Chapter 44

Karen

By 7:00 am Saturday, there were two thousand contestants and visitors ... and they kept coming. The last lodge went up at midnight

The paper shooters were done at noon. There was a break for lunch ... and other activities. The “Ringers” were scheduled for 2:30.

Lunch was catch as catch can. Because of the late advertising of the Mountain Man Run, the few scheduled food vendors had become the many mobile “lunch on wheels” vans and old bread trucks.

Mexican was just beginning but the best of the best in the area were pushing out tacos, burritos, enchiladas and chalupas from their serving windows. Some of it was guaranteed to burn your tonsils out.

Several area caterers had awnings disguised as lean to kitchens and they served period food. Huge steaks, Pot Roast, pork and beans, turkey and trimmings. A purveyor of Southeastern Style, had pork and corn in a myriad of disguises.

Buffalo was served in at least three huge tipis ... cooked Indian style ... the only bones included in the meat came with roasted hump ribs.

One lady was serving “Fry Jacks;” deep fried bread dough with local honey ... it was marvelous. She brought a hundred pounds of pre made dough and sold out by 2:00 pm.

BBQ ... an island Indian invention ... had conflicting proponents ... Vinegar based sauces ... Tomato based sauces ... and one Honey Mustard sauce ... yum!

Side dishes? Corn, tomatoes, okra, potatoes, carrots, peas, beans ... with or without bacon were served with huge spoons.

Besides cash ... trade items were accepted for payment. When the food ran out, the cooks sold traded items.

Beer was typically Bud, Miller or Coors. US repressive Alcohol taxes made making your own dicy.

At 2:15 the cannon signaled the ringer shoots. Correct dress, firearms and loading methods required! The targets ranged from three inch metal disks on springs to a popup fiercely painted charging steel indian.

The favorite was the three second shoot. A triggered three inch steel disk was stashed in the edge of the woods. Loaded, with weapon at the ready ... the chosen shooter shouted READY. A safely shielded assistant pulled a rope. The disk popped up ... three seconds later the disk fell down. The shot had to take place in the three second interval. A miss or failure to acquire the target meant elimination. Shooting continued until there was one shooter still shooting.

Harassment was not only allowed ... it was required. Wives shouted or flashed a tit ... men tossed pebbles, babies squalled, dogs barked ... anything to cause a miss. The shoot started with 86 shooters ... three seconds and there were either 85 shooters or 86. Every miss or misfire added to the sidelines ... three quarters of an hour and there were two shooters still on the line.

The string on the popup target had been replaced twice and the assistant pulling the string replaced once. ONE shooter ... the one shooting the .75 caliber flintlock (that’s an ounce and a quarter ball) ... had hit the edge of the disk and splattered lead fragments far enough that Two Can ... the assistant ... caught a sliver in the mouth. Old Lead Lips required first aid. Another volunteer was sought to pull the string. People were hesitant ... imagine that.

While the hunt for a sucker was in progress ... some nasty bastard had decided that harassment of the shooters included water balloons. This resulted in a rash of misfires and a hasty rewrite of the rules. Those who had to pull wet loads were allowed reentry ... ONE shot only ... no “drying” shots.

Finally, there were two of us ... Hairy and myself. Thirteen shots and Hairy won on the last shot ... I missed. That prize was a four stripe Hudson’s Bay Company blanket, worth 200 bucks.

Other displays of skill included the ball split. A spike hatchet was driven into a wood round. Two water balloons ... yeah ... where the fella tossing water balloons got his ammo ... one balloon on either side of the hatchet had to be popped with one shot ... hit the hatchet blade ... split the round ball and break both balloons. A twenty five yard contest. Honest ... it can be done.

Another was a playing card shoved into a slit on another timber round. Hit the card edge on and split it in two.

There were knife throws, tomahawk throws ... all at playing cards. One turn ... two turns ... three turns of the knife or hawk thrown ... it’s harder than it looks.

The archery gang and the atlatl guys got together and had a primitive weapons shoot ... won by a seven foot tall Texan with a steel headed spear ... hand tossed. He was accompanied by a Wyoming Game and Fish Ranger. It seems that he wanted to use his spear to hunt Elk. The Ranger was checking to see if he could throw with any accuracy.

There were bare knuckle boxing matches, and wrestling contests. Duels were settled by the duelists standing side by side and shooting at targets 20 paces away. That would be the same as back to back and 10 paces.