Best young shots in the U.S. live here
By Jessica Chapman
For The Herald

Photo By Jennifer Walker Gini Bernal, Brad Berne, Derek Beime and Nick McLean pause for a photo while participating in a Cowboy Action Shoot at the Fort White Gun Club Saturday, Aug. 11.

FORT WHITE -- It was pouring rain when Bad Lands Drifter walked up to the old hotel, hands close to his pistol. Fifty-something Evil Roy stepped up not too far away. His hands were close to his pistols, too.

Five seconds quicker. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Drifter won. He got off his shots much faster than Evil Roy.

A few weeks later, Hawkeye Gin stood in the wagon, her posse just a few steps away from the jail.

“What if they escape out the back?” she said, turning around, grabbing her gun and aiming for her target.

Got it.

Nestled in the woods, the Fort White Gun Club Cowboy Action Shoot is a story cut out from a Western movie, with participants clad in 1800s-style cowboy and cowgirl outfits.

Bad Lands Drifter, regularly known as Derek Beirne, and Hawkeye Gin, regularly known as Gini Bernal, are two of the four best junior shooters in the world.

Three weeks ago at the End of Trail Competition in New México, 16-year-old Derek and 13-year-old Gini won the World Championship in their respective categories. Ten-year-old Brad Beirne, or Throwdown Kid as he’s referred to at shootouts, also won sixth place, and Nick McLean, or Madman McLean, won fifth place.

The junior members, which includes anyone 8 to 18 years old, competed for the championship against about 450 other participants representing several countries.

Gini won for Buckarettes, Derek and Nick for Young Gun and Brad for Buckaroo.

Photo By Jennifer Walker Brad Beirne, 10, also known as "Throwdown Kid," gets ready to shoot at the Fort White Gun Club Saturday. Brad is part of the Cowboy Action Shoot where shooters dress and act as if they are in the 1800s. Brad recently came in sixth place for his age category, called the Buckaroos, at a recent World Championship competition in New Mexico.

The winners all said their fathers got them involved a few years ago. Both Brad and Nick began shooting this year, while Gini and Derek have been shooting for four years.

“The biggest thing for me as a dad,” Gini’s father, Rick Bernal, said, “is she’s 13 now, and she still wants to spend time with me.”

Although the junior members are the best in the country, other than when they come out to the once-a-month Cowboy Action Shoots, they do not practice their shooting.

The Gun Club offers about six other types of shoots, Fort White Gun Club President Kenny Long said.

However, the winning junior members only participate in Cowboy Action Shooting.

The Cowboy Action Shoot is set up like a stage from “Gunsmoke,” with a saloon, mercantile, mine and other similar shops lined up with white targets behind the stage.

Each participant is required to wear time-period clothing and have an alias, such as Madman McLean or Hawkeye Gin, and the group is broken up into posses.

Each posse rotates to different stages, with the participants taking turns shooting targets.

Whoever has the quickest time wins the shootout. Five seconds is added to the participant’s time for missing a target, 10 added for shooting out of order and five seconds taken off for hitting a bonus target.

“Plenty of people don’t care what times they are,” said Roger Clemmons, the Cowboy Action match director. “They’re just here playing cowboy like they did when they were kids.”

Photo By Jennifer Walker Derek Beirne, 16, also known as "Bad Lands Drifter," gets ready to reload his gun. Derek was recently named World Champion in his age category, called the Young Guns.

In the final world championship competition, the contestants shot at the same time, unlike with usual competitions when they took turns on shooting.

Derek said he learned to shoot from Evil Roy’s instructional tapes. Roy was the best shooter in the country and also teaches classes.

“When (Derek) finished, Roy yelled, ‘I want my tapes back,’” said Brad, Derek’s younger brother. “But I’m learning from them now, so he can’t have them back.”

The junior winners regularly travel across the state competing in other competitions. They usually have a shootout every weekend.

“I’ve never been afraid of guns,” said Gini, who favors her .97-cailber gun when shooting. “It’s always been a part of my life. (When I began shooting at Cowboy Action Shoots), the biggest thing for me was that I was safe.”

In the world championship competition, a safety officer was at the loading and unloading table, and three spotters were with the shooter during the shootouts, Long said.

Quick draw shooting is not allowed at the Fort White Gun Club for safety reasons as well, Long said.

Long also said shooting can be a good anger management and therapy tool.

“Plus it helps my wife because it gets me out of her hair,” he said.

All the children’s fathers said they are proud to see their children enjoying shooting.

“They’re doing things I can’t do anymore,” said Brad and Derek’s father, Terry Beirne, who goes by Wigley Down Yonder at the shootouts.

Scott McLean, known as Macinaw McLean at shootouts, said he was glad to see his son Nick so excited about winning.

“He’s usually pretty quiet,” McLean said. “He doesn’t say much, but he talked nonstop the whole way home (after the championship).”