. So, John Daniel walked up to the line, looked at the target and said something like, “Hum.” (That’s the hum in hum-dinger.) Later, Pleasant came to the line, drew his pistols, gunfighter style, and started shooting. He fired. Ding went the sound when he hit a paddle, but it didn’t fall off the star. He did that 4 times out of the times he shot at the star. (That’s the ding, as in hum-dinger. You know, when it dings but isn’t hit hard enough to fall.) Pleasant’s BB loads just sorta tickled the targets some. He hit’em fast, …. but gently.
L-R kneeling: Ben Shot, Outrider, Colonel Mortimer, Sundance McNeyman, Ruckus Roy. Standing: Blayde Hollister, Colonel Allison, Devil Dog, Shadrack Jones, Summer Dove, Whiskey River Nelson, Slingin’ Dunn, Horseshoe John, Tennessee Jake.
Shadrack Jones has to reload
We had 70 shooters who participated in the August Shoot. Unpleasant was the Top Gun of the day, and once again, Roma Jane was the top cowgirl shooter. Even with the challenge of the Texas Star, 4 cowboys shot clean matches: Marshal Too Tall, Limp Along Charlie, Hombre Sin Nombre and Fiddleback.
A long missing shooting pardner returned; Shadrack Jones. Ol’ Sharack had serious health problems for quite a while, and he’s finally back with us. He looks different though. Gone are his Henry rifle, his Spencer rifle, and his conversion Colts. He’s now shooting a
big loop lever (ala John Wayne) ’92 Winchester and ’73 Colt type pistols. He says the Henry and Spencer were too heavy. So, he joined the Duke with his Winchester carbine. When telling about his new pistols, he said. “For a while there, I didn’t know if I was gonna make it. But I got me some pretty guns. I thought if I don’t make it, I’ll look good in’em and will just take’em with me.” Some of us cowboys have been shootin’ with Shadrack since 1998, it was good to have him back with us.
SHOOT RESULTS: Top Gun – Unpleasant Buffalo Shoot: .22 cal – Ranger Roger Long Range – Marshal Too Tall
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Traditional 1. Unpleasant 2. Whiskey River Nelson 3. Fiddleback |
Cowgirl 1. Roma Jane 2. Last Kiss |
Modern 1. Polecat Carl 2. Limp Along Charlie 3. Graver Bill |
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Senior 1. Hombre Sin Nombre 2. Outrider 3. Tin Pot |
Gunfighter 1. Pleasant 2. R.I.P. Overland 3. Pyro |
49er 1. Marshal Too Tall 2. Festus D. Deputy 3. Ocoee Red |
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Duelist 1. Horseshoe John 2. Tri 3. Ranger Roger |
Black Powder 1. Catoosa Kid |
Outlaw 1. Loose Cinch 2. TN Tombstone 3. Cactus Red |
Classic
1. Lightning McCoy
2. Cherokee Maddog
Wranglers – Red Neckerson, Widow Maker, Polecat Carl, Summer Dove, Blayde Hollister and Deadfoot
NEXT OCOEE RANGER SHOOT – 24 SEPTEMBER .. The Buffalo Shoot begins 8:00 am. Registration 8:30 am – Posse Leader walk-through 9:15 am – Safety meeting 9:45 am – Shooting follows ! All times are Eastern Time.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 2 August 2005
The Real West, The Reel West and
The West of Our Imaginations
The Reel West – Gail Davis 1925 – 1997
Gail Davis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Of course back then, she was Betty Jean Grayson, Doctor Grayson’s little girl. Later, when a student at the University of Texas at Austin, TX, she was in a group that performed for military personnel during WW II, the big one. While performing, she met a Technical Sergeant, who she would see later in another life: Gene Autry.
In 1946, Betty Jean and her husband, Bob Davis, moved to Hollywood. She did a number of on-the-way jobs, and then as Gail Davis, she got her 1st movie role. Then she got a lot of other movie parts, most of which were Westerns. In 1948, she appeared with Roy Rogers in The Far Frontier. And she appeared with Gene Autry in about 14 of his Westerns.
Gail Davis as
Annie Oakley
Gail Davis as she appeared with
Roy Rogers
1950 was the age of television. So, Gail joined all the other TV Western cowboys and guest starred in several TV Western series. Stuff like The Lone Ranger, and The Cisco Kid, and about a dozen appearances in The Gene Autry Show, shows that Whiskey River Nelson would say, “I never heard of that.”
Now Gail could ride horses very well, so Gene added her to his traveling rodeo show. Later, he selected her to star in her own series, Annie Oakley, which he produced through his Flying A production company. Gail’s series ran from 1954 through 1956. Shucks, she was the only cowgirl on the screen that had her own series. In her show, she wore pigtails and a six-gun and looked cute as a button. Of course back then, this word scratcher was too young
to appreciate her looks. He couldn’t see past the six-shooter and the palomino horse that she rode.
Gail joined the posse in the sky in 1997.
The West of Our Imagination – Roma Jane
Roma Jane is a snowbird cowgirl. Yep. She and her other half, Long Gulch, came to Tennessee from Alaska. That’s about as snowbird as you can get. They lived there from 1991 until about 2001, then they journeyed down Knoxville, actually Maryville, way. She’d heard about Cowboy & Cowgirl Shooting while still Way Up North To Alaska from ol’ Long Gulch. When they got to K-town, they went out to observe a shoot and decided that looked like their kind of fun. Some Knoxville cowboy was quitting the game for health reasons, so, Long Gulch bought his leather and his
Roma Jane
gun cart. They had most of the guns, but they needed the clothes. After all, in Cowfolks Shooting, like most other things, clothes make the person. So, they launched their Cowboy Shooting careers.
But Cowboy Shooting ain’t just guns and clothes. No, maam. This here Alaskan snowbird had to have an alias. So, she chose Roma as her 1st name. That had been her father’s 1st name, until he changed it. He thought Roma sounded like a girl’s name, so he changed it to Romie. Well, she had a 1st name. So she added Jane, “because it sounds good.” And the snowbird became Roma Jane. She’s been shooting as Roma Jane for 2 years, plunking them cowboy targets with her .357 mags.
Not long ago, Roma Jane was attending a training class at Emory in Atlanta. About 30 ladies were in attendance, and they started talking about various things. When they learned that Roma Jane is a Cowgirl Shooter and shoots real guns, they were amazed. Oh yeah, her favorite silver screen cowboy is John Wayne.
The Real West – Bass Reeves 1838 – 1910
Bass Reeves was 1 of over 200 Deputy U.S. Marshals who rode for Judge Isaac Parker in the 75,000 square miles of Oklahoma Territory. But that is a bit of an understatement. Bass Reeves was 1 of the best marshals who ever pinned on a badge. During his career as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, which began in 1875 and ended when Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Bass arrested and brought to trial thousands of outlaws: white, black, Indian, male and female. Some however, weren’t so accommodating and tried to shoot it out with him, either to avoid arrest or by laying in ambush to do away with him. And although he was involved in many shootings,
Bass Reeves
Bass was never wounded. Sure he got holes in his clothes and had bridle reins clipped and his saddle horn shot off, but he was never wounded. Some of the fellers shootin’ at him weren’t so lucky. Bass was not only a very good lawman, he was also a very good shot. So, he planted 14 badmen in mother earth, each bearing lead from his .38 – .40 shootin’ irons.
Bass began life a slave, unable to read or write. And he never learned to do either. But that didn’t stop him from doing his marshalling. Nope. Bass would get someone to read his warrants to him, memorize them, and then set out to bring in the wanted parties. He also, like other marshals in the territory, carried many John Doe warrants. That was so he could bring in other folks who had a desire to meet “hanging judge” Parker in his courtroom. And many such curious folks got to meet the judge, courtesy of ol’ Bass.
When out on the trail, Bass was known for ridin’ a big red horse, wearing a wide brimmed hat, and dressin’ might spiffy. But to capture his prey, he used aliases, wore disguises, walked or road old nags and pretended to be many kinds of folks: cowboys, farmers, bums, you get the drift.
After he gave up his commission as a Deputy Marshal, Bass moved to Muskogee and went to work as a beat policeman. He died in 1910. In 1992, his contribution to western history was recognized when Bass Reeves was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 3 August 2005
MONTHLY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATES
Ocoee Red presents 1 of about 50 monthly Shoot Certificates to R.I.P. Overland for his July shooting performance, as Hombre Sin Nombre, Pyro, Red Neckerson, Summer Dove, Widowmaker, Ranger Roger, Squire Shooter, Tennessee Mongo and the rest of the gang look on.
Every month, Ocoee Red awards certificates of achievement to bunches of cowboys and cowgirls. They are awarded for shooting good, helping conduct matches, and occasionally for special things. Each month, the certificates look a little different. Why, well, mostly so that Ocoee Red will remember that he’s really giving new certificates and not just remembering what he did last month … or the month before that. Most of us, however, will rarely receive a certificate. Some us may never get one. But the award of a good day’s shooting with good friends who like to play our game, share tales about how we just barely missed that 1 target, put a spark of joy in our heart. After all, no matter what our age is, and no matter what’s going on in the real world, we get to celebrate a magic Saturday together. A touch of gun smoke, a little imagination, a smiggen of friendship and sprinkle of magic is powerful stuff. It’s the stuff that memories are made from, and it’s addictive. That’s what brings most of back each week ….. to Ocoee Rangers, Smokey Mountain Shootist, Bittercreek Rangers and other cowboy action shoots. Oh yeah, when you trace the award of all these monthly certificates that we give at Cleveland shoots back to the source of the idea, do you know what you find? T-Bone Angus. He was the feller who originally suggested that we give a lot of folks certificates of achievement instead of just 1, 2 or 3 top shooter awards.
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Summer Dove |
OCOEE RANGER WRANGLERS AUGUST 2005 |
Blayde Hollister |
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Deadfoot |
Red Neckerson |
Polecat Carl |
Widowmaker
These cowboys and this cowgirl, by their actions, exemplified the spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm in helping their posse conduct the August shoot. No, they weren’t the only folks who helped. They just did a smidgen more and their posse leaders nominated them to be Ocoee Ranger Wranglers for the month. Congratulations cowfolks.
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