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The following was sent to me by Zeb McCahan
and History of the By Zeb McCahan (SASS #2821) aka: Paul Blanton Hi
Country Girl Linda, I enjoyed talking
to you about the history of THSS, at Trailhead 2006. I thought some of the folks might like to know how the THSS
long range match got its start. If memory serves me correctly, and
it’s beginning to get less reliable year to year, the organized match
that is shot today started in 1992. My wife, Dead Eye Dawn (SASS Regulator, #2822 aka
Rose Dawn Blanton) and I joined the club and shot a couple of matches.
Someone mentioned that there was a long-range match taking place
after the regular stages were shot and the props put away.
RD (as Rose Dawn is known) and I stayed around and watched the
goings on. The cowboy match was being held, below the hill, behind
Herman Brunes house at the time. The long-range match consisted of
whatever course of fire someone came up with on the spot or the shooters
just plainked away at whatever they saw down range. Now it isn’t every day that one gets to shoot at
things 500 meters away and it looked like fun.
RD and I were new to the cowboy game thus we were in the market
for appropriate firearms. I
found a nice, vintage, Winchester rifle (made in1906 I think) chambered
for the .38-55 and we were in business.
Before long, parozing the wares at Fountain Firearms I spotted a
beautiful Shiloh Sharps in 45x2.4 (45-90) and it followed me home. I had been shooting competitively most of my life
and saw the potential for an organized match after the monthly cowboy
shoots. Mary Ketchum (aka.
Black Jack Ketchum) was the club president at the time so I asked to
address the board of directors with the long-range match idea.
The board thought it was a great idea if I would take charge of
the match. One stipulation was that competitors be able to use their
.30-30 lever guns and one box of 20 rounds of ammunition to complete the
match. Thinking back I believe there was about twenty
Chicken targets and a like number of pigs, turkeys and rams available
with enough crude pipe stands to provide a perch for each. The target
that we all call the Quigley bucket (and what cowboy shooter, worth his
weight in powder and lead, hasn’t seen Mathew Quigley perforate the
wooden bucket with his “Old Reliable” Sharps 45x2.5?) was already
down range so there was a total of five ranges to shoot. Dave Higginbotham (aka Poncho Villa and owner of
the Lone Star Rifle Company) was an active member of the club at the
time and possessed a wealth of knowledge about silhouette matches. Dave and I discussed the possibilities of a match plan and
came up with the same format that is in use today.
Sticking close to the boards mandate that twenty rounds be used
for the .30-30’s we decided to allow one sighting shot at the Quigley
and twenty rounds for the main match. The twenty shot requirement and
the extreme range of the Rams promoted the lever guns match to be
curtailed after shooting the turkeys (turkeys are places at 385 meters
or 421 yards). A lot of people thought shooting the lowly .30-30 in
excess of four hundred yards was insane. I recall hearing “Why you
can’t hit anything with one of those things at much over a hundred
yards.” Boy were they wrong because great riflemen like Paladin and
the late Hawkeye Pierce and Catfish Doyle took that part of the match
seriously. These fellows perfected the use of cast bullets in the.30-30
when jacketed bullets were banned from the range.
I don’t know what the record for lever guns is today. I held
the record at 14 for a long time using a Winchester model 1886 in 45-70. Every match it seemed that someone brought out his
new (at least to him) large bore single shot rifle. The rules allowed
competitors to use either smokeless or black powder with cast bullets
and shoot from crossed sticks at everything but the chickens.
The match consisted of one shot at the Quigley, five shots at the
chickens, pigs, turkeys and, for the single shot shooters five at the
distant rams. What
satisfaction it was to see that ram tumble from it’s stand followed by
a resounding “clank” coming from down range. Without the help of
John Frailey (I’m sorry but I don’t remember his alias) as a
volunteer spotter and match director I think the long-range matches
would have floundered. John loved long range shooting and sat peering
through a spotting scope for hours calling bullet strikes. Thank you
John wherever you are. John’s best friend was the late Butch Balcom
(again I apologize for not remembering his alias) who started his long
range shooting interest with THSS and continued with YCSA until his
recent death. A year or so into the long-range competitions Dave
suggested that we start holding a sanctioned NRA Black Powder Silhouette
match on a separate weekend for those who were interested in that level
of competition. Eventually,
with the tireless leadership of Tom Berwick and many other contributors,
the present day Yaupon Creek Silhouette Association was born. With the
hard work of the association the range was transformed from a somewhat
run down target range to the superb gallery that it is today. I can’t end this piece without mentioning the
ladies that shot the long-range matches going head to head with the men.
Unlike golf and many other sports the women were given no special
consideration. The women had meet the same equipment rules as the their
male counterparts and shoot the same ranges. Katha Higginbotham,
Medicine Woman, and Dead Eye Dawn among others laid prone and took the
punishing recoil of 400-500 grain bullets without flinching. Katha and
Dead Eye Dawn went on to win state championship matches in BPCS
competitions. When I took my sabbatical from CAS a few years ago I held the THSS long-range lever gun record, as I mentioned above, with a score of 14x20. I also held the single shot rifle record with an 1885 Winchester High Wall in 40-65 using black powder. My best score was 18x25. I hope that both of these scores have been exceeded by now. Tidbits
from "Zeb McCahan" aka Paul Blanton I
believe that you are correct about 1992 being Rose Dawn aka Dead Eye
Dawn and my first year with THSS. Our
wedding was held just before the Trailhead awards ceremony on Saturday
evening March 25, 1995. Rose
Dawn and I were the editors of the Gunsmoke Gazette for a little over a
year. Burnout comes quickly for newsletter editors as you have probably
noticed. RD and I decided
to use a different format for our publication and modeled it, as much as
possible, from a real newspaper of the time.
Yes RD found copies of almost all of the editions that we
produced. I will make
copies of all of them as soon as I can. RD and I spent an average of 80+
man-hours per edition. Most people don't have a clue what actually goes
into producing a good newsletter. We decided to include not just the
happenings within the Gunsmoke community but also add period artwork,
fashion articles, graphics and photography to the mix. 1.
THSS was once asked by all sorts of groups, to send (costumed) shooters 2.
Did you know that THSS was asked to promote the premiere (Houston at 3.
We also made the mistake of promoting the Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman and 4.
Have you ever noticed that "The Mine" has a real trap door
with a small 5.
Some people complain about THSS putting small targets too far down
range. 6.
When the matches were shot "Below the Hill" the people who
came in 7.
Hangman Hale used to cook the Saturday lunch over an open fire. 8.
Richard Young "Tequila" five times national CAS Champion, shot
his first 9.
When I started shooting CAS in (my SASS # is 2821) 1992 the "Top
Guns" in 10.
"Dead Eye Dawn" aka Rose Dawn Blanton was the first female
SASS 11.
When Gunsmoke was being built THSS actually installed landscaping around 12.
"Chino" aka Cesar Silva designed the layout for the original
buildings 13.
When the match was shot "Below the Hill" behind Herman's house 14.
The big log that acts as a prop on Stage-1 for trailhead actually Adios "Zeb McCahan" aka Paul Blanton Entered
May 2006
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