DISPATCH 2007/12/13

[Charlie Bowdre]

Hi All

From the East Coast where as always we are freezing and sneezing!

On Sunday past our local club had the December Xmas Meat Shoot . -12 below ...cold as a mother in laws kiss..still we had 17 shooters and a total of 28 members show up for the fun and games. The food and cabin fun soon made us forget the cold outside.
Great time enjoyed by all. I must say that one round of shooting was enough for all.

The younger half of my pension plan resides in Calgary and as I usually manage at least one trip out a year ..hope to combine the visit and some shooting with you all in 2008.

In case the post gets stopped before year end I'd like to take this time to wish everyone  all the best for the Holiday Season and may your New Year be filled with health and good times for all.

Dutchie

[RattlesnakeJack]

Sounds like a good time, Dutchie!  (More the food and "cabin fun" parts ... I know what it can be like shooting in the cold ...     )

Mind you .... speaking of shooting in the cold, a couple of us from Medicine Hat are departing bright and early in the morning to drive to Shilo, Manitoba, to participate in their annual "Battle of the Bulge" match .... WWII firearms, shot in the snow in period uniform.  Now, although that may have to do with shooting in Canada, you'll rightly observe that it isn't too "cowboy" ....  But I can make a cowboy connection ... albeit a mite tenuous:  my WWII impression is that of an officer of South Alberta Regiment, our local regiment during WWII (Armoured) which is perpetuated by its successor, the South Alberta Light Horse ... which also officially perpetuates the Rocky Mountain Rangers (1885 Rebellion "cowboy cavalry") after which our local CAS group is named ....

[Nine Toe Jim]

Rattlesnake, I phoned Dynamite Dick last night and he informed me of your upcoming trip to Shiloh. I told him they had a blizzard in the Winnipeg -Brandon area and were due for 34 C below zero today. Dang you guys are tough.

NTJ

[RattlesnakeJack]

Dang you guys are tough.

Well, Jim, we 'Hatters have to be tough ... if your usual tales of the weather conditions you've endured at our shoots are to be believed!   

Besides ... the Weather Network website is predicting mere snow flurries and a positively balmy of -7° C. for Sunday, the day of the match ... 

Heck, the match commemorates the Battle of the Bulge, after all!  (In which Canadian units were involved, by the way, although it is generally thought of as a German/American show ....)

[Charlie Bowdre]

Love those cold weather shoots . ONCE when I was young and foolish ..and could still hoist a few single malts without blowing a line ... we did an overnighter in 18th c. period .
It was north of CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick and at night we were hitting -34 below C. It was a great time , managed to get up to -23 on the day of the shoot . Funny though we were in brushed up lean tos with a roaring fire all night  and it was sweater comfortable at the camp site .

Now mind you it was a different  thing  time away from  the fire fighting with the trap door on a pair of long johns and trying not to 10 X my snow shoes! But that's another story .

Enjoy your trip and hoist one for 'absent pards'
Dutchie