Guns of August was August 10, 11 and 12, 2018 at the Middletown Sportsmen's Club Hosted by: BIG IRONS
Sorry to say that the annual Guns of August is no longer a SASS Regional shoot. But I’m happy to report that there was a great turnout anyway. I’ve only missed two since the original inception back in 1997 when it was called Trails of August. This is still a great event with over 90 shooters in attendance. The Middletown Sportsman’s Cub in conjunction with the Big Iron Rangers put on a great event. The campfire stories about it are circulating and to catch up on all the gossip you can tune into the SASS Wire for lots of great comments.
The overall winner was the Cumberland Kid with a blistering total time of 214.43 over twelve stages…that’s averaging a little over 17 seconds a stage …and a CLEAN shooter throughout the entire match as well, WOW!!!! But we had several of our ORPA members in the fight. Boaz (Jason Hardin) was the top ORPA shooter; he finished first in Frontier Cartridge Gun Fighter and 15th overall with a score of 278.91. A Big Congratulations and a Ye Ha!!
Again, this year, one of the fun side matches was the Wild Bunch Match. One large posse assembled under the watchful eye of Black Jack Beeson. There were three categories, Wild Bunch Modern, Wild Bunch Senior and Wild Bunch Traditional. It was a hoot!
The rest of the 13 ORPA Shooters in no particular order are as follows:
- Thomas Quigley (William Smith) 1st Young Gun Boys and a “CLEAN” shooter
- Big Oz ((Ozzie Greg) 1st in Buckaroo
- Wilbur Greene Rexroat (Robert Steiger) 2nd Senior Gunfighter NOTE: He also finished 4th in the Wild Bunch Senior category
- Rose Louise Reasoner (Karen Steiger) 2nd Lady’s Senior Gunfighter NOTE: She also finished 2nd in the Wild Bunch Lady’s Modern category
- Loco Leadslinger (Gary Smith) 1st in Classic Cowboy NOTE: he also finished 1st in the Wild Bunch Traditional category
- Alabama (Ernie Chaffin) 4th in Classic Cowboy NOTE: He also finished 2nd in the Wild Bunch Traditional category
- Blastin Brad (Brad Sabo) 3rd in Cowboy and 1st place in the side match Long Range Big Bore rifle event NOTE: He also finished 6th in the Wild Bunch Traditional category
- Rodent (David Volmer) 3rd in Elder Statesman NOTE: He also finished 5th in the Wild Bunch Senior category
- Fletch (Bill Knall) 1st in B’ Western NOTE: He also finished 8th in the Wild Bunch Senior category
- Clementine Valentine (Kimberly Harmeson-Weiser) 1st in Lady’s Gunfighter and 2nd overall of all the ladies competing
- Slow Poke Smith (Larry Smith) 3rd in Frontier Cartridge Duelist and 1st place in the long range rifle side match Quigley Pale event
- Not So Quick Nick (Nick McGuire) 2nd in Pale Rider Gunfighter
We have one more BIG match this year. It’s the State Wild Bunch match, sponsored by Ruger Ray and the Greene County Cowboys, to be held on the grounds of the Greene County Fish and Game 1538 Union Rd, Xenia, OH on Saturday the 29th of September. More on that in the next edition. Registration is at: https://www.gcfng.com/gccowboys/WildBunch2018.pdf
Happy Trails fer now.