Match of August 3, 2008

At this point I usually make some comment about how the weather was really lousy, but being the cowboys and cowgirls that we are, we managed to get through it.

However, for the August 3rd shoot the weather was really nice, in fact it was probably the niceset day we have had all year. Low 80’s with a nice breeze (not a wind, but a breeze), the new shooting bays and stage fronts were looking good, and our friends Segundo, Trail Driver, and Grease Cup came up from South Dakota, Deadly Dale and Stephanie came over, and Roughrider Ray, Renegade Rene, Beowowe Mama, Seldom Sober, and Seldom Awake Kid even made the trip from Belfield to shoot with us. I figure we had shooters from across the state to initiate the new cowboy annex.

With such a good turn out and high spirits, you would expect an absolutely wonderful day of shooting. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for quite a few people. There were a lot of equipment malfunctions and procedurals to go around. I’m not saying that we didn’t have a great time, but it would seem that our mental capacity was stretched to its limits. The old saying that when the buzzer goes off your brains go to your boots might be a little bit of an undersstatement.

In some cases the brains hit the boots at the loadding table. Especially when yours truly stages his guns wrong and then proceeds to shoot the guns in the wrong order. Yes, I did write the stage, yes, I did read the scenario, and no, I was not the first shooter. Excuses…well I just don’t have one. In fact, this was not the first, nor the last little brain toot of the day. Someone (I won’t mention Joe’s name) made a similar mistake on the same stage. Yes, targets were shot out of order and guns just didn’t want to play, but, by golly, we got the new annex broke in right. With 25 shooters we had a really great day. It was also great to see Sandy, Striped Buffalo’s mom come out to see her daughter in action, and Striped Buffalo was polite enough to put on a show. Watch out, Doc Syn, your daughter is gettin’ pretty good with the six guns. Misty Target will have to shoot with the ladies next year, but I think that Striped Buffalo will step in andd fill her shoes and make us all here at the Dakota RoughRiders mighty proud.

Before we can shoot at our range again, we are going to help out the Missouri Valley Shooting Association with their annual kids day at McLain Bottoms public range If there is anyone that wants to help out, we won’t turn them away. We plan on being there at 8:00 a.m. and get things set up. The kids should arrive around nine. We will put on a demonstration at 9ish and then let the kids shoot until noon, at noon we will break for lunch and then do another demonstration and then run until 4:00. I sure understand that some people can’t be out there all day but if you want to come help out for an hour or two we would be more than grateful. I hope to see a lot of faces at Bordertown Shootout over Labor Day weekend, and if we don’t cross paths there, hopefully in September. Until then, keep your stick on the ice. Remember, were all in this together.

Dakota Dealer