Themes in Single Action Shooting

Single Action Shooting, or Cowboy Shooting, is not like any other shooting sport. It is all about the Old West. Single Action Shooting relives the days of vaqueros and cowboys in the early 1900s. All the way from the type of firearms used, down to the cowboy boots you were.

If you’re a sport shooter with great love for the Old West, and would like to experience how it all was back then, you got to give Single Action Shooting a try.

Single Action Shooting is all about authenticity. All firearms to be used have to be period-specific. You can’t sport any modern modifications on firearms in Single Action Shooting. Neither can you wear your regular shooter’s attire. What you need is some spurs, a vest, worn-in leather jeans (or denim) and a vest. Oh! And don’t forget your cowboy hat!

Single Action Shooting employs various themes to make each shooting event as authentic and as exciting as possible. All Single Action shooters take great lengths to make, or have someone else make, their attires.

The event organizers make sure that the set is also the perfect backdrop for Old West aficionados. A western theme is adopted for all targets, props and stages to be used in the event. An example would be a match set in a bank where a competitor would have to shoot through a barred teller window and retrieve a sack of gold. Another example would be where a shooter will have to rescue a baby (doll) and carry the baby to safety all while shooting down targets.

Other props that Single Action Shooting events may use are stage coaches, chuck wagons, buckboards, jail cells, oak barrels, saloon doors, hitching posts and even horses (props).