A Pilgrimage to End of Trail 2010

by Chauncey Dewey

 

At the request of our web master the following is an account of the pilgrimage of three Powder Creek cowboys to the world championship of CAS, End Of Trail.

This saga began back on a cold wintery day in 2009. Around November of 2009, while preparing to shoot at Powder Creek the casual mention of attending the biggest show of CAS, began with none other than Hondo Tucker, saying that we should attend EOT 2010 in June. The whole idea quickly took hold when Big Dog, hearing this, mentioned he had a RV and would be glad to haul us. From idea to, “we are going”, quickly turned into a possibility. Planning began and a trip to “The Show of CAS” would eventually become reality.

The trip began on Sunday June 20 with the pre-loading of Big Dog’s 38 foot motor home. Now the Dog moves in style and his motor home was nothing but luxury. Pre loading was clothes, guns, ammo, etc that we would need for one week of shooting at Founders Ranch located just outside of Albuquerque New Mexico. This trip would be over 1600 miles down and back from steamy Kansas City to the hot dry desert of New Mexico. The kick off time was 0600 hrs on Monday morning. My wife drove me over to Big Dog’s house that morning and the two of us could only break out in laughter, at with less than 10 minutes to leave time, we rounded the corner, only to see Hondo pacing back and forth waiting for us to arrive. I knew then that this was going to be a fun trip!

By the time we had less than a hundred miles under our belts Hondo was singing “Amarillo By Morning”, every 10 minutes and Big Dog had named us the “The Three Wamego’s”. Toss in Hondo asking every 5 minutes, “are we there yet” and this had the makings of being a fantastic trip! Various other renditions of “Amarillo By Morning” along with many, many, movie quotes made the miles disappear rather quickly. I can tell you that the roads to Albuquerque are anything but smooth but “The Dog” made it happen. That K-9 can herd a 38 foot RV down the road better than a cowboy can punch 2000 longhorns from Texas to Dodge City! Arrival at Founders Ranch finally occurred about fourteen and a half hours after our start time. Pulling into the 480 acre ranch that lies down in a valley was awesome. Seeing the 18 shooting bays that we would work through over the next week gave me goose bumps! With the RV set we were ready for what the next five days of the world class event, EOT, would offer.

Wednesday proved to be a great day after sleeping with all of the windows open and the cool desert air drifting through the RV all night. It was now time to go down and see the town. The town was amazing, canvas tents for vendors, permanent buildings, cowboys healed the whole time; it seemed we had stepped back in time. It was the 1800’s all over again. Hondo attended the RO II class, I, the classic cowboy shotgun class, & Big Dog, well; he just got to know people. I tell you, by the end of EOT everyone knew “The Dog”. That man would make friends with the devil himself! It was amazing to walk the streets and hear “hey Big Dog how are you doing?” from people each side of the street! Roy, Tupe, Holy, & Judge were the terms “Big Dog” was using.

Thursday finally dawned and we were up to shoot early. We had a 7:30 shooting time and we were ready! We headed down to the range, grabbed some breakfast and prepared to shoot our first four stages. What we were amazed at was how big and close the targets were! Powder Creek is a training ground for EOT! The pistol targets were so close you could touch them with your 73 extended out from your hands. The rifle targets were as close as Powder Creek’s pistol targets. Talk about confidence hitting steel!

We got the first day of shooting under our belts and all went well. Big Dog was turning up the heat bringing in great times, Hondo and myself, shooting smooth and clean.

The second day dawned just as the last, cool mornings and warm days. We shot mid-day and again, a repeat of the day before. Another great day of shooting at the world championship of CAS. “The Dog” turned up the heat blistering the stages with his best times. Hondo and I managed to stay smooth and clean for yet a second day. The end of the second day was sweet because we were privileged to go down, and for the small price of $40.00, shoot 20 rounds through an 1874, 45-70 Gatling gun. Now that was a rush! What a joy! If you get the chance to attend EOT make sure you have two $20 bills set aside for this, you will not regret it!

The third and final day dawned bright and cool as had all other previous days. We had the third and final flight for the day. All was going well up until Hondo threw a pistol round and gave up his clean match. The Dog was on fire for day three and turned in his best scores ever, some, down in the 30’s. The day was finally over and we were done. All of us were pleased with our shooting and what we had done at the biggest show ever in CAS.

Sunday dawned clear and bright and all we had do was attend the awards event. The times some of the cowboys turned in was amazing and humbling. This was a world class event and it showed! These were serious competitors that earned the right of taking their class in ten spots. When the dust settled the Powder Creek Cowboys had done OK. Our own Tame Bill managed to come in 3rd in frontier cartridge duelist, Hondo Tucker 13th in gunfighter, myself 14th in classic cowboy, and a clean match to boot. Not a bad showing for all of us the first time at EOT.

With the RV loaded up and ready we headed home to Kansas City. The fourteen hour trip home was not near as exciting as the one down to EOT but we had a lot of sweet memories to chew on as the miles swept by. This will be an adventure we will not forget. If you haven’t experienced EOT then you need to do so. You may only do it once in a lifetime of shooting, but this is a must do adventure. Two finer pards I could not have shared the experience with.

Chauncey Dewey, SASS #72795