The GAF / NCOWS Division of Kansas Muster

[Windy City Joe]

The GAF / NCOWS Division of Kansas Muster went quite well with a slight breeze and plenty of shade. We were able to shoot all four stages on Saturday. The first stage took an average of 5.81 minutes to shoot with four reloads on the rifle and four on the pistol. Fastest time was Drydock with 4.1 minutes, using his Krag and a double action Colt 38. The slowest time was Windy City Joe with 8.4 minutes using his Spencer and a single action 58 Remington. The course was very challenging yet fun. It was a definite advantage to be shooting smokeless and a double action pistol. After about 15 rounds of black powder you really notice your guns slowing down. I often wondered what they did during the Civil War or at the Little Big Horn about their guns. We broke for lunch after the first stage.
The second stage didn't take as long, fastest time on that stage was 2.8 minutes and the slowest was 6 minutes, average of 3.5 minutes to shoot this one. We had a Texas star on this stage for the pistol. A lot of shooters found out it was harder than it looks. The best anyone did was four points. Also on this stage we had a sliding 12x15 target. The first shot released the target and it would slide down the cable. All you had to do was hit the target at least once while it was moving and before it reach the end of the stop. Sounds easy, doesn't it?  Oh! By the way it only took 5 seconds to reach the bottom.  Challenging but fun, again this is where a double action pistol comes in handily.
The last two stages were set for Sunday, however we were ahead of time so we did them Saturday afternoon. Both were a walk in the park compared to the earlier stages. Ten shots each with bonus points. We had another sliding target; however this one was larger 24x24 and was slower at 7 seconds. Of course it didn't make any difference, it was still hard to hit with a single action pistol. But it was fun trying.
And all of this fun was done in the woods at "Duck Creek Dave's" place near Reading, Kansas.

[Caleb Hobbs]

Sounds like everyone had a blast. I've always really enjoyed those kinds of shoots.

[River City John]

I know it must of been a good time. Paul wasn't shy describing all the fun I'd missed . . .