An interesting aspect of cowboy action shooting is the sport's use of gun carts. When I observed my first shooting match, not having heard of nor seen a gun cart, I was initially surprised at the concept of a gun cart. That surprise quickly went away as I saw why they were important. As a minimum you carry around two single-action handguns, a rifle, and a shotgun during a match. Add in the need to have handy at least 150 handgun and rifle rounds and 25 shot shells and you have a lot of "stuff" to carry around. It's not uncommon for some competitors to have an extra handgun, rifle, and shotgun, If you start adding gun oil and other cleaning supplies, a leatherman tool, a couple bottles of water, etc. the need for a gun cart becomes obvious.

You are likely to see a variety of gun carts at any match competition ranging from those of simple design to those more complex. Some competitors go as far as to coordinate the design of their gun cart with their cowboy costume. At one match I attended, a competitor dressed as an old west undertaker had a coffin-designed gun cart!

The picture below was taken at Comancheria Days 2003 south of Fredericksburg, TX and gives you a sampling of some gun carts.

The competitor's cart below was also seen at Comancheria Days 2003.

Photos of the carts below were taken at Showdown at Buck Creek, the SASS southwestern regional match held south of Dallas in October 2005.

Gun carts can be purchased commercially with several websites for gun cart sales on the internet. Similarly, a number of websites provide designs for building your own gun cart, an option that appeals to many.

Below is the gun cart I currently use based on a modification of a design I found on the internet. My design uses a dolly that puts the wheels under the cart to better help maneuver the cart over the often bumpy grounds at shooting matches. Someday I might add wheels to the structure and drop the dolly.