June 21-Bang Head Here.
Well I was focused on accuracy, which slowed me down, then I still had a miss on one stage when I dropped the hammer on a rifle round and it did not go off and I jacked it out. So I really didn't miss, I just did not fire. I could live with that, and it still was a pretty fast stage for me. Then on the next to last stage there were numerous pistol targets at a pretty fair distance. You started with shotgun, hitting a cowboy knock down that would throw up a bird. I got the knockdown and the bird without a problem, I shot the rifle without much incident, then I moved downrange toward the pistol targets. I pulled my first pistol and got the first one, then proceeded to miss the next three. It was a pretty fast stage on raw time, but three misses sent it into the stratosphere. I am not giving up, I just need to stay within myself and be sure I am focused on accuracy and moving smoothly.My goals for this End of Trail, in rough order of attainability, are:
Have fun, make some new friends
Do better on rank scoring than I did last year (652 out of 750 last year)
Place in the top half of Classic Cowboy shooters
Place above rank 500 among all shooters
Beat Wild Bill Munch
I spent some time looking at the Action targets—the Evil Roy targets. As it turned out Evil Roy (Gene Roberts) was there with his granddaughter Holy Terror (Randi Roberts). Aside from the Wild Bunch, they are probably the most recognizable figures in Cowboy Action Shooting. Holy Terror ended up coming in second overall, and Evil Roy is one of the nicest people you could meet.
Evil Roy and I got to talking about the targets because Action targets had a buy three get one free special. I wanted to know from Evil Roy which targets I should buy for practice if I was only getting 4 targets. He recommended the 12" and the 8." He spoke highly of the value of the targets—their durability and their ease of transportation and use. They do look sturdy and compact. I ended up getting 4 of them, and to save on shipping I loaded them onto the coach in one of the empty bins we had. Now we are hauling these heavy targets all over the Western United States.
I had mentioned to Evil Roy that I was taking his class at Hell on Wheels in Cheyenne, and he asked me where I was from. When I told him Wimberley, he mentioned that his daughter lives in Dripping Springs now. Her husband is a preacher and has a church in Dripping Springs. He also mentioned that he was from West Texas—turns out he was originally from Lubbock Texas. He now lives in Durango, Colorado. More about him later.
That evening Susan and I went to Seasons, another restaurant recommended by Nancy Yeomans. Again the food was very good, with excellent wine offerings by the glass. But we need to start limiting our portions and cutting out dessert. We are both gaining weight again.
