Tejas Caballeros Wild Bunch December 21

[dragonhilldave]

The Tejas Caballeros had so much fun with The Whoopin’ in October that we are going to give other cowboys and cowgirls an opportunity to enjoy the range and the Flat Creek Ranch facilities. We will hold our regular monthly Cowboy shoot on Saturday December 20, then on Sunday the 21st we will have a Wild Bunch match.

 

As we discovered at Whoopin’, the ranch has a very nice and modern set of rooms in the Cypress Lodge with an inviting porch and lots of rocking chairs. Room rates are very reasonable. For those who live a ways out from the range, staying on the range Friday and Saturday night is very attractive. You will not be roughing it at all (except maybe having to make your own coffee).

 

If you want to rent a room at the Cypress Lodge, then you can send a check for $90 for one night or $160 for 2 nights ($20 discount if stay 2 nights) to Child, Inc  818 E. 53rd St. Austin, TX 78751. Reference the Tejas Caballeros/Cypress lodging and the dates staying. The Cypress Lodge is on the ranch and about a mile from the range. You can get more info on Flat Creek Ranch lodging at http://www.txsranch.com/lodging.htm

 

 

 

If you sign up for both matches on Saturday you get a $5 discount. (Regular rates are $20 for non-members and $15 per members per day). If you just have to shoot that 1911 on Saturday, we even allow the “Wild Agarita” category where you can shoot your 1911 instead of your cowboy pistols. If you are not equipped to shoot Wild Bunch and just want to shoot the cowboy guns again on Sunday, you can do that to. Should be a lot of fun at a great venue.

 

So who’s coming?

 

[dragonhilldave]

Caballeros:

We had a merry time at the Flat Creek Range today defending Santa’s workshop from the Grinch Gang with our Wild Bunch guns. We had 7 shooters—5 shooting Wild Bunch and 2 shooting wheel guns, The 5 Wild Bunchers were River Ben, El Zopilote, Rogue Heeler, Jim No Horse, and Dragon Hill Dave. Our Cowboy participants were Cowboy Small and The Texan. We shot 5 stages in good weather and enjoyed the heck out of it. None of us were clean, and nobody really cares who won (Cowboy Small for Cowboy, Dragon Hill Dave for Wild Bunch Traditional, River Ben for Wild Bunch Modern) or who came in last (Jim No Horse-but he assures us this Wild Bunch stuff just comes naturally to him). 

 

We had the usual equipment malfunctions and brain farts that accompany Wild Bunch, but there was one really memorable gun hiccup. On the last stage—the Mine, we rode Santa’s Sleigh down to the shotgun targets where we shot 8 shotgun, 2 on each of the 4 flapper targets. Rogue Heeler shot the rifle, shot the pistol sequence fine, then leaped out of Santa’s Sleigh (the mine cart) and started blasting with his shotgun. After the first shot he started to rack the shotgun again and the whole thing came apart in his hands. The stock and part of the slide went forward, the breech and the other half of the magazine tube was still in his hand and shells went everywhere. Rarely do we get entertainment this good in Wild Bunch. Apparently this type of total collapse is possible with a Model 12 shotgun—magazine tube just comes unscrewed. And, of course, it happened to Rogue Heeler. We found all the parts, and River Ben screwed it back together (he has had experience with this I think.) Rogue Heeler had the fastest raw time on the stage among the Wild Bunch crew, but there were a few misses.  He took it in stride and remains determined to shoot this Wild Bunch thing.

Special thanks to Treasurer Sole Proprietor who came out and took our money (and made coffee!) and stayed to help the posse duties (we needed the help with only 7 shooters. He wasn’t shooting but stuck it out with us. Give him another thank you next time you see him.) Same with Barb Steele who served as our scorekeeper with the ACES program, which allowed us to review the results and discuss them almost immediately. Also thanks to Cowboy Small and El Zopilote who helped so much in setting up and taking down the range.

 

We had a good time. My only regret was that we didn’t have more people to share the shooting with us (and that I didn’t have video going when Rogue Heeler’s shotgun disassembled itself in his hands). We will shoot Wild Bunch again next quarter, and I hope we can see more folks join in what has been a lot of fun and camaraderie.

 

You gotta shoot the Cabs!