That Just Ain't Right

Last Saturday we went down to Thunder Valley to shoot and while Judge's arm was too sore for him to shoot, I had myself a very good day shooting. I actually beat a guy who usually kicks my butt, however, I pobably did so because when I was timing him, I stopped him when I thought he'd only shot four pistol rounds when he shot five. Even so, it was a very good shooting day for me. I'd have finished first if it weren't for a shooter from KY that came up to Thunder Valley for the first time and shot very well. Heck the top three duelists shot within six seconds of each other.

The new guy brought his family which included a buckaroo and by my count, they were all very competetive, friendly and they worked hard at whatever needed to be done. That's all I ask of anyone that I'm running the posse for. Their Buckaroo was a pretty decent shooter and mostly safe but like all kids, has the attention span of a fruit fly. I'm glad the Buckaroo safety rules were adjusted so that some of the responsibility is out of their hands.

The funny or sad thing (however you want to look at it) was that the dad was darn near my size and when he pulled out his pistol on the first stage, I almost laughed while I was timing him. He was shooting New Vaqueros in .38 and he had those things loaded lighter than the women we usually shoot with load theirs. It was one of the most pathetic thing I've seen in cowboy shooting. I'm not one to stop a gamer from being a gamer, lord knows I'm thinking of buying Cowboy .45 Special Brass and loading it to get a lighter recoil, but damn! I'm pretty sure he had those Rugers short-stroked as well, again, that's fine, but its the whole package. At some point, you look at something and say "that just ain't right".

I suppose he isn't hurting anyone, so why bother? I guess at some point, I have to agree with our good friend Manatee when he criticized another large man shooting .32s. Though somehow I find that particular shooter OK, maybe its attitude of the person or familiarity, who knows. But I find one example of a larger guy shooting small guns to be OK and another to be utterly ridiculous. I think in the end, its how you approach the game, in one case, this new shooter is doing the bare minimum with respects to appearance to shoot cowboy (or it appears that way) and is very competitive. The other guy is more entrenched in the "Cowboy" feel of things and acts the part. If I had to say, I'd say that someone who acts cowboy in entirety gets a free pass on what guns he shoots.

BTW, I find that guys who shoot completely full-house loads in an attempt to show just how manly they are and are overly bragadocious about shooting the "big stuff" are just as bad as a guy who shoots .32s.