VAN ALSTYNE, TX - Duane Hayes is going to be busy this month. In addition to his regular job as a senior VP at Texas Bank in Van Alstyne, he’s preparing for a world championship.
Hayes is one of the world’s best at cowboy action shooting. The sport is basically a series of timed shooting competitions using guns that were available between the years of 1860 and 1899. That more or less limits competitors to single-action pistols, lever or pump action rifles and double-barrel shotguns. It’s a sport that suits Hayes perfectly.
The 57-year-old came of age as the western genre was beginning to wane in popularity. He says that he grew up watching “Gunsmoke” and anything that came on with John Wayne.
Years later, he discovered cowboy action shooting on television. A link he saw on the screen eventually led him to the Texas Ten Horns club in Leonard. He’s now been a member for more than a decade. For the past server years, he has served as its president.
PHOTO: Duane and Susan Hayes, AKA "Hairtrigger Hayes" and "One Chance Fancy," are preparing for the cowboy action shooting world championship in Phoenix later this month. Courtesy Photo
“I’ve wanted to be a cowboy all my life but I’m a banker,” he says. “Then I found out I could go play cowboy and still have my job that actually pays good money,” he says.
Competitors are grouped into different events and age categories. There are shooing events as well as costume competitions in both the classic cowboy look and B-movie western style.
Hayes’ specialty is the duelist competition. It requires competitors to hold two guns. They must first empty the gun in their right hand, and then the one on the lift while hitting designated targets and avoiding penalties.
As Hayes puts it in cowboy cliché, he’s been shooting guns since he was “knee-high to a grasshopper.” Since his first match in 2011, he has won six state titles, six regional multi-state competitions, two national titles and one world championship. Over the few weeks, he plans to go shooting at area clubs every weekend before heading to the big event in Phoenix at the end of the month.