July 13, 2002

T APPEARS I'VE FOUND MY CALLING in the Cowboy Action Shooting world as a member of the "Dark Side" — a black powder shooter. I shot my very first match in the Frontier Cartridge class last month with the Carolina Cattlemen during the North Carolina State Games target-shooting competition. I had such a good time (and also won Second Place) that I loaded up more black powder cartridges to do it again. I decided it would be years before I'd be able to even think about becoming as fast as some of the best cowboys I knew, so in the meantime, I'm going for Maximum Fun, which for me looks like it means lots of smoke and shooting my revolvers "Double Duelist."

It had been nearly three weeks since Dalton was born, and Pixelwiz said she was willing to drop me off and come back after the match to introduce The Boy to all our Cowboy friends, who were eager to meet him. I'd arranged with Carolina Leadfoot beforehand to borrow a couple of slots in his guncart, since I thought I'd have to drive my Miata to the match, and there's no way my big cart will fit in that, but with 'Wiz driving, I managed to fit the usual load into the truck. It was a pretty day, sunny, but cooler than it had been previously in the week (which wasn't saying much, since it was still going to be in the mid-eighties).

In the interest of speed and ease of set-up and take-down, there were only two berms set up, so we shot three stages on each one. My posse began on the second berm with Stage Four.

Stage Four
I began this stage with Wiz's Model 92 Winchester carbine in my hands, standing just outside the saloon doors. I said "I'm comin' in!" and at the beep took one step forward to shoot 8 rounds, double-tapping each of the two targets left-to-right, then securing the rifle. I ran to my left, stopping behind a table to sweep the pistol targets with both pistols. I ran to the far right of the stage to drop the two shotgun targets. I shot clean with plenty of smoke. What fun!

Stage Five
Playing cards filled my hands and my two revolvers lay on the table in front of me. At the buzzer, I dropped the cards and picked up the pistols to sweep the targets, holstering each gun as I finished. I ran to the saloon window, picked up the Winchester and fired 8 rounds, alternating between the two rifle targets. I set it back down and ran to the right to blast the two knockdowns with the scattergun, missing one which I had to make up.

Stage Six
"Saloon fun!" was the opening line on this stage, which also had to be repeated each time I grabbed a new weapon. I began with the double-barrel in hand, shooting at the two knockdowns, missing one; I may need to adjust my shotgun loads some... Anyway, I set the scattergun down and ran to the saloon window to shoot 6 rounds with the rifle, triple-tapping each of two targets. After securing the carbine, I ran to the table on the left where I swept the pistol targets, once left-to-right, then again right-to-left.

Stage One
After a short break, we moved to the other berm for the last three stages of the day. This one involved a gang of bears that had broken into my cottage and eaten my porridge, broke my chairs and slept in my bed. I had my trusty Winchester in hand and shot 9 rounds, triple-tapping each of three targets. I ran forward, secured the rifle and drew my pistols to fire two Nevada Sweeps, left-to-right. I missed one shot with my right-hand revolver, which turned out to be my only miss of the day, darn it! I finished the stage by dropping a pair of shotgun targets.

Stage Two
Indians were attacking now, just as I sat down to dinner. I jumped up and grabbed the shotgun from a hay bale and blasted four knockdown targets, then moved left to a table where my rifle lay. I shot a 7-round Nevada Sweep on three targets and set the gun back down to shoot the pistol targets. The left revolver was fired 2-2-1 on three targets and holstered. The firing order for the other gun was reversed: 1-2-2, right-to-left, and that was that — a clean stage.

Stage Three
This stage required me to begin with a basket in both hands (maybe I was on my way to Grandma's house, I dunno...). The Range Officer said "Hands up!" and I obliged him, then at the beep tossed the basket aside and drew my left pistol to shoot a Nevada Sweep. Holstering the revolver, I picked up the carbine from the table and fired 10 rounds in a Nevada Sweep, double-tapping each of three targets until done. I drew my second sixgun to fire through another Nevada Sweep, holstered and moved to the right to knockdown a pair of shotgun targets. The last stage of the day, and another clean one for me.

Here are the results of my shooting, and it turns out that this has been one of my best (if not the best) matches. I guess I really have found my niche in this game!

Deputy Gene won the overall match and the "Traditional" class, with a Total Time of 136.59 seconds and 14 Rank Points. My buddy Carolina Leadfoot was the other Frontier Cartridge shooter — his Total Time was 344.12 seconds, with 166 Rank Points.