In cowboy action shooting competition, all weapons must be originals or reproductions of firearms manufactured during the early to late 1800s (Colts, Winchesters, Remingtons, Marlins, Henrys, etc.). All revolvers must be single-action (will not fire unless hammer pulled back) and must be .32 caliber or larger shooting lead-tipped bullets. All rifles used in competition must shoot pistol caliber, lead tipped rounds of .32 caliber or larger. Shotguns must be between 10 to 20 gauge, without automatic ejectors, shooting lead shot.

Pictured below is a "rig" (holsters, cartridge belt, Bowie knife, pouch and shot shell slide). The picture shows two .45 long colt caliber, six-shot single action Ruger Vaquero revolvers with 7 1/2 inch barrels. A typical rifle and shotgun used in competition are also pictured below. Included is a 12 gauge, 20 inch barrel "coach" shotgun made by Baikal and a 20 inch barrel .45 long colt caliber carbine made by Rossi. The latter is a reproduction of the Winchester 1892 model made famous by John Wayne who used this rifle in many of his movies.

During a match, competitors will shoot in five to six or more "stages" with a group of 8-12 competitiors (the group is referred to as a "posse"). In each stage, competitors will generally shoot at steel targets with 10 pistol rounds (from two revolvers), 10 rifle rounds, and two shot shell rounds. Your score in each stage is the time when you start your shooting until finished plus 5 seconds added for each missed target. When the posse finishes its stage as a group, they move to the next stage with similar target and weapon demands and continue until the posse has shot in all stages. Best time (lowest) across all stages wins the match.

All matches allow competitors to compete in special age, weapon or shooting style, and gender categories if they wish. There are no men-only categories; that is, both men and women can compete in separate age categories such as juniors (ages 12 to 16), forty-niners (over age 48), seniors (60 or older), and elder statesmen (70 or older). Shooters can also compete in weapon or shooting style categories such as the traditional (all firearms have non-adjustable sights), modern (one or more of your firearms have adjustable sights), duelist (requires shooting with one hand, no support from the other hand), and the gunfighter (shooting one-handed with one gun in each hand). Another weapon-specific category is the frontiersman category for competitors using cap and ball (percussion) weapons. Finally, the female-specifc shooting categories include the traditional and modern groups and the duelist and gunfighter groups. As noted above, women can also compete in separate junior, forty-niner, senior, and elder statesmen (or Grand Dames) age groups.

Some Personal Notes on Shooting Several Guns in Competition

When I first started getting interested in the sport of cowboy action shooting, I wondered why the sport required the shooting of multiple weapons in competition. I now usually tie my answer into some of my favorite stories about the Texas Rangers and their weapons.

In the early days of the Texas Republic, Texas Rangers were usually armed with a muzzleloading single-shot rifle and pistol and a knife. The main adversary of the early Rangers were the Comanches who would draw fire from the Rangers and then could shoot several arrows at them in the time it took a Ranger to reload a single-shot weapon. You can easily do the math. With a single shot revolver, two revolvers would give you two shots before needing to re-load. Adding a single shot rifle gave you still another round.

According to the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum documents, Texas Ranger Captain John Coffee "Jack" Hays acquired Colt Patterson five-shot percussion revolvers from the stores of the decommissioned Republic of Texas Navy in May of 1844. The following month Hays and a company of 15 men fought and won an important battle with a large raiding party of about 80 Comanches in the area around Walker Creek northwest of San Antonio. The Comanches were surprised by the multiple shots coming from the guns of the Rangers without re-loading. The five-shot revolver allowed the Rangers to fight an offensive battle that changed Indian warfare tactics. (See, also, the story on Handguns of the Old West.)

The first percussion revolvers shot a lead ball which required packing gunpowder into each cylinder chamber. (The stories on Handguns of the Old West and Early Muzzeleloading Pistols and Rifles in this website have more information on these first cap-and-ball revolvers as well as their successors.) Although these first revolvers could shoot five bullets before re-loading, it was still time-consuming to re-load. Having more than one gun was still desired. Texas Rangers often carried two (or more) handguns along with a couple of extra loaded cylinders to more quickly re-load their guns. If you've seen the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales" with Clint Eastwood, you can note that Eastwood carried two percussion revolvers on a belt holster, one in a shoulder holster, one in a concealed pocket, and one in a holster attached to his saddle!

If interested in finding out more about the colorful history of the Texas Rangers, I encourage you to visit the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum Website where I found most of the above Ranger history information.