A former Oklahoma State Trooper is  now a State Champion.

A cowboy finds his calling out of retirement.

Longtime Purcell resident, Phillip “Flipper” Ellyson, was recently crowned a State Champion at the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s “The Sod Buster” event held in Cherokee, Oklahoma at the Alfalfa County Fairgrounds Arena.

For those unfamiliar with the sport, the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association is one of many associations that sponsor events where competitors race through a set-up obstacle course on a horse while shooting blank rounds at balloons.

“We’re shooting a ball of flame out here, it’s like the head of a cigar or a cigarette,” he explained.

“We’ve got two six-shooters with five double-charged blanks and we’re in a rodeo arena with balloons sitting on PVC pipe and traffic cones. So we shoot five of them, holster our gun, draw the second gun and shoot the rest of the balloons.”

Flipper further explained that riders are penalized with additional time to their final scores for errors such as missing a balloon or tipping over a barrel.

To further test the competitors, competition revolvers must be single action, “Just like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. You’ve got to pull the hammer back and shoot,” Flipper said.

Those that know Flipper know he is no stranger to a firearm. In his 36 years of law enforcement experience, the cowboy held a variety of roles and responsibilities.

“I started out working stop signs, watching for speeders out on the interstate, looking for drunk drivers and dopers, working vehicle wrecks or collisions, anything that had to do with state law,” Flipper stated.

However, after years of field experience, Flipper was assigned to the apprehension unit, where he was tasked with chasing down the police force’s canine units while riding a horse “with real, loaded guns,” he added.

Although he retired from law enforcement in 2016, Flipper still teaches active shooter and concealed carry classes in his spare time. He also works on ranches throughout the week and has his own saddle shop at his house, where he works with leather to manufacture assorted items.

Horseback competition, however, has always been his passion.

“Guns, horses, leather, I love it,” he exclaimed. “I tell people it’s worse than casinos, race-car driving, golfing, fishing; It’s just so addicting and expensive.”

Flipper started competing in various shooting events around the state in 2012 but said, “I’ve been riding and shooting on my horses for years. I’ve ridden bucking horses and bulls and steer-wrestled. I’ve done just about everything in the rodeo world.”

In fact, Flipper’s passion has started to rub off on his granddaughters Kylee and Kambree.

Kambree, who is 10 years old, cannot begin shooting until she turns 12.

Flipper stated that although she rides horses, she doesn’t show much interest in the shooting aspect because the guns are still too loud for her.

However, his oldest granddaughter, Kylee, who is 14 years old and started competing in various horseback events when she was just eight years old, loves the sport.

“I always ask her, ‘Do you like to ride horses,’ and she says, ‘Pawpaw, I was born to ride horses,’ so she wants to barrel race, pole bend, and do break away roping,” Flipper reported.

Along with a few other members of the Texhoma Mounted Shooting chapter, Kylee and her grandfather will be putting on a demonstration on July 7 and 8 at Purcell’s annual Indian Territory Roundup Club Rodeo.

“Five of us will come in and set the balloons up and then we will take turns shooting. We’ll be out of there in 20 minutes, kind of like a halftime entertainment deal,” Flipper explained.