Wisconsin Cowboy Fast Draw Championships
Posted at: 07/16/2012 9:12 PM
| Updated at: 07/18/2012 11:30 PM
By: Laura Kennedy
lkennedy@wdio.com
Some of the best guns in the Midwest squared off with targets on Sunday, fingers dangling patiently over their holsters.
Welcome to the world of Cowboy Fast Draw. All you need is a gun, quick reflexes, and unflappable nerve.
"It's downright addicting. Once you start doing it, you're just hooked," said Lori "Dusty Bottoms" Adrihan, a member of the Black River Bandits.
The Black River Bandits have hosted the Wisconsin State Championships in Superior for the past three years. Cat Mattson got it going back in 2009.
"This is our largest year. We had 61 shooters from quite a few different states," Mattson said.
At the end of the elimination rounds, there were just two guns left standing. Dean Storms, the "Beaver Creek Kid" from Winter, South Dakota, and Adrihan, representing the hometown club.
"I'm lucky. I'm awful lucky," Storms said. "I've had a lot of good help with this and everybody is friends. We say shooting is a bonus."
"I tell you what, I was going for it with all my heart," Adrihan said. "But you never can tell. it's a very day-by-day sport. Just to keep it in Wisconsin for the women is great."
When titles are at stake, concentration is a shooter's biggest asset.
"We all have our little rituals we do on the line. A little check system we go through," Adrihan said. "You just gotta focus in. You have to control your emotions in this sport very much."
But even in the heat of competition, friendships come first.
"It's wonderful. These people are all really just a cowboy family," Mattson said,
Because they know there's always another chance for victory down the road.
"I hope we're shooting this until we're 90," Storms said. "And maybe after that."
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