Buckskin Lily's Amazing, Fantastic Blog: Bessemer's Jail Break in Casper, WY

Noah & I headed down to Casper, WY last weekend for the Bessemer Vigilance Committee's annual shoot, the Bessemer Jail Break. We had a fantastic time with one of the friendliest clubs we've ever visited. I HIGHLY recommend this club. You need to head on over to shoot with them if you get the chance. We also ran into a couple of old shooting buddies from California: Packin' Granny & Dusty Gray who used to shoot with us at Fish Canyon in Duarte. They live up in Casper now. Small world!!

This was a three-day shoot, but we weren't able to make it for the Friday side matches (I had to work). We left Cody around 3:30 in the afternoon Friday & Noah drove the whole way there in a good, stiff wind. Took us until 7:30 to get there, but we beat the heat. We'd never been to Casper before--we went south through Thermopolis & Wind River Canyon to Shoshoni, then hung a left and drove through 100 miles of nothing but sagebrush and antelope to get to Casper.

We camped at the range in our motor home, which was really handy for us. The cowboy range was really nice with a lot of great permanent structures and spacious, permanent sun shades at each bay. We shot five stages on Saturday & I started out great. My first three stages were clean and fast--I came in first overall on all three. Then...what always happens to me happened again...I lost my focus & started screwing up. Don't know why, but I just can't make it through a full match. My last two stages on Saturday & all five of my stages on Sunday were a roller coaster ride: some were good, some were bad & some were just plain ugly (the minor saftey I got for loading too many rounds in my rifle. UGH!!) But at least I looked good while I was shooting--style points are always important!! I did win best-dressed cowgirl & that's always a kick for me.

Firing my pistol.

Firing my rifle.

Running for my shotgun (see: looking good!!)

Dropping those rounds into my double barrel.

Well...it all worked out in the end anyway. I came in 4th overall, was first woman, and took my class (and I also won best-dressed cowgirl, too!) Noah also came in first in his class. Here we are with our trophies (and a little heat exhaustion--it was 100 degrees on Sunday--we're not used to that kind of weather anymore. We were dyin'!!)