ammohead
This year was the start of a new tradition at NCBS. The NCBS Real McCoy award. This is an award to show appreciation for support of the NCBS event and to recognize people that are the original article. Someone who has been there and back and lived life to the fullest the entire time.
It was fitting that Bruce Bannister receive the inaugural copy of the Real McCoy. He IS the Real McCoy. Born in Michigan, but at an early age pursued a career in mining and moved "west young man" plying his trade in some of the wildest country this continent has to offer. The Yellowknife area of the Northwest Territories of Canada. He has caught pike through 7 feet of ice, killed all manner of big game and is a treasure trove of stories that I hope to hear more of each time we are together. Using a lodge pole pushed through the front windows of a International Travelall to come-along a woods bison into the back WHOLE to take home is one story I never tire of hearing.
After starting the Nevada Cast Boolit Shoot back in the bicentennial year of 2000 it was obvious that we needed a better venue than Topaz Lake and the Sleeping Elephant Gun Club. BruceB suggested Winnemucca and the concensus was made. We didn't foresee how much fun it would be or the amount of effort put into the move by the Bannister family. Each year they would host a BBQ at their casa that by far was the highlight of the event socially. Bruce found sponsors to donate target steel, chairs and tables and other accutaments. Without his hard work and that of his family members Karen (wife) and Kim (daughter) NCBS would not be what it is today. The location of the shoot was changed 4 times but the hospitality of the Bannisters was constant throughout.
Regarding the choice of the award itself... From the first shoot in Winnemucca and for more than just a few years after a small crowd would gather in Dukes room Saturday night and we would have a phone conversation with Felix. It was obvious that he would have liked to be there in person but it just didn't get to happen. We would pass the phone around so that we all had a chance to relate the days events. So in a small way Felix was a part of NCBS from the near beginning. So I chose this way to include him in the proceedings into perpetuity. I beg forgiveness from his family for not asking permission and hope that it is met with the feelings that went into it. Felix himself was the original Real McCoy, original article, one to ride the river with, and had to be a part of this award.
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