History:

The first cowboy action shoot in southern IL was held in Carterville May 24, 1997. "Yodeling Cowboy" of Chester who deals in guns was in my store March or April of '97 and saw my original 2nd generation Colt .45 and ask if "Metropolis" and I shot cowboy action? I said I would love to but didn't think there were any being held anywhere within 200 miles of us. He gave me Wounded Knees phone number in Carterville, IL and said they were going to have one soon.  I called Wounded Knees and he sent me a schedule of their first four Cowboy Shoots starting with the one in May mentioned above. I'll never forget that shoot.  I shot my 7 1/2" Colt, the original, a Winchester '92 in 38WCF and my grandfathers old Belgian hammer double barrel. Back then there was one class. We all shot one side arm, and most of the handguns were Ruger Blackhawks.
Well "Metropolis" went with me, because his brother, who was going to shoot with me, had just died of an massive heart attach days before the shoot. "Metropolis'"  blood pressure was so high he was not able to shoot.  I also remember shooting one stage "clean" and in 22 seconds flat and won that stage. I was hooked! Well we had so much fun that summer, that "Metropolis" and I talked the Metropolis gun club into letting us host a few shoots at their Club and our first shoot in Metropolis, IL was September 13th 1997. I know the dates because of the little tags we all gave out from the start.