38 Cowboys and Cowgirls pulled into Wartrace early on a cool but sunny morning. This was the first match I'd been able to shoot since Jan.7 and I can't remember the last time I was able to be at the entire match instead of getting there about noon and shooting catch up.
Papa Dave had our safety meeting, Whiskey Hayes welcomed everyone Buck Dodgers offered a prayer and led us in the pledge. Whiskey was right when he said this was the best weather we'd had for a match in several months. I don't think I saw a cloud all day long and there was just enough breeze to keep you from sweating.
Whiskey Hayes had some great stages set up for this time of year. We had to run on all of them, something we can't do at the 100 degree summer matches. Two of the stages used the same targets for rifle and pistol. At the wagon we started at the back of the wagon, ran to the first location, shot the rifle, moved to where the shotgun was staged, grabbed it and moved down range to shoot the shotgun and pistols. At the corral we shot the shotgun, rifle then carried the rifle down range and placed it on a barrel then shot the pistols. At the train we shot 2 shotgun KD's from the engine, moved to the coal car for the rifle and pistols then back to the engine for the final 2 shotgun KD's.
Buck Dodgers was the Top Gun of the day followed by Papa Dave (1 rank point and just over 5 seconds back), Sergeant Shooter, CW Knight and Cherohala Chase rounded out the Top 5. Buck was the fastest on the Train, Wagon and Fort Sweeney and Papa was fastest at the Depot and the KO Corral.
Congratulations to Ida Shot'em and Papa Dave for shooting the match "Clean", something that takes lots of concentration.
Before the match I decided to try out a back-up rifle I hadn't shot in a while and some pistols I just got back from being slicked up and short-stroked by Slick McClade. I broke the firing pin on the 3rd shot out of the rifle, guess I've got something to do this week now. The pistols worked great but after the second stage I decided I need to practice a lot to get used to the really light trigger pull, I ended up with 8 misses, all from pulling the trigger before I really meant to. With 196 misses out of 36 shooters, remember the other 2 shot clean, I guess I'm not the only one who needs to clear the cobwebs out and get back into the swing of shooting.
Willie McCoy was there selling bullets and said he plans to be set up at every main month match.
Lone Wolf Swain was supposed to be there with shot and bullets but the Friday tornadoes in Alabama came close enough to him that he had to spend the day cutting trees, I hope everyone is ok after this last round of storms.
We had a few new folks join the Wartrace Regulators Saturday but they didn't shoot the match, hopefully they'll be ready to shoot by next match.
Latigo Jim is having some health problems and wasn't able to be with us, I hope he can get back to shooting soon.
I was only able to take a few pictures.
I also took a few videos.
Complete Scores when available
Just a reminder Wartrace dues are past due and the gate combination will be changed on March 9, if you are a paid up member for 2012 you will get an e-mail with the new combination.
Our next match will be March 17 Cowboy/ Wild Bunch Match.
For more info always check out our website.
If you're looking for a travel match don't forget the South Carolina State Match the end of this month.
Happy Trails
Fall/Halloween
10 years ago
