Find a club near you and call the contact person. He'll probably tell you to come on out whether you have all of your equipment or not. If you have everything, no problem. If you're short a pistol or a rifle or a shotgun ask if you can borrow one. Any club I've been involved with encouraged beginners, so loaner guns are always available. I've loaned guns myself.

Get your gear together the night before. Make sure everything is in the car.

Arrive early. Beat the crowd, yes, but the real reason is new shooters have more paperwork to do than repeats, and you may have to qualify. Qualification isn't difficult. You just have to shoot the pistol, rifle, and shotgun to demonstrate safe handling. Misses are allowed.

Listen up at the shooters meeting. Posses will be assigned then if they haven't already. A posse is just a group of shooters that will shoot together all day. Each posse will start at a different stage so that several stages can be shot simultaneously.

Each posse will have a posse marshal. Tell him you're a newcomer. He will probably assign someone to help/watch/mentor you.

Everyone on the posse works when not shooting or getting ready to shoot. Since you're a beginner you'll probably be assigned to pick up brass, something not requiring experience.

When it's your turn to get in line, put the required amount of ammunition on your body. I put rifle rounds in a small leather pouch on my belt and pistol rounds on my belt. My shotgun belt holds 12 pistol/rifle rounds, too. Others use loading blocks or ammo boxes. Carry the exact number you need, and you won't put in too many. This is a no-no. Shotgun ammunition, of course, goes in your shotgun loops. Extras are okay. You'll drop some.

Then carefully take your long guns from your gun cart. Don't sweep anyone. Move the muzzles to vertical as expeditiously as possible. (Better yet, start with a vertical carry gun cart.)

Go to the loading table. Lay the guns down facing down range, pistols, too. In this instance, Capt. Baylor is acting as loading table monitor for the shooter ahead and monitoring the loading of his pistol. Normally a worker is assigned to this job. In this instance, we covered each other.

Lay the ammunition needed for the rifle down. Count the rounds.

Make sure the rifle is unloaded. Lower the hammer carefully. Load the rifle with the designated rounds. A designated contestant should be monitoring this. This is the time when conversations stop, and you concentrate on counting rounds. Put in one too few, and you'll suffer a miss or an on-the-clock reload. Put in one too many, and you risk a safety violation.

Then load the pistol(s) with 5 rounds (each). With Colts and clones it's load one, skip one, load 4, loading gate closed. Hammer to full cock then down carefully on an empty chamber. Let the loading table monitor see what you're doing. With a Ruger you can load 5 and make sure an empty chamber is under the hammer.
Check visually to make sure the empty chamber is under the hammer. Show the loading table monitor and get his/her okay.

Relax. Visualize the stage. Remember the order. "Rifle first, 3 targets, sweep left to right three times. Ground rifle on hay bale. Pistol one, 5 rounds on 5 pistol targets left to right. Reholster. Pistol two, 5 rounds on 5 pistol targets right to left. Reholster. Shotgun. Sweep 2 swingers left right twice."

Starting positions vary. In this stage at a Tejas Pistoleros monthly match we started at Cowboy Port Arms and engaged rifle targets first, three targets, swept left to right three times, then safely grounded rifle on the wall by the door, action open...
Ground rifle safely--if a weapon falls down it's a stage DQ. If it's loaded it's a match DQ. Take an extra half second to make sure. A name competitor in trophy position had a shotgun fall on his last stage at Winter Range 2001. A former World Champion knocked a pistol out of its holster--loaded--at End of Trail 2003--match DQ. Embarrassing and dangerous at a local match. Embarrassing, dangerous, and expensive at the World Championship.

... moved to left window to engage falling plates, drew first pistol (from crossdraw holster).

If you use a crossdraw holster, do the crossdraw dance to make sure you're not sweeping anyone. Be aware of the angles. Exaggerate the cross draw dance to make sure the people watching see you do it.

Now reholster safely. The second pistol engages another set of targets, usually in a prescribed order. Then reholster safely. DON'T SWEEP ANYONE WHILE REHOLSTERING!

Retrieve shotgun and engage swingers 1 & 2 left to right three times. That is black powder smoke.

Then shotguns. Shotguns start empty and end empty. If the shotgun isn't the last weapon fired (and it should be for timer activation purposes), emptying the chambers is required before leaving it.

"Muzzles up. Proceed to unloading table," should be the command from the timer operator. Time to get out of the fog of battle and concentrate on safely unloading the weapons.

When finished, STOP. The timer isn't running. You can do things at normal speed now. Don't get DQed now. MUZZLE UP if you have a long gun in hand. Pick up your other long gun if needed. Move to the unloading table. Sometimes workers will pick up your grounded long guns. They may be a long way from where you ended up.

DO NOT pick up brass. If brass is picked up, and it is in all but big matches, other contestants will do that for you. You should clear the shooting area and go to the unloading table in a timely manner.

Place the long guns on the unloading table, muzzles down range.

Rack the action on the rifle several times and look down the chamber and in the loading gate to make sure it's really unloaded. If you're using a '97 shotgun, do the same with it. With a double just look at the open chambers.

At the unloading table carefully show that every weapon is unloaded to the unloading table monitor (usually the previous shooter. You'll become the unloading table monitor for one shooter).

Don't take this lightly. The accidental/negligent discharges I've known about could have been avoided at the unloading table.

Unload both pistols and show clear. If you only shot one pistol, you have to show both clear.

Then take your long guns to the gun cart. Don't sweep anyone. There are people in some areas, hopefully not ones where I shoot, where this would be considered a violation because the muzzle of the rifle isn't pointed straight up. When you pick up your long guns at the unloading table, keep them pointed down range. Pick them up. Point the muzzles up or down, but don't let them sweep to the side.

Have a drink out of your stash (water, Coca-Cola, Gatorade, no Redeye) and start getting ready for the next stage or to work this one. Keep yourself hydrated and relaxed. This is fun.

Monthly matches don't usually have big parties, but big matches do. This was the party at the Tin Star CAS Open 2001. The party was held at Tin Star Ranch because they waited too long to hire a hall. The food was great, and the Margaritas better. John Taffin says the three aspects of Cowboy Action Shooting are shooting, fellowship, and shopping. Big matches provide all three. If you took the fellowship out, it wouldn't be a fun sport. It's more than just shooting. And as far as shopping, all these people didn't make their outfits. They bought most of them somewhere. If you haven't already, come to your nearest CAS club and join in the fun. Cap'n Baylor will be looking for you.

I hope you enjoyed this little intro to our sport. Please check out:

Mounted Shooting

and Cas City's reference guide.