Cheyenne Thornton, Papa Dave and I loaded Cheyenne's covered wagon early Wednesday morning and headed to Dixon to meet up with Sheriff Frank Canton, Tombstone John and Buck Dodgers and head to Texas. This was my second trip to Comin' At Cha in English Texas and we knew it would be a Great Match. T-Bone Dooley, Ringo Fire, Nuttin' Graceful, Honey B. Graceful, Ellie Gant and all the folks at The Bar 3 Ranch really know how to put on a match.
We met up with Dodge City Dixie, Reno Mustang, CW Knight and Linda at the range. When we got there it was raining, same as last time we got to the Bar 3, but we were able to get our trailer backed into the yard and head for the bunk house. We stayed at The Red River Inn 15 minutes from the range, if you want fancy, it ain't, but if you want close it's the only game in town.
Thursday morning started cool but the rain was gone and it turned out to be a beautiful day for side matches. Here you can shoot the side matches as many times as you want but you have to declare which one you want for score, before you shoot it. They also have a Cowboy Yard Sale in the Big Barn and it was packed.
Dodge City Dixie won the Ladies Speed Double Barrel and Vaquero Jake won the Junior Men's Speed Pistol, Speed Rifle and Speed 87/97 shotgun side matches.
We shot the early wave on Friday morning and it started a little cool but it turned into another great day. I started the first stage with a miss so I didn't have to worry anymore about a "clean match". If you've never been to the Bar 3, they have lots of Chicken targets and I think I saw on the SASS Wire where this year they had 200% more chickens. The starting line for every stage had something to do with chickens. I had 3 misses for the match, all my own fault, and only 1 was on a chicken target.
We shot stages 6 thru 10 and they were fun stages. Stage 6 was rifle and pistol only from the Big Wagon and I mean BIG, the wheels alone are probably 12' tall. Here you had 3 huge buffalo targets and 1 little chicken, you started with rifle pointed safely down range. At the beep you put 2 shots on the chicken and 3 each on the buffalo in any order which means you had a rifle reload and you had to fire the first 10 before the reload. Next you had to put 1 shot on the chicken and 3 on each buffalo with your pistols. Next to the buffalo that chicken looked really small but very few on our posse missed the chicken. On stage 9 you had 2 pistol plate racks and 8 shotgun knock downs, no rifle. You started at either front window, engaged a 5 target plate rack with 1 pistol, moved to the other window and engaged the second plate rack. Then pick up your shotgun and engaged 2 knock downs each from 4 different doors down the hallway of the barn. Any pistol targets or shotgun targets still standing could be made up on 2 gong targets at the end of the hallway.
After both waves were finished stages 2-4 were set up for the Shoot and Scoot, if you're ever at Comin' At Cha you have to try this. All you need are 100 rounds of 38 special ammo and a belt full of shotshells. Guns are set up all along the 3 stages and you don't know what they are till you get to them. The only rules are 2 shots with each shotgun at shotgun targets, all other guns are loaded with 5 rounds each and rifles shoot rifle targets and pistols shoot pistol targets, no double taps. At one table there were 8 pistols and at he end was a 4 barrel shotgun. You had a jeering section along the way to "help" you out, it was a HOOT.
Friday night was another "included" dinner and side-match awards. Once you get to Comin' At Cha you don't have to spend much money unless you find stuff at the vendors you can't live without. Included in your entry fee are 2 lunches, Friday night dinner and Saturday night Banquet dinner.
Saturday we shot the second wave starting at 12:30 pm so we had plenty of time to check out the vendors. We had 5 more fast stages including Stage 4 where you shot an 18 shot figure 8 with your rifle and pistols then moved to your shotgun for 4 knock downs. Fire N Fallback was our Posse Marshall and he was on fire. He shot the best Frontiersman match I've ever seen, 25.28 average for the 10 stages. Cleve was our Assistant Posse Marshall and we had a great posse, everyone worked and things went really smooth. We got to shoot with some new friends, Jersey Sue and Pecos Pav from New Jersey, Canadian Two Feathers and Canadian Black Magic from Canada and Coffin Sam.
Saturday night brought on the awards and the costume contest with you guessed it, a chicken theme, there were some folks in interesting costumes.
Prestidigitator was the Top Gun of the match, followed by Missouri Lefty, Vaquero Jake, You Bet, Phantom, Justin Parker, Naildriver, Jake Cutter, Roys Creek Dan and Buck Dodgers rounded out the Top 10.
Bent Barrel Betty was the Ladies Top Gun, followed by Sixgun Sallie, Missouri Mae, Dew R Dye, Spur Broke, Nellie Blue, Sunny Girl, Sierra Starr, Canadian Two Feathers and Diamond Kate rounded out the Ladies Top 10.
Wartrace Regulators fared very well;
Vaquero Jake Junior Boys Champion 3rd Overall
Buck Dodgers Wrangler Champion 10th Overall
Shaddai Vaquero 3rd Duelist 73rd Overall
Randy Saint Eagle Senior Duelist Champion 83rd Overall
Papa Dave Range Boss Champion 119th Overall
CW Knight 15th Silver Senior 126th Overall
Reno Mustang 8th Senior 147th Overall
Dodge City Dixie 2nd Ladies B-Western 156th Overall
Tombstone John 22nd Silver Senior 173rd Overall
Sheriff Frank Canton 13th Senior 196th Overall
Perfecto Vaquera 5th Ladies B-Western 210th Overall
Cheyenne Thornton 6th Classic Cowboy 283rd Overall
Blackwater was at the match but under the weather all weekend and didn't shoot.
Complete Scores
With only 16 on our Posse I wasn't able to get any videos or action pictures, but thanks to Dodge City Dixie and Sheriff Frank Canton I have a few pictures.
Pictures
If you're looking for a Fantastic Match check out Comin At Cha, The Southwestern Regional, T-Bone and the gang will make sure you have a good time.
The next Cowboy Match at Wartrace will be the November 16th Cowboy Wild Bunch Match, for more information always check out our
website.
Happy Trails until we meet again.
