June Weather and Match

The skies looked ominous in the early morning hours of the 5th of June. If you listened to the weather forecast, you probably wondered if it was worth getting out of bed. The prognosticators had predicted rain and wind for most of the day. But when you’re a Cowboy Action Shooter, you don’t listen to such drivel. You go with your instincts and your love of the sport. As Trail Driver said, “We’ve been wet before”. So 25 shooters threw caution to the wind and converged to the home of the Dakota Roughriders, to partake in a little shooting, a little feasting, and a lot of fun. And to top it off, before the match started the skies broke to a beautiful blue!

Trail Driver and Grease Cup came up from South Dakota. Thanks for all your help, Trail Driver. Diablo Cummings made the trip down from Traill County. The Sheyenne Valley Peacekeepers were well represented by Doc Neilson, Lodgepole, Cousin Roy, and our current State Champ, Johnny Otter. And out of the western Badlands rode a hombre by the name of Rough Rider Ray. We appreciate all you making the trip and hope you had fun. We also have some regulars with a bit of a trail to ride to make our monthly matches. Cheval has about an hour on the road and makes most every shoot. And from the foothills of the Prophet’s Mountains, CC Lakota and Dakota Maid made the long journey to our range. We admire your dedication.

With starting lines from Unforgiven, Tombstone, and The Fighting Kentuckian, we were turned loose on four fast and challenging stages. Thanks, Striped Buffalo, for adding your special touch to the targets.

During the match we discovered some things. Everyone knows Lawrence Welk, a couple of us have absolutely no rhythm, and that nasty Badger can bite you if’n ya don’t pay attention.

We had four clean shooters! Congratulations go out to Rod-Iron-Rip, Cousin Roy, Dakota Rattler, and CC Lakota. Well done, gentlemen!

CC Lakota parlayed that clean match into and Overall Match victory thanks to his consistent stage finishes (that means he was fast, too).

Congratulations, CC Lakota!

Not So Slim Jim whipped up his infamous pulled pork sandwiches and had us all feeling fat and sassy for the last two stages. Thank you, Jim.

And thanks again to our Office Manager, Cindy. I couldn’t get through the match without you.

Our Webmaster, Thunder Wolf, has some sorta scheme up her sleeve, because she lined us all up against the wall and shot us. Good thing it was with her camera! You’ll want to keep an eye on the website for further developments on this project.

That’s about it for now. Thanks to all for coming out.

May all your lead find steel.

Blake Stone