Cowboy Action Shooting with the editor of Cowboy Chronicle (VIDEO)

Enter the world of Cowboy Action Shooting where competitors wear their best cowboy hat and spurs, draw their six-shooters and ding some targets. John Clark, editor of The Cowboy Chronicle, a magazine dedicated to the sport, walked us through the events.

We met up with John Clark days after the Southwest Regional Championship for Black Powder where he competed. Clark, also known as Skinny among his peers, has participated for over 25 years in Cowboy Action Shooting competitions. He considers this one of the most enjoyable sports in which he has ever competed. Clark is also the editor of The Cowboy Chronicle, which is a quarterly magazine dedicated to the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting.

All Cowboy Action Shooters use two single action army revolvers, a lever action rifle in pistol caliber, and a shotgun which can either be a side by side, a single shot, an 1887 lever shotgun, or an 1897 pump shotgun.

Clark explains, in a typical competition, you can expect to engage steel, reactive, and/or stationary targets with all of your firearms.  Typically, a course of fire will entail 10 rifle, 10 pistol, and four shotgun but this can be switched up. A course can have just two steel targets or a steel target for each shot, depending on the club and the competition. A championship is generally held over two days and will have five stages the first day and five stages the second day.

If you find yourself just going to a monthly fun shoot, you can expect to shoot five to six stages in one day. The rules state that for cowboy shooting competitions, you must dress the part. It can be as simple as jeans and a work shirt with cowboy hat and boots or you can take it all the way and be historically accurate, or dress “B Western” style.

Clark then presented to us what he used in this competition. His choice of revolvers were a pair of Ruger Vaqueros in stainless steel. He chooses a .38 special for his load because it uses less black powder. It’s economical and there is less recoil, which is preferred among competitor shooters. He prefers stainless steel because it’s easier to detect if the gun is clean. For his rifle, he uses a 1894 Marlin in .38 special and also in stainless steel for the same reasons as his pistols. Finally, for his shotgun, he uses Stoeger Coach gun in a brush nickel finish in 12 gauge.

Clark directs anyone interested in cowboy shooting to visit the Single Action Shooting Societies (SASS) website. Also available at the website is a link to free access to digital versions of The Cowboy Chronicle.

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