Cowboy shooting returns to Lincoln with CMSA Northern Mountain Region Finals

The Lincoln Rodeo Grounds once again played host to the Treasure State Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association as they brought the Northern Mountain Region Finals to town last weekend.

Michael Emch, the president of the Treasure State CMSA, said the finals are the biggest competition of the year for them. It brought in riders from Washington, Idaho and Montana as well as Utah, Texas and even one or two from Canada.

He said this is the first year they've brought the finals to town, after about four years of having shoots here.

"Our first year (in Lincoln) we expected a small group and it ended up being over 20 some riders, and it's grown since then," he said.

Emch, who's originally from Columbus, has spent most of his time in the Fairfield and Augusta area, but has also cowboyed at ranches in the Lincoln area, so he knows the area well.

"I know it's a great community," he said. "It has fairly dependable weather and it's just a great group of people. You guys invite us in and make us feel at home; down at the restaurants and stuff they take good care of us."

Cowboy mounted shooting is now the fastest growing equine sport in the nation, Emch said. That may be in part because it gives riders more than one chance to perform at their best.

"In a lot of other equine sports if you mess up , you go home. Here, if you mess up, you got another round," he said. "You're here all weekend. You don't just pack up and leave."

For Joe Hartkopf, a saddlemaker and leather craftsman who has been involved in cowboy action shoots for 18 years, it's a competition, but of a more laid back variety.

"It's all about friendship, camaraderie and good horses," he said.

The events are also very family friendly, both to watch and take part in, Emch said

"We take care of the kids," he said. "We have wrangler classes they can participate in as well."

Wrangler classes let the kids run the patterns so they can learn to draw and "shoot" at the balloons with dry guns. Once they reach the age where they can begin firing blanks, at about 12 years old, they know how to ride and use their guns safely.

Although the events include rifle and shotgun classes, the primary gun for the shooters is the classic single action revolver in .45 Long Colt. The riders fire blanks loaded with coarse black powder that can engage a balloon out to 20 feet, Emch said.

"No cornmeal, no shot, no nothing. It's just black powder, it's projected out, it hits the balloon and burns a hole in it, and that's it," he said.

Nevertheless, the fire arms are fully functional and capable of firing regular rounds, but he said not many shooters do that since they often modify the pistols with lighter springs and specific head spacing that accounts for the powder buildup from the blanks.

Hartkopf, who had probably been in the Cowboy shooting world longer than anyone else at last weekend's finals, said the competitions were started by a man named Jim Rogers in Arizona, and really only came to Montana in 1999 with an exhibition in Ennis. At the time, he and his "partner in crime" Bonnie Anderson joined CMSA, they were the 1860th and 1861st members. Today there are more than 16,000 members worldwide.

Hartkopf used his skills with leather to carve out a niche for himself in the Cowboy shooting world by building custom double-ply holsters for the shooters that hold their pistols tight without a retention strap, but also allow for an easy draw.

"I've been in the leather business for 44 years. We got hooked on this sport. Its addicting. So I said 'I've got to make some holsters everybody can use,'" he said.

In his business, Drover's Supply, he's built 1600 sets of holsters.

Emch said they plan to come back to Lincoln for future shoots, and will look at using Lincoln as the site for the Northern Mountain Region Finals more often.