Match of April 2008

Ahhh yes, spring, the weather is turning warm, the flowers are blooming and the sun takes on a nice warm feeling. Unless you plan on shooting a cowboy match in North Dakota, then it’s cold and windy. So it was for the first match of the year for the Dakota RoughRiders.

I have to take my hat off to all the folks that showed up to start the year off with a shiver and a bang. It was a cool and breezy day out (kind of like Antarctica in the middle of winter) cowboy coats were replaced with heavy winter coats and long johns were the norm. However we did have six new shooters at the match, along with eleven seasoned (and not so seasoned) veterans. So, the Dakota RoughRiders want to say welcome to Bryan Boeln, Charlie Waite (Chris Burnside), Jerome Berg, Marshal Josh Prophet (Don Warren), Not So Slim Jim (Jim Vollmer) and Tom Liebel. We would also like to recognize a couple of new shooters from last year, Larry Ewer and Kyle Fuglesten.

Lunch offered a welcome respite from the howling winds outside, with ham, calico beans, bread rolls and lots of hot coffee. Things started to look up on that front, even if the weather never did cooperate. A lot of steel got rung and a lot of bull got shot but in the end Blake Stone started the year off right with the overall win followed closely by Tom C and Pistolero Shay. Ya know, it’s kinda hard to aim a pistol when your hands are shakin’ from the cold. Hopefully, we’ll see all those new shooters May 18th and hope that the weather warms up enough to get a few more shooters out.

Until next month, keep the dirty side down.

Dakota Dealer