Ever dreamed of getting duded up like Wyatt Earp and walking the boardwalks of Tombstone, guns ready at the hip with an urge to fling lead? If so, Cowboy Action Shooting may be the sport for you.

The single action revolver, so named because a trigger performs the single action of firing the weapon after the hammer is manually cocked, is a simple, dependable, and highly effective design that’s synonymous with sidearms of the Old West—the Samuel Colt-designed Peacemaker being the most widely known example (see page 96 for more of that story).

It was a skill—even a trade—that went by many names: gunslinging, throwing lead, leather slapping, gunplay, makin’ the town smoky. By whatever name, in its Old West heyday it was a high-stakes affair that could make a man a legend or cause him to lose everything in a fraction of a second.