Back in Wisconsin, weather permitting, the outdoor shooting season runs from April through November. I can’t remember when we shot an April match. It gets to be a long winter so around ten years ago a group of Range Officers from a local SASS Club started to hold Indoor Cowboy Action Matches. An indoor match is held in December, January, February and March.
Back in Wisconsin we shoot these indoor matches at a local Indoor range and rent the entire range after hours on a Saturday night. This range consists of ten individual shooting stations with range distances of seven to twenty five yards. Each shooting station has a tray to stage firearms on. We start shooting at 6:15 PM and easily finish in two hours.
We shoot three “SAA Pistol only”, three “Rifle only” and one stage using only a “1911 Pistol”. In our February match we introduced a “Bonus only” stage. For safety reasons at this range, holstering is not allowed and all firearms remain cased until the shooter is in the shooting station. Each bonus is two second and each miss is five seconds. A procedural penalty is ten seconds.
The stages and score sheets are generated with a free program called Libre Office using the Drawing section. A stage generated in LIBRE Office Drawing can be converted into a PDF or JPEG file for convenience of printing at a commercial printer.
The targets are printed in black and white on 11” x 17” sheets of plain bond paper. A red label is used for the bonus shots to eliminate having to print in color. We have tried several methods for the targets and find printing them on 11” x 17” sheets is the easiest and most economical way to go.
A typical Pistol stage is shot as follows. When called, the shooter brings their Pistols to the shooting station cased. He un-cases them and places them on the shooting station tray with the muzzles pointing down range. He loads each Pistol with five rounds each, hammer down on an empty chamber. A shooter can also load at an adjacent shooting station and when called, carry his firearms to the firing station with the muzzles up. The starting position is with the shooter’s hands at their sides. At the beep, the shooter picks up his first Pistol and begins to shoot the prescribed stage. After the five rounds are shot, the Pistol is re-staged on the tray. The shooter picks up the second Pistol and continues to shoot the stage. After the five rounds are shot, the Pistol is re-staged on the tray. The target is retrieved and scored. After the target is scored, the shooter unloads his Pistols and shows clear to the Timer Operator. He then cases his Pistols and may leave the shooting station. A new set of targets is stapled to the cardboard backing and the next shooter is called to the shooting station. The scoring of a stage is very easy to do and spotters are not needed.
The Rifle stages are shot in a similar manner except the Rifle is loaded with ten rounds and the starting position is at Cowboy port arms. For a 1911 stage, the Pistol is staged on the tray with the action open and empty. Three magazines with five rounds each are also staged on the tray.
Major 2 posted some typical stages that we shot thru the years. Attached a few more typical stages.