We made Faribault, MI on Tuesday evening and settled in for the next 4 days of shooting the SASS Mid West Regional – Gunsmoke.

Morristown is just a stones throw away and home to Ahllman's gun store and range facilities.

The Cedar Valley Vigilantes have an awesome range setup with permanent facades for every stage and a banquet hall accommodating around 500 people.

Wednesday we sat in on Lassiter's seminars on stage writing and gunsmithing. Whilst some of it was a confirmation of how we knew things were done, I certainly got a lot of other good information from these.

The 'Buffalo Hunt' side match was on so we both had a go at that which was interesting without the larger calibre rifle but good fun regardless and although we didn't shoot Wild Bunch this time, it looked like they had a great turn out for that.

Thursday was side match day. We did side matches in the morning and warm up in the afternoon which is always good for getting back to match pace and sorting out any issues……like bent levers etc.

Friday was main match day! Bring it on! All the ladies attending had their photo taken for LOCAS (Ladies of Cowboy Action Shooting) then it was on to safety briefing and getting stuck in to the first 6 stages.

A few of the sequences were strange to say the least, really made you think, they didn't particularly flow and surprised there weren't more procedurals than what we had – speaking for our posse alone. It would be interesting to interpret the match data afterwards.

As I mentioned earlier, the range looks fantastic, the targets were great and not oversized with a good mix of shapes that still made you aim even though they were close. There was plenty of movement and run down scenarios. There was enough allowance for staging, re-staging, start positions, choice etc. Some weren't particularly happy or that it was not like previous years of Gunsmoke but Jack and I thoroughly enjoyed it and would come back again.

Saturday we finished out the match with the final 6 stages to a clean match for me and a dang 'and 1' for Jack!

We had an awesome Posse led by our Posse Marshal's – Medicine Creek Johnny and Jailmaker, rounded out with Shameless Hussie, Belle Vaquera, Billy Broncstomper, Wild Horse John, Trigger Happy Ted, Misty Rider, Wicker Nash, Parson Pete, Seneca Kid, Tame Bill, The Brisco Kid, Kiamichi Queen, Marshal Fire, Bloodhoof John, Cardiac Kate, the ever entertaining Owl Eyed Olga, and O.E. His lovely wife (and I apologise for not remembering her name) and Jailmakers wife Heidi were our resident scorers for the match.

We had great weather all weekend. The Friday night and Saturday night dinners were great and the awards presentation Saturday, with its PowerPoint presentation was well organised! No missing hearing names for categories when you can see it up on the screen!

Congratulations to all shooters who won and placed in their categories!

Jack placed 3rd in his category. Congratulations Silver Senior 1st Place and Mid West Regional Champion Don Jorge, 2nd Riverview Rattler, 4th Creek, 5th Faygo Kid, 6th Half Fast Len, 7th Jack Pine Jerry, 8th Free Bird and 9th Buck Skunk.

I finished 1st in Lady Wrangler with a big congratulations to Belle Vaquera in 2nd Place and the Mid West Regional Champion!! LeAnnie Oakley 3rd, Daisy Ann 4th, Bucksanna 5th

Your 2017 SASS Mid West Regional champions went to Billy The Avenger and Pious Player! Congratulations!

The Men's and Ladies Overall Winners this year for Gunsmoke 2017 were Billy The Avenger and myself, Kathouse Kelli! Thank you to Logos Leather for the fabulous stools and water jug!

Happy trails!

Kat xo

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