Wartrace June Cowboy/ Wild Bunch Match and First Ladies Only Shooting Clinic

The forecast all week was pretty bad but obviously God likes a good Cowboy Match as the weather turned out very nice. We had no rain, some cloud cover and a breeze sometimes. 26 Cowgirls, Cowboys and Wild Bunch shooters came out for a good day of shooting.

We shot the Gallows with Ben T Iron posting the fastest time with a 27.80. Randy Saint Eagle shot the Line Shack in 23.57 for the best time. Cumberland Drifter bested Graftons with a time of 17.73. The best time at Wells Fargo Bank was 23.74 by Randy Saint Eagle and Dodge City Dixie had the best time at the Cantina with a 20.90.

Ben T Iron was the Top Gun of the day, followed by Cumberland Drifter, Dodge City Dixie (Ladies Top Gun), Reno Mustang, Randy Saint Eagle, Alchemist Belle, Scrub Oak Willie, Garnet Gal, Grey Horse and Big Six Henderson rounded out the Top 10.

Dodge City Dixie was the Ladies Top Gun, followed by Alchemist Belle, Garnet Gal, Doc Kay B May, TN Missy and Ara Tiest.

For the Wild Bunch Branchwater Jack Had the fastest stage time at the Gallows with 37.69, Graftons 20.03, Wells Fargo 25.27 and the Cantina 33.69. Papa Dave bested the Line Shack with a 21.79.

Branchwater Jack was the Wild Bunch Top Gun, followed by Jagged Rock, Papa Dave, Dirtwood Dobber and Demented Frenchman rounded out the Wild Bunch Top 5.

Complete Scores

The posses were small so I don't think anyone was able to get any pictures or videos.

Dodge City Dixie hosted Wartrace's first Ladies Only Shooting Clinic, with help from Reno Mustang, Cumberland Drifter, Branchwater Jack, Donald Duke and Randy Saint Eagle.

Ladies participating were Alchemist Belle, Garnet Gal(both experienced shooters who also helped) Ara Tiest, Georgia Dew, Sassy Sally, Ricochet Ruthie and Vicki Cothron.

Immediately following the conclusion of the Match we had lunch provided by Dodge City Dixie and Alchemist Belle with help from the other ladies, Ara Tiest made some really cool cookies shaped like guns, cowboy boots and cowboy hats. While in the air conditioning we touched on Safety and Sight Alignment. Then we moved to the Livery Stable for the shooting portion of the clinic.

We started by having everyone shoot a stage and thanks to Papa Dave for loaning us his printing timer. Everyone got a print out of their stage time. After some discussion on stance, grip, sight picture and hold we worked on some 1 shot drills with pistols and rifle. Here is where I must apologize to Vicki for not realizing sooner the problem she was having with the rifle was due to the fact she is left eye dominant and right handed. Thanks to Branchwater Jack for the loan of his shooting glasses with the left lens taped over. With those she was able to hit her targets with no problem. Next time we'll remember to check eye dominance before we begin the shooting portion.

After the 1 shot drills and some discussion on transitions everyone shot the same stage again and I think most everyone shot a faster time with some cutting their time more than in half. It was really great to see the smiles when they shot so must faster at the end of the clinic.

I hope all the ladies enjoyed this as much as Dixie, Reno and I did. Hopefully we can have a slightly more advanced Clinic next time and be able to spend more time on gun handling and transitions.

Thank you to Dixie for thinking of this and asking me to be involved, also to everyone who helped and especially to the Ladies who participated.

It's too late to get there now but the World Championship is going on this week.

End Of Trail 

The next travel match I'm planning to go to is Copperhead Joe's

Black Gold Shootout

The next match at Wartrace will be the June 27th Long Range. The next Cowboy Match will be July 4th and we'll also be celebrating Blue Boy's 96th Birthday, come on out and help us celebrate.
For more info always check out our website.

Wartrace

Happy Trails until we meet again.

North Carolina State Championship

Lannie Oakley and I headed over to visit our youngest daughter and her family and I was able to shoot the North Carolina State Match while we were there.

Side match day started out a little rough for me, they do all the speed events in one bay so you can load pistols, rifle and carry your shotgun and do all three back to back. Rifle and pistols went ok but when I loaded my shotgun it refused to go bang. I thought maybe I had pulled the trigger after I opened it so I started over, still no bang. Fortunately I had my back-up shotgun and it worked fine.

I ran across Widder, Slater, Rounder,Purly, Two-Step Net, Three Cut, Key Hay and a slew of other folks we I first got there. After a few runs Iron Maiden and Whiskey Creek Johnson came up and Iron Maiden and I decided to try the couples match. We thought they need at least one all duelist couple to try it. It was a lot of fun and we had what I though was a real good run. Time rolled around pretty quickly for the 4 stage warm-up match and I met up with Dodge City Dixie and Reno Mustang on my way to that bay.

They have big bays and set up 2 stages in each bay. I think the 4 stage warm-up was shot in bays 5 and 6. I've shot at places where they did this and it was sometimes confusing but here they do it right. They typically have 1 type of common targets but 1 stage starts on targets on the left and the next starts on completely different targets on the right. It works out real well and saves a lot of walking over the course of a day. Most of us were hoping we got all the gremlins out during the warm-up match. On the last stage my back-up shotgun failed to fire the second barrel on the first 2 targets but worked ok after that.

The entire week prior to this, the match weather forecast was terrible, but it just goes to show the Good Lord enjoys a good Cowboy match as the weather turned out great.

Here they shoot 2 posses together, I was on 17 with Ramblin' Royce, Loco Linda, RJ Ricochet, Nunn Faster, Reno Mustang, Dodge City Dixie and Cherokee Maddog. We were shooting with posse 18, Barbwire Ben, Hoss Blocker, Swift Stoney, Kid Nama, Tom Bullweed, Ridgeback Jack, Dollar Bill Newman, Whiskey Creek Johnson and Iron Maiden. One posse would work while the other shot and it worked out well, we had a great group.

I started the the day with a miss with my left pistol but managed to shoot the rest of the day pretty good for me. I even managed to shoot stage 9 with 10 pistol, 10 rifle and 4 shotgun, with pistols and rifle shot from one location and shotgun from another, in under 20 seconds. I managed to finish the first day with a 23 second average. We shot the afternoon wave so it warmed up quite a bit before we finished but it was a nice day.

Saturday morning we shot the early wave and the weather was warm early so I'm sure the afternoon posses had a scorcher. Elm Savannah came out Saturday and helped with our posse all day, keeping the score sheet and taking videos, thanks Elm for all your help.

I started the first stage of the day jacking out a rifle round and jacked out I think 4 before the day was over. I've had better days. After Saturday my  average went up to 27 seconds. We had some really good shooters on our posse, Dodge City Dixie and Swift Stoney both shoot really good matches.

I really enjoyed being able to shoot a match and spend lots of time with family so I can't say how the banquet was but I hear it was really good.

Christian Mortician was the Top Gun of the Match, followed by Red River Ray, Three Cut, Swift Stoney, Doc Pill Filler, Linden Kid, Sixgun Sallie (also the Ladies Top Gun), Earl E. Bird, High Noon Henry and Big Whiskey rounded out the Top 10.

Sixgun Sallie was the Ladies Top Gun followed by Shamrock Sadie, Dodge City Dixie, Ms. Jewell and Kid Nama rounded out the Ladies Top 5.

Complete Scores

As I mentioned earlier Elm Savannah took lots of videos on Saturday and here is a link to them.

Videos

I don't have all of them linked yet but I'll try to have them done in a few days.

Here are videos from the Shoot-off from Dodge City Dixie and Reno Mustang.

Shoot-Off

From Wartrace, Dodge City Dixie was 1st Ladies B-Western won the Ladies Shooting Costume award and made the shoot-off, Reno Mustang was 3rd Senior Gunfighter and I was 1st Senior Duelist and won the Speed Pistol Duelist side match.

I have to thank JM Brown and all the crew for putting on a great match and I plan to return next year.
Hopefully Dodge City Dixie, Reno Mustang and I will bring some more Wartrace Regulators with us next year.

Next travel match on my agenda is the Black Gold Shootout I'm sure it will be another great one.

Black Gold

If you are planning to shoot the Tennessee State I suggest you book your hotel room soon, I hear they are filling up fast.

Tennessee State Championship

Happy Trails until we meet again.