|
The Cowboy Way
Published December 16, 2007 The tall man peered from under his Stetson and took a long pause. In a blur, he yanked steel from leather and drew back the hammer.
The early Sunday morning quiet in the woods outside Brazoria was no more.
KRAK! KRAK! KRAK! KRAK! KRAK!
Chuck Webb from Lake Jackson, known by his Cowboy Action Shooting alias “Rail Boss,” fired hot lead toward the metal plate targets in rapid succession. Almost all of them gave a satisfying ring.
“Two misses,” said his counter, holding up two fingers. Each miss adds five seconds to his time.
One day each month, dozens of people cease to be lawyers, homemakers, doctors and computer technicians to assume alternate identities as gunslinging cowboys and cowgirls. Dressed in 19th Century wild west attire, the Brazos Rangers come for the fellowship and fun of cowboy shooting in the backwoods of the Greenwood Gun Club.
“It’s an escape,” Webb said. “It’s a way for us to become Matt Dillon from ‘Gunsmoke’, Roy Rogers or Lucas McCain from ‘The Rifleman’. We’re re-enacting what we were interested in as a child.”
Some of the shooters are seasoned steel slingers, and others are just starting out. Their day is split into different stages, with special scenarios on what they are supposed to shoot and in what order. Usually, the scenarios involve blasting imaginary “critters” instead of milk jugs, steel plates and bells to maintain the fantasy.
“It’s really not competitive unless you want it to be,” Webb said, shrugging off his misses. “I don’t take the scoring all that seriously.”
Each match is timed and scored from the buzzer to the last shot, with deductions for misses. It takes a calm focus to hit consecutive targets while switching between pistol, long rifle and shotgun.
“Practice is the key to shooting well,” said John “Presidio” Harvey, an air-conditioning and heating technician from Katy. “Take your time, don’t get in too much of a hurry. You don’t want to be too fast — then you’ll start missing.”
According to the Single Action Shooting Society Web site, Cowboy Action Shooting is the fastest growing outdoor shooting sport in the United States. It is not just an American phenomenon, either. The governing organization of Cowboy Action Shooting boasts more than 75,000 members worldwide, with annual international shooting matches in Europe and Asia.
Shooters in many countries like Germany, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand and Japan, where firearm possession is highly restricted or illegal, are forced to go underground, “Judge” Bill Walker of Freeport said.
Walker, president of the Brazos Rangers, has been involved in Cowboy Action Shooting for more than 20 years. Now retired, Walker was no six-gun stranger when he started. He carried a Colt single-action revolver on his belt as an Air Force munitions specialist in the Vietnam War.
Safety first
The power of his .45 Long Colt rounds was impressive, as was the 2-foot fire ball that came with each shot.
The others stopped loading their pieces and chatting about their last shots to watch the big guns at work.
“Ohh, yeaah,” Harvey said as the black powder smoke from his 1858 Remington pistols began to clear.
After taking his empty shells out for re-use, Harvey kept a watchful eye on the next shooters as they let loose on the targets. Even though the group is out for fun, safety is the first priority. They take pride in their safety record of only one recorded mishap since Cowboy Action Shooting began in the early 1980s.
Harvey makes sure everyone keeps their firearms pointed downrange, even as they draw them from their holsters. They also listen for squib loads, which occur when the cartridge primer fires but fails to ignite the gunpowder.
“That’s when the round goes only a short way down the barrel and stops,” Harvey said. “It happens rarely. The light loads, like the .32 caliber, tend to do it.”
The observers yell out and put their hands on the shooter’s shoulder to stop them from firing another round.
“Have you seen ‘Rio Lobo’?” he asked. In that film, the nefarious sheriff tries to gun down John Wayne, but his rifle, clogged with mud after he used it as a walking cane, explodes in his face.
“That’s what would happen if you fired a round with another stuck in the barrel,” Harvey said. “But we’re always really safe — golf has more injuries than we do.”
Lady gunfighter
Wielding her .38-caliber Lightnings, 12-gauge shotgun and Model 1873 lever-action rifle, Kim “Patrón” Thomas of Weimar is a crack shot — or at least she normally is.
“Did you see how fast I missed?” Thomas asked. “When I miss, I like to miss fast.”
Her times once made her the eighth-fastest lady gunslinger in the world, but today she is a little off her game.
“I shoot lady gunfighter-style,” Thomas said. When she shoots, she pulls both her pistols at the same time. Holding one in each hand, Thomas alternates her shots.
“It’s more difficult, but way more fun,” she said with a chuckle. “You feel like John Wayne.”
Thomas said the shooting isn’t the main reason she got hooked on the sport. She enjoys spending time and visiting with her fellow shooters. In real life, Thomas is the owner and president of the Pipeline Consulting Corporation of Texas.
“I have a range at home, but I hardly ever use it unless we have friends over,” she said. “The fun of Cowboy Action Shooting is doing it with your friends. It’s funny too, because it’s like an alter-ego when we come out here. I don’t know the real names of half the people I come out here with.”
The initial price tag of getting into the hobby can get expensive, Thomas said. Most shooters will spend an average of $1,500 to $2,000 on the pistols, rifle and shotgun alone, then an extra $300 for the leather to carry them in, she said. From then on there’s smaller costs for the ammo and range fees.
“The cost varies because there’s an awful lot of horse trading that goes with buying the leather and guns,” Thomas said. “The initial investment is the biggest, but in the end, you’ll spend about the same as if you got into fishing or golf.”
Most cowboy shooters buy less-expensive replicas of the historical cowboy guns, like Harvey’s Remingtons, but a select few shuck out thousands of dollars to own originals.
“An original will get into your pocket book real fast,” Harvey said. “An original ‘58 Remington would cost somewhere from $1,800 to $3,000, depending on its condition.”
Thomas said anyone interested in getting into the sport shouldn’t be dissuaded by the price tag. She said most groups like the Brazos Rangers will gladly lend their extra guns to newcomers.
Kay “NoGunz” Bensuk of Houston first came to a shoot three years ago. She had designed much of the western wear popular among cowboy shooters, and was interested in what the fuss was all about.
When she first came, she had no experience and only one pistol. After only five minutes on the range, other shooters let her borrow a rifle, a shotgun and another pistol, she said.
“I didn’t know anyone,” Bensuk said. “That’s the trust we have out here, and we’re not just friends out here. We’re there for each other on and off the range.”
As the sun rolled to high noon, the gunslingers had exhausted their ammunition, so they tallied the scores and cleaned the gunk off their iron. As the smell of cordite faded and the birds began to chirp once more, it was time for a potluck lunch and a piece of pie.
Brazos Rangers
When: The second Sunday of each month.
8:45 a.m. safety meeting, shooting starts at 9 a.m.
Where: Greenwood Gun Club,
550 CR 508, Brazoria
Cost: $10 per shoot, free for first-timers
Cowboy Action Shooting is the fastest growing
outdoor shooting sport in the United States. Though the guns and gear shooters use vary wildly, there are some basic necessities needed to participate.
• A HAT No self-respecting cowpoke is caught dead without one. Cost: $30 to $200 and up.
• FIREARMS
Every shooter needs two single-action pistols, a lever action pistol-caliber rifle and an old-time shotgun. Cost: $300 each to $2,000 and up.
gunleather Shooters should be able to carry two pistols as well as shotgun shells. Cost: $200 to $1,000.
• CLOTHING Although period attire is available from a variety of makers, standard western wear is just as good. Costs vary wildly
depending on brand and condition.
Clothing shown cost about $225.
BOOTS Leather soled pull-on
or lace-up. Cost: Up to $500.
Hunter Sauls is a reporter for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0153. |
