HAT's A COWBOY WITHOUT HIS STUFF? There's a surprising amount of gear needed for shooting in a cowboy match. From all the firearms to the clothing to the ammo to the gun cart and more ... it can all add up pretty fast. It's not necessary to mortgage the ranch to get started, though. Frankly, unless you're completely sure about the stuff you want to get, you'd be silly to run out and spend all your hard-earned coins until after you've talked to other folks and had some first-hand experiences at a match or three. You can still play if you don't have all the stuff — there's almost always someone who will lend you whatever you need to get by for a shoot (though it would be right decent of you to at least bring your own ammo).

RIFLE
The rifles used in Cowboy matches are lever-action (or very rarely, slide-action) carbines or rifles of a style manufactured before 1899. They can be modern leverguns, vintage original firearms or brand-new replicas of same. They must be chambered for a "pistol caliber" cartridge (for example, a .357 Magnum, a .44 or .45) — so your trusty .30-30 deer rifle is out. Sorry, it'll punch nice little holes through the steel targets, and those targets are expensive. Sometimes you can use the rifle calibers in long range side matches, though. No scopes, either — you have to use the iron sights or an original-style tang peep sight.

A rifle was the first thing we bought when we started playing this game, and it influenced the purchase of the sixguns we made later.

Pixelwiz picked out her Winchester model 1892 saddle-ring carbine at a gun show. It was an old original in 44 WCF (also known as .44 Winchester Center Fire or .44-40), made in 1917, and though all the finish was gone (which is what she really likes about it — she's a sucker for brushed, pewter-looking metal) and the wooden stocks were dinged up, the bore was super bright and clean, and the action was very nice and smooth. I had a 'smith recrown the muzzle to remove a sizable ding, but that's the only work that's been done on it. At "Cowboy ranges" it shoots just fine, but this particular '92 shoots several inches low at 100 yards.

I've heard about people grumbling and groaning about their model '92s, too, but they almost always turn out to be replicas chambered in a caliber that the rifle wasn't originally designed for, like .45 or .38 Special. I understand the allure of having the same round used in both the handguns and the rifles, but if you go that route you need to be aware that you're much more likely to end up with a jammed rifle at some point. I saw that happen to two different guys in my posse during my third match — one had a Winchester model '94 in .45 Colt, the other was shooting a replica '66 Yellowboy in .38 Special. Both of them experienced the joy of having a round get stuck under the follower. The guy using the '94 was able to clear it pretty easily after he finished the stage (handing off the jammed rifle to the Range Officer and taking the seven misses and lost time caused by the jam) and he shot it later in the rest of the stages with no more problems, but the other guy's '66 was out of the match. It had to be taken apart at the end of the shoot in order to clear it.

Now, that's not to say that using the '92 is flawless, even in an "original" caliber. If you screw up with any rifle you can get it stuck. It happened to me during the Carolina's Championship match when I double-stroked the darn thing. Of course, that was totally my fault and one can' blame the rifle for that.

I got an original Winchester model 1873 rifle in .44 WCF for Christmas, one with a 24" full-octagon barrel made in 1889. The gun needed a decent cleaning, and has a plum-brown patina all over it (except in the protected areas, where there's just a trace of blue). The stocks are in decent shape, the action is very nice and tight and the rifling is good, though there are a few small pits in the barrel (still, the bore is better than you might expect in a gun that's nearly 120 years old). It was shooting way high (6-8 inches at 25 yards), so I took it to a gunsmith who for some reason decided he needed to file down the front sight — which meant I had to find a replacement. After searching online for either an original Winchester sight, or a vintage Lyman "hunting" front sight (which I'd still love to put on this gun if I ever find one), I got some leads from the folks on the SASS Wire and ordered an original Winchester front sight from Albert Buckingham in Tennessee. Needless to say, I didn't bring it (or any other gun) back to that first 'smith.

The replacement sight (from a gun made in 1883) is a lot easier to see than the original one, and the rifle shoots mighty well for a gun that's almost 120 years old. Witness the group below, shot at 25 yards with cartridges full of American Pioneer Powder and a 200gr bullet:

It still shoots a tad high — I was aiming with the bottom of the 8" diameter bull perched atop the front sight, so I'm about 3 inches high at 25 yards. As long as I remember to aim at the lower part of the rifle targets, I'll be in good shape.

The Winchesters (vintage guns, the modern Winchesters and the clones) are used by most of the folks I see, but there are many who have Marlin rifles and love 'em. The speedy shooters around here seem to have an affinity for the Winchester '66 "Yellowboy" replicas in .38 Special (or .357 Magnum — I'm not sure which). I've heard that the Winchester '94s can be mighty frustrating to use — evidently that rifle's action was really designed for longer cartridges than the pistol calibers we shoot and you run a risk of jamming the gun up when firing and working the action quickly.

If you're planning on shooting any of the "Holy Black" through your rifle, I've heard that the "non-original" calibers tend to have more blowback of blackpowder residue than the .44-40, .38-40, etc. I guess maybe the goo gets past the straight-walled cases more than it does with the old bottlenecks, so you may not only have to do more cleaning, but also may have to run a patch or three through the rifle every couple of stages to keep it shooting. Admittedly, I have no personal experience with this, as I started with the .44-40s from the get-go — you should probably ask around and find out from people who actually use the things. I do know a few guys who shoot blackpowder (or substitutes) through .45 leverguns and it seems to work fine for them.

It's something to think about when looking for a levergun. I'll stick with the original calibers for now. When the munchkins get old enough to shoot, we'll have to start looking for some .32-20s for them -- and I'll have yet another caliber to reload for.

SHOTGUN
We bought a new Russian-made Baikal double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun at the same gun show where we got the 1892, too — it looks like an old hammerless "coach gun" but it was stiff as could be to open. I had a fellow shooter named Marshal Red Wolf (SASS #16544) work on this new "Bounty Hunter II" shotgun — he disengaged the automatic safety, honed the chambers and worked the springs so it opens with a flick of the wrist.

I looked at a Stoeger that had external hammers on it, but it was twice the price of the Russian scattergun, and at the time I didn't think I wanted to deal with having to cock the hammers all time. I've changed my mind on that, and if I had it to do over again, I probably would have either bought the Stoeger or a nice old vintage hammered double. I'm currently looking for a nice old hammer gun, although the TNN 1878 Colt shotgun clone is tempting me plently. Then there's always the Winchester 1887 lever shotgun. Mmmmm. The Wife has expressed interest in one of the Stoeger 20-gauge Coach Guns with the nickel finish and black stocks. I think that a 12-gauge loaded with Winchester FeatherLites might actually produce less perceived recoil for her, though. She's not sure if she wants a double or a '97.

Of course, there are a lot of folks using the old Winchester 1897 pump shotguns (my dad has one, though it's his old duck gun). When we were at that gunshow, I looked at a couple of those, but they seemed like they'd been "rode hard and put up wet" — and I think there are probably a lot of '97s out there that would fit that description. Norinco is making replicas of these shotguns now, but I understand they need more than your average amount of gunsmithing to make them shootable for CAS. The wood looks ugly, too — it's that real orangey-red color you may have seen on an SKS or AK. Blech. Most of the very fastest shooters use '97s, but I'm not going to be in that category any time soon and I like the side-by-side. Besides, if you're going to join the forces of the "Dark Side" (the blackpowder gang) and shoot in the Frontier Cartridge class you have to use a double-barrel or an '87.

I love the idea of having an original (or even a replica) Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun, however I've heard those things can be very temperamental. Still, if you can find and afford one, you'd get some serious Style Points for using it...

REVOLVERS
The last things I got were the sixguns -- which are a pair of Colt 1873 replicas from Cimarron in Texas. Uberti builds these, and I'm very happy with them so far. Since our old Winchesters are chambered for .44 WCF, that's what caliber I got in the revolvers. They both have the 4 3/4" long "gunfighter" barrels and Cimarron's "Original" finish, which makes them look about 100 years old. They match the old rifle pretty well. The Marshal did the action jobs on these, too, and now they're nice and smooth.

I thought about getting them in the original 1873 configuration — .45 caliber, 7 1/2" barrel, but I didn't want to have to reload two calibers or risk accidentally putting a .44 round in the sixgun or a .45 cartridge in the rifle... yikes! Before I ordered the revolvers, I asked Red Cent (one of the faster guys at the matches) about which barrel length to choose and he replied, "What do you want to do? Have fun or compete?" Well, it's going to be a while (if ever) before I'll be a threat to anybody else, so right now I'm just out to have a good time. That didn't enter too much into my choice of the sixgun's barrel length — I just liked the look and balance of the shorter barrel better. Now, of course, I do want at least one "original" 7 1/2" barrel .45 Colt -- but then, I also want a Smith & Wesson Schofield, an 1872 Open Top Colt, and a two pair of .44-40s in both 5 1/2" and 7 1/2" barrel lengths.

Before all this, I'd gotten a replica 1851 Navy Colt cap-and-ball percussion revolver from Cabela's, just because I'd always wanted a blackpowder handgun. It shoots pretty good groups, but it hits about 6 inches high of the point-of-aim. This seems to be a fairly common occurrence with the C&B pistols, no matter who makes them. I suppose I could use some "Kentucky windage" and adjust my aim accordingly by "simply" aiming low, but I'd want to be a lot more comfortable shooting in a match before I add that new wrinkle to my game... Right now I've got enough to think about while I'm up there on the line.

There are a lot of people using Ruger's revolvers. From what I can tell, they don't need much work right out of the box and are supposed to be about as rugged a sixgun as there is. The "old" Vaqueros are a little larger than a Colt or a Colt clone and they operate a bit differently, but if you like the way a Vaquero feels in your hand, there are a lot of people who will be right there with you. They usually cost a bit less than a Colt Clone (certainly less than a Colt), too. The "new" Rugers are built on a smaller grip frame, and though I think they're still a little larger than the Colt/Clone guns, they're not quite the handful they used to be. 'Wiz wants a pair of the new Ruger "Vaqueritos" (the Single Six) in .32 H&R in stainless steel. She's held and shot them before, and they fit her small hands very well.

GUNLEATHER
I got my holsters from El Paso Saddlery in Texas. They fixed me up with a pair of their 1880-S double-loop holsters and a #2 Texas Cartridge Belt. It took seven weeks to get 'em, but the rig turned out to be well worth the long wait. They've got other really nice sets (and not all of them are on the website, so you might want to get their catalog before ordering), but be aware that you'll have to be patient (and pay upfront) because they're going to be custom-made for you.

I didn't know it was going to take almost two months to get my leather, so initially, my only option for shooting a match was to use the cheapie belt and holster I had for the Navy Colt. It worked, though the Navy has a 7 3/8" barrel and my .44s are just 4 3/4". That still left me shy a holster for the left side, but I was able to get a loaner, which turned out to be another holster for an 8" barrel. The fact that my holsters didn't exactly fit my guns didn't impact my performance however; I'm still slow regardless of what sort of holsters I'm sporting, and it's no problem to put a short-barrelled sixgun in a long holster.

Rather than buying brand new leather, you might go poking around at a gun show or three and look for used rigs. Perhaps you might find just what you're looking for at a flea market and you'd pay a fraction of what a new set of holsters would cost. You could also find something at a local or regional or national match, or online — at the SASS Wire or on eBay — people are always looking for new rigs and might be more than happy to sell you their old one.

I got a shotshell belt from San Pedro Saddlery and I'm very happy with it — although I keep thinking I'd like to follow the lead of my friend Carolina Leadfoot and just use a leather pouch on my cartridge belt to hold a handfull of shotshells and pull 'em out from there. Slower, certainly, but I've never liked the look or feel of wearing a belt full of shotgun shells around my waist.

A lineup of guncarts with their attending umbrellas; not exactly "historically correct," but the protection is welcome in either blazing sun or drenching rain...

GUN CART
All this stuff has to go someplace, and that place is in a gun cart. You can buy them (and they're not the cheapest things in the world) or make your own. Or, if you're really lucky like me, you have a Dad who can look at a picture and make one even better than the ones you can buy. Dad made me a five-gun cart that's beautiful and has a removable box made from the old wood of my grandpa's barn — worm holes and all. It's amazing, and has gotten a lot of positive comments from the folks who've seen it.

There are plenty of very creative and unique carts out there.

DUDS
One of the really unique things about Cowboy Action Shooting is the According to the SASS Shooter's Handbook, participants should wear clothing typical of that which was worn in the mid- to late 19th century. Dad made the gun cart and Mom has made several shirts — a blue cavalry bib shirt, a fancy gambler's dress shirt and a vest with some "puff ties," and a cotton-muslin pullover shirt that work great. Wiz bought me some new Wah-Maker duds from Cabela's (railhead pants, another shirt and a vest), and we got several patterns for authentic 19th century clothes from Dixie Gun Works, too. At the first Carolina's Championship match I attended, I grabbed a closeout pair of black denim trousers from Classic Old West Styles and another set of suspenders from T.B. Enterprises and also a new panama straw hat from Tonto Rim, which is a lot cooler in the summer than the black felt hat I usually wear. I've worked out my costume to portray a northern plains cowboy from about 1880 or so; brown mule-ear boots and spurs, the black COWS trousers, a plain white pullover shirt, suspenders, wool vest, pocket watch, scarf, and dark brown felt hat. As with most other folks, I'll continue to acquire more threads as time goes on.

Now, you don't need to go out and buy a whole set (or more) of "authentic" cowboy clothes in order to play this game. Nobody's going to bust your chops if you show up in a pair of Levi's and a long-sleeved pullover (henley) type shirt. Lots of people (like me) really enjoy the costume aspect of this sport; others could care less about it, and there are no "Clothes Police" to prevent somebody from shooting if they aren't wearing 19th century threads.