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Volume 3, Issue No. 10 September, 2005
60 shooters participate in Halloween shootout!
The weather forecast called for rain, but it didn’t. Rain that is. And by the end of the day, the sky was a fantastic blue. Of course Marshall Too Tall was also a little blue: Ocoee Red finished 3 positions above him. All in all, it was a very good day. Several shooters visited with us for the first time, and 1 shot his very first cowboy shoot. Then Festus D. Deputy went over to his carriage, took out a monster of a shotgun, and took it over for Horseshoe John to try out. The Tennessee cowboys, all of whom have Tennessee in their alias, are seen holding it below. It had a stock extension and a longer barrel added. Horseshoe John shouldered the gun, looked down the barrel at the bead sight, which seemed about an acre away, and reached for the trigger. But he couldn’t reach it. That made the cannon a crew served weapon: for you civilian fellers, that means that it takes more than 1 person to shoot the gun. After seeing that Horseshoe wasn’t up to using his gun, Festus returned it to his carriage.
TENNESSEE COWBOYS
L- R: Tennessee Tombstone, Tennessee Ted, Tennessee Jake & Tennessee Mongo
Unpleasant – Top Gun Roma Jane – top cowgirl shooter
Unpleasant was the Top Gun of the day, and Roma Jane was the top cowgirl shooter. Pleasant and Marshal Too Tall split the Buffalo Shoot: Pleasant was 1st in the Long Range shoot, and Too Tall was 1st in the .22 cal. event. 11 cowboys shot no-miss matches: Pleasant, Ocoee Red, Festus D. Deputy, RIP Overland, Dustin Clays, Fast Harley, Catoosa Kid, Caliber .45, Bad Arm Slim, Ruckus Roy and the Rev. Adam Jones (our weatherman).
Wranglers are important folks. They are the cowboys & cowgirls that put forward extra effort working in their posses during the shoot. October Wranglers were Shadrack Jones, Bad Arm Slim, Lighting McCoy, John Daniel, Dajango Slim, Huckleberry Don and Sheriff Donald.
SHOOT RESULTS: Top Gun – Unpleasant Buffalo Shoot: .22 cal – Marshal Too Tall Long Range – Pleasant
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Traditional 1. Unpleasant 2. Slater 3. Whiskey River Nelson |
Cowgirl 1. Roma Jane 2. Last Kiss |
Modern 1. S.A. Pondwater 2. Sundance McNeyman 3. Awful Close |
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Senior 1. Tabasco JOT 2. Sunshine Billy 3. Kenesaw |
Gunfighter 1. Pleasant 2. RIP Overland 3. Pyro |
49er 1. Ocoee Red 2. Double Eagle 3. Marshal Too Tall |
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Duelist 1Horseshoe John 2. Fast Harley 3. Tucson Tuco |
Classic 1. Dustin Clays 2. Cherokee Maddog 3. Lightning McCoy |
Black Powder 1. Catoosa Kid Outlaw 1. TN Tombstone |
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TURKEY SHOOT AT NOVEMBER SHOOT… Turkeys as prizes for turkeys/shooters who win. |
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The Ocoee Ranger page 2 October 2005
The Reel West – Richard Carlson
1912 – 1977
Richard Carlson was an actor, writer and director, who during his career appeared on stage on Broadway, in Hollywood movies and on television. Born in Minnesota in 1912, he attended the University of Minnesota where he studied drama. Writing, performing in and directing plays, he graduated with a Masters in Arts degree and stayed to teach. But that wasn’t his cup of tea. So, he left and started a stage production company. Artistically, it was a good experience, but financially, it flopped. So, he went to Hollywood, then to Broadway, then back to Hollywood. Back in Hollywood, he did some acting and directing. Then WWII came along, and he marched away to play a sailor for Uncle Sam for 4 ½ years.
Richard Carlson
(Gen. George Crook wore a hat like this chasing Geronimo)
When Richard returned to Hollywood after the war, he was older and wasn’t offered the same kinds of roles that he’d had before the war. But he hung in and reestablished himself in the movie business. During the ‘50s, he appeared in a number of B movie science fiction and horror films. Do you remember The Creature From The Black Lagoon? (Whiskey River Nelson will say, “No. Way before me.”) Richard appeared in that flick. He was the hero, and he and the creature were both after the affections of Julie Adams. Richard won.
From 1953 through 1956, Richard starred in the TV series, I Led Three Lives. He played an advertising executive who was a spy for the FBI, infiltrating the communist party in the U.S. He also directed TV shows and some movies and some were Westerns: examples, Four Guns to the Border in 1954 and The Saga of Hemp Brown in 1958. If you look in ‘50s Westerns, you’ll occasionally see ol’ Richard in them, usually as an Army officer, such as the role he played in Seminole. Then in 1958 and 1959, he played Colonel Ranald Mackenzie in the TV series Mackenzie’s Raiders, a show about an Old West cavalry officer who each week secretly lead a troop of cavalry across the Rio Grande in pursuit of bad folks.
After Mackenzie’s Raiders, Richard continued to act in television until his retirement. He died in 1977.
Colonel Mortimer
The West Of Our Imagination – Colonel Mortimer
“I’ve been shootin’ cowboy for 2 years now. I first ran in to T-Bone and some of his sidekicks at a gun show several years ago and got interested in the Cowboy Shooting thing. It took several years to muster up the nerve to actually get into it. Figured I’d wait till I could afford all the accouterments. I finally realized that would probably never happen, so a couple of years ago I took out my visa card, held my breath, jumped in the deep end and have been enjoying it ever since.
The alias thing was kind a tough. Colonel Mortimer doesn’t sound awfully cool. But Lee Van Cleef, playing Colonel Mortimer opposite Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More, was one real tough hombre. Especially when he uttered those immortal words, “This train will stop at Tucumcari.” … You’d have to be there I guess.
I started out shooting a Liberty and an American Western (pistols). Both good guns. My current favorites are a pair of Cimarron stainless P models. I started on a Stoeger double barrel (shotgun), but now enjoy shooting a Model 97. A stainless model 92 EMF Hartford round barrel carbine rounds out the ensemble. It’s a real joy to shoot.
My favorite movie has to be Tombstone. Great characters, great costumes and guns. John Wayne is my favorite cowboy. He pretty much sums up the Spirit of the Old West.” (Written by Colonel Mortimer)
The Real West – Ranald Mackenzie 1840 – 1889
Ranald Mackenzie was a Yankee horse soldier, and a very good one. Born in New York City, which we won’t hold against him, he attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating 1st in his class the year after George Custer graduated last. But regardless of their class standings, both Mackenzie and Custer were no-holds-barred horse soldiers and both served with distinction in the War of Northern Aggression. When the war ended, both were Major Generals. Following that war, both Mackenzie and Custer were reassigned to keep order in the West, Mackenzie as a Colonel of the 4th Cavalry and Custer as Lieutenant Colonel of the 7th Cavalry.
Ranald Mackenzie
Mackenzie served in the Southwest, fighting Comanches, Apaches, Southern Cheyennes, Mexican bandits and other folks who raided and killed in the Southwestern territory. Among the Comanches, he was known as “Bad Hand”, because of a battle wound which removed 2 fingers from his hand. But bad hand or not, he and his soldiers fought many battles. Shucks,ol “Bad Hand” even invaded Mexico in pursuit of 1 band on Indians. While that was technically an act of war, neither the Mexican government nor the U.S. paid much attention. Both wanted the killing and raids back and forth across the border to stop.
History is fickle. In fact, the definition sometimes given to history is “myth that we accept as fact.” Generations have different versions of political correctness, and they tend to look at things that happened in the past in the light of their current mind set. Where’s this going? Well, in his day, Ranald Mackenzie was a hero to the settlers in Texas. In 1874, he and his command broke the Comanche nation and ended their roaming, big-time threat in the southwest. Mackenzie and his forces located the Comanches and Southern Cheyenne in winter camp in Palo Duro Canyon, near present day Amarillo, TX. They attacked, killed a bunch of folks, destroyed more than 1,000 horses, and burned their winter food and supplies, which forced the survivors to go to reservations. The threat from the Comanches was ended. Some current apologists consider Mackenzie a villain because he destroyed the Comanche way of life. Of course, they don’t have to fear nighttime raids and death while asleep, like settlers did in the 1870’s.
Over the years, Mackenzie had other assignments in several western states and earned promotion to Brigadier General, before he was forced to retire in 1884 after he developed mental illness and was declared insane. He died on January 19, 1889.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 3 October 2005
VINEGAROON (AKA JERRY HARPER)
COWBOY CRAFTSMAN
By Dustin Clays
The engraving of this 1866 Yellowboy rifle is the handiwork of Vinegaroon, aka Jerry Harper, who is a founding member of the Smoky Mountain Shootist Society (Knoxville Cowboy Shooters) and an occasional Ocoee Rangers shooter. This rifle represents Nimschke in style, one of Jerry’s favorite engravers from the late 19th century. Actually the Mexican eagle and scroll design is straight from an 1866 that Nimschke engraved. Nimschke was one of the great engravers from the period of 1850-1900 and, in Jerry’s opinion, maybe the best engraver of all time. Along with Colts and Winchesters, Nimschke also engraved many Sharps rifles and Smith and Wesson revolvers and did much non-firearm engraving.
1866 Uberti /Winchester Rifle Engraved by Vinegaroon
Another favorite engraver who has influenced Jerry’s work was also a German by the name of Cuno Helfricht who had a shop in the Colt factory and worked directly for Colt. Ulrich is another favorite engraver of Jerry’s who worked directly for Winchester.
Jerry has been engraving guns for forty years and during that time has engraved weapons for many well-known personalities. Among these, he engraved Colts for Lash LaRue, B western star of the 1940’s, and he also engraved Johnny Cash’s favorite revolver. Though we cowboys know Jerry as a fellow shooter, engraver, and gunsmith, there is another side to Jerry. He is also a scholar and professor emeritus, who for many years was chairman of the Foreign Languages department at Carson-Newman College. The Mexican Eagle (which is shown on the rifle above) has been a favorite of Jerry’s since his college days when he developed an interest in the influence of the Spanish in the southwest. While doing his graduate work at UCLA, in his spare time he learned basic engraving with a hammer and chisel and how to sharpen his tools from an old German gunsmith.
Whether making a spring, bluing a barrel, tuning a gun, replacing parts that are no longer available, or completely restoring a priceless old revolver, rifle or shotgun, Jerry can do it. And he is always willing to help out a fellow cowboy or cowgirl at a match who is having gun problems. Jerry’s knowledge, craftsmanship and willingness to share his talents are greatly admired and appreciated by all who know him.
Vinegaroon ( aka Jerry Harper)
MISS PEARL’S PARLOR HOUSE ATTRACTS SEVERAL OCOEE RANGERS
Miss Pearl’s Parlor House Attracts Ranger Roger & Marshal Too Tall
In September, a whole gang of Ocoee Rangers descended on Miss Pearl’s Parlor House and had a real carousing time. Would you believe it? Now before you send the Rev. Adam Jones out to chastise them, Miss Pear’s Parlor House is 1 of the stage settings in the Town of Cavern Cove, home of the North Alabama Regulators cowboy shooters. And the gang of Ocoee Rangers were there participating in the Alabama State Cowboy Action Shooting Championship , Ambush at Cavern Cove.
The top shooting Ocoee Ranger was Festus D. Deputy, who placed 14th overall and 4th as a 49er. Horseshoe John placed 1st as a Sr. Duelist, and 48th overall.
Other Ocoee Rangers shooters and the positions in which they placed are as follows: Sunshine Billy 22, Marshal Too Tall 25, Ocoee Red 26, Cherokee Maddog 38, Ranger Roger 61, Tennessee Jake 105 and T-Bone Angus 120. Tennessee Jake and Festus both shot perfect /no miss matches. 164 shooters participated in the event.
No Misses For These Shooters
Tennessee Jake Festus D. Deputy
1t Place Senior Duelist
Horseshoe John
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