Shootout at Cavern Cove 2023

April 29, 2023

With so many cowboy matches being done over the years, there is really only a few pieces of source material that haven't been done before is a theme for a major match.

Barkeep Casey and I being the ever so imaginative ones went back and tried to find some source material that had never been done before at a cowboy match. That's when we stumbled upon the idea of Stagecoach!

Based on the 1980 comedy spoof Airplane!, the source material was one of my favorites, and I've seen it numerous times. It was one of those movies that sometimes would be played late on a Saturday night, back when we only had four television stations available to us at night. I hope that we've pulled off the underlying thematics of the movie very well. What makes this even funnier is that we are spoofing a movie that in itself was a spoof of another movie.

When putting the shooter's book together, I was struggling to come up with the cover. I had one already done, and it was good. But it wasn't great. That's when I stumbled on a piece of artwork. We use the full artwork on some of the promotion material that went out before the match, but as I was doing edits to the book, I stumbled upon what ended up being the final version of the cover. The zoomed in look at the source subject that ended up being the final version really portrays the theme as well as the original poster for the movie.

As far as the match goes, this is as big and close as we've ever done. I say that knowing that a month prior to the match, a whole host of new 18x24 targets and stands were delivered to the range. These new additions are only made possible by the attendance and support that we've received from Shootout and Ambush over the years.

The awards are special this year as well. I was sitting on the couch one afternoon sketching out and idea for the awards. I sent a text to Barkeep Casey not knowing that he was searching for information on creating new awards as well. We took my idea and digital design, and his execution knowhow and labor, and came up with one of the best awards for state champions that this club has ever done. I hope y'all like them as well as we like putting them together.

For those of you who do not keep up with me on Instagram, or follow the news of the North Alabama Regulators, you may be surprised when you find out that this match is the last one for me to put together. I hope it ends up being as good as I planned it to be, and I appreciate you all being there.

Perhaps this change for me will help free up some time for some other things that I've neglected over the past several years. But, no matter what happens, I hope to see you out there on The Firing Line.