What the heck is Cowboy Action Shooting?

Cowboy Action Shooting is one of the dynamic shooting sports. Competitors use two revolvers, a rifle and a shotgun. All the firearms are originals or reproductions of single-action firearms that were "on-the-market" prior to 1899. The rifles and revolvers are chambered for pistol calibre cartridges - mostly .38 Special, .44-40 Winchester and .45 Colt. Our bullets are lead only; no jacketed or gas-checked bullets are allowed.

Shooters may compete in any of a number of categories. Some are age-based, some are costume-based and some are based on what and how you shoot.

Costuming is a huge part of the sport. Each Cowboy and Cowgirl picks an alias and a character and we try to dress the part. Costumes vary from scruffy saddle tramp to B-Western movie star. Some folks spend a wagon load of money on their costumes and some just mosey on down to the nearest thrift store and put their get-up together.

Cowboy Action Shooting is a very social sport. We love to bring our tents, campers and RVs to the range and turn a one-day match into a weekend of fun and fellowship. We also travel around the province, the country and even visit our good neighbours to the south shooting in matches wherever we find them. We've all made some very good friends and some life-long friendships sitting around the campfires.

Oh, one other thing. If you don't have a sense of humour and if you can't laugh at yourself you might want to try a different sport, like golf maybe. Happy Trails!