The Wednesday Between Wednesday and Friday...

...a.k.a. Thursday. Tomorrow I've got to decant my cowboy hat and go to Phoenix to shoot an episode of COWBOYS on Winter Range, the cowboy action shooting national championships. That will actually be fun, and COWBOYS host Richard TEQUILA Young makes it easy. I was actually planning to shoot the match, but reality intruded. You can work or you can shoot. And never the twain shall meet.

I like going to the range and practicing cowboy stuff. A lot of that is the guns. When I was a "real" competition shooter in practical pistol, it was sort of like having a second job, A fun job, but a job nonetheless. Three practice sessions a week, each focusing on a different aspect of practical shooting; dry-firing every evening; a match every weekend. In my spare time, I pulled the lever on a reloading machine. I can probably operate a 1911 in my sleep. I did that seriously for about eight years; haphazardly for another decade or so.

Lately, I've been getting my competition buzz from cowboy action shooting, not because I've always wanted to be a cowboy, but because I really like the hardware. The first gun I ever shot was a .22 single action Ruger; probably the second one was my father's Winchester .30/30 lever action carbine. It's really neat to learn how to manipulate those guns efficiently, as opposed to just shooting them. It's had an effect on my viewpoints about self-defense firearms as well.

For example, I always keep a rifle in the bedroom. I live in a rural area, and I want the option of a powerful, relatively easy to shoot and longer range weapon to complement my self-defense handgun. Previously, that rifle had been an AR-15. A couple of years ago, after starting to work with cowboy guns, I made the decision to change from an AR to a Winchester lever action carbine in .44 Magnum. Here's my rationale:

1) A lever gun is amazingly fast when you know how to manipulate it. Watch an episode of COWBOYS or, if you can, take a class with Tequila or another top cowboy instructor.
2) The .44 Magnum in a rifle is a pussycat; there's very little recoil.
3) I practice regularly with my two regular cowboy rifles, a Marlin Cowboy Competition in .44 Magnum abd a Legacy 1892 carbine clone in .44.
4) More importantly, my Sweetie has takent a shine to cowboy action shooting (Indiana Jackson is her "alias"), so she practices with a lever action rifle. I have no doubt that anyone payijng an unauthorized visit to the ole homestead when I'm not around is in for a BIIIIGGGGG surprise.
5) The .44 Magnum is a more versatile cartridge than the .223...we actually have top-level predators where I live. The bear who lives in the back yard gets testy in the autumn when he's hungry and sleepy. No, I don't think I'm going to have to cap B'rer Bear, but I like to know that I have the option should he decide to traverse the house.
6) As mentioned in passing over the years by both Massad Ayoob and Frank James — two self-defense commentators with brains and experience — if you should ever have to defend yourself in a court of law for a self-defense shooting, which gun would you rather have your attorney show to the jury of your "peers," a scary black "assault weapon" or the gun that John Wayne used?

And that's not to mention the fact that lever action rifles are dirt cheap, totally debugged (heck, this is Civil War technology!) and cool. Just a few thoughts...