Once again the July shoot was a great success although it did get a little warm towards the end of the day. I hope everyone stayed hydrated and had little problems with the heat. It has been requested that we start shooting earlier during the summer months. This comes up every year at about this same time. The problem with moving the shoot to an earlier time is that we have many cowboys travel a goodly distance to join us each month, we even have a few that come out of the central time zone, an earlier start would cause a major hardship on some of our shooters and it would only change the start time by 30 minutes. I appreciate the suggestion and welcome any suggestions but this one would cause more problems then it would salve. I will make sure we have plenty of water and we can put up the tents if it looks like August is going to be as hot as last month.

I had the great honor to present Owlhoot Harden with the first regulator badge SMSS has produced. The regulator badge is given to cowboys who go above and beyond to promote our sport and personify the Cowboy Way. As any of you that have gotten to know Owlhoot, this is him right down to his boots. Owlhoot was our clubs first Ramrod and one of the founding members or SMSS. He has taken many a new shooter under his wing to give lessons and advice. Congratulations Owlhoot, this honor is well deserved. We also had many charter members present for this presentation. It was good seeing a few faces that have disappeared over the 8 years I have been with SMSS. Flash Labrew and Clint Westwood were two cowboys who many had not met. Big, Arizona Joe, Yakima Canutt, Tennessee Hawk, and Vinegarroon are the other Founders that were in attendance and still shoot with us, I hope I did not leave anyone off of this list; If I did please forgive me for the oversight.

Another huge honor was getting to announce that Last Kiss has received her Black Badge from SASS, this makes her one of only 4 lady Black Badges in SASS and it also makes her an ROII instructor. Black Badges are limited to a set number per area. Congratulation Last Kiss and thanks for all the hard work that went into achieving this milestone.

Our next shoot will be August 9th, Fast Harley has already announce set up for the Sunday before the match on August 3rd. We set up stages then we shoot a lot of rounds to make sure the stages work properly and things flow smoothly. It also gives us that chance to “practice.” (Not sure what that means) Set up starts at about 1:30 and normally takes about one hour. We also do range cleanup at the same time so if you have a weed-eater and don’t mind putting in a little sweat on Sunday please join us.

I will also hold a shooters class on the same Sunday starting at about 2:00 for any shooter who is interested in getting started in Cowboy Action Shooting. I go over Safety, shoot styles, Safety, work during the match, Safety and then we let the attendee’s shoot a stage a few times so they can get the feel of CAS before a match. If anyone is interested in attending or sending someone to this class just be at the range on Sunday at 2:00, or come earlier and help setup.

Remember the Tennessee State Shoot is coming up at Wartrace, October 9th – 13th and the Alabama State Shoot hosted by the North Alabama Regulators is the weekend before that on October 3rd – 5th. Both of these are great shoot and many of our shooters will be attending one or both of them.

After a near safety disaster last weekend at one of our neighboring club, I strongly recommend everyone wearing safety glasses over their prescription glasses. Most Prescription glasses just don’t cover enough of your eyes and have no protection from the sides. This also showed the importance of berms. Thanks ORSA for improving our berms, this incident has been very “eye opening” for many of us. (I could not resist the pun)

We have two cowboys or girls as the case may be that need to be on prayer lists and in everyone’s hearts. Jackrabbit Bob is having his liver transplant this week and Dagnabit Deb is back at Vandy for another round of treatments. Keep the positive energy flowing their way.

See everyone next month or sooner if you shoot at other clubs.

Until next time keep your powder dry and your lead down range.

Long Days and Pleasant Nights
Tennessee Tombstone