I miss Sagebrush Longshots

[Walt]

I miss the You Tube videos posted under Sagebrush Longshots. They had such great camaraderie and gentle coaching that improved visitors' shooting even beyond their own expectations.

Lots of lever guns and other guns, mostly old and old-design rifles that shot superbly at long distances. Beautiful location, friendly people and gorgeous guns.

[Scott Tschirhart]

What happened to them?

[Walt]

I believe the organizer and property owner whom they called the Captain passed away several years ago and the annual event folded. His first name was Wynn (spelling?)

[AmBraCol]

At least their channel's still there. Most recent video is from 8 months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SagebrushLongshots

[marlinman93]

His name is Wind, and the annual shoots didn't cease after he passed. But covid got in the way, so we had some very small gatherings to avoid the chance of spreading anything at the annual shoots. They didn't happen at all last year because the property owner behind his place moved his cattle down, and it would have made it impossible to shoot past 300 yds.
This year's shoot hasn't happened yet, but will be going forward as the neighbor agreed to wait until after the shoot to have the cowboys move the cattle down for winter range.
Wind was a huge part of most of the new videos, and the driving force behind them also. The Youtube channel still i active, and new videos are added whenever we have another shoot. Hopefully with things eventually getting back to normal they will expand again, be larger events. We used to have about 18 shooters, but during restrictions it was 5 or 6 of us that got together.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Thanks for the update

[Walt]

Yeah, thanks, Marlinman. It'll be good to watch more videos. How many times have you attended and how long ago did Wind pass?

[Streetstar]

His name is Wind, and the annual shoots didn't cease after he passed.

He used to post in here quite a bit IIRC

[AmBraCol]

His name is Wind, and the annual shoots didn't cease after he passed.

He used to post in here quite a bit IIRC

474 posts between 2008 and 2018

[black river smith]

Thanks for the website, never saw this before. Their videos look interesting, just from scanning through the 12yr timeframe. Will be watching them.

[yooper2]

I used to correspond with Wind about wood boats and he helped me out when I first started shooting 38-55 in BPCR. Very nice guy and I very much regret not making a trip out west to meet him. It's great that you guys are still getting together and doing some long range shooting out there.


Eric

[AJMD429]

.
A reminder that we all need to do a better job of recruiting and interesting young people to the shooting sports.

I realized over the past few years that several of my closest shooting buddies had either passed away, or were no longer mobile. Sometimes it can be hard to relate to someone a third my age, but if we both share the interest in shooting guns, it crosses a lot of bridges.

The people who are the age I was 40 years ago are going to be the ones running things for the next few decades, especially the ones most likely to share stuff on the internet. We need to get and keep them interested. Not just for the sport and fun of it, but gun owners are the best Second Amendment advocates most of the time.

[marlinman93]

It's an over used saying, but they truly broke the mold after Wind came out. I never met anyone who was so nto shooting, and so tickled to help others, and get them involved in shooting. I can't recall how many times I watched someone who was new to shooting past 100 yds. and he'd sit them down and put a rifle in their hands, and 10 minutes later they were ringing steel at distances they could barely see with iron sights.
His annual Happenz get togethers were the coolest shooting event I ever attended, and such a fun thing to be part of. We've done about a dozen years of them, and besides being fun to shoot, they are wonderful social get togethers! Everyone camps around his place, and we shared cooking and eating together for about 5-6 days each year. No competition at all, just people enjoying shooting long-range, and enjoying watching others shoot long-range too. You could never sit down to shoot, and not have 2 or 3 guys help by spotting for you.
Wind was an excellent judge of character, and through these annual shoots I've met many guys I now call long time good friends. He just seemed to attract people who had good hearts, and were fun to be around.
I'm going to have to miss this year's event as I have family commitments, but I'll sure be thinking about the guys, and missing the fun! I miss Wind more than words can express, but I have such good memories of him, and so much to thank him for.

This is one of my favorite of the videos shot there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vln5EP0 ... hLongshots
When he sent this video to me I about fell over laughing! I immediately picked up the phone and called to talk about the unbelievable shot!

Me shooting my .40-85 Pacific:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC7ie0m ... hLongshots

And all the Sagebrush Longshots videos:
https://www.youtube.com/c/SagebrushLongshots/videos

[Walt]

Thank you again, marlinman! I don't know what sort of occupation Wind retired from but he was unquestionably a teacher and a fine one. And a heck of a shot as well. A very charismatic gentleman, he had a positive influence on a lot of shooters.

[marlinman93]

Thank you again, marlinman! I don't know what sort of occupation Wind retired from but he was unquestionably a teacher and a fine one. And a heck of a shot as well. A very charismatic gentleman, he had a positive influence on a lot of shooters.

Wind was a Captain of a large sailing yacht that people chartered for trips. But he also owned a business doing custom woodworking in large boats, and was a very talented woodworker. I told him one time he should have done voice work for Hollywood as he had such a commanding voice. He said he once had a guy hand him a business card who was an agent and wanted him to do voice work, but he never pursued it.

[Bill in Oregon]

Vall, didn't you once post drawings for making those wonderful shooting sticks that Wind designed?

[marlinman93]

Vall, didn't you once post drawings for making those wonderful shooting sticks that Wind designed?

No, but I did once post dimensions for the various pieces, parts, and hole spacings. The big issue in recreating Wind's sticks is the hardware. Some of it he made, and some was purchased; but not sure where he bought the hardware?