Midwest Rangers  Mounted Shooting Club
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SASS Mounted Shooting - Old West Reenactment - Trail Riding - Camping - Old West Adventures

Club History

(click on flyer to enlarge)

These flyers are from the first Mounted Shoots that were scheduled in Illinois

The Midwest Rangers was originally formed by club founder Rob Arntzen of Winnebago, IL. He was at Winter Range in 1996 shooting the SASS Nationals when he saw the CMSA Nationals going on at the far end of the range.  The following are passages from an interview with Club Founder, Rob Arntzen:

"I was attending Winter Range in Phoenix, Arizona in Feb 1996. It was the SASS national championships and it was my first big SASS shoot. I drove my Suburban with tent and gun cart out there by myself and camped in the desert near a big cactus. I shot the SASS match with a bunch of guys from Illinois and others. On Friday, the second day of the shoot, I discovered these guys
at the far end of the range shooting on horseback. I spent a good deal of time watching. Since it wasn't far, I went back a number of times. Near the end of the day, I got to talking with Gentleman Joe Whitley. I showed him photos of my horses and asked him if anyone rented horses so I could try it. He said no one would lend out a horse. We talked some more and I finally said I didn't think I'd want to risk ruining my horses with this and probably wouldn't try it. That was when he asked if I wanted to try it now. They had just finished for the day so he put me on his horse, Sundance and had me ride the pattern to see if I could ride. It was the most daring riding I had ever done but I pulled it off. Then he had me ride it with empty guns. On the third run thru, he loaded the guns and that was what hooked me. I had Joe use my camera and get some photos of me shooting. I gave him a full camera and told him to shoot the whole roll. I hit 9 balloons on my first run and had never been so exited ever. We talked a number of times over the weekend and I met Jim Rogers and CMSA Vice Pres JJ Peel. I told them I'd go home to Illinois and start a mounted club. JJ said that was great because they were hoping to get a club on the East Coast. So, I drove home and started the first East Coast club here in Rockford."

Additional excerpt: "I have known Pierce since high school. I came home from Arizona (Feb 1996) and told Pierce "This is what we are going to do" and showed him the photos of me in Arizona. So we started. Pierce was keeping his two horses at the barn next to where I was keeping mine. We met George at a SASS match in Rockford (March 1996) and invited him out riding after the match. George didn't have a horse but was exercising horses weekly and helping out at a barn in Naperville. "


"I made a deal with Pierce that I would teach him about shooting if he taught me about riding. When we made the deal we never thought we would be doing both at once."

Rob founded the first CMSA club east of Texas - name of club at that time was NIMS - Northern Illinois Mounted Shooters.

 "At that point the entire east half of the nation was our territory and I had prospects as far as Virginia on our mailing list. I picked up these long range prospects as I traveled to other shooting matches (real bullets/no horses) around the country."

 NIMS first shoot was June of 1996 and was rained out. The first shoot that actually happened was July followed by Hell’s Hinges in September (this is also a SASS shoot) and then the Halloween shoot in Oct. 1996. The four charter members of NIMS are Rob Arntzen, Pierce Barker III, George Irick and Jeff Rydin. The club’s membership quickly grew as this great new equestrian sport was introduced to the Midwest. As the club’s membership grew to cover an area of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin the club’s name was changed to The Midwest Rangers. 

"In March '97, I met Don Burress at Festival of the West. I loaned him my rental horse so he could ride around a bit. I tried to convince him to start something in Indiana and he wanted to but he didn't actually do anything for a couple of years."
 

"At the 1998 World Shoot in Scottsdale, Frank Turben came to me and introduced me to Dick Ulen from Ohio. Frank said that Dick wanted to start a club in Ohio and he wanted me to go over the process with Dick and help him get started. I sat Dick down at my motorhome dinette and went over the details with him. He went back to Ohio and started the 1st Ohio CMSA club. Dan App was one of his first members. Although Dick has retired from leadership of 1st Ohio, he and I have stayed close over the years. "

We are a club that truly does all the aspects of mounted shooting. We have our CMSA point competition shoots; we love to play at the Wild West Reenactments. We also have a show team that performs as a Wild West show team at fairs, rodeos, etc. We are a strong social club. We schedule our shoots at places where we can go trail riding. We schedule our annual club trip around CMSA shoots (such as Deadwood, SD) and then stay for a week of riding, sightseeing, etc. We always try to have a Saturday night pot luck (at our shoots) around the campfire where we spin tall tales, brag about the day’s shoot, listen to one of our favorite member’s cowboy poetry (Bill Pugh from Bruce, WI) and have enjoyed many wonderful hours with club members KG and The Ranger, national award winning Cowboy Singers/Yodelers/Trick Ropers.

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