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AIRret
03-05-2017, 04:42 PM
OK first let me start out by saying I know very little about Cowboy action shooting but Bawanna ask me to share the experience with the forum so I decided to give it a shot…I mean try. So here goes;
Just remember I'm not a writer, I usually send this trip information to family members who are very forgiving.

2/21/17 We spent most of the day at the "Winter Range" shooting competition. We watched some of the participants warm up for the days events and then we hit the midway. Of course since this is a western shooting match there were lots of cowboy items for sale 6 shooters, lever action rifles, shot guns, and 1911's, holsters, belts, and various gun cleaning products, gun smiths, black smiths, photographers, and I can't forget the food venders….some vender even had wild game meals.
Another unique facet to this competition is that well over 90% of the folks wear cowboy/cowgirl outfits or early 1900 style clothing, it's really colorful. And, because of this the midway vendors sale every imaginable clothing that the competitors could want!
Next we watched the "Wild Bunch" competition. In this contest they shoot 1911 handguns that are replicas of the ones made prior to WWII (I may have my dates off, but they
definitely are an older version of that iconic handgun), Winchester lever action carbines, and shot guns. Even though the men and women are mixed together during the shoot
their scores are kept separate, i.e. men against men, and women against women. During the competition various people who are familiar with this sport would come over and explain what exactly was going on. It was a lot of fun even though often times our view was obscured, sometimes by people and sometimes by the building facades. These
facades look like building fronts from the old west i.e. saloons, forts, banks, general stores…..
2/22/17 We spent a good portion of the day at the range shooting.
When we got back to the camper we met a couple of neighbors who had some great dogs. One was an Australian shepherd, and the other was a seventeen year old Alaskan sled dog. Come to find out the 71 year old woman has run the iditorod sled dog race!! She's race off and on all her life and ran the iditorod as a rookie when she was 54 (I think). I believe she continued to run this race into her early 60's! That's absolutely amazing. It's a tough race for a young person, let alone someone over 50…we were soooo
impressed! By the way, the 17 year old sled dog that we met is her last remaining lead dog from her competitive days. I can't imagine how tough it will be when she passes.
Here is a link with more information about her. It was an honor to shake her hand.
http://juneauempire.com/stories/021100/Spo_mush.shtml#.WK8lTEuwhyM
We ended the day watching a fly over (of the competition area) by some old war planes….how cool!


2/23/17 - 2/26/17 During these 4 days we took advantage of a the range (for a few hours) twice and spent the rest of the time at Winter Range. We watched a number of Cowboy action shooting stages.
Again These were very hard to see because of the facades and other competitors blocking the view, but it was still fun. Of course there were plenty of friendly folks explaining thing to us. The guns used in this part of the competition were single action revolvers, lever action rifles (normally in 38 special, but some use 45ACP and even 357) and shot guns.
I can't think of a better place to have a Cowboy action National Championship. Obviously the range is great, but it is also surrounded by moderately high dessert mountains that have many Saguaro Cacti! These are the typical Cactus that you see in Cowboy movies, they are tall and have arms. In fact some of them are very expressive, for example, they may seem to be pointing the way or waving to you, etc.
On Friday 90% of the people were wearing red shirts, or other red clothing in honor of American Veterans. Hubby and I didn't have any red shirts but we did have ball caps that indicated that we had served. Several folks noticed the hats and came over to ask some questions. One guy wasn't drafted during Vietnam (his lottery number was never called) and he felt guilty. He wouldn't let us leave without a hug. Right before the competition started they played the National Anthem….guess what…everyone stood!
Later in the afternoon we went to the "Cowboy Shooter Supply" tent. We needed some brake cleaner for our firearms and didn't feel like leaving the area. Well, I'll tell you what, the guy (sorry I can't remember his name) didn't have any on display for sale but sold us one from his own tool bag at cost, that's how nice these folks are!! We hung around a little longer and his wife, Martha, educated us on the single action Ruger Cowboy six shooter. She competes and is very tiny (5 foot tall, and about 100 pounds) but when she shook our hands…holy smoke…what a grip. In order to train for competition, and fun, she and her husband shoot 50,000 rounds a year!
We also spent part of two days watching the mounted shooting. How FUN!!! The riders guide their horses through a course marked with traffic cones. These cones have a stick about five feet tall coming out of the cone with a balloon attached to the end. The object is to zig zag through the course as fast as you can and shoot 5 red and 5 blue balloons.
The riders have two six shooters loaded with 5 blanks each. They use blanks because they are constantly changing direction and it wouldn't be safe to use live ammo. Of course this also means they have to get close enough to each balloon so the hot gases from the blank will pop the balloon and for each one they miss they add 5 seconds to their time.
As they begin their run they have the first gun drawn and after 5 shots they must holster it and draw the second gun to complete the course. The costumes, belts, and holsters are works of art! The actual holsters face the same direction, one is strong side and the other is cross draw and they are worn fairly high so they can easily draw and holster while blazing around on their horse…….WOW!!
They have all kinds of divisions based on sex and age, but they had one lady that came within 3 tenths of a second slower than the world record, at least that was what a former rider told us. He was sitting in the stands and answering everyone's questions.
What a week we had….wish you all could have been there!

berettabone
03-06-2017, 03:54 PM
It sounds like a very good time to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AIRret
03-06-2017, 08:18 PM
It sounds like a very good time to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure was, and it helped that the folks were all so nice.

marshal kane
03-07-2017, 08:48 AM
AIRret,
So happy to hear that you had a good time at Winter Range. IMO, it truly is worthwhile seeing it at least once. I've attended the last 8 Winter Ranges since 2009 right after relocating to Arizona from the Great Socialist State and have still not gotten tired of seeing the events. Throw in all of the vendors and it's easy to spend and entire day or more there. The atmosphere is right out of the old West with all of the participants decked out in period clothing. Best $5 (parking and NO admission fee to spectators) I ever spent watching all of the activities and anticipating going back again next year.

gb6491
03-07-2017, 02:02 PM
Great report MB! Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to put that all together for us.
However, next time..photos or it didn't happen:p;):D
Regards,
Greg

Bills1873
03-07-2017, 07:14 PM
Enjoyed the recap and great writing! Sounds like a great vacation!

AIRret
03-07-2017, 07:50 PM
Great report MB! Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to put that all together for us.
However, next time..photos or it didn't happen:p;):D
Regards,
Greg

Your right, photos make it better! I'm going to have to break out of my technical disfunction….I still have a flip phone. It still works so I won't get rid of it.
Hubby has a smart phone, and I use some of the apps more that he does, but I don't touch the camera and the videos are scary …..they TALK and everything, it's
not like the old days when you only had to read the captions. ……OK, I'm not that old, but still!

AIRret
03-07-2017, 07:53 PM
Enjoyed the recap and great writing! Sounds like a great vacation!

Yes, life is good.

Bawanna
03-07-2017, 10:09 PM
I live for captions myself. I do enjoy watching lips move but have no clue what they sound like usually.

berettabone
03-08-2017, 08:51 AM
Your right, photos make it better! I'm going to have to break out of my technical disfunction….I still have a flip phone. It still works so I won't get rid of it.
Hubby has a smart phone, and I use some of the apps more that he does, but I don't touch the camera and the videos are scary …..they TALK and everything, it's
not like the old days when you only had to read the captions. ……OK, I'm not that old, but still!
Your still ok yet...............I don't even own a phone, and pics come from a digital camera that's about 10 years old.:)

AIRret
03-08-2017, 03:39 PM
Your still ok yet...............I don't even own a phone, and pics come from a digital camera that's about 10 years old.:)

Thanks!
I get a bit irritated when I see (mostly) young folks sitting in a restaurant and nobody is talking because they are all on their SMART/DUMB phones.
Hey, enjoy the company of your friends! Especially when you are face to face! The voice inflections and facial expressions add SO much to communication….
you can't get that with a text!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr. Talk about miss communication!

AIRret
03-08-2017, 03:40 PM
I live for captions myself. I do enjoy watching lips move but have no clue what they sound like usually.

It's a VERY go way to practice READING!

Bawanna
03-08-2017, 04:10 PM
Sometimes you miss the actions trying to read the words though.

Also why my wife gets twice as much stuff done watching TV. She can hear it, I have to watch and work during the commercials.

I've been weaning myself away from the contraption all together lately.
I get my hour of MASH each week night and try to do something else otherwise.

AIRret
03-08-2017, 04:22 PM
Sometimes you miss the actions trying to read the words though.

Also why my wife gets twice as much stuff done watching TV. She can hear it, I have to watch and work during the commercials.

I've been weaning myself away from the contraption all together lately.
I get my hour of MASH each week night and try to do something else otherwise.

Absolutely, you miss some action while you are reading.
That's one of the problems with photographing wildlife.
A few years back we were driving through Glacier National Park and a Grizzle was running along side of the road for about a 1/4 of a mile and Hubby was taking pictures, which caused him to miss most of the action. He wasn't a happy camper that day, and the pictures were nice but a lot of the action was missed. I guess that's the difference between a pro and and amateur. Of course I know that's a bit different than photographing people and or stationary objects like cool guns.

gb6491
03-09-2017, 03:20 PM
Here are some photos of "Winter Range" from AIRret:


http://i65.tinypic.com/2hgb5l0.jpg
"This was on Friday when they honored Veterans."
http://i64.tinypic.com/qsp7nt.jpg

"I thought this was the best of the bunch. It also shows the carts many folks use to transport their guns and supplies from on shooting station to another."
http://i68.tinypic.com/2znyb9y.jpg

Thanks for sharing MB:) Please say hello to your "convict" for me:yo:
Regards,
Greg

Bawanna
03-09-2017, 03:24 PM
Dang I dig those Derby hats in the first photo. Always wanted one myself but got to big a head.
Seen all them carts in the second picture and thought I was in wheelchair purgatory for a minute.
Look like a scene right out of Lonesome Dove. I'll be trying to make one of those some day.

My best to the convict too. I know he's innocent. ......sorta

AIRret
03-09-2017, 06:58 PM
Hey Greg, thanks for the help….now I'm off the hook for a little while.

We've been visiting and shooting (in the Dessert and at Clark county…got to satisfy the camping agreement) with our youngest son.
The other day the three of us got to introduce his girlfriend to shooting. She loves it and she did a lot of things right immediately.

My convict (I like that name for him) says HI!
And please say hi to the little lady.

AIRret
03-09-2017, 07:07 PM
Dang I dig those Derby hats in the first photo. Always wanted one myself but got to big a head.
Seen all them carts in the second picture and thought I was in wheelchair purgatory for a minute.
Look like a scene right out of Lonesome Dove. I'll be trying to make one of those some day.

My best to the convict too. I know he's innocent. ......sorta

He's not so innocent that He can't have fun.

Sorry to scare you with the carts. Maybe you could disguise your chair and make it look like one of those gun carts….or better yet, make it look like a covered wagon!

So you have a big head, Hmmmm that can be taken a lot of ways.

I don't know if it would work but it would be fun if we could get a bunch of forum folks to show up to winter range the same year! Now that sounds like fun!