Tulsa Red Castle Gun Club

[glen ring]

I want to take the time to thank all the gentlemen that were at the Tulsa Red Castle Gun Club's small-bore rifle Silhouette match Saturday. The match was ran efficiently,the facilities were clean, everyone was a gentleman and we had a great time. No big deal to most of us, but a BIG deal to a new shooter.
My wife didn't start shooting competitively until she was 50 years old. A couple of years ago I purchased a Kimber .22 and put a Leupold scope on it. I always wanted to shoot silhouette and we found a silhouette match in another state and drove a few hours to that match. We are very safe with firearms and took the match slowly watching everyone else to familiarize ourselves with the process . We help set targets and always stay and help with the clean-up. One person at the out of state match a couple of years ago was obviously having a bad day and after a few comments from that person we left in the middle of the match and have never shot with that group again. I'm old/experienced enough to not let one person having a bad day make me walk away, but it did and my wife didn't want to go back either. She was done with silhouette after seeing this while deciding if she wanted to take up this sport with me. I put the Kimber in storage for a couple of years.
Saturday I talked my wife into going to Tulsa Red Castle and shoot the match with me. She was apprehensive, and closely watched everyone's reaction after every bank of mostly missed animals ( hers and mine). Everyone was a gentlemen and made the experience a very positive one. She will go back and so will I. I think that 99.9 % of all shooters are ladies and gentlemen.The 1/10th of 1 % that aren't can turn off a new shooter.

[GTKF]

Glen

Sorry to hear of your first bad experience with SB and glad the second was a positive one. In my experience, shooting 5 matches a month, in the NY, NJ, PA area, I have only seen positive comments to new competitors. It seems the regulars always go out of their way to make a new shooter comfortable and welcome. as you say, it's unfortunate one shooter having a bad day can have a negative effect on our sport

[CWS]

Sometimes lemons can turn into lemondade... Several years ago while our daughters were still both pretty young, we stopped at The Whittington Center on our way thru Raton... not to shoot but to just see what was going on. Seems they were having the first (and possibly last) "Kenyathlon" where the participants run and shoot dangerous game rifles and loads at various ranges / angles / targets. We stopped and tried to visit. The main starting place was on the hi-power rifle course and the runners went out from there... returning looking like they'd had a full day. We started asking the obvious questions... what guns? calibers? times? scores? leaders? etc.... In return we got cold stares and monosyllabic answers. If someone turned up on a silhouette range asking half those questions they'd be pressed into shooting someones pet Anschutz while listening to the history of the sport. We finally gave up and asked one last question... how in hell do you expect this sport to advance when so much space is required to run it? Answer: Oh, there's a smallbore version of it that you could run on a small scale... "they're" running one now up on the smallbore silhouette range'. Knowing where THAT was, we drove up there... whereupon our daughters got to meet the guy who designed the whole deal... Finn Aagard. A consummate gentleman of the old school who promptly ran our preteen daughters thru the course while providing explanations, encouragement, and expertise. If we hadn't been willing to put up with the @$$holes, we'd have never met Mr Aagard.

[Boyd L.]

Wow!! Finn Aagard. One of my favorite writers.

Unfortunately the minority (@$$holes ) can color the rest of the world's opinions of us. If they were only as important as they thought

Glen, I'm glad you and the missus have gotten past them.

[Innocent]

Glen,
Sorry you all had a bad experience first time around, and I'm glad you went to try again. Most of the folks I have met from the Tulsa group are a fine bunch.
Yes there are times some spoil the fun for others, but we are a great group for the most part....unless of course you are from OZ, then they are a whole 'nother crowd with their pink bags for CLA. LOL
Innocent

[glen ring]

99 .9 % of all shooters are truly nice folks. There are always those that go above and beyond to promote the sport. Mark at Tulsa red castle and James Slusher of Van Buren Arkansas are two that come to mind. The guys in pink from down under are an interesting group. I will bring some Bar-B-Q sauce from Oklahoma to the Lever Action Nationals for them to sample.

[Innocent]

Glen,
I doubt they will bring you any Marmite!!! If they do, send it my way.

Innocent

[glen ring]

Innocent

I don't know what that is, but if they bring it you can have it. I'm a country boy and not well traveled .

[Innocent]

Glen,
It is yeast extract made from the left over stuff in the beer vats.

Good.

Innocent

[glen ring]

Innocent

That sounds nutritious and tasty! I'll give it a try sometime. I had friends that lived their lives like Cheech and Chong so I'm a little cautious about ingesting something I'm not familiar with. The 60's and 70's were interesting.

[Innocent]

On toast with a little butter, a bit salty for some but I like it. Full of vitamin B, it can actually be found in the US in some specialty stores.

Innocent

[Kess]

Glen,
Thanks for such a complimentary post...seems totally out-of-character for me to be referred to as a gentleman...more often as a curmudgeon!! Seriously, all of us 'regulars' appreciate your candor and hope you and your wife will join us for future matches. Email Mark Gray for the gate code.
Ed Kessey

[Leadlobber]

Glenn, thanks for the kind words .... we will try to get the turkeys to settle down before the next match.

For those interested in shooting a match in Tulsa check out tulsaredcastlegunclub.com thanks Mark

[ldholton]

sorry our bunch from mo. missed the first match of the year but will get there a lot this year we have all been building and redoing several new guns this year . mark keep up the the good work when we get back there we will help you any way we can as always larry

[tulsatime]

Glen

It was great to see you and your wife at our shoot. You have always been a good competitor and we are very happy you drive up to spend time with us casting lead into the wind. THe Tulsa guys are awesome and have been for the past 5 years I have been coming. I have really enjoyed taking my twins to the matches for the last 3 years. They are now 9 and everyone has been so good to them...especially Mr. Mark.

I sure hope to see you this coming May 1st and bring your wife back. I hope we get some great weather again.

Will