Wild Bunch 2

 Second and final day of Wild Bunch.  5 more stages.  I shot this day clean and in good consistent times.  I’m not as fast as I used to be, and that was never all that fast anyway.  But it was a good day and plenty of fun. I did OK!

Yup , Third place!

Elder Statesman Classic Modern category

Now that’s a mouthful!

After the stages a couple of us took another shooter through the stages he missed yesterday when his father fell on stage 1and went to the hospital.  They went home after that and this guy came back today.  He only expected to shoot today’s stages, but the match director arranged for hi to shoot yesterdays’ stages.  So I went along to spot for him.  

Later Carlene and I went back for ice cream!  Nice warm sunny day.  Then a tour of the vendors.  I bought a used vest in a mellow paisley red color.  That came from the Phil Spangenberger Collection.  He was a well known western history author, TV presenter, and all around western history authority.  So it’s cool to have a vest that was his.

Afterwards I went to the store for some of my own groceries, breakfast stuff etc. and once I did that plus arrange everything I need for the 8 AM Warm Up 4 stage event I tried to see the Wild Bunch Top 16 Shootoff.  As I approached I met everyone coming back from it.  Too late.  I tried to do it all.  I missed.

The evening was the Wild Bunch awards and social.  The Mian Tent haas a bar in it.  A real bar.  And tonight a good spread of munchies.  Yesterday I mentioned the costume contest.  I tied for second place!

Back to the camper to walk Skye a couple times and write this in between relaxing and more prep for tomorrow.

Sunrise this morning

Early morning shooting

Miss Chevious

Me

Shirttaul Bess

Gillyboy

Half a Hand Henri

The category winners

Sunset

 

Phoenix 6, EOT Wild Bunch 1

 This was the first of a two day Wild Bunch match.

So for the new readers, this is End of Trail, the SASS World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting and Wild Bunch Action Shooting.  6 days of continuous shooting competition in various formats.  Wild Bunch is based on the movie “The Wild Bunch set in 1913 Mexico, using a Model 1911 pistol a Model 97 pump shotgun and a lever action rifle.  There are small variations for categories but they are not worth explaining.  Many but not all of us dress in period military clothing because the movie started that way.  I am one who does because I have always enjoyed the costume aspect of the game.

We began with a safety meeting at 7:30 this morning.  The rest of the winter I am just getting up at that time!  We shot 5 stages and will do so again tomorrow.  It was a good day for me, just 1 miss and a Procedural.  A mistake in the shooting order.  Good fun stages, good sequences and closer targets then we get at some matches.  One stage had 35 knockdown targets, that was a hoot!

It got up to 81º so I was delighted that the ice cream guy was there!  After that I went to the costume contest.  I have won 2nd with my uniform for three years.  We’ll see how it goes this year.  Carlene had come over by then so after that we toured a couple favorite vendors & chatted with friends. Then just a relaxing late afternoon at the camper 

Sunrise

Shirttail Bess

Dueling Des

Fort Sinclair

Phoenix 5, Fire & Ice

 This was the second day of the Fire & Ice match.  Once I had a miss I picked up speed a bit and improved my times slightly.  As usual that means I also had a couple more misses.  3 in 10 stages is still fine.  

Back at camp it pick up registration materials, clean the guns, relax a bit.   Go over to the NE gang for a social gathering.  

The campground is filling up.  By Wednesday it’ll be quite full. Still nobody beside or behind us.   

Double Tap Taylor

Flying Shootist

Hot Hail Mary

Gunslinger Grace and Special K

Phoenix 4, Fire & Ice shoot

 This was the first day of the Fire & Ice match, about 8 miles west of EOT.   A guy from the repair shop came out and gave me a ride to the match just as promised.  

Great day, starting a bit cool at 47° but quickly warming up to 70 ish.  I had a great posse with several New England friends and several new folks.  A great mix.  

I shot a good match, my normal times and clean.  I know there is another Frontiersman (my category using cap n ball pistols) so there is some competition.  Maybe more than one.  

Carlene came and picked me up in our truck!!!   And I was very pleased with the bill.  Despite working several hours (a day!) more than expected they stuck to the estimate.  And a nice discount for Carlene’s veteran status.  They came out and got her too.  That’s 3 rides and would have come to get me after the match had it been necessary.  

We came back to camp, Carlene took Skye for a long walk while I went over to vendor row to see Scarlet and Tazz and help if needed.  Tazz had his tent nearly set up but still found a bit to do. In another half hour the New Englanders will go out to a Mexican restaurant.  And I still had a bit of time for basic gun cleaning.  

PS: the restaurant was very good.  Carlene and I both had Chiles Rellenos with chicken. 

Ginny B

Smiley Kyleighy

Phoenix 3

 Back to work on set up, the Boardwalk Team went over all the work we did yesterday and repaired / replaced any damaged parts we hadn’t noticed yesterday, revised a few portions and did some gravel work to make it all steady as we walked over it.  That took half a day.  

I have mentioned in the past how meticulous the set up is here.  For stages that have mirror image sets of targets for left and right they measure to the inch, exact inch, and have protractors to measure the angles to targets.  They go to great lengths to make sure everything is as precise as possible; as exact as they can make it to reflect the planning that went into all of it.

Then the guys, Lil Edgy & Curly, gave me a ride to the truck shop to fetch the gear I needed for the weekend shoot, just in case the truck wasn’t ready this afternoon.  I was planning to rent a car for the weekend if that happened.  By 2 PM the shop was pretty sure they’d have it ready by 4:30.  By 5:30 they were very sure it would not be ready today.  They kept running into glitches.  I’m not real sure what those glitches were.  When I reminded them that it was now too late in the day to rent a car for Saturday they offered me a ride to the Fire & Ice match tomorrow morning.  Hmm.  OK. That was not expected!  But it does solve the problem.  

While I was there they showed me the pieces of the U joint that had fractured as they air hammered it out.  Edgy said he has had that same experience when he has changed them on older trucks.

So, tomorrow the shooting begins!  I spent part of the afternoon getting all the gear out, unloading the clothes and hanging them up in the garage.  Everything is ready.

I note that this is Primitive Biathlon weekend back home at the Pemi club.  And they’re getting a LOT of snow to make it even better.  Trying to track it out today while another 6” +/- of new snow is falling in the tracks.  Good Luck for the event!

I also met up with Tazz (Tazzmanian Kid) today.  He told me he is retiring after EOT.  He has been making laser engraved awards for many CAS clubs for years.  We are going to miss him!  But he certainly has earned the time to relax.

What are you cooking Ma

  

Phoenix 2, EOT Set-up

 A full day of set-up work at EOT today.  I was working with a group of 4-6 guys laying out boardwalk on 7 stages.  We’ll go back at it tomorrow doing the final nit picking of the boardwalks, mostly sand filling to make them completely steady, remove all wobble as we walk on them.  

The truck is still in the shop.  The U joints are rusted and are not coming apart.  They are soaking them overnight.  Upon inspection they found a few other items worthy of attention.  They are great about showing me what they find.  They send me videos of everything, so I can see for myself what they find.  A radiator hose leaking (I’ve seen the splatter under the hood and also repeated low coolant warnings) and the oil pan seal is leaking.  I was planning on an oil change anyway!  That’s why I have oily grunge on the front of the camper and especially on the hitch and safety chains.  It’s new too, I had no oil spots under the truck at home.  That would have shown in the snow!  Same with the coolant leak.

I’ve been working on the boooooard walk

All the live long day…

Some of the decorative gear that will be spread out over the stages

Skye was really excited about the holes under this creosote bush

Must have been squirrel holes

What are you doing out there?

A Goat Head

Those are some of the sharpest needle pointed things anywhere

This collection came off my shoes after one walk around camp

Sunset, with a crescent moon

The other planets are aligned tonight but I couldn’t see them.

Once the sun set the clouds were there too.