49 Sports Challenge: Deadeye Dave and shootin' irons
5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Capital City Cowboys challenged me to take a trip into the past for a Cowboy Action shooting contest.
And really, who doesn't want to be a cowboy?
"A lot of people do this because they watched the movies and read the Old West books and things like that and this is an alternate lifestyle sort of thing, so they do this for entertainment," Cowboy Action shooter Ole N. Decrepit said.
"Everybody loves to be a cowboy, everybody loves to play like they are in the old time westerns and the old movies," SASS Topeka president Shootin' Newton said. "Everybody has a little soft spot in their heart for the six guns."
The Cowboys and Cowgirls involved in Single Action Shooting Society of Topeka say it takes a lot of skill, but the whole family can be involved.
"It takes years to fine tune everything where you keep moving up in competition. I've been doing this like thirteen years and the last three or four years it's pretty well second-nature."
"It's open to anybody from the ages of eight to eighty-five as long as you feel like you can come out. Men, women, all sorts of persuasions, we don't discriminate against anybody who wants to have fun."
I don't own a ten-gallon hat and was never a John Wayne fan growing up, so I may be out of my league.
"A little different sports challenge today, so what's my challenge?"
"Your challenge today is to enter a Single Action Shooting Society match and see how you do."
"Do I stand any chance against you?"
"Not a chance..."
Before we get going lets break down the competition. It's a timed event and we can only use pre-1900's guns. And we have to hit two targets with a shotgun, ten with the revolver and ten with a rifle. My competitor, Ole N. Decrepit, was up first.
And Mr. Decrepit did pretty well. Now I am up.
So when the whole thing was said and done, I doubled Ole's time. I was pretty sure I was going to lose to him anyway, but then I went down again when my camera man Colton gave it a try.
So this week, I technically lost twice, but I like my competitors take on it.
"Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, I had fun"
"Then you did just fine"
So now I am one and three in Sports Challenges this season.
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