November 10, 2001

LOW DOWN AND YOU'LL GET A MORE HARMONIOUS OUTCOME," I think Wilford Brimley once said. After spending the last couple of matches missing about as many targets as I hit (well... not really), it was nice to have a match where my worst stage had only a pair of misses (and that only one time). Oddly enough, I missed more with my left hand than my right this time — it's been the other way around normally. My better shooting rewarded me with Second Place in the Duelist class! Yee-hah!!

We had a smaller crowd than usual, since there were quite a few folks down in South Carolina shooting at the Ghivans Ferry match. The stages seemed familiar, which was explained when I realized that they were the same ones we shot last month. So, how'd I do this time? Much better, thank you.

The weather was nice: sunny but not too warm, but windy. I nearly lost my hat on Stage Three, which played a part in the one miss I had there. As we did last month, I started with a paintbrush in my hand, painting a fence. After dropping the brush into the bucket, I began shooting and when the wind gust threatened to lift my hat off my head I missed with the left-hand pistol. Dang.

Stage Four had a funky target order: the pistol targets were first and there were three of 'em. With the first gun, put three shots on the first target and one on each of the other two. With the second gun, put one shot on each of the first two targets, then hit the last one three times. Confused yet? So move on to the four rifle targets where I had to hit target number one twice, then double-tap number three, then go back to number two then hit number four. Got it? Well, I didn't; I missed once with each pistol, and couldn't blame it on a passing breeze this time.

Stage Five was a good one for me, I shot it clean. Pistols began inside a box on a tabletop, then seven shots with the rifle, move to the shotgun and grab four shells from another box and shoot. Pretty fun, especially when I hit all the targets.

We added two more shotgun targets on Stage Six, for a total of six, and since my side-by-side wasn't beating my finger up much, that was okay. I managed to miss one with the left-hand revolver, though. Last month I shot this stage clean. D'oh!

After lunch we headed for Stage One, which had been changed from the previous month with the addition of a teeney little rifle target in between two big buffalo targets. Yowza. It slowed me down as I took time to aim carefully with the old Winchester, and I hit it every time. Missed one of the pistol targets with my right hand (which, oddly enough, was exactly what I'd done here last month).

The final stage, Two, was a fun one last month and it was the same this time around, too. I began saddled on a wooden "horse" twirling a rope with all guns staged directly in front of me. Fired one pistol, then the rifle (got my hits on the teeney target again), then the shotgun, finally the last pistol. I shot it clean last month and managed to do it again this time.

Here are the numbers:

Prairie Dawn from Virginia shot Traditional and managed to beat everyone — even the dudes in the Shootist class — with a Total Time of 180.15 seconds and 13 Rank Points. That's some shootin'! She shot on our posse and was quick and smooth. Doc Teton (a plastic surgeon, of course) beat me for the 1st place in the duelist class, with a Total Time of 273.19 and 77 Rank Points, so I wasn't too far off the mark this time.