As I am very interested in getting involved in cowboy action shooting (slowly but surely!), I'd like to hear about some of the more fun stages you all have shot at your various meets (the more detailed the better!). About how many stages do you have at each competition. How frequent are your competitions?
CAS Stage Examples
- Thread starter FSCJedi
- Start date
I design and help design stages for our monthly matches. We have a dedicated CAS range at our club and this has been very helpful. We have between 50 - 70 shooters a month and 100 or more at our annual charity shoot. We have 10 bays set up with "buildings" or falsefronts in several of them. We also have a couple of wagons; a utility wagon and a stagecoach. There's also a steam engine with car. The engine is built out of 2x4 and plywood with 55 gal drums for the boilers while the train car is a silhouette car with two opening windows (looks sort of like a cattlecar).
Lately, for the last year or so, we've been shooting stages that are designed around movies. Clint Eastwood westerns always make for good stage design with a little reworking. John Wayne movies are always good for stage design also.
Most of our stages use two handguns, rifle and shotgun, but not always all three. Then sometimes a derringer is thrown in also. We really don't have a long range area to call our own so long range single shot rifles aren't used much. As to targets, usually you ring steel but we try to have some clay birds, in two different style throwers, mixed in. We also ocassionally have some sort of novelty target mixed in; charcoal briquettes, a snake made of hose, throwing "dynamite", using a lasso, throwing a knife or tomahawk etc.
Basically, for us, if someone dreams it up and there's a way we can safely do it, we'll give it a try. But always remember, safety is paramount. It's rules number one, two and three
Lately, for the last year or so, we've been shooting stages that are designed around movies. Clint Eastwood westerns always make for good stage design with a little reworking. John Wayne movies are always good for stage design also.
Most of our stages use two handguns, rifle and shotgun, but not always all three. Then sometimes a derringer is thrown in also. We really don't have a long range area to call our own so long range single shot rifles aren't used much. As to targets, usually you ring steel but we try to have some clay birds, in two different style throwers, mixed in. We also ocassionally have some sort of novelty target mixed in; charcoal briquettes, a snake made of hose, throwing "dynamite", using a lasso, throwing a knife or tomahawk etc.
Basically, for us, if someone dreams it up and there's a way we can safely do it, we'll give it a try. But always remember, safety is paramount. It's rules number one, two and three
Jbar4Ranch
New member
Our local club has only six stages, four with false store fronts/boardwalks, one with a big ol' wooden horse, and one with nothing. There's often one "off the clock" shot as a bonus, such as hitting a stationary clay bird @ 50 yards with a revolver, or knocking a can off a perch behind a window with a 12' whip from 12' away for a 10 second bonus. One attempt only with the whip, and the can is usually about a foot or so behind the window opening so ya can't just swing it around in a big circle to hit it. Ya gotta learn some semblence of "cracking the whip" to get it through the window opening. Another variation is that the whip event may be either on the clock or off the clock, and a can must be knocked over before the shooter starts the shooting part of the stage. If it's off the clock, the timer starts when the can goes over. In this event, it's not a "one attempt only", ya crack the whip til the can goes over and then ya can proceed to shoot the rest of the stage. The whip events are often left up in the air til after sign-up and we see how many young'uns or wimmenfolk show up who may not be able to work the whip. All stages use all three guns, and we don't use long-range rifle or derringer except in side events at a two day shoot during the summer. This is simply because a lot of people don't have a derringer or long-range rifle. Locally, we only have one shoot a month, at least six months a year, with one of them being the two day event (August, this year), and shooters usually number from about thirty to about sixty, but there is a shoot almost every weekend somewhere in the state during the summer. Unfortunately, Montana is a BIIIIG state, and for me to shoot in, say, Billings, Miles City, or Glendive means an eight to twelve hour round trip in addition to the actual match. For me, most any shoot in Idaho is closer than going to one in eastern Montana. Club membership is $30/year, and the entry fee is $15 for members and $20 for non-members, so if ya shoot in all six local matches, the entry fees for the year come out the same. Due to hunting season and the onset of winter, the last match is in September, but sometimes there are more than six shoots, it just depends on the severity and length of the winters as to whether we start a month or two early in the spring.