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Volume 5, Issue No. 2 February, 2007
DAGNABIT DEB IS A SERIOUSLY ILL COWGIRL PLEASE REMEMBER HER IN YOUR PRAYERS
Dagnabit Deb is a very sick cowgirl and will be in Park West Hospital, in Knoxville, for an undetermined time. If you want to send her a card, note or posies, her address is : Deborah Brenneman – Park West Hospital – Room 516, Knoxville, Tennessee 37923. Or you can send her a message at – carepages.com Dagnabit Debs Adventure. Shootin’ just ain’t the same when Dagnabit Deb’s not with us.
FEBRUARY IS GOOD SHOOTIN’ WEATHER – SAY 70 SHOOTERS
Owlhoot Hardin – Shooting Black Powder, Duelist Style
As Josey Buckhorn puts it, “A bad day of Cowboy Shootin’ is better than a good day at work.” And he’s right. But the February Shoot was a good one. At least it managed to attract 70 shooters to come out and defend frontier justice in the wilds of East Tennessee.
The day started with a bang, down at the Buffalo Shoot. At the end of regular shootin’, Last Kiss had tied Marshal Too Tall in the Long Range Lever Action competition. He managed to squeak by in the shoot-off. Yukon Hootch won the 22 Caliber shoot, and Pole Cat Carl managed to out shoot Caliber .45 in the Long Range Pistol competition. Marshal Too Tall won the Long Range Single Shot category.
In the Main Match, Unpleasant was the Top Gun and placed 1st in the Traditional Class. Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter. The Top 10 Shooters were: (1) Unpleasant (2) Buck Dodgers (3) Will Reilly (4) Rusty Spur Slim (5) Pleasant (6) Festus D. Deputy (7) Marshal Too Tall (8) Ocoee Red (9) Polecat Carl (10) Double Eagle. 7 cowboys shot perfect matches with no misses: Unpleasant, Pleasant, Judge’m All Duncan, Lightning McCoy, Ruckus Roy, Undertaker John and Tenn Smoke.
Applesauce, daughter of Cool Waters, accompanied her paw to the shoot and shot her 1st Ocoee Rangers match as a Junior Cowgirl. Like her paw, she shoots very well. She’s been shootin’ cowgirl for about a year, but not many matches. And although she’s not taken up the shotgun yet, she hits real well with her pistols and rifle. How well? She missed only 5 shots in the match.
Applesauce is 11 years old, and she’s already tuned in on firearms safety. She couldn’t believe Deadman wanted her to point her pistol at him for this photo, even though Horse-shoe John and Cool Waters had already checked the gun and verified that it was safely unloaded.
And speaking of Cool Waters, he had a Pleasant experience during the shoot. Remember the knock down bonus targets? Well, Cool Waters grabbed his pistol, shot the pistol targets very fast, then shot the pistol knockdown target. When the bullet hit the target, it made a quiet little “dink” sound, verifying that he’d hit the critter. But it didn’t move. If there’d been a butterfly sitting on that target, it wouldn’t have been disturbed at all. But he’s accurate, and quick, and a good feller to shoot with.
Applesauce Applesauce and Cool Waters
SHOOT RESULTS
TOP GUN – Unpleasant … TOP GUN – COWGIRL – Last Kiss … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Polecat Carl … Long Range Lever Action Rife – Marshall Too Tall … .22 Cal – Yukon Hootch … Long Range Single Shot Rifle … Marshal Too Tall
Senior1. Outrider 2. Tin Pot 3. Tombstone John |
Gunfighter 1. Pleasant 2. Fast Harley 3. Widowmaker |
Traditional 1. Unpleasant 2. Buck Dodgers 3. Slater |
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Black Powder Cartridge 1. Judge’m All Duncan 2. Yuma Trueheart |
Cowgirl 1. Last Kiss 2. Killin’ Time |
Modern 1. Polecat Carl 2. Limp Along Charlie 3. Sundance McNeyman |
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49er 1. Festus D. Deputy 2. Marshal Too Tall 3. Ocoee Red |
Classic 1. Lightning McCoy 2. Bad Eye Tom 3. Josey Buckhorn |
Duelist 1. Will Reilly 2. Rusty Spur Slim 3. Horseshoe John |
Outlaw
1. TN Tombstone
2. Tucson Tuco
3. Cactus Red
WE’LL HAVE A SENIOR DUELIST CATEGORY AT THE MARCH SHOOT
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The Ocoee Ranger Page 2 February, 2007
The Reel West, The Real West and the West of Our Imagination
THE REEL WEST – Clint Walker
Clint Walker in YUMA
Have you ever heard of Norman Eugene Walker? Didn’t think so. Ol’ Norm was born in Hartford, Illinois, in 1927. And if he’d stayed there and been Norm, you wouldn’t have heard of him at all. Shucks, if you’re only in your ‘30’s you may never have heard of him in any event. But Norm left Hartford, and entered military service in the later days of WWII, the Big One. And when he was released from active duty, he didn’t go back to Illinois. He scrambled around with various jobs, and then decided to try acting.
Of course Norm sort’a stood out in a crowd. He was a big feller, standing 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 200 + pounds, all proportioned to make him photogenic. Somewhere along the way, Norm became Clint Walker. He got a few parts, once even playing Tarzan in a comic movie. Then in 1955, Warner Brothers cast Clint to play Cheyenne Bodie, in the TV show CHEYENNE. And he became a Western star. He was Cheyenne until 1962, when the show ended. During and after his CHEYENNE days, Clint made a few theatrical westerns and a few made-for-TV Westerns, and appeared in some other movies, like the DIRTY DOZEN. In his other Western roles, he was Killer Kane and Yellowstone Kelly, and other characters. And his movies were good. So was his CHEYENNE TV series.
However sometimes the premise in some shows overlooks a little detail that looks real screwy. For example, in 1 of Clint’s CHEYENNE adventures, he was hit on the head from behind and knocked out (almost all TV western heroes were hit on the head and knocked out ….. frequently) by a little feller who was running from someone. So, the little feller changed clothes with Clint. And when he came around, Clint put on the little feller’s clothes. And guess what? Clint’s big clothes perfectly fit the little feller. And the little feller’s clothes perfectly fit Clint. How about that? Sounds like a scenario that T-Bone would write, doesn’t it?
Clint’s retired now. Look in the Cowboy Chronicle, Shoot Magazine, True West and others and you’ll see that these days Clint’s appearing at western festivals with other former stars of the golden days of TV Westerns. He and his compadres are gathering to reminisce with each other and with old folks like many of us, who remember them as they were, and still think that for at least 1 Saturday a month, we’re like we were in those long ago days.
THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – Irish Jake
Irish Jake
If Cowboy Action Shooting has a lasting future, it’ll depend on young shooters like Irish Jake. Irish Jake started Cowboy Shooting with the Smoky Mountain Shootists Society, or as we know them, the Knoxville Cowboys, in March 2006, and he attends monthly shoots with his father and trail pardner, Boondock Saint.
How’d Irish Jake get his alias? Here’s how he describes it: “I have Irish heritage, and I just put Jake in front of it.” Out on the range, he shoots .357 pistols, and a Rossi ’92 Winchester Rifle. His shotgun choice varies from a double barrel coach gun to a ‘97 Winchester pump.
Here’s what Jake has to say about Cowboy Shooting: “It’s the best shooting sport. The people are friendly, and you get to play cowboy for a day.” Who’s his favorite cowboy? “John Wayne.” Irish Jake is a fine feller. He likes Cowboy Shooting, is safe with his guns, spends time with his paw, and he likes John Wayne. He’s a real red blooded American boy. Make that cowboy.
THE REAL WEST – Joseph F. Glidden 1813 – 1906
Joseph Glidden
Joseph Glidden was a man who got around. Look for information about him and you’ll see that he was born and grew up in New York. You’ll also see that he was born in New Hampshire and moved to New York. But it can be safely said that he was born, and he was born somewhere in 1813, and he eventually arrived in Dekalb, Illinois, where he became a farmer. Joe had worked as a thrasher on Midwestern farms, bought his own equipment, earned a bit of money, saved his money and when he arrived in Dekalb, he bought farmland. And later he bought more and developed other business interests. At one time, he was even the county sheriff in the Dekalb area. But that’s not what made his name known to historians. Joe Glidden was the man who killed the cowboy. It’s true.
When Joe became an Illinois farmer, wood was not in plentiful supply, and keeping cows in where they were wanted and out of where they were not wanted was hard and expensive to do. So folks with lots of cows hired lots of cowboys to manage them. Then in 1874 when he was 64 years old, Joe got a patent for the first commercially marketable barbwire. And when the smoke cleared from court fights about the rights to barbwire, Joe became the Barbwire King of the US, and became a very rich man from doing so. His invention consisted of a single wire, which intermittently had twisted sharp wire wrapped around the single wire, and then another wire was twisted around both to keep everything in place and make it stronger.
The Killer of the Open Range and the Roving Cowboy
Joe started a manufacturing business. Then he took a partner and expanded his business. Later he sold his interest for $60,000 plus royalties. But Joe’s business days weren’t over. He eventually owned a large farm in the Midwest, a 250,000 acre ranch in Texas, a hotel, a bank and a newspaper. Joe died in 1909. He probably wasn’t asked to join the posse in the sky. After all, Joe was the man who killed the open range and the big round-ups and the era of the mounted cowboy. Simply stated, Joe was 1 of the most significant contributors to the modernizing of the American West.
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