SHARON-Clad in a black hat, two holsters and a shotgun belt, Ben "Bendito" Nisch casts a gimlet eye at the silhouetted desperados outside the Bella Union tavern.

With a swift move, his twin .32-caliber six guns clear their holsters and spit lead.

Steel targets ring like bells as Bendito lands nine out of 10 shots before switching to his trusty rifle, Champ, to score five more hits on targets farther out.

Two closer targets are dropped with two blasts of a shotgun.

All within 20 seconds.

Ben and his father, Sharon Police Chief Wolfgang "Lawman Wolf" Nisch, participate in a sport called cowboy action shooting. Participants wearing western garb and bearing old west nicknames try to shoot as may targets in as little time possible.

This is Ben's first year in the Buckaroo (age 12 to 14) class.

It's been a good year. Ben is Wisconsin Buckaroo champion and Midwest Regional Buckaroo champ. He also took first in the Illinois state shoot, but he can't be the state champ because he's not from those parts.

In this, his third year of competition, Lawman Wolf won first place in his class in Wisconsin and also won the Minnesota state shoot.

Ben Nisch, 12, loads his weapon as he prepares to shoot targets from the saloon station at Kocheese Kanyon, a shooting range near Sharon. Ben, his dad, Sharon Police Chief Wolfgang Nisch, and his mom, Kathy Nisch, all compete in cowboy action shooting.

Kathy Nisch, Wolfgang's wife and Ben's mom, also is a competitor. Her nickname: Blindspot.

The Bella Union tavern, targets and shooting range all are part of Kocheese Kanyon, a shooting range near Sharon owned by fellow cowboy action shooter and family friend Wayne Konkle.

Konkle said he took the name Kocheese (pronounced co-cheese) to reflect his Wisconsin roots. He and his wife, Jean (a professional photographer called "Snapshot") have been competing in the sport for about 10 years, he said.

Konkle, the Nisches and more than a hundred other western shooters are members of the Good Guys Posse, a club made up of people from southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. A second club-the Walco Raiders-also is based in Walworth County, Konkle said.

Wolfgang Nisch, who's been Sharon chief for six years, said Western shooting competitions are nothing like the shooting police do at practice ranges. Police practices are much more serious and intense-with a focus on avoiding violence.

"In police training, it's 'Don't let the lead fly. And if you have to, at the longest possible distance,'" he said.

In cowboy action shooting, the goal is "to let the lead fly and do it at a fairly short distance," Nisch said.