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My first pair of spurs


Dantankerous

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In 1984 I went to Mexico City with my uncle. I found these spurs at an outdoor market and knew I had to have them so $12.50 later we were mine. (Big Louis L'Amour fan then...). That was long before my cowboy action shooting days began. Even though they have straps they've never been worn. I have a few more pair of spurs now but these always bring the biggest smile to my face. No idea as to the maker.

 

 

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Howdy Dan...

 

I have a couple of similar pairs, but they are brass. I, too, love them, but they are really heavy. Also, I've had them on a pair of boots for years and they have sort of brass plated the heels of the boots. I figure that's what would have happened in the old days, so I'm good with it.

 

Rev. Chase

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nice - i still dont have spurs but have thought to get them a couple times , just never ventured past looking so far , may have to revisit now tyat you reinspired the thought , 

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I have a nice set of spurs I bought some time ago from Campbell Bits and Spurs.  I have been very pleased with them.  They are beautiful and professionally made, and are my first and only set of spurs.
 

Cat Brules

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I bought a couple pairs when I first got started.  I tried to walk down a spiraled stair case and almost broke my neck.  I have not had them on since.

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2 minutes ago, High Spade Mikey Wilson said:

I wear mine often. There definately was a learning curve at the beginning in learning how to walk around wearing them. That was many years ago and no issues with them today.

 

 I've been wearing spurs since the 1st time I played cowboy in this game.  I've always dressed Classic even when I shot in Wrangler. Now that Classic is all I do it's spurs every single time and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Big obnoxious rowels complete with jingle bobs. I kinda like that music.

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My first set of spurs is still at the store!

No spurs for me. I'd get all tangled up, fall down in a heap and Capt Bill would make fun of me.

I have enough problems with my own feets! I can respect cowpokes that wear em regularly.

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4 hours ago, The Rainmaker, SASS #11631 said:

My first set of spurs is still at the store!

No spurs for me. I'd get all tangled up, fall down in a heap and Capt Bill would make fun of me.

I have enough problems with my own feets! I can respect cowpokes that wear em regularly.

Yea, I'm with you.  I was born with two left feet and 10 thumbs.  97's and spurs are not in my recommended equipment.

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I think I got my first pair of spurs when I was 3.  There used to be a picture of my dad showing me my baby brother and I'm wearing them.  The first pair I actually remember using had the rowels fixed in place with bailing wire and and been slightly modified to bend in a little extra because they were my calf riding spurs.  I didn't need spurs riding my horse.  He'd do what I want him to do with a little nudge, once you got him going anyway.  Getting him going could be a whole other story.  He had a tendecy to suck in as much air as he could hold and hold it as long as he could when the cinch was being put on.  You'd sometimes have to either give him a knee to the gut or force a 30-second trot to get the cinch tight or risk a loose saddle...

 

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On 4/28/2021 at 3:19 PM, Dantankerous said:

In 1984 I went to Mexico City with my uncle. I found these spurs at an outdoor market and knew I had to have them so $12.50 later we were mine. (Big Louis L'Amour fan then...). That was long before my cowboy action shooting days began. Even though they have straps they've never been worn. I have a few more pair of spurs now but these always bring the biggest smile to my face. No idea as to the maker.

 

 

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20210428_150709.jpg

 

Nice pair of spurs.  My first several pair of spurs were just the cheap ones available from any cowboy vendor and they did not seem to hold up great.  Some time ago while particiapting in the NRA National Championships for Cowboy Lever Action Silhouettes at Raton NM I dressed cowboy including my spurs for the whole event.  Well a fellow Texan who was there told me that he made custom spurs and that I needed to let him make me a pair and get rid of the cheap store bought pair I was wearing.  So after we got back to Texas we discussed how they should look and what should be on them.  Once I got them from him that pair is what I wear all the time shooting.  They even have Cowtown on one and Scout on the other one along with longhorn heads on each and Buffalo Head nickles for strap attachments.  For dress wear I have a pair of Lindhlm Brothers Spurs that were presented to me by Wimpy Hank Yoho at Comin Atcha years ago for having the best Wild Bunch shooting costume.  This was long before SASS took over Wild Bunch shooting.  Well actually I tied with another shooter and rather that give us each just one spur Wimpy gave us both a pair fo spurs. :P

Scout

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Mine were (are) a set of silver spurs that my Dad bought in Ft. Worth, in 1946, after he got home from the war in the Pacific. 

He cowboyed some, after he got home, and then got a job with the electric company...so they were semi-retired. 

I wear them now, just for show. I have a pre-world war one set of iron spurs, that I wear on other occasions...and at events at our Cowboy Church. 

Neither set have "jingle bobs", so they are fairly quiet, when walking/riding. That's fine with me. 

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My first set was a pair of large rowled spurs w/o jingle bobs, that I bought in Nogales, Mexico, while in my teens.  (They were not like the ones the OP posted, rather more like a Californio style.)  I never used them for CAS or riding, but kept them for sentimental reasons. Eventually, another pard in a local CAS club, the late Borzi Kid, was in need of a pair of spurs and I gifted them to him; he wore them for CAS there after till cancer took him.

 

Over the years, I've collected (and sold off) a number of pairs of spurs. One of my earliest CAS sets was a contemporary working cowboy set by Bob Blackwood; I  sold them to another CAS pard, the late Cut Across Charlie, as I wanted something flashier.

 

I had Brian Brawner make a set of reverse gal leg spurs (the 'leg' was unside down compared to standard position; this kept the large bronze rowel off the ground as I walked); still have this pair and it is a pleasure to hear ring!

 

The set I used the most for CAS was a period correct Garcia set with silver rowel discs and jungle bobs from JM Capriola; they went to many a shoot. Still have them, but have gravitated now toward plainer more contemporary spurs, similar to some used on TV westerns of the 50s-60s.  Nonetheless, still have a number of sets; Garcias by Capriola, the Brian Brawner, another set of older Bob Blackwoods, Les Vogt, Glen Bianchi in OK, Frank Schultz,  unknown maker Mexican, Tony Heimann in TX.

 

I've added very high quality spurs straps, buckles and conchos to most of them; am partial to the Buckaroo pull through Visalia type straps as made by Capriola's; double layer and floral carved! (You have to ask for these as they are larger than the ones on their web site.)  I've found over the years that the straps play a big part in the comfort of the spur when worn; don't skimp on them!

 

 

 

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I don't remember where i got them or what they were, probably owned them 20 years.  Lost in the move to TX.  My last set of spurs I bought in Columbus, TX at the very 1st THSS shoot.  Hand crafted by a fellow named Higginbotham.  Browned steel, I've remade the jingle bobs several times!

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Don't remember my first pair.

But was given a pair of Halls about 38 years ago. They have been worn a BUNCH. 

Still use them a lot. 

Have had George Blackwood make me and the wife several pair and he has also made us

5-6 bits over the years. 

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I've only owned one set of spurs.  Bought them at Comancheria Days in 2000 and have worn them to almost every match since then.  They are Garza spurs.  They were copperwashed when new, which wore off quickly.  When new, they were too narrow to fit the heel of the boot.  So we put the open end over the jaws of a vice and opened it to stretch them.  Only the un-decorated side bent, so the result was that when worn the shanks angle inward.  And over a few years of use they tore the holy hell out of the toes of my boots!  So when I got new boots, I just started wearing the spurs on the wrong feet, so the decorated side is towards the inside.  But the shanks angle outward and I've never tripped on them again.  They had chains which kept breaking so I removed them.  Also had jingle bobs.  They fell off of one spur some years back and the second one fell off a few years later.  With my earplugs in I can't hear them, anyway.  Without the earplugs, they are still very loud as they bounce off the ground when I walk.

 

GarzaSpurs.jpg

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My first spurs were a set of Crockett and Kelly's that I bought when I went to work on a ranch just up the valley from where I live now when I was just out of college. A couple of years later I ended up with the Crockett and Kelly spurs that my great grandad had worn when he was doing ranch work back in the day. I still have both of those sets. My shooting spurs are a set of inexpensive decorated ones with big round rowels and jinglebobs that my talented daughter in law made the straps for. I also have another set that a relative gave me because he was too chicken ( :D ) to try to wear them for shooting. That set also has my daughter in law's custom straps on them. Those haven't made it onto my shooting boots yet. That'll come later this summer.

 

Side note (I've told this story before): at Tombstone in 2018 we had just gotten back to our motel from shooting a match. I was driving. When we got out of the pickup a group of shooters just down the way made a comment about being brave enough to wear spurs while driving. I told them that the first time that I drove anything while wearing spurs I hauled a truck load of horses down out of the mountains when I was 22 years old. 40 years ago or so...

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As a boy I had a horse . lived in horse loving town .

I had an agreement with my horse 

I would not wear spurs 

and he would not buck me in to orbit 

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On 4/30/2021 at 8:25 PM, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

Mine were (are) a set of silver spurs that my Dad bought in Ft. Worth, in 1946, after he got home from the war in the Pacific. 

He cowboyed some, after he got home, and then got a job with the electric company...so they were semi-retired. 

I wear them now, just for show. I have a pre-world war one set of iron spurs, that I wear on other occasions...and at events at our Cowboy Church. 

Neither set have "jingle bobs", so they are fairly quiet, when walking/riding. That's fine with me. 

now thats a pair of spurs i would wear and learn to wear well , i like that sentimental attitude a lot , my family were all rail roaders and they didnt wear spurs with the iron horse but id be like you if i had some my father actually used 

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13 hours ago, Dirty Dog Doug said:

As a boy I had a horse . lived in horse loving town .

I had an agreement with my horse 

I would not wear spurs 

and he would not buck me in to orbit 

 

Same here. Never needed them to ride but i feel nekkid without spurs when playing shoot 'em up cowboy. ;)

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I have had horses in my life all 75 years so can't remember the first set.  The first set I remember was in a Hoppalong Casady western set.  It had a black neck scarf, stearshead slide with red eyes, roping cuffs, and spurs.  I have rode horses with spurs on or without.  My personal riding horse never needed anything to give me all they had.  As a kid most of the time I road bare back so I didn't even wear shoes, horses and pony never.  For shows I have a pair of spurs made by the (sp) Ludden Brothers with the biggest rowel they made.  Do to the rowel are not the easiest to walk in and forget going down stars

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This was the First pair of spurs that I WANTED....

But I didn't get em, they were reserved for the Rich Kids.

 

I did make myself a pair out of some wire coat hangers and an old belt.... I was Proud of them puppies :D

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