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Volume 5, Issue No. 6 June 2007
Roma Jane Shoots Clean, Dajango Slim Says, “Adios” & Lightning McCoy Kicks The Bucket At The June Shoot
The June shoot was a hum-dinger. There were lots of steel bad guys to shoot, on 1 stage each shooter could choose to shoot from close up or back a ways, and Roma Jane shot her 1st no miss match as an Ocoee Ranger. It was a good day. Unfortunately, 1 of our regular shooters said “Good bye”. Dajango Slim is moving to Athens – Georgia, not Greece. And that’s a bit far to commute. We’ll miss him. But he says he’s not giving up Cowboy Shooting. He’ll just have to do it some-where else.
Roma Jane Didn’t Miss
Dajango Slim Says Good Bye
Sometimes unexpected things happen at matches. Right off the bat, Lightning McCoy kicked the bucket. No, he ain’t dead. He was just clumsy, and kicked 1 of the stage buckets – accidentally. Dustin Clays quickly remarked, “I can see the newsletter now. Lightning kicks the bucket.” Well, if he reads this, he’ll see it. Festus D. Deputy also wanted to go on record. At stage 3, each shooter could shoot targets from a short distance or a longer distance. It seems that Festus shot his from the longer distance. He said “(Marshal) Too Tall chickened (that ain’t the real word, but it’s close) out and shot’em from up close. And he still beat me by only a couple of seconds.” Giving shooters a choice to shoot long or short was a terrific idea. Hopefully, we’ll see it again.
You’ve gotta load’em before you shoot’em. L-R: Tio Don, Last Kiss & Tenn Critr.
Are these patriotic cowboys, or what?
If you were not at the shoot, we dispensed with awarding certificates in a group gathering. They were presented individually as shooters registered to shoot. And we didn’t do a lot of announcements. And Deadman got busy earlier assigning posses. And we finished somewhere around 2:00 – 2:30 pm. Simply stated, we had a terrific shoot, ended a bit earlier, and got out of the heat. And we shot 5 complete stages while doing it. So if heat ain’t your thing, come on out and shoot with us. You can have a full shoot, a good time, and get away early.
Badlands Beck times Tennessee Tombstone shooting Outlaw
Cowboys & Cowgirl Having Lunch on the Range
How’d the shooting go? Very good. Here’s how. In the before match Buffalo Shoot, Calibre .45 won the Long Range Pistol Shoot. Kenesaw bested the other shooters in Long Range Single Shot Rifle competition. And Marshal Too Tall won the .22 Cal. and Long Range Lever Action Rifle Shoots. Unpleasant was the main match Top Gun, and Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter. Here’s how the Top 10 Shooters stacked up: (1) Unpleasant (2) Marshal Too Tall (3) Pleasant (4) Polecat Carl (5) Dustin Clays (6) Ocoee Red (7) Festus D. Deputy (8) Tucson Tuco, (9) Cherokee Maddog and (10) Widowmaker. 8 shooters shot Perfect Matches (no misses): Roma Jane, Marshal Too Tall, Polecat Carl, Dustin Clays, Tarantula Jack, Tucson Tuco, Awful Close and Deadman.
SHOOT RESULTS
TOP GUN – Unpleasant … BUFFALO SHOOT – Long Range Pistol – Calibre .45 … .22 Cal – Marshal Too Tall … Long Range Single Shot Rifle – Kenesaw … Long Range Lever Action Rifle – Marshal Too Tall
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Senior 1. Tucson Tuco 2. T-Bone Angus 3. Purly |
Outlaw 1. Badlands Beck 2. TN Tombstone 3. Curly Bill |
Gunfighter 1. Pleasant 2. Widowmaker 3. Fast Harley |
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Traditional 1. Unpleasant 2. Dustin Clays 3. Festus D. Deputy |
Cowgirl 1. Last Kiss 2. Roma Jane |
Silver Senior 1. Wildcat Wilkey 2. Linc |
Modern1. Polecat Carl 2. Limp Along Charlie 3. TN Hoss |
Classic1. Lightning McCoy |
49er 1. Marshal Too Tall 2. Ocoee Red 3. TN Mongo |
Duelist
1. Cherokee Maddog
2. Tarantula Jack
3. Horseshoe John
TO DATE, WE HAVE RECEIVED $344.17 IN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUY PRIZES TO BE AWARDED AT OUR CHRISTMAS SHOOT AND FAMILY EVENT.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 2 June 2007
THE REEL WEST, THE REAL WEST & THE WEST
OF OUR IMAGINATION
THE REEL WEST – Strother Martin 1919 – 1980
Strother Martin
Do you remember Strother Martin? If not, shame on you. Strother, or T-Bone as he was nicknamed in high school, was a rascally looking little feller who frequently played shady characters. But he made the movies he appeared in better for his contribution.
T-Bone Martin was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1919 and grew up there. Although he didn’t look like an athlete, he was a champion diver in high school. His swimming and diving in some way resulted in his class chums giving him the nickname “T-Bone Martin”. In WWII, Strother served as a Navy swimming instructor, and after the War, he was on the Diving Team at the University of Michigan. Eventually, he moved to Los Angles, where he worked as a swimming instructor and as an extra doing water scenes in movies. After a time, he began getting bit parts and then graduated to being a “character actor”, and if you’ve seen him in his movie roles, he was sure a character.
What’s his cowboy connection? Well, ol’ Strother’s been in a bunch of cowboy flicks, on the big screen and on TV. He was 1 of the bounty hunters in Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH. And he was a horse trader who had to deal with the young gal in John Wayne’s TRUE GRIT. And he was a cantankerous mining engineer in Bolivia who hired Paul Newman and Robert Redford as payroll guards in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. And he was 1 of the villains in Raquel Welsh and Robert Culp’s HANNIE CAULDER. And he was in a bunch of other Westerns. And on TV he appeared on GUNSMOKE. And …. You get the drift. Strother was a busy feller. His most famous movie line was spoken in a non-Western. As the prison warden in Paul Newman’s COOL HAND LUKE, Strother said, “What we have here is failure to communicate.” He said that just before he had a sharp shooter shoot Luke (Newman).
Strother Martin died in 1980. He was 61.
THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – Owlhoot Hardin
Owlhoot Hardin
Owlhoot Hardin is a 1-handed shooter. His philosophy is a cowboy, or cowgirl, is supposed to stand up and shoot just like John Wayne and Roy Rogers and all them other cowboys. None of that 2-handed stuff for him. Why? Well, it just ain’t cowboy. And Owlhoot has been shootin’ cowboy for years. He shot his 1st cowboy match in 1994 at a Mule Camp Shoot. After that, he started working to get Cowboy Shooting started in the Knoxville area. The 1st match there had 6 or 8 shooters. They passed the hat and pooled saddle money and bought some targets and stuff. And, well, today the Smoky Mountain Shootists are alive and well. In 1999, Owlhoot became their Territorial Governor.
Of course Cowboy Shootin’ ain’t the only shootin’ Owlhoot’s practiced. He’s shot Bull’s Eye and PPC and high power rifle shootin’ competition. And he’s been a shootin’ instructor in the military and for TVA. And he’s taught Cowboy Shootin’ to some familiar cowboys: Dustin Clays, Curly Bill, Double Eagle, Fast Harley and others.
How’d he get his alias? Here’s his reasoning, when selecting his alias: an owlhoot is a low-grade criminal, and that sorta fits. So, he became Owlhoot Hardin. And as Owlhoot, he’s shot Mule Camp several times and several state shoots and a bunch of local shoots. He prefers the state and local shoots. And he prefers something else: real, live Colt pistols. Just look in his holsters, and you’ll see some real classy shootin’ irons. And the feller shootin’ them is a classy feller himself. You can tell that by just lookin’ at him, if you can see him through all that smoke. He’s become a black powder shooter.
THE REAL WEST – Mickey Free
1847 – 1915
Have you ever heard of Mickey Free? Well, if you’ve seen the 2-part TV movie MR. HORN, starring David Carradine, or taken time to read about either Tom Horn, or Al Sieber, or the Apache wars, you have. Otherwise, you’ve probably never heard of him.
Mickey was born Felix Telles in Mexico sometime around 1847. His papa was either Irish or part Irish and his mama was Mexican. His papa was killed when he was still a pup, and his mama found a new feller and moved to Arizona, taking little Felix along with her. But Felix didn’t grow up to be a farmer. Nope. In 1861 when he was 14, a band of Apaches captured Felix. Of course his capture led to bloody battles between the Americans and the Apaches. While they were fighting each other, his captors traded him to a member of another tribe, the White Mountain Apaches at San Carlos Indian Reservation. The feller who traded for Felix freed him, and he was adopted as a White Mountain Apache. From his new pappy, Felix learned the skills and lifestyle of the Apache. He became, in essence, tres hombres (3 men): he spoke American, Spanish, and Apache. Add that to his Apache skills that he’d learned, and he was well equipped to become a scout in the Apache wars between the Yankee Army and the warrior Apaches.
Sgt. Mickey Free
In 1872, Mickey became a Sergeant of Scouts. Somewhere along the way, he’d ceased being Felix and became Mickey Free, named after a character in a then popular novel. Mickey became 1 of Al Sieber’s scouts, and a very good one. He was tough, he knew the Apache and the country, and he earned his pay. Folks said that Mickey was part Irish, part Mexican and all SOB. (That last part ain’t really what they said, but it’s all the Rev. Adam Jones will let me write.) Mickey served as a scout during various campaigns in the Apache wars, several times against Geronimo, until 1893, when the conflict ended. After that, he moved to the White Mountain Apache reservation, where he married and had a passel of young’uns. He died there in 1915.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 3 June 2007
Have Gun, Will Travel
Do you remember Paladin, Richard Boone’s alter ego? Well, most of us do. He’d flip out his business card, Have Gun Will Travel, pack his guns, put on his gunslick duds and hit the trail to do battle with bad guys. That’s sorta what several Ocoee Rangers have done in the last few weeks. They’ve hit the trail to fight steel badguys. On our May shoot day, paw Pleasant and his boys, Pyro and little Unpleasant, journeyed west to Mississippi and shot in the Mississippi State Cowboy Shooting Championship with the Mississippi River Rangers. Last Kiss and her trail pardner, Fast Harley, were also shooters in that match, and so were Sheriff Donald and Deadeye Daisy. Last Kiss placed 1st in the Lady Gunfighter category. Here’s how all these Ocoee Rangers placed, in a field of 196 shooters: Unpleasant (24), Pleasant (34), Pyro (50), Fast Harley (63), Last Kiss (84), Sheriff Donald (95), and Deadeye Daisy (169).
Pleasant and Unpleasant
Last Kiss & Fast Harley
During that same week, south and east of the Missippi Shooters, several other regular Ocoee Rangers shooters helped battle steel badguys at the Shoot Out At Mule Camp, just south of Atlanta. Killin’ Time placed 1st in the Lady Duelist category, and her shootin’ pardner, Rusty Spur Slim, placed 1st in the Frontier category, shootin’ black powder and cap & ball pistols. Of course they had company from other shooters frequently seen on the Ocoee Rangers range. Here’s how they fared in overall competition in a field of 415 shooters: Sunshine Billy (28), Widowmaker (90), Rusty Spur Slim (95), Polecat Carl (116), Tabasco JOT (123), Judge’m All Duncan (162), Wildcat Wilkey (201), and Killin’ Time (203).
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Killin’ Time |
Rusty Spur Slim |
Widowmaker |
A few weeks later and down south in Sorrento, Louisiana, Deadman buckled on his six-guns, drug out his double barrel shotgun and ‘73 Winchester and helped Blayde & KD Hollister, former Ocoee Rangers, and their Deadwood Marshals fight their steel outlaws. Nope, it wasn’t a championship shoot. It was just a small Cowboy Shooting Club’s monthly shoot. But they have an in-place small-town setup with lots of targets. They also have a pond that sometimes has a resident alligator in it. Nope. It wasn’t there the day Deadman was in town. In a field of 17 shooters, Deadman did about normal: he was somewhere near the middle and didn’t miss any targets, although he did manage to acquire a procedural on the last stage. But he ain’t too smart anyway; Horseshoe John and T-Bone will attest to that. Here’s how he and his young’uns placed: Blayde Hollister (5), Deadman (10), and KD Hollister (17).
The Deadwood Marshals of Sorrento, Louisiana.
Kneeling L-R: Blayde Hollister & Deadman. KD Hollister is standing behind Deadman. The Galvez Kid is standing in the last row at the left, wearing a white hat.
KD Holllister took a goodly amount of ribbin’. At the May Deadwood Marshal’s shoot, she flicked the lever of her rifle while shootin’ a stage, and the hot brass went up in the air — and then down the front of her dress. She did a Cajun 2-step until she could pull her gun-belts away and let the hot cartridge fall to the ground. 1 of the cowboys kiddin’ her was the Galvez Kid. He placed 1st at the June shoot when Deadman visited them and 42nd when he shot with Last Kiss and the gang at the Mississippi State Championship shoot.
What does all this mean? Well, it means that Cowboy Shooting is fun in lots of places, in big regional shoots – like Mule Camp, and state championship shoots – like the Mississippi State shoot, and at small monthly shoots – like the Sorrento cowboys’ / Deadwood Marshals’ shoot.
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