By Chris le Roux

Take any man or woman who is wild at heart. Mix ‘em with armloads of a genre commonly known as Western novels. Sprinkle gently with a tin sheriff badge, a pair of worn-out cowboy boots with spurs, and a belt buckle sporting a longhorn cow. Flavour the mixture with a .50 or .54 muzzleloader rifle and/or a .44 1860 Army Colt revolver. Add some imagination and a lot of research and Mister, you’ve got yourself a member of the Pioneer Creek Rangers club. Yeah, we’re actually a black powder shooting club, but the cowboy scene adds some adventure and living a childhood dream.

May I warn you wanna-be cowboys and cowgirls out there: get yourself a handle, a name to go by or else we’ll give you one. We have some interesting characters down at the coral. There’s Reverend Quigley, Lightning Jack, Outlaw Josey Wales (the fastest gun south of the Jukskei River), Billy the Kid (a kid of 12 who can throw a tomahawk like an injun), Cripple Horse (the one with the wooden leg), Dead Eye Harry (the one with the glass eye), Canon Joe, Yankee (the Blue Coat General) and many more. Oh yes, there is also the Mex, who calls himself Pablo and a mountain man who goes by the name of The Buckskin Kid. A wild bunch, I’m telling ye.

On a more serious note now, partner, the Pioneer Creek Rangers club started in 2004 and is a club for deregulated black powder weapons as well as weapons from the cowboy era, such as the 1873 Colt revolver or the 1874 Sharps rifle. This includes rifles and shotguns, revolvers and pistols from the era ranging between the early 1800s and 1880. This was mainly the era of the cowboys, mountain men and so-called Indians. Indeed the stuff one reads about in Louis L’Amour’s novels. The club activities are well regulated and when we meet twice a month, safety is our main concern, with well-trained range marshals taking charge. Newcomers to the faith can obtain good advice on what kind of weapon to buy, since the owner of NSN Arms in Silverton is one of the key figures in the club. Why not visit the shop in Dykor Street, 269 Silverton or call Johan at 012 8044693.

Our club venue at the Eeufees Military Range (just south of Eeufees Road, opposite the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria) caters for rifles with its 100-metre shooting range. Part of our clubhouse serves as an indoor range where fast-drawing gunslingers can test their skill (with wax bullets, of course) against electronic timing devices.

A typical club gathering on a Saturday morning starts with a cowboy breakfast of beans and coffee. After the Reverend has said grace (“Bless, oh Lord, ‘em beans and coffee, ‘cause that’s all we have. Amen”), we dig into the grub piled up on our tin plates. Then it’s time to burn some powder, chat, learn from each other and have a good time. Club rules are strictly adhered to throughout the morning and only afterwards and clear of the shooting range are we allowed something to clear the dust and powder from our throats.

If you have some of the stuff that goes into the recipe given above you are welcome to join us. It’s an adventure and it’s safe. My ‘ol Pappy used to say, “A gunslinger is just a friend you do not know”.

Updated: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 1:53 PM