Old Fort Parker, Groesbeck, TX

Not many Australian's could claim they have shot out of an 1836 Fort block house and today this became reality for Jackaroo and I.

'On May 19th, 1836, a band of Indians came to Parker's Fort asking for beef, water and a place to camp. When greeted by the Parker's the Indians attacked, taking five captives! The most famous of these was 9 year old Cynthia Ann Parker. She was adopted by a Comanche family, grew up to marry Chief Peta Nocona and later gave birth to the last great Warrior Chief of the Comanche's, Quanah Parker' (as quoted from the Old Fort Parker web page)

By the way, Cynthia Patker is buried in Lawton, Oklahoma.

For the start of Senior Games (being held at Old Fort Parker hosted by the Old Fort Parker Patriots) we attended Long Range in the block house. How cool is that! We borrowed a 30-30 and ammo – thanks Kow Katcher and Bent Barrel Betty and then had a go at the 45-70 single shot, longest barrel I've ever seen, rifle and had a ball! 4 from 5 shots on each rifle. Got to be happy with that.

So below this is the block house.

And this is the view from the port where we shot. See the far white targets, right in the back of the picture? The hanging 'sight' target and then the two squares and the circle? That's what we were shooting at across the whole range.

Then after this we waited for rain to cease before Wild Bunch and side matches could begin. As luck would have it, it did, and we were able to complete 4 stages and the side matches with only very muddy surrounds but no extra rain!