Showdown at the L-Bar-T

The Orygun Gunfighters, the state’s first cowboy fast draw club, celebrates its one-year anniversary with a shootout

By Debby De Carlo

The Forest Grove News-Times, May 27, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Chase Allgood / News-Times

Dan Arends of The Dalles (foreground) and Gregg Townsley, Tom Epler and Jon Larson of Forest Grove square off on the line as Dan Esteban of Gresham (far left) watches the action during a cowboy fast draw match at the Orygun Gunfighters’ shooting range.

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It was a quiet day in Forest Grove. Not even the police chief noticed as the cowboys and cowgirls rode through in their trucks on their way to the L-Bar-T bison ranch just south of town.

Dan “Bad Eye Lefty” Arends was the first to arrive that Saturday, having left The Dalles at 6 a.m. He was cleaning his gun when the “Rev. W. W. Ronin,” aka Gregg Townsley, showed up.

Soon the owners of the L-Bar-T, Lori “Tatonka Rose” Epler and Tom “Tatonka” Epler, came into the barn, along with their son, Richard “Theramore” Epler.

Lefty and Ronin had already set up four targets, connected to a timer, necessary equipment for the Orygun Gunfighters’ monthly competition. Club member Paul “Peligro” Becket, of Tigard, had also moseyed in.

As Oregon’s first club sanctioned by the Idaho-based Cowboy Fast Draw Association, the Orygun Gunfighters can claim a unique place among the CFDA’s many national groups.

“I was never much of a shooter until cowboy fast draw came along,” said Townsley, who established the club in May 2008. “Now it’s one of the things I enjoy most. I even occasionally win a match – but I’m much more into speed than winning.”

A Forest Grove resident, he partnered with rancher and nurseryman Tom Epler to find an out-of-doors location for the shooters to gather and enjoy their sport.

In the last 12 months, 19 men and women have joined the club as founding life members.For Arends, the oldest in the bunch at 72, age is not a deterrent – nor is getting banged up. The former iron worker has plates and screws in his neck, as well as various other injuries suffered during his career.

Arends grew up 60 miles north of Missoula, Mont., hunting and using a gun. He’s been a member of the CFDA’s sister organization, the Single Action Shooting Society, since 2000.

About a year and a half ago, he learned about fast draw. “A friend of mine was involved and getting ready for a competition. I thought, ‘I can beat him!’” Arends said.

Nowadays he travels to contests all over the West. “Two weeks ago I was in Idaho City,” Arends said. Next is the Northwest territorial shoot in Caldwell, Idaho. Then there’s the national competition in Idaho City, and in October there’s the international competition in Fallon, Nev.”

Fast draw shooters come from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany. But this particular morning, Arends was focused on the action at the L-Bar-T. “I practice every day,” he noted.

Just as things were starting to heat up, Craig “Kid Creggar” Pittinger – from Centralia, Wash. – sauntered in. “He’s the fastest in the club,” Arends said quietly, “and he’s only been at it a short time.”

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