The Siege at San Juan: Event draws sharp-shooting crowd

MONTROSE — Dixie Bell is a self-proclaimed all-American girl.

“My name may be southern, but my granddad fought for the North,” she said before heading to the table to load her vintage Winchester 73 rifle.

Then she took her place in the shooting lineup. First, she fired several rifle rounds at steel targets, then raced into a wooden stagecoach, squatted on her knees to let loose her pistol shots, then finished the round with her original 97 shotgun, shooting three targets and a piece of charcoal released into the air. And she did it quickly, earning her a low score.

This was just one of 14 stages Dixie Bell and her 11-person posse faced in the main stage events Friday and Saturday at the Siege at San Juan, a Montrose shooting range that has been occupied by 64 cowboy and cowgirl gunslingers since Thursday.

Paul “San Juan” Miller, owner of the San Juan Shooting Range and host of the Siege, said scoring in the competition is based on time, which is why Dixie earned a low score.

“Your time is your score as long as you get all your targets,” he said. If a shooter misses a target or shoots at the targets in an incorrect order, seconds are added to his or her score. If charcoal targets are involved in a stage, a shooter gets seconds taken off the score as a bonus for hitting the moving target, but no points are deducted if the charcoal is not hit.

Dixie Miller, 62, who goes by the alias of Dixie Bell for shooting competitions, has participated in the Siege all 14 years of its existence. She and her husband of 45 years, Terry “T.L.” Miller, both of whom are retired, came to Montrose from St. George, Utah, to leave behind real life and enjoy the sport.

“Everyone picks an alias,” Dixie said. “It’s a fantasy game; we’re just cowboys. I picked something I knew I’d answer to.”

And other cowboys call her Dixie Bell, just like they call other members of the posse California, Colonel Shep, San Juan, G.D., Bugler,  Border Doc, Longbranch, Trapdoor Doc, Twelve Mile Reb and Hurricane Camille.

Each dressed the part reminiscent of the Old West, with cowboy hats, suspenders, elaborately decorated gun holsters, fancy belt buckles and sheriff star-shaped badges indicating their membership in the Single Action Shooters Society.

Each participant’s alias is particularly important during the evening activities when they aim to get completely into character.

For instance, Dixie tells other shooters that she arrived on the range by stagecoach and apologizes for being all dusty, particularly in her old blue evening gown she wears at night.

Deane Shepard, the director of Contracts and Communications for Boulder-based InfoPrint Systems, said he loves playing the part of Colonel Shep. Decked out in a silver-studded holster above his flower-embroidered brown and bright aqua blue dress shirt, Shep is a loquacious old B-movie cowboy. 

“We’re judged on the authenticity of our costume, our story, and our overall presentation,” Dixie said of the costume contest that takes place at most big shooting tournaments.

Most participants attend several of the hundreds of big shoots offered nationwide each year, and they generally see the same crowds.

“It’s a small world when you’re in a sport like this,” Dixie said.

Shepard, from Overland Park, Kan., said he has known Dixie Bell for years through shooting.

“I meet people from all over the country,” Shepard said. “We really only see each other at meets.”

Apart from the fantasy aspect of the Siege and other shoots that draw participants from all over the U.S., most simply like the camaraderie and healthy competition.

“We kid each other and razz around,” Dixie said. “We’re like kids on a playground."

(NOTE: For photos of the event, see the slide show on this page)