Majura Rangers Phil “Lightning” Black and Craig “El Nacho Bandito” Tregear pose with some of their period-appropriate firearms during weekend practice sessions at the Majura Park SSAA range. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
The jingle jangle of spurs is the first sound that lets you know Canberra’s cowboy action shooters are nearby.
The Majura Rangers, a single-action cowboy shooting club within the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA), competes in timed events using period firearms, its members dressed in their finest mid-19th century get-up – and most competing under cowboy names.
Rangers president Craig “El Nacho Bandito” Tregear has been cowboy shooting for 10 years.
“The very first time you shoot a proper stage, you’ll also get pretty humbled,” he says.
Running a stage, a timed event, involves lightning-fast reflexes, four period-appropriate firearms, and at least one cowboy hat.
On Saturdays, El Nacho often runs new members through their paces. A natural teacher, he takes them through all the steps – from safety to loading and firing.
“I love seeing that improvement in people as they’re pushing themselves and as they’re learning.
“Once people get to that point where they are competing, there’s this drive to get faster, to get quicker to feel I know I can beat that guy.”
Craig Tregear runs a first-time shooter through cowboy action. The new gunslinger says he’s definitely keen to come back, describing it as a fantastic experience. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
After they’ve been properly instructed, newcomers are taken through a stage of their own. Though they are a little slower than the old hands.
But when El Nacho demonstrates competition speed, the skill is evident.
On the mark, faster than you can blink, he has a Winchester lever action in hand, putting 10 lead shots into four metal targets.
At the next stop, his pistol – a Colt Peacemaker reproduction – whips up, left hand on the hammer, the rounds zip out to the sharp ringing of metal.
He knocks down two targets, there’s a flash of smoke as the breach opens, and two more cartridges are fired.
And quick as it started, it’s over, the time is checked, and misses are called out.
El Nacho can run the course in under 24 seconds, but he says the national champions can get under 15.
Like a lot of the cowboys, his passion for the sport is infectious and he’s keen to get more people involved.
“Most of our members are very happy to engage with people inside and outside the sport,” he says.
“We’re always happy to talk about what we do and show off our firearms and sell the sport to build that positive exposure to get new members on board.”
Single action isn’t all about the competition for the Rangers. Authenticity is just as important because all shooting has to be performed with period pieces.
Most use reproductions, but some use hundred-year-old heritage pieces.
For Jason “Hawkeye Delgado” Hawk, with his century-old pump-action .45, it’s a way of connecting to a part of his family’s heritage.
“[My] rifle was manufactured in 1916,” Hawkeye says.
“It’s been in the family since my great-grandfather bought it many, many years ago, passed down from him to my grandfather and to my father, and about 18 months ago, my father passed it on to me.”
Jason “Hawkeye Delgado” Hawk carrying his great-grandfather’s rifle is introducing his son Jameson to the sport. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
Hawkeye is often found tinkering with the heirloom; his son jokes he spends more time fixing it than shooting it.
“For me, keeping that gun going is really important, not only for my family heritage, but also my self-pride and my self-worth,” Hawkeye says.
Currently introducing son Jameson to the sport, Hawkeye doesn’t know if the family’s next generation will take to it the way he has. But sharing the experience is nonetheless important.
Majura Rangers attracts a good turnout and strong engagement from its members.
One of the club’s founding members in 1994, “Trooper” is one of the best cowboy shooters in Australia.
“The historical interest for me was a definite factor,” he says.
“I’ve always been interested in history, and the so-called wild west tracks almost exactly with the Australian colonial period.”
Trooper’s watched the sport grow from a few dozen shooters across the country to thousands.
In 1995, 38 shooters contested the national championships; some clubs have now built whole wild west towns for events.
Underlining the sport’s growth, Australia has become somewhat of an outlier on international cowboy circuits after Aussie “Savage Sam” became the first non-American to win the World Cowboy Shooting championship.
When the boards are full of spur-wearing shooters, the sound is like nothing else according to the Rangers.
Trooper’s set to hang up his spurs after decades in the sport. It’s not that he can’t – other cowboys are quick to point out he still shoots faster than most – but the iron sights on the old firearms are a bit tricky for him these days.
“I’m getting older. The eyesight’s not as good.”
But proving you can’t keep an old cowboy down, Trooper still comes by the Saturday club shoots to trade stories and set up for other events he still competes in.
Like all the cowboys, Trooper’s eyes light up describing the sport. But while the thrill of competition attracts them, it seems to be the camaraderie and shared love of history that brings so many back.
Find more information on the Majura Rangers through its social media or the SSAA website.
