My wife and I loaded the wagon and headed to Mocksville, NC to visit our daughter, son in law and 2 of our grandchildren. As luck would have it I just happened to plan this trip for the same time Uprising at Swearing Creek was going on in Salisbury, about 30 minutes away.
It was really nice to shoot during the day and play with grandchildren at night.
Thursday was side match day with all the usual speed events and long range as well as warm up matches and Wild Bunch. The pistol, rifle and shotgun speed matches were in the same bay so you could load up and shoot all 3 each trip up. I spent a couple hours there shooting with Widder and Key Hay. They were better at it than I was, Key Hay won Speed Pistol Duelist and Widder showed out winning Speed Pistol Gunfighter, Speed Rifle and Speed '97. I on the other hand won nothing.
I spent the afternoon shooting the warm up match which gave me a chance to try out a few stages and get the feel of the range. I have to admit I was a little nervous when I first saw the shotgun targets, I could cover one with my hand, but after shooting them I liked them. They were set up light and if you hit them they fell. I'm pretty sure a .22 LR would take any of them down.
Friday morning brought the welcome from J.M. Brown, Safety Meeting from Royal Barnes and a Prayer and Pledge led by Lash Toru. Then we headed to our respective bays to start the first 5 stages of the Main Match. They use 5 shooting bays and shoot 2 stages in each bay so you don't have to do a lot of walking. I shot the morning wave on Friday on Posse 8 with Widder and Key Hay. Posses 7 and 8 shot together and I can't begin to name everyone but Tracker Mike was our Posse Marshall. We also had 2 very nice Buckaroos, Blue Bay Boy and Hot Diggity Dawg. We had a fun posse and everything ran well. The stages were all based on Radio Cowboys and were fun. A few you had to think about but all shot well. I got through the first day "clean" and was very excited.
Saturday I shot the afternoon wave and our 2nd 5 stages were just as much fun and a little faster. I made it through the match "clean" but I was really nervous on my 9th and 10th stages thinking about getting a "clean match". It has been a long time since I did that at an Annual Match.
It was amazing watching Red River Ray shoot a "clean match" as fast as he shoots.
I didn't go to the banquet so I can't tell what went on there but I heard it was a very good time. I played with my grandkids and worked on a few things around their house.
Sunday morning was the Awards Ceremony with Side Match, Wild Bunch, Costume and Main Match Awards.
Red River Ray was the Top Gun of the match and North Carolina State Champion, followed by Cowboy Junky, Christian Mortician, Kid Ray and Three Cut rounded out the Top 5.
Sixgun Sallie was the Ladies Top Gun and Ladies North Carolina State Champion, followed by Sue Render, Shamrock Sadie, Carolina Girl and Kill 'em All Kate rounded out the Ladies Top 5.
They had 144 shooters and 29 shot "Clean". 20% clean is huge.
Complete Scores
I had a good match for me finished 1st Senior Duelist, 21st Overall.
I was only able to take a few pictures.
My Pictures
Also thanks to Ktown for taking pictures at the match and making them available for free.
Ktown's Posse Pictures
This is a match worth looking at and I hope it will be a good warm-up for EOT. Reno Mustang, Dodge City Dixie, Papa Dave and I are planning to go this year. Papa Dave has been several times but this will be the first trip for Dixie, Reno and I. Hopefully we can get some pictures and videos to post.
The next match at Wartrace will be the Cowboy/ Wild Bunch Match June 21st. for more info on any matches at Wartrace always check out our website.
Happy Trails until we meet again.
Fall/Halloween
10 years ago
