Hi, Dennis, staining for outdoor usage can be a sticky wicket. The problem is that most consumers have kind of grown up with heavily dye based stains like Minwax. Yes, they do look great on antiques and older woods because they color yet have transparency. Kind of like Kool-Aid in a glass. You see right through the glass of Kool-Aid however it is transparently colored blue, red, whatever completely through the water. When woods are inside the home and not being exposed to UV and the collection of everything else that makes up sunlight that is fine. When you go outdoors the dye stains don't stand a chance. Sunlight immediately starts breaking them down and color shifting them. So the logic with outdoor staining is to derive color from heavy pigmentation. Formulate the stain improperly with oversized particles and things look like Mississippi mud. If done correctly with micro particles and some synthetic dyes you can get a good look and still bury it in something like the Tamco 2104.
Make sure your wood is clear and free of dirt, oil, etc. before you sand. About 180 to 220 grit is the top sweet spot for sanding. We use Mirka psa on a random orbit air sander for almost all of our flat prep. After sanding we blow out the pores real well with shop air. Right now I have one preferred stain system that I prefer for outdoor woods....
https://myoldmasters.com/product/gel-stainThey have a nice wide assortment of colors and they are all intermixable. Directions are right on that web page. Only thing I would observe with their stains though....they say 8 hours dry time for most of them but I think that should read "overnight" just to be safe. I like to slightly over reduce the first coat of urethane so it sinks in and locks. When I start seeing the wood looking wet I back off and keep that coat kind of fast and dusty. If you don't see the urethane dropping anymore then I go to full wet coats. If for any reason you start getting fisheye I'd recommend Smoothie II for urethanes. Use as little as possible.
Hope that helps some.....