Marshal Too Tall Shoots 3rd Consecutive Outlaw No Misses Match!

Marshal Too Tall had a good day at the March Shoot. No, he didn’t win all the competition in the Buffalo Shoot, but he did win the Long Range (50 yard) Pistol event: Jackson Longstreet won the other 3 Buffalo Shoot events. And Too Tall wasn’t the Top Gun or even the winner of the Outlaw category of shooters: Hurricane Charly was the Top Gun, and Tombstone was the No. 1 Outlaw shooter. But Too Tall shot his 3rd consecutive match without a miss shooting Outlaw. Nobody else has ever done that at an Ocoee Rangers Shoot. So, you could say that the littlest outlaw shot very well. ….. Shucks, he shot very well, even if you didn’t say it.

Our other marshal was back with us, Marshal W.D. He’s been away for some time, but he returned with guns a blazin’ and finished 7th in overall competition.

The Top 10 Shooters were (1) Hurricane Charly (2) Unpleasant (3) Barkeep Casey (4) Ocoee Red (5) Purly (6) Sean Clancy O’Conall   (7) Marshal W.D. (8) Tombstone (9) Happy Pappy and (10) Tenn Critr. In the Buffalo Shoot, Jackson Longstreet won the competition in Long Range Rifle – Rifle Cal. … Long Range Rifle – Pistol Cal. and .22 Cal. Too Tall won the Long Range Pistol shooting.

17 shooters shot the match with no misses.

Shoot Results

Top Gun: Hurricane Charly

Top Lady Shooter: Last Kiss

Lady Buckaroo: (1) Half Cocked Kaylee

Buckaroo: (1) S. A. Jr.

Grand Patron: (1) Linc

Cattle Baron: (1) Tabasco J.O.T. (2) Rev. Adam Jones

Elder Statesman: (1) Tin Pot (2) Bad Eye Tom (3) Friendly Mac

Lady Silver Senior: (1) Two Step Net

Silver Senior: (1) Purly (2) Harry 3 Fingers (3) Pa Faux

Lady Senior: (1) Garnett Gal

Senior: (1) Ocoee Red (2) Dirtwater Fox (3) Cherokee Slim

49er: (1) Happy Pappy

Lady Wrangler: (1) Miss Kitty Kat

Wrangler: (1) Barkeep Casey (2) Jackson Longstreet (3) Hide Cutter

Cowboy: (1) Hurricane Charly (2) Marshal W.D. (3) Cullen Bohannon

B-Western: (1) Sundance McNeyman

Classic Cowboy: (1) Smokin’ Dave

Lady Duelist: (1) Appalucy McDowall

Duelist: (1) Lucky Lightburne

Senior Duelist: (1) Scrub Oak Willie (2) Ranger Roger (3) General Breckenridge

Frontier Cart. Duelist: (1) El Paso Slim

Elder Statesman Double Duelist: (1) Horseshoe John (2) Hoss Carpenter (3) Shenandoah Will

Silver Sr. Double Duelist: (1) Steely I. Justice

Senior Double Duelist: (1) Double Eagle (2) Pop Dawson

Lady Gunfighter: (1) Mrs. Pleasant

Gunfighter: (1) Unpleasant (2) Clancy O’Conall (3) Last Kiss

Frontier Cart. Gunfighter: (1) Jackalope (2) Long Gulch

Silver Sr. Gunfighter: (1) Tenn Critr (2) Sudden Sam

Senior Gunfighter: (1) Keystone (2) Yankee Dutchman (3) Kid Ziggy

Outlaw: (1) Tombstone (2) Marshal Too Tall (3) Fast Harley

THE EVOLUTION OF COWBOY ACTION SHOOTING IN SOUTHEAST TENNESSEE

Evolution. Say that word in some circles and folks start growling about monkeys and trees and stuff crawling out of the water and living on dry land. But that’s not the evolution I’m talking about. Have you ever wondered just how the Ocoee Rangers Cowboy and Cowgirl Shooters came to be? Well, it all started with a man named Mike Pleasant: not our Pleasant. Mike Pleasant was a Captain on the Chattanooga Fire Dept., and he was a former Civil War enthusiast, a black smith, a kettle corn cooker and peddler at Civil War gatherings, and a shooter. Somehow, he heard about S.A.S.S. and Cowboy Action Shooting and became interested. He gathered a group of chums and got them interested. They made contact with the folks at Guns & Stuff in Whitfield, TN, who had a small shooting range, and formed the Tennessee Mountain Marauders. That was back in 1997. Mike Pleasant became SASS cowboy shooter Cooter Clinker.

A feller can only read so much about something, and then he or she needs a bit of practical advice or exposure. So, in 1997, Cooter made contact with middle Tennessee contractor Preston Sweeny, who in his other life is Charlie Bowdre, SASS Cowboy Shooter. Charlie Bowdre was the founder and range owner of the Wartrace Regulators shooters. Charlie gave Cooter advice, and he and some of his compadres visited the Marauder shoots and offered suggestions.  

In 1998, the Marauders were together as a real small group. Tellico was a member, and by midyear T-Bone Angus, Horseshoe John, Mesquite Millie, and Deadman joined. Others from Cleveland drifted down and began shooting. We shot 4 stages and a Buffalo Shoot on a single bay range, divided into 2 stage positions at a time. At that time, a big shoot was 20 people. But we grew …. and grew. And some of the Cleveland shooters went back to the Cleveland range and started a small, unofficial cowboy shooting group (about 7 shooters): the Leadmine Valley Gang. And about mid 1999, the Marauders and Leadmine Valley Gang joined forces and asked the Cleveland Hunting Rifle & Pistol Club to allow the 2 groups to hold a monthly shoot and share proceeds, after expenses. And we really grew. We had a great range, and friendly shooters, and folks came to shoot. Later, the Cleveland group determined that if they were going to have cowboy shoots on their range, they should sponsor the shoots and receive all proceeds after expenses to apply to up-keep and development of the range and facilities. They wanted cowboy shooting, but not as Marauders visiting once a month, and the Marauders were told to head west, like old west pioneers.

There were some hard feelings, and folks packed their stuff and moved along. But the CHRPC had said, we want cowboy shooting here, and we’re willing to spend several thousand dollars on targets and stuff to get it going. They appointed Ocoee Red as the Cowboy Shooting Committee Chairman, and Red contacted several of us sore-tails who were offended by developments but thought the range was just too good to walk away from.

A month after the Marauders left Cleveland, they / we had a meeting in Dayton, TN at a potential range and met the owner. Then we met as a group for lunch down the highway. Several of us saw the Dayton set-up wouldn’t work, and we suggested forming a Cleveland shooting group. A goodly number of offended folks left, but a few of us stayed, met, and formed the Ocoee Rangers before we left. Yep, we even selected the name at that meeting. Below is a photo of the Ocoee Rangers Founders.

 

2015 is the 13th shooting year for the Ocoee Rangers, and they have been good years. We’re well known with area Cowboy & Cowgirl Shooters, and we have a good reputation as an enjoyable group to shoot with. But we have really tough membership requirements. If you shoot safely, enjoy cowboy / cowgirl shooting, are a good sport, are considerate of others, have a good sense of humor and consider yourself an Ocoee Ranger …. You’re an Ocoee Ranger. We have no club membership fee, because technically, we’re not a club: we’re an action group sponsored by the Cleveland Hunting Rifle & Pistol Club. Each shooter, except Buckaroos who shoot free, pays the same shooting fee: $10 per match shot. Buffalo Shooting is free. So, with all this that we have, we have a big responsibility to be safe, have fun, keep our range well kept and clean, and help make sure our visitors enjoy their visits with us.

In summary, Cooter Clinker is the Father of Cowboy Action Shooting in Southeast Tennessee. Ocoee Red is the Father of Ocoee Rangers Cowboy & Cowgirl Action Shooting, and Charlie Bowdre is the Helpful Uncle of Cowboy Shooting in Southeast Tennessee. That’s the story of evolution, as it relates to Ocoee Rangers Shooting. The only monkey related stuff pertaining to us is maybe Too Tall shooting while standing under the trees on the range, but that’s another story for another day.

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2015 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Newsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.