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Getting Started in Cowboy Action Shooting Part 3
Learn to Reload
If you are serious about making a hobby of Cowboy Action Shooting(CAS) and are looking for the best guns to compete with and the best duds to compete in, make sure you also start thinking seriously about reloading your own ammo. If you have to buy store-bought ammo to compete, you will go broke.
Making your own ammunition is easy. You use a machine! The machine does most of the work! Like any machine, it has to be set up correctly, but you are the brains behind your machine! You read an instruction manual to set it up; you read a recipe book (loading manual) to find how much and what kind of components to use, you put the components into the machine and pull the handle and after about 4 pulls-you have a finished round! How easy is that!
If you are just getting into cowboy shooting, I’ll bet most everyone at the shootin’ match is making their own ammo! Anyone of those folks, and there are a lot of ‘em, could show you how to do it and they would be a walking encyclopedia if you had any questions. There is so much available media information, resources, and knowledge out there for today’s reloading person that producing a season’s supply of cowboy ammo is a snap, not like the old days. In the old days reloading was a real mystery passed down through generations from father to son, but today -- there’s a lotta free information out there for the taking!
Store-shelf ammo supplies go up and down, depending on supply and demand, and the political climate at any given time. If you reload, you will always have ammo for cowboy matches and practice and you can reload for all your different gun calibers. There is an almost unlimited choice of smokeless powder out there and an adequate choice of bullets and bullet suppliers to choose from.
You can keep stocked up with all your favorite supplies and reloading components so if the store shelves go bare, you always have an ammo supply or the ability to make one.
Start saving all your brass and shot shell hulls and use the brand of shotgun shells you can reload. Waste nothing. All this will add to your long run savings.
Remember, cowboy ammo uses light loads with light recoil so that means a round or cartridge is going to use less powder, less lead, and be pleasant to shoot. It won’t beat you up and your brass and hulls will last for many re-loadings—a long time! You just have to hit a steel target at close range and make an audible “CLANG!” That doesn’t take much!
The most popular ammo in CAS is 45LC or .38 special. It’s more economical to shoot 38 special because the cartridge is a lot smaller; it uses less powder, a smaller bullet, a smaller primer, and the brass can be found everywhere. There isn’t as much recoil so the gun will stay on target easier, the barrel won’t flip up, and you can shoot faster. The faster you shoot, the higher your score.
I use a Dillon Square Deal B. It’s made for reloading pistol cartridges and it uses dies that only fit the Dillon Square Deal B (SDB). You can load 32 Smith & Wesson all the way up to 45LC, mostly straight walled cases but it will load 44-40 ammo. This is no problem because CAS rifles shoot pistol cartridges not rifle cartridges.
The Square Deal B is a progressive re-loader or press. It is very fast, simple to operate, doesn’t take up much space, has a lifetime guarantee, and the unit with all its accessories can be had for under $700.
It comes to your door already set up for the caliber of your choice and it’s ready to go, right out of the box - after some minor assembly and powder adjustments. Buy the Dillon DVD with it or view some YouTube videos on how to set it up and you’re on your way!
Keep in mind when you start reloading, you’ll have to buy a set of calipers for measuring, a beam scale or a small electronic scale, a primer flip tray, ammo boxes, reloading manuals, and all the little things that you’ll only buy once but will last you for years. You’ll also need brass cases, smokeless powder, primers, and lead bullets. These are bought by the case or by the thousand. Always buy in bulk if possible.
Half of what was just mentioned is needed so you can produce quality, precise, and safe ammo you can be proud of and have confidence in; ammo that you won’t be afraid to let your friends use if they show up at a match without any. Your cowboy rifle might have cost you a pretty penny and you’ll want to run only the best ammunition through it and the best is what you have produced yourself.
By the way, if you loan out your cowboy rifle or let someone use it at a match, make sure you loan them a box of your ammo to use in your rifle. You should always have an extra box of your rifle cartridges at a cowboy match.
Reloading your own ammunition could be “risk-full!” but it doesn’t have to be! Get some good reloading books and start your own library! Lyman’s Cast Bullet Handbook, The ABC’s of Reloading, and The Insanely Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition by Tom McHale are some good ones.
Don’t forget the free loading manuals from the powder companies; you can find these on display in most good gun shops that sell reloading supplies.
Learn the difference between black powder and smokeless, fast and slow powder, cowboy stuff and hunting stuff, and get with someone who “knows” and learn from them. Most people love to help other people learn new things and cowboy shootin’ is a good place to start!
So long for now,
Slow Mo Dern
“Cowboy Action Shooting is a wonderful sport and these activities promote honesty, moral correctness, a love of history, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun!”
- David Chicoine
“Think about it, where else could you go and dress up like a cowboy or western movie actor, talk like you were from Wyoming, even though you grew up in Akron, enjoy your favorite sport (shooting!) and play the ham all at the same time without the slightest chance of being ridiculed?”
Go out there and try it, you’ll be glad you did!