Quick on the draw

Firing Old West weapons, these gunslingers have to shoot straight and fast to survive the competition.

By LOGAN NEILL, Times Staff Writer
Published November 5, 2007

Participants at the Hernando Sportsman's Club's Vengeance Trail cowboy shooting competition dressed as cowboys and used comtemporary six shooters, rifles and shotguns.
	[David Degner | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [David Degner | Times] As the participants walk, there is a distinct jingle of bullets, spurs, and pins. Many of the pins have personal meaning or come from the Single Action Shooting Society, which is the national governing body. [David Degner | Times] There are no specific guns but they all must be of the pre-1900 design. Many are single action army replicas, some use double barrel shotguns, others use pump action. The guns range from specialty replicas to mass market Rugers, Colts, and Taurus'.

At the buzzer, Larry Earp jumped into action.

Pulling his silver-barreled six-shooter from his right holster, he squeezed off five perfect shots. The moment the gun returned to its leather casing, Earp pulled another from his left holster, firing at five more targets. Next, he picked up a rifle and sent several more shots toward targets before finishing with a flourish of four blasts from his shotgun.

In a little more than 31 seconds, Earp successfully hit 24 targets using four different guns - not bad for a man who first got into the hobby of cowboy-style shooting just three years ago.

The 69-year-old Earp was one of the top threats at the Hernando Sportsman's Club's Vengeance Trail cowboy shooting competition Sunday. Dressed in authentic cowboy styles, replete with suspenders, boots and a black Stetson hat, Earp, a retired Pinellas County sheriff's deputy, said few things can compare with being an Old West gunfight re-enactor.

"It's my passion," Earp said as he readied his replica .38-caliber replica Colt pistol for the second round of the competition. "I love the challenge of trying to beat some of these guys out here who have been doing it for a while."

The event, sanctioned by the Single Action Shooting Society, an 80,000-member organization dedicated to Old West competitive shooting, drew 20 enthusiasts from around Central Florida. Many, like Earp, were longtime enthusiasts of Western-style firearms and their marksmanship challenges.

"There aren't any tricks to it. You have to shoot straight and you have to be quick, " said Glen Sims of Ocala. "It's all done very traditionally."

SASS rules require competitors to dress in authentic period clothing. And although some shooters use period firearms from the late 1800s, most, like Sims and his wife, Roxy, prefer to use modern replicas.

In addition, each participant is required to adopt a shooting alias, all of which makes for some unusual monikers. Sunday's contestants included such shooters as Hombre Paul, Tin Pan Dan and Tibby Two Shot.

Earp, who has traced his lineage to the iconic Western lawman, Wyatt Earp, decided it was best to go with his real name, instead of an alias.

"Having the name Earp means you have a lot to live up to," he said. "I take a lot of kidding sometimes, especially when I'm not doing so well."

Roxy Sims, who goes by the alias of "Ironhead," said that the spirit of the sport is what moved her to join the competitive ranks a year ago.

"It's really a lot of fun," said Sims, who attended the event with several members of the Silver River Rangers Shooting Club. "The people involved in it are very friendly and easygoing. It's competition but it's always done in a good-natured way."

Contests are typically divided into six stages or "scenarios." In a timed event, competitors must hit targets in a specified sequence. Any missed shots or sequences or other infractions can add extra time to a stage. The winner is the shooter with the overall quickest time at the completion of the final stage.

Although she has competed for only just over a year, Roxy Sims made consistent improvements to her accuracy rate. She constantly looks for ways to shave off a second or two from her overall time.

"I'm always watching the smoother shooters to see how they move," Sims said. "The key to it is being calm and taking the time to get your shot. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm really trying."

Logan Neill can be reached at lneill@sptimes.com or 848-1435.

[Last modified November 4, 2007, 20:24:28]