Gearing Up for Cowboy Action Shooting
Cowboy Action Shooting is a specialized-gear sport that the entire family can enjoy. Here’s how to cash in on the guns and ammo needed by newly minted cowpokes.
By Robert Sadowski
Are your customers ready to cowboy up? Do they ask about Cowboy Action Shooting, wondering what type of guns, ammo, and other equipment they need? When they ask this of you, you should answer, “I’m your huckleberry.” That, as any fan of the movie “Tombstone” knows, means “I’m your man.”
Cowboy Action Shooting is a sport that uses firearms of the Old West in unique shooting scenarios called stages. Competitors dress in period clothing and compete using single-action revolvers, lever-action rifles, and pump, side-by-side, or lever-action shotguns. Matches are exciting spectacles for shooters and spectators alike as competitors knock down steel plate targets shaped like bad guys, buffalos, tombstones, or suits from a deck of playing cards. The emphasis is on fun. Minimum distances (pistols, 7 yards; shotguns, 8 yards; rifles 13 yards) are designed to level the playing field for all. In other words, participants don’t need to be dead-eye shots to compete.
But before you can offer sage advice on any particular model of gun, you need to know exactly what guns competitors are allowed to shoot. The governing body for CAS is the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS). The downloadable Shooters Handbook (sassnet.com) has all the information you and your sales associates need to help customers select the proper firearms and other items such as ammo, holsters, and additional accessories needed for the particular type of competition that most interests them.
Cowboy Action shooters will need one rifle, one shotgun, and two single-action revolvers. The rifle and revolvers are both chambered in the same caliber. This harkens back to the practice in the Old West of having the rifle and sidearm share the same caliber.
Any pair of single-action revolvers or replica revolvers designed prior to 1896 is allowed. These are the old-time six-shooters you see in movies. Colt, Uberti, Ruger, Taylor’s & Company, Chiappa, Cimarron, and other manufacturers produce a variety of revolvers that are competition legal.
The best rifles for Cowboy Action Shooting are Winchester Model 1866 and Model 1973 rifles or carbines. Marlin model 1894 rifles are also popular. The rule book on rifles states: “Any lever or slide action, tubular fed, exposed hammer rifle or carbine manufactured between 1860 and 1899, or any reproduction thereof.” Modern reproduction rifles, such as those manufactured by Uberti, Marlin, Taylor’s & Company, Cimarron, Henry, Rossi, and even Winchester, are also all readily available.
Shotgun selection can be either a side-by-side, a pre-1889 pump action, or a lever action. Doc Holiday called his side-by-side a street howitzer. Stoeger makes a popular hammerless side-by-side “Coach Gun,” and Cimarron recreates Doc’s shotgun with exposed hammers for true period authenticity. The one caveat: the double-barrel shotgun must have extractors, not automatic ejectors. If you like pump shotguns, you will need to use a pump such as the Winchester Model 1897. There have been plenty of original Winchester Model 1897s used in competition, but new replica guns from Cimarron and others all fit the bill. Legal lever-action shotguns include the Winchester Model 1887. Taylor's and Chiappa make fine reproductions of these old-time shotguns. Shotguns in 20 or 12 gauge are popular, and barrel length must be 18 inches or longer.
Rifle and revolver ammunition must use an all-lead bullet. Minimum caliber is .32. Jacketed, plated, or washed bullets are not allowed. The most common caliber for Cowboy Action shooting is .38 Special. It has mild recoil in both rifles and pistols, is economical to shoot in larger quantities, is readily available, and is easily reloaded. Many ammunition manufacturers produce cowboy loads that meet the SASS muzzle velocity requirement of less than 1,000 fps for revolvers and less than 1,400 fps for rifles. Since ammunition is used between rifles and pistols, low-velocity ammo is prefect. In fact, it will have less felt recoil so your customer can concentrate on steel plate renegades rather than recoil. HMS makes ammunition specific for Cowboy Action shooting; so does Choice Ammunition, Black Hills, Fiocchi, Magtech, and others.
For shotgun ammo, load up your customer with No. 4 (or smaller) lead bird shot. No steel or plated shot is allowed. Games loads are manufactured by Winchester, Federal, Kent, Aguila, Remington, Fiocci, and other shotshell makers.
In addition to the firearms, you should also invest in period-appropriate holsters, cartridge belts, and bandoliers. Here again, the handbook will define what products are competition legal. SASS requires all shooters to wear full protection/high-impact safety glasses, so there is another accessory sale for you. And though heating protection is not mandated, it is recommended, so you should have an assortment of appropriate products on hand as well.
Getting into Cowboy Action Shooting takes a bit of thought, on the part of both customer and dealer. But since this is an activity in which the entire family can participate, you’ll find it can be very profitable to help these customers join the ranks of John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Wyatt Earp.
The Wild Bunch
The enduring popularity of this ground-breaking western has led to an offshoot of Cowboy Action Shooting known as Wild Bunch Action Shooting. Like CAS, these matches are sanctioned by the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS). The safety rules remain the same, but there are key differences in allowable firearms—namely the use of the .45 ACP 1911 pistol. Period dress is also required, but competitors can wear clothing from the early 20th century as well.
There are two basic shooting categories: Modern and Traditional. There are also various subcategories, similar to those found in CAS. Wild Bunch shooting allows customers who would prefer to use the classic 1911 rather than single-action revolvers to compete in entertaining competitions with a variety of challenging targets. And like, CAS, the emphasis is on fun. As the handbook states: “Wild Bunch Action Shooting is an Action Shooting sport that promotes speed, movement, and accuracy. It is not a bullseye competition.” The handbook is required reading for any sales associate and can be downloaded at sassnet.com.