Update on Special Events

If I have left anyone off, or if you guy know of anyone who can help, feel free to forward this information to them. I wanted to keep everyone in the loop on what is going on with special events:

 

  • October 1 Monthly Match: I will be out of town through Saturday. If I get back in time I will be there, but if not, Skunk Stomper will be running the match for me. If I am not able to be there, please just take a picture of scoresheets with a phone and text them to me, and I can get the results online that night so the scores do not get lost. To save on setup time for the Hero match, three of the stages will be Hero stages, and the other three will be shooting variations of them. That ensures that we only need to set up five stages and the side match for the Hero setup
  • Iron Hero Match: Things are progressing well. Once the park sends me the final shooter list, I will finalize posses and awards. Once the shooters books are printed and I have the packets, I will get the packets for shooters built. The park will be taking care of the lunches. Once I know when we will have access to the ranges to set up, I will let you guys know. I will be out of town the weekend before the Hero match. Barring a large influx of last minute shooters, it looks like we will be running two posses for the match. I have arranged enough door prizes to where everyone will get a door prize
  • 2018 State Match: Things are coming right along. Worked on a lot of sponsors and we are getting in quite a few door prizes. Even if we sell out, there is a decent chance that everyone will get a door prize. I have promises of two hand made quilts to raffle off for the SASS Scholarship Fund. Shooter book rough draft and stages are completed. One thing I could use some help with. If anyone has any experience in putting together a banquet or dinner or has any ideas on where to hold it, I would gladly take the help in that area. If you can be available to assist with side match day (April 13), please let myself or Skunk Stomper know
  • Work Days: Once we get through with the Hero match, we need to have a few work days to gussy up the props and build some more, depending on how much funding we can get from the park. So, put on your thinking caps on ideas for props and things that need to happen. Some of the things we need to do: Freshen paint on horses and cows, new platform on gallows and paint, we need to build a small platform to shoot from to set next to a roofline for one of the state stages, we could use a few more sections of fence, and I would like to build a new false front or two (even if just something simple we need to prop up using fence posts). If you have any weekends available after the Hero, please let me know. The more help we get, the easier this match will be.

 

I will also post this info to our Facebook page and the club website. Thank you all for all of your efforts.

 

Stirrup Trouble

Platte Valley Gunslingers

Territorial Governor

SASS Regulator

Monthly Match 16 July 2016

For those of you that are in need of a cowboy action shooting match, we will be shooting the morning of 16 July at Heartland Public Shooting Park. Check in will begin at 8:00am, and we will have the safety meeting on the range about 9:00am with the lead to start flying shortly thereafter.

Six fun filled stages are planned, utilizing our wagon/open stage, the railroad ticket office, and the new hotel.

The stages will be the following:

  • Horse Thieves
  • Open Range
  • Outlaw Capture
  • Painted Ladies
  • Prisoner Transport
  • Private Army

We hope you can join us, and if you just want to come out to watch, there is no charge to watch, but we ask that you wear earplugs and eye protection just to keep you safe.

Let’s saddle up and play cowboy!

 

Vendor Lined Up for Iron Hero Match

The Platte Valley Gunslingers are happy to report that we have lined up our first vendor for the Iron Hero Match in October. Dalton Masterson, our Territorial Governor, is the owner and artistic talent behind Plum Creek Leatherworks in Lexington, Nebraska. Not only will he be shooting the match with us, but he will also be set up as a vendor. We hope you will bring along some extra cash to use at his booth. You will not be disappointed.

He has been doing leatherwork for years. This is not “cookie cutter” leatherwork, either. Each piece is a unique piece of art, and he will custom make a rig or any other leather item to your unique needs and requirements. He even made a replica Rooster Cogburn rig for the president of our club last year that rivals the Hollywood original.

Dalton can be contacted through his Facebook page, as follows. Many times, if you contact him ahead of time, he can bring your custom rig or holster to you at the match so there s no waiting.

Plum Creek Leatherworks

Some examples of his work are as follows:

IMG_0041

usmc

M92

cowboy

1911

We look forward to having you join us at the Iron Hero Match, and we are also working on gaining additional vendors.

 

 

New Promo Video

Our local club was lucky enough to receive a nice gift from a Colorado cowboy named Grizzly Dave. He recently attended our Iron Duke match and took a ton of video of the shooters and events surrounding that day. These can be found on his YouTube channel.

Anyway, he put together a really nice promo video for the club highlighting our club and its events, and we wanted to share this with you. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did, and we hope you join us at the park for one of our upcoming cowboy matches.

We also wanted to announce that because of his efforts, Grizzly Dave has been appointed as an honorary Platte Valley Gunslinger!

 

2016 Iron Hero Match

Well, as the weather starts to change and get crisper, it is time to start thinking about matches for the coming year. We had such a good time hosting all of you this year that we would like to announce that we are going to continue the format again in 2016, with eight stages in a single day, all with the same theme. The theme for the 2016 Iron Hero match is 

Randolph Scott

We will run through all eight stages in a single day, and we are trying to make each stage unique and fun for all levels of shooters. Awards will be presented for the top three in each SASS category, and lunch is included, all for the low match fee of only $50 ($60 for entries after September 1, 2016). For those of you that came out to join us in 2015, don’t forget to submit your discount coupon in order to get your discount on the match fees for 2016. 

As with this year, you may pick up your shooter’s bags beginning the Thursday before the match at 5:00pm. 

The tentative schedule for events is as follows:

7:00am-Shooter Check in begin
8:00am-Safety Meeting
8:30am-Shoot first four stages
12:00-1:00-Lunch
1:00pm-Shoot final four stages
4:00pm-Awards

For those of you that are new to SASS and might be interested in attending an annual but are not sure about the financial outlay, we would like to welcome you to SASS and help out with a $5 discount coupon for the match. Just send this in with your entry. This discount is available to all shooters who joined SASS in 2015 or 2016.

2016 New Shooter Coupon

2016 Iron Hero Entry

Please keep in mind that since we are doing all eight stages in a single day, we are limiting entries to 75 shooters. We hope you join us. This is gonna be bigger and better than 2015.

2016 Iron Hero Match

As we mentioned at the Iron Duke match earlier this month, in 2016 we plan to continue the Iron Hero tradition with an eight stage, one day match to push everyone’s skills and stamina in a fun, different cowboy action shooting match. The theme for this year is:

Randolph Scott

All eight stages will be based on Randolph Scott movies, and each stage will be based on a different scene from a different movie, complete with a starting line being a movie line from that scene.

The movies chosen for the 2016 match are:

  • Jesse James
  • Comanche Station
  • Decision at Sundown
  • Colt .45
  • Rage at Dawn
  • 7th Cavalry
  • Ride Lonesome
  • Wagon Wheels

Preparations have already begun. We are planning on using even more buildigns and props, and we are also planning on using the new hotel that we built as well. 

The tentative date has been set for October 15, 2016, and as last year, in order to get everyone through the match in a day, the limit is set at 75 shooters. As a thank you to new members of SASS, we are offering a $5 discount on the match fees to anyone that is a new member of SASS in 2015 or 2016. By the end of November, once the park schedule is finalized for 2016, we will have entry forms and the discount coupons available. Get your entries in early. You don’t want to miss this match. It will be bigger and better than the Iron Duke!

Cost for the match is $50, and that includes lunch and a day with smiles. Entries after September 1 will be $10 more

Let’s Ride!

Thank You to the Iron Duke Sponsors

On behalf of the Platte Valley Gunslingers and Heartland Public Shooting Park, we would like to recognize two of the major sponsors for the Iron Duke cowboy action match that was held over the weekend. Without their assistance, we would have not been able to give the gifts to our shooters, and there were a lot of smiles on the shooters’ faces this past weekend.

hornadylogo273

Hornady was very generous in providing enough hats and coffee cups to allow us to present each of the shooters with one of each when they checked in to receive their shooter packets. We received a lot of positive responses from the shooters when they checked in, and on a chilly Sunday morning in October, I saw more than a few in use on the line in the morning. After the shoot, I also saw a lot of cowboy hats swapped out for Hornady caps as people prepared to go home or back to their hotel rooms. Hornady also provided some metal signs for the random giveaways. Thank you for your generosity, and you made quite a few cowboys and cowgirls smile.

cabelas

Cabelas was another generous sponsor for our shoot. They provided a large number of gift cards, enough to give almost every shooter a gift card to take to their local Cabelas or use online. Everyone that received one of these cards had a wide grin on their face. A couple of the shooters that received a gift card in the random drawing said to me afterward that they loved the gift cards because it allowed them to get what they wanted instead of just some trading stock for the closet. Your generosity was greatly appreciated.

We really appreciated the way these sponsors came out to support the cowboy club, along with all the other shooting sports they support at this venue, and we are lucky to have two local companies that are as supportive of Heartland Public Shooting Park as they are. Thank you again, and we look forward to partnering with you again next year if possible.

We would encourage all those that appreciate the generosity of these two fine companies to thank them by purchasing their products and services

Iron Duke Match is in the Books

On behalf of the Platte Valley Gunslingers, I would like to thank all of you that took the time to come out to our first annual in several years, and we hope the keep the hero theme going each year. With this being my first year as match director, and with limited help, we sincerely hope that you had fun. Our goal was to put on a fun and different shoot that had something for all skill levels and shooting styles. I saw a lot of grins on the range today, so I hope we succeeded.

I felt like I had a lot to learn going into the match, but I tried to learn what to do (and not to do) from other annuals that I have attended, and I hope you all return and bring friends next year as we try to make the match even better. Please don’t forget about the coupons I put in your shooter packets. One is for you, a $10 discount on next year’s match entry for any shooter registered for this year, and the other is a $5 coupon to pass on to a new shooter who registered for SASS in 2015 or 2016. I wanted to give new shooters a little incentive to maybe try an annual without committing the expense and nervousness of a multi-day for their beginning SASS experience.

It was great to also get to spend some time with friends that geography typically makes it difficult to do, as well as to meet some new friends along the way. Also, I wanted to give a special thank you to the shooters. Having the shooters vote to give me the Spirit of the Duke award meant the world to me.

We did not have a ton of shooters, but it was great to see the variety of shooters that did come. We hosted shooters from the following states:

  • Nebraska
  • Kansas
  • Colorado
  • Iowa
  • Wyoming

The final results were as follows:

Iron Duke Match Details

Iron Duke Category Results

Our park superintendent’s wife thought the cowboy targets needed some bandannas:

IMG_0043

A view of some shooters on The Alamo stage:

IMG_0045

Gathering the shooters together for a photo after the awards:

IMG_0044

Thanks again for coming! The shooters were all fantastic and thanks to their hard work and stepping up to keep the posses running smoothly, we actually finished over two hours ahead of schedule

September Monthly Shoot

Our numbers ere down quite a bit, as a lot of our regular members were at Gunsmoke having a ball, but we had beautiful cool weather for the group that did show up to shoot. We were also blessed with a couple of visitors who stopped by to learn about cowboy shooting and they seemed to have a blast and it sounds like they may be joining us next year

This was our last monthly shoot before the Iron Duke, and thanks to all that came out. We used the ticket office, the saloon, and the cave for this shoot

Results for the match are as follows:

match finaltt Main Match 09192015

match final extrastt6 Main Match 09192015

Iron Duke-Who’s Coming

I have received some questions about who is coming to the Iron Duke. Now we have a small group so far, but no matter what, we are gonna have a blast. If you were on the fence about this match, we still have room for you. If you are still planning on coming, please contact me to let me know the entry is coming.

Current Who’s coming list:

  • Skid Roper
  • Major Art Tillery  
  • Two Gun Papa
  • Shalako Wray
  • Grizzly Dave
  • Panhandle Kate
  • Sandhiller
  • Flint Hills Dawg
  • Black Jack Ketchem
  • Buick MacKane
  • Calico Mary
  • Bulldog Brown
  • Young’s Angel
  • Richie Reno
  • Pit Mule
  • Dog Man
  • Fence Cutter
  • Stirrup Trouble
  • Dalton Masterson
  • D.B. Belle
  • Travelin’ Travis
  • Shady Willie Brown
  • Platte Valley Kid

We have some unique stages planned, and hope you all enjoy them. Tentative posse lists are completed and will be released when we get closer to the date in case they need to change due to additional shooters.