Let me set the stage. Cowgirl Up has just out dueled Prickly Pear and Desert Rose for the Annie Oakley Arizona State Championship in a Magnificent 3 shoot off. Lil' James is seeded 3rd in a Magnificent 5 of the Billy the Kid shoot off. He is the youngest competitor of 108 shooters. He loses his first match and goes to the loser's lane where he dispatches the 5th, 4th and 3rd place shooters in tightly contested matches. He has climbed back in the finals against Buckeroo Ben, a older and quicker shooter. Buckeroo Ben wins the Arizona State Championship.
On the way home Lil' James says to his Dad. "I don't think you know how hard this is. On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard do you think this is? His Dad responds "8 out of 10." Lil' James retorts, "No Dad, it is a 10 out of 10!"
You just don't know how hard this is!
The Ladies Championship follows with Holli Day being the # 1 seed. Slow Poke is dispatched to the loser bracket where she takes care of business and is back into the finals against Holli Day. Both ladies can not find the target. Holli Day has a misfire and challenges the round to no avail. She has another misfire and then another whereupon she declares that the gun is broken. She calls for Thirsty's Colt. More missing. She calls for another backup, Prickly Pears' gun but after dry firing, decides to stick with Thirsty's Colt. Thirsty leave the range to do some gunsmithing on Holli's gun. More missing, but Slow Poke finally prevails, it is now 1-1.
You just don't know how hard this is!
Both ladies are prompted to go clean their guns. Holli foregoes cleaning and begins to disassemble Thirsty's gun to do some gunsmithing. The Range Master comes over and says you only have 30 seconds you can't do that. Holli frantically reassembles Thirsty's colt and goes back to the line. More missing. Finally, Thirsty comes back to the line with the repaired gun. Holli Day finally prevails and is the Arizona State Ladies Champion. Through it all Slow Poke being the great champion and competitor that she is never once complains about all the disruption. She just stayed focus and did her best, and on this day that was second.
You just don't know how hard this is?
The men's finals was a mid 3 duel between Rodeo, Cowboy Up and Master Gunfighter. I am sure it was just as dramatic and hard but I don't remember the exact details. Master Gunfighter is the new Arizona State Champion. Someone commented to me about all that speed and I said looks like easy draws to me with all that missing. If only I had gotten there but three matches against the Kegs did me in.
Last weekend at Amarillo I had a nice visit with the Comish about the format and he was saying everyone thought he was crazy when he came up with this format. But it really does work well. Five shooters went out in round 11 and there was a tie for 11 through 15. If you look at the final standings 11th through 15th the shooters were accurately sorted by quickness by a 1x shoot off. The final two were myself and Sheriff Rango with Quick Cal announcing. On the line before the first shot I say to him, "no lollygaging!" He promptly puts his two fastest shots of the event on the plate. I put my first two shots dead center of the target in identical times 5 milliseconds faster than his, both being my fastest of the event. His third shot again is his fastest of the event. My third shot is a flyer 8 inches from the center but 20 millisecond faster. Now that is the way all matches should be, both shooters hitting 100% hitting their fastest times.
I would be remiss if I did not mentions that Honey Badger set two new World Records in the same match, the new world record being a .344 for ladies. She lost the match. I only mention that to emphasize that a World Record time is only one shot, unless you are Honey Badger then it may be two shots, but you are still in a gunfight, three winning shots to win. Great shooting by a great lady and competitor.
It was great fun. Hope everyone had a good time. You really don't know how hard this is!
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