# Cowboy Mounted Shooting



## ronfritz (Aug 3, 2014)

It's been a while since I've gone up to Gainesville's Chicopee Ag Center to take some CMS photos but I made the trek yesterday.

Smokey - I talked with the lady in the red hat and she said to say hi to you and Paige.

I came home with nearly 1,800 images.  If the normal ratios apply I'll end up with about 150 shots worth keeping.  Got lots of flames but my favorites are where I can set up at the end of a straight run with rifles because you can see the spent brass flying in the air...sometimes both flame and brass.  And yesterday I got what I think may be a one in a million moment where you can see the burn mark on the balloon but the balloon hasn't broken up yet.

Anyway...I think it's a fun thing to photograph.


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## blood on the ground (Aug 3, 2014)

I bet that is way harder than it looks...


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## Crickett (Aug 3, 2014)

WOW!!!

#5 is my favorite! Love how the gun blast is lighting up the horses face & the cowgirl's hat is flying off!


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## Smokey (Aug 3, 2014)

Crickett said:


> WOW!!!
> 
> #5 is my favorite! Love how the gun blast is lighting up the horses face & the cowgirl's hat is flying off!



Great shots Ron!! Paige and I really miss it but after my hip surgery I just couldn't ride like before and the "good ole boy" politics took away a lot of the fun for us so we decided to ride away from the sport that we loved so dearly. It was very hard to do.

Crickett, though the #5 pic is an awesome photograph, what's going on in the picture is bad for the horse. Look where the red balloon is..straight out in front of the rider. This puts the pistol right beside the the horse's head and ear. I know this particular lady very well and I know that she doesn't normal put ear plugs in her horse's ears (yes, there is a such of thing). Though they're not shooting any kind projectile they still go BOOM!! That's a lot of noise just inches from the horses ear!


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## ronfritz (Aug 3, 2014)

Smokey, when you say politics I'm 100% with you.  I've never enjoyed anything organized, I'm thinking, for that very reason.  Like I  tell my wife...I'm not a joiner.

I did see someone stuffing some ear plugs in their horse's ear but next time I'll have to pay more attention to see how common it is.

I have 50+ (and growing) on flickr if you care to have a look.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjfritz/


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## Crickett (Aug 3, 2014)

Smokey said:


> Great shots Ron!! Paige and I really miss it but after my hip surgery I just couldn't ride like before and the "good ole boy" politics took away a lot of the fun for us so we decided to ride away from the sport that we loved so dearly. It was very hard to do.
> 
> Crickett, though the #5 pic is an awesome photograph, what's going on in the picture is bad for the horse. Look where the red balloon is..straight out in front of the rider. This puts the pistol right beside the the horse's head and ear. I know this particular lady very well and I know that she doesn't normal put ear plugs in her horse's ears (yes, there is a such of thing). Though they're not shooting any kind projectile they still go BOOM!! That's a lot of noise just inches from the horses ear!



I assumed they HAD to use ear plugs for the horses! Poor horse!


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## Hoss (Aug 3, 2014)

Man you got some great shots, Ron.  It was a lot of fun going up there and getting some photos.  Met a few great Woodys folks to boot.  Haven't been up there in a long time.


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## oops1 (Aug 3, 2014)

What pops the balloons if there is no projectile ? Probably a dumb question but I'm no cowboy. Great pics.. Btw


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## mlbfish (Aug 3, 2014)

Awesome action shots.


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## quinn (Aug 3, 2014)

Nice shootin Ron!


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## ronfritz (Aug 3, 2014)

oops1 said:


> What pops the balloons if there is no projectile ? Probably a dumb question but I'm no cowboy. Great pics.. Btw



Hope it's not dumb....I asked the same question the first time I went there.

The short story is they use brass loaded with powder and crimped.  There's most likely more to it than that but this picture illustrates how you can pop a balloon without a projectile.

There's more at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjfritz/


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## Northwestretriever (Aug 4, 2014)

Awesome pictures!


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## oops1 (Aug 4, 2014)

10-4.. Thanks.. Ron


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## Smokey (Aug 4, 2014)

oops1 said:


> What pops the balloons if there is no projectile ? Probably a dumb question but I'm no cowboy. Great pics.. Btw



Yep pretty much what Ron said. We use your normal .45LC brass filled with nothing but black powder and then crimped on the end. The burning embers of the black powder is what pops the balloon. Thus making it a spectator safe sport. The embers reach out to only about 20'. Just because there is no projectile doesn't mean it can't hurt you. I would imagine that at point blank range it would be deadly. During demo's for new riders I've relayed this point by shooting a coke can at point blank range and it nearly tears the can in half.
Here is a picture of the ammo we use.


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## wvdawg (Aug 4, 2014)

Neat shots!  I need to get back out there to one as well.  Always fun trying to capture the perfect moment.
I like the shot of the fireball just hitting the yellow balloon before it pops!


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## rip18 (Aug 5, 2014)

Good ones under tough conditions!  Well done!


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