81-year-old Martin County native hones new skills

BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — Martin County native Bill Fitch is known as “Tug River Kid” in the Ohio Valley Vigilantes cowboy action shooting club in Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he is a winner.

“My entire family is very proud of all my dad’s achievements,” Fitch’s daughter Debra Fitch said. “His involvement with the SASS [Single Action Shooting Society] has been a huge source of enjoyment for him for the last three years.”

Bill Fitch is a native of Martin County, born and raised beside the great Tug River, and is the son of the late Tug River Jim Fitch of Inez. He chose his cowboy action shooting alias to reflect this heritage.

While Fitch had been a gun sports enthusiast for years, joining the cowboy action shooting group at age 78 created brand-new challenges and called for honing different gun skills. Unlike skeet or trap shooting, cowboy action shooting events involve the use of four different guns: two single action pistols that are holstered, one lever action rifle made before 1900, and one shotgun that can be either double barrel or made before 1900.

Fitch joins members of the OVV twice monthly on several acres where six old western-style town buildings/facades serve as the six stages of each shoot. During the cowboy action shooting event, each shooter must complete all six stages and is scored based on overall target accuracy, procedural accuracy and total time elapsed. Missed targets add 5 seconds to that stage time, and each stage has a strict procedure that must be followed. Procedural penalties add 15 seconds to the shooter’s time for that stage.

“What a challenging event,” exclaimed Debra Fitch.

Fitch, now 81 years young, has won several first-place trophies in his division.

Fitch and his wife Juanita Fitch live in Utica, Ohio, and celebrated their 62nd anniversary Feb. 20. In addition to their daughter Debra, who also lives in Utica, they have a daughter Brenda Zeallear in Johnstown, Ohio. They also have one granddaughter, Kayleigh Haines, who lives in Newark, Ohio.

“We all live close to each other and visit almost every day,” explained Debra Fitch, adding that her dad is still a proud native Martin Countian.