Front Range IDPA

a friend of Bill Wilson and an IPSC shooter from "way back". Michael is a

writer, speaker, etc. and has authored the biographies of many country and

western stars and one of Bill Wilson's .45 Auto books. With myself following

Range IDPA (actually, as Front Range got it's start!), I can't

remember if we went to the invitational before or after holding our first

match at Golden Gun Club, but I do remember the first match was an

extravagant affair (OK, not really), and nobody showed up! Really!!

I think it was May (1997?) and we had a snowstorm that was just bitter

cold. Michael's significant other and her brother were the only other people

there besides Michael and I. We shot maybe ten shots between taking our

hands out of our pockets just long enough to get frost bite.

The next match (our "real" first match) was quite a bit more successful!

We actually had shooters (maybe five or six?) and ran an honest to goodness

match. I don't remember if Michael attended or not, but I can't recall him

being there for that one and his rareness at subsequent matches gained him

the legendary status as an imaginary person that I made up to take the blame

for screw ups. Coincidentally, he still serves in this capacity and does a

fine job of it, if I might add! Michael did come to the matches when he was

in the area and I still remember one of the matches that he brought stop

watches to use as timers for the shooters. We yelled "stop" or "stick 'em

up" or some other silly thing I can't (or don't want to) remember clearly as

There were some safety "problem child's" back then, so the stop watch

sometimes didn't get "stopped" immediately after the shooter was finished

(due to hitting the deck while avoiding the muzzle of a loaded gun!) It was

my decision early on (after my third face plant at this match) that we would

do whatever it took to acquire some timers that would eliminate the

ambiguity of officiating the shooters time, while allowing us range officers

(the term "Safety Officer" had yet to be coined) to comfortably and quickly

"eat dirt" whenever a muzzle found its way to our side (often enough that we

considered buying a riot shield and a catchers face mask to curb the clubs

mounting dental bills related to the RO face plants - just kidding.)

shot the original matches at Golden Gun Club, having to stop the Rifle

firing line in order to go downrange to score targets, getting comments from

the rifle shooters to the effect that "well we're shooting down that way,

not towards you guys, why do we have to stop?" (the rifle and pistol lines

at GGC are facing the same direction down range with no separation berms.)

Since we really only had one range to set up courses on and the fact that

the GGC would not address some safety issues we had, was half way to bloody

Kansas, and was just not conducive to pistol matches, we decided that

greener pastures should be sought with all diligence. We looked at a few

opportunities, but nothing really raised it's head as an "ideal" range.

Then, with Michael being a "fixer" more than a runner of things, and with

the help of one of our earliest shooters, he found Northern Colorado Rod and

Gun Club North of Ft. Collins (still a hekuva long ways away) whom were very

receptive to having us there - unlike most of the other organized ranges we

approached - and they gave us a day to have the range all to ourselves to

The range at Owl Canyon is still not set up with separate berms or

shooting bays, but it's a far cry from what we had and the range has been

very supportive and pretty much "hands off, let them do their own thing".