The Basics of Cowboy Action Shooting

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Basics – A Short Primer on the Sport

 

Barely thirty years in exis­tence, Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing (CAS) has become the fastest grow­ing shoot­ing sport not only in the United States, but even in coun­tries where procur­ing and own­ing firearms can be dif­fi­cult and costly, like the United King­dom, Aus­tralia, Aus­tria and New Zealand. This activ­ity involves tar­get shoot­ing in loca­tions (or stages in CAS lingo) that resem­ble a typ­i­cal Old West town. All the guns and cos­tumes used are what you would expect to find dur­ing the mid to late 1800’s.

 

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Members

Men are pri­mar­ily attracted to this shoot­ing sport, but you can also find a lot of women as well as chil­dren who par­tic­i­pate in matches. It is not a rare sight to see a whole fam­ily at a CAS event, all of them garbed like they were audi­tion­ing for a role in The High Chap­ar­ral or Wagon Train.

Women can com­pete against men, but there are var­i­ous age divi­sions so par­tic­i­pants can enter a match against peo­ple who’s nearer their age.

Apart from the pre­scribed cos­tume, you must reg­is­ter an alias by which you will be known at the shoot­ing event. It’s fun and you can’t get into a fight by address­ing some­one as Dead-Eye Dick. Your alias should be unique and reflect a lot about your dis­po­si­tion or pro­fes­sion. You can also take off from or para­phrase the name of a Wild West personality.

 

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Guns

The firearms used in Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing are the types which would have been found in the days of the Old West, whether they are faith­ful repro­duc­tions or gen­uine period pieces. The rifles are lever-action, and the shot­guns can be the double-barreled type or the 1897 exter­nal ham­mer pump model. The pis­tols used are single-action, mean­ing they need to be cocked every time before firing.

Safety is of utmost impor­tance in CAS matches. No firearm should be loaded with ammo unless it is a participant’s turn to com­pete. Unloaded rifles must have their lever left open, and shot­guns must rest in the “bro­ken open” position.

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Clothes and Gears

You need to be dressed for the part if you want to par­tic­i­pate in the com­pe­ti­tion. Some CAS groups require cos­tumes to be his­tor­i­cally cor­rect, down to the last detail like horn but­tons. Other orga­ni­za­tions allow Western-style cow­boy out­fits such as those found in clas­sic west­ern tele­vi­sion shows like Rawhide and Bonanza.

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Matches

Most events are held in a sim­u­lated west­ern town, com­plete with a liv­ery sta­ble, a bank, or a saloon. Par­tic­i­pants take turns in shoot­ing at a set of tar­gets and are timed from start to fin­ish. More time is added to their score every time they miss a target.

The rules may require a par­tic­i­pant to use a pis­tol (or a pair, depend­ing on the rules) to shoot tar­gets through a saloon win­dow, then replace it with a rifle to shoot at another series of tar­gets. Then they switch to a shot­gun, run over to the sta­ble and shoot at four dif­fer­ent targets.

If you are inter­ested in this type of activ­ity, be sure to watch out for events near your area and drop by to meet peo­ple who are involved in the sport. You just might dis­cover a new Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing hobby or sport to get involved in.

 

 

 

How to Get Started in Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing (An Overview)

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Cos­tumes and Alias

 

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing (CAS), which also goes by the names of Sin­gle Action Shoot­ing and West­ern Action Shoot­ing, is one of the fastest grow­ing divi­sions of the shoot­ing sports as it con­tin­ues to attract new mem­bers after it’s been around for over 30 years. It started in the 1970’s when a group of Cal­i­for­nia shoot­ers, inspired by the clas­sic west­ern film The Wild Bunch, started to engage in reg­u­lar cowboy-style shoot­ing competitions.

 

 

The idea of an Old West com­pet­i­tive shoot­ing sport spread and led to the cre­ation of the Sin­gle Action Shoot­ing Soci­ety (SASS) in 1981. The SASS is the largest Cow­boy Shoot­ing orga­ni­za­tion today with more than 75,000 mem­bers worldwide.

 

Why Being a Mem­ber is Cool

If you’re inter­ested in this type of shoot­ing sport, be sure to attend one of the events that may be held near your local­ity. Start by say­ing “Howdy” to the folks there so you can find out more about the sport. You can also visit one of the SASS-affiliated cow­boy shoot­ing orga­ni­za­tions in your area to really get a feel of the sport.

You don’t need to be a mem­ber of SASS when you start out in Cow­boy Shoot­ing, but mem­ber­ship offers a lot of ben­e­fits. Your entry fee will get you a year’s mem­ber­ship, a mem­ber­ship ID card, a badge, the SASS Shooter’s Hand­book, a decal, and one-year’s sub­scrip­tion to the Cow­boy Chron­i­cle. You’ll be glad you signed up.

Dress for the Part

Unlike other shoot­ing sports, Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing is the only one with a dress code. It requires you to dress up for the part which, in fact, makes this sport fun and unique. The efforts put into the cos­tumes by mem­bers are truly excep­tional. You don’t have to break the bank on cloth­ing to get started. You can if you can afford to, though.

You can visit a lot of tai­lor­ing shops that spe­cial­ize in period attire. You can also cre­ate your own cos­tume if you pre­fer. Remove the belt loops from an old button-fly jeans. Then, sew on some but­tons if you want to use old-time sus­penders. Now you have your­self a pair of cow­boy pants. You can buy the rest of your apparel such as work shirts or ban­dan­nas from a used cloth­ing store or Sears. Get a cow­boy hat, gun belt, hol­sters and a fine pair of cow­boy boots and you’re ready to gal­lop into the sunset.

Over time, you’ll be able to cre­ate or buy other cos­tumes. Be care­ful, how­ever, as you may spend more than you needed and buy stuff you never imag­ined you would. And totally enjoy it. You can base your char­ac­ter and cos­tumes on:

 

• A real Old West fig­ure from the 1800’s

• A fic­tional 1800’s fig­ure from your favorite cow­boy novel, film, or TV show

• A com­pletely made-up char­ac­ter out of the 1800’s, com­plete with an alias like Shaky “Lefty” McGurn or Dead-Eye Mary (for women)

Name Your Character

See those funny-sounding names up there? Their aliases, and you’re required to have one for your own in this shoot­ing sport. Your alias can be based gen­er­ally on the char­ac­ter you choose, and mak­ing up a unique name is one of the really fun parts of this sport.

• What is your character’s pro­fes­sion? A doc­tor, bounty hunter, a sher­iff, a dance hall girl?

• What is their most out­stand­ing phys­i­cal fea­ture? Shorty, Shifty, Lefty, One-Eyed, Three-fingers – you get the idea.

• Aliases can also be based on your character’s gen­eral dis­po­si­tion. You can start with some­thing like Gen­tle­man Roy, Mad Dog Sam, or Trig­ger Happy Mama.

The more orig­i­nal and unique your name is, the bet­ter. Don’t use an obscene or offensive-sounding name. Choose a Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing alias that’s gen­er­ally print­able for dif­fer­ent audi­ences and make sure that no one else is cur­rently own­ing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing Is Gun Sports Most Enjoy­able Hobby-Sport

The Excit­ing Ben­e­fits You Can Derive from Cow­boy Action Shooting

 

 

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing, or CAS for short, is an excit­ing and fast-growing sport that’s gain­ing a lot of mem­bers and fol­low­ing in the United States as well as other coun­tries. It can be enjoyed by young and old alike. Its mem­bers are affil­i­ated to the Sin­gle Action Shoot­ing Soci­ety® and other related organizations.

 

You Can Relive the Spirit of the Old West

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing cel­e­brates the spirit of the Old West and re-establishes a way of life that’s all but gone in today’s mod­ern soci­ety. Some peo­ple refer to it as The Cow­boy Way.

Many cow­boy heroes of the Old West, whether in fic­tion or real life, showed us shin­ing exam­ples of how to be account­able for our own deeds, to be fair and hon­est, to treat oth­ers well, par­tic­u­larly women and old folks, and to do the right thing. They also showed us the proper and respon­si­ble way to han­dle firearms. This is what CAS is all about.

 

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing is Fun and Exciting

Here are some of the rea­sons why so many peo­ple find CAS a fun and enjoy­able sport.

• You actu­ally get to dress up in cow­boy clothes. This is one of the major attrac­tions of the sport, like play­ing a grownup ver­sion of Cow­boys and Indi­ans, with impres­sive cos­tumes straight right out of a Hol­ly­wood west­ern movie set.

• You get to choose your char­ac­ter and alias. You are required to reg­is­ter a char­ac­ter name or alias when you become an active mem­ber of a Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing orga­ni­za­tion. You can be a west­ern movie hero, a sher­iff, a gam­bler, or a female gun­slinger if you so choose. Be sure to dress up accord­ing to your choice of character.

• You get to play out the part and shoot tar­gets in a sim­u­lated west­ern town. The shoot­ing range or stage, as it is termed in CAS, appears more like a movie set of a 19th cen­tury west­ern town than a typ­i­cal gun range. There are build­ing facades that resem­ble sheriff’s offices, saloons, sta­bles, banks, and other struc­tures. There are also steel tar­gets that stand for vil­lains as well as ply­wood out­lines of hostages which could be mov­ing or fixed.

Run Through Var­i­ous Shoot­ing Scenarios

Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing sce­nar­ios are pro­vided for a par­tic­u­lar target-shooting sequence. The time starts when the par­tic­i­pant shouts out his or her bat­tle cry. They then have to hit 10 tar­gets with a pis­tol, 5 tar­gets with a rifle, and dif­fer­ent tar­gets using a shot­gun. In other scripts, one or more firearms can be located in dif­fer­ent areas of the “stage”, so the par­tic­i­pant may need to fire a pis­tol from a bank win­dow, run over to the saloon to find and fire a sec­ond pis­tol, head to the sta­ble to pick up a rifle, and to another loca­tion to grab a shot­gun. Plac­ing ammo in another loca­tion can add to the excitement.

Apart from target-shooting, CAS also pro­vides other fun oppor­tu­ni­ties for the entire fam­ily. You’ll find food, refresh­ments, cook­ing, enter­tain­ment, and an occa­sional sales­per­son sell­ing inter­est­ing items.

So if you want to get involved in a new type of fam­ily fun, and learn more about respon­si­ble gun use and own­er­ship, con­sider Cow­boy Action Shoot­ing as a sport.