Do It Yourself

Shooting Spree
It's high noon in a California ghost town, and your only friend is the Colt .45 on your hip. The sport is Cowboy Action Shooting, in which modern-day gunslingers fire live ammo at metal targets that drop like stuntmen when struck by bullets or buckshot. "We've got almost 18,000 members—men, women and kids, doctors, lawyers and CPAs," says Ken (the Chiseler) Amorosano of the Single Action Shooting Society, which sponsors hundreds of gun games nationwide. Competing for speed and accuracy with single-shot pistols, rifles and shotguns, competitors aim for End of Trail, the April world finals held at a 30-acre ranch in Norco, Calif. , where dusty streets and saloon facades serve as a life-sized shooting gallery for about 500 competitors. The shootists bill their game as "the most fun the law allows." If it gets any more popular, there might be a few lawbreakers showing up at End of Trail: scalpers.