Trigger-happy contestants get ready to rumble at the Misty
Valley shooting range near Dunedin yesterday during a
Cowboy Action Shooting provincial competition. Action is
based on scenes from the western movie Shane. Photo
by Jane Dawber.
Visitors to an otherwise quiet Waitati Valley could have
been forgiven for thinking they had stepped on to the set of a
1950s B-grade cowboy movie.
In fact, if they had ventured as far as the Misty Valley
shooting range, that's pretty much what they would have
thought.
There they would have found gun-toting cowboys and cowgirls
calling each other such names as "Jimmy Ringo" and "Gypsy
Rose", shooting the place up and enacting scenes from a 1950s
western as part of a Cowboy Action Shooting contest at the
range yesterday.
Cowboy Action Shooting is a competitive sport originating in
the United States, in which members of pistol clubs meet for
regular competitions.
The organiser of yesterday's event, Stewart "Dan Nabbit"
Bayne, of Dunedin, said there are regional, island and
national competitions in New Zealand, and in six weeks an
international competition with Australian shooters will be
run in Hokitika.
Cowboy action shooting required that competitors dressed up
as cowboys and cowgirls, went by registered aliases, by which
they must be referred to during all competitions, and which
no-one else was allowed to use, and required that
western-themed props be used on the shooting range.
Competitors used four guns: two period pistols, a shotgun,
and a rifle, and fired each weapon at each stage of the
competition, with stages based on the narrative of a 1950s or
1960s western movie.
Whoever managed to shoot the four weapons in the fastest time
over all the stages won the contest.
The weekend's contest for competitors from around Otago was
based on the 1953 movie Shane, although a "heavily edited"
version, involving "probably a little more shooting" than in
the actual film, Mr Bayne said.
"It's just a whole lot of fun. That's why we do it," he said.
PICTURED ABOVE: From left are George "Mild Bill" Evans,
of Mosgiel, Rob "Dustin Mudd" Turner, of Wairuna, Kaye "Abby
Cass" Paulger, of Wairuna, Duncan "Bald Eagle" MacPherson, of
Kaitangata, Stewart "Dan Nabbitt" Bayne, of Dunedin, John "Big
Bad John" Holley, of Roxburgh, Nick "Coyote" Bayne and Joanne
"Gypsy Rose" Bayne, both of Dunedin, Wayne "Yakima Kid" King,
of Alexandra, Mark "Jimmy Ringo" Stevens and Rob "Night
Shooter" Andrews, both of Alexandra.
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