Phoenix 10, Winter Range 3

Last day of shooting Winter Range.  The last 4 stages done.  Good bye to a fine posse, lots of fun.  Tomorrow is a top gun shootoff, mostly a bragging rights thing, mostly for show & entertainment.  They had a very good banquet tonight for a final evening.  Roast beef, chicken marsala, some veggies & a variety of deserts to round it off.  Live music which was pretty good. 
I shot the middle flight at 11 AM so Carlene and I had time to watch the Mounted Shooting for a while.  They are fun to watch.  It's a lot like barrel racing while shooting balloons.  They just use 2 pistols loaded with black powder blanks.  They can't use live ammo because they shoot in all directions as they go through the course.  And you can't quite guarantee which direction you'll be facing in the next second... the horse has his own ideas from time to time.

Phoenix 9, Winter Range & the Botanical Garden

Andy's day:
I had the third flight for shooting at 2 PM.  So I had a long day to hang out before that.  I just relaxed around the camper, did a few chores and got my stuff ready.  Shooting today was quite pleasant with nice warm temperatures without being hot.  Got back to camp just in time to clean the guns, have supper and go back to the tent for the side event awards.  I didn't expect anything and got same.  But I wanted to see who placed in Plainsman. 


Carlene's day:
It was about an hour's drive to the Desert Botanical Gardens southeast of our location. There are 50,000 desert plants from around the world located here.  I decided to take an hour long tour with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour docent. Then I explored around this amazing plant community.  You'll see some very brightly colored plastic figures in some of the pictures. It is "cracking art" and is explained in one of my pictures.
I went to Cabela's to pick up a sewer hose and leveling blocks for the camper. When I returned to camp, I watched Andy shoot two stages.

Carlene's pictures:

totem pole

this sculptor is made entirely with pick heads

huge Agave

sundial 

St. Earth Walking

dove sitting on her nest

Sunrise

Andy's pictures:

Posse 7 at the train

Diamond Rustler

 

Ol #4

Hawley McCoy

Carlene caught a good muzzle flash here!

Phoenix 8, Winter Range main match day 1

Winter Range Main Match started today with 4 stages to shoot at 8 AM.  It is a 12 stage match spread over 3 days in order to accommodate the nearly 800 shooters who come here.  We have a posse of 18 which is a very nice size.  We get through fairly quickly and still have enough people to do all the work without overworking anyone.  The stages were fun with just the right complexity and challenge to make it interesting.

Carlene had a relaxing day at camp, reading in the sun or shade as the day progressed.  We went through the vendor area together, had some ice cream, talked with some people. 

This evening was a Territorial Governor's meeting.  The TGs are representatives of the local clubs around the world who make the rules of the game.  It's a bit more complicated than that but you get the idea.  Following that was a swap meet for buying/selling used cowboy goods.  I got a stack of 10 Louis L'Amore/Zane Grey books for $1.

Ol #4
Someday I might find out the story behind that alias

Grazer, a friend from Mass.

Dead Head

I just saw this lady and her dog riding around

I borrowed these photos from Facebook

Misty Moonshine, CEO of SASS and Ruby Ruthless, SASS Club's Administrator

Diamond Rustler and me (photo by Dead Head)