Despite popular myth, not everyone in possession of a firearm in the various American Western territories during the 19th century was an expert marksmen. Just as today, many gun owners are novice marksmen and gun handlers. With greater access to information in the form of organized shooting events and competition, published education resources as books and video, and other outlets, gun owners have more opportunity to learn. Contrast this to a person traveling along the frontier with no access to shooting clubs, libraries, or the Internet. Lack of skill today in gun owners today is true stupidity, the combination of ignorance and apathy.
Here are some less-than-stellar examples from the Old West.
- Dodge City, 1880. Texas drovers tangled in Sherman’s Saloon. Despite hundreds of shots fired, the only casualty was a stray cat.
- Frisco, New Mexico, 1884. A 33 hour fight involving about 80 Texans firing an estimated 4,000 rounds shots into the jacale of Elfego Baca resulted in property damage only. Baca wasn’t hit once.
- “Rowdy” Joe Lowe and A. M. Sweet exchanged 50 rounds before Sweet was hit.
- Trinidad, Colorado. “Cockeye” Frank and a man named Jack Allen exchanged 16 shots without a hit.
Firearm User Network 
Brian
Sep 20, 2015 @ 14:00:47
W. Milton Farrow was the 1880 winner of the Wimbledon Cup. He wrote a book about his shooting called How I Became a Crack Shot. In the chapter about his journey to the American West he wrote:
“I had a great desire to see what sort of practical shooting at a 200 yards’ target, scouts and hunters by profession, could make with their favorite weapons; and an invitation was given out to all that desired, to attend a competition at 200 yards on the following afternoon, to be held by a celebrated rifle shot from the East, on the vacant lot near the brewery. Quite a large crowd of teamsters, hunters, scouts and ranchmen, with a sprinkling of officers from Fort Keough, were on hand to witness and take part in the shooting. The target was of the regular Creedmoor pattern for 200 yards, four feet wide and six feet high, with eight inch bull’s eye. After a few preparatory shots the practice was begun, and in many cases did the hunter’s and scouts astonish the celebrated shot and themselves, at the ease and frequency with which they could miss, not only the bull’s eye, but the entire target.”
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John M. Buol Jr.
Sep 20, 2015 @ 14:32:34
Thanks for the great quote! I’m willing to wager a few of those scouts, hunters, soldiers, teamsters, and ranchmen would be overheard complaining that the Creedmoor target and course of fire used wasn’t realistic or inline with their “real” skills on prey and enemy. Had Farrow required use of an issue rifle instead of the shooter’s choice, they could have used that as an excuse as well.
Copies of W. Milton Farrow’s How I Became a Crack Shot can be found here:
Click to access How_I_became_a_crack_shot.pdf
https://archive.org/details/howibecameacrac00farrgoog
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Brian
Sep 20, 2015 @ 16:01:08
And good old Milton had the greatest tactical beard of all time to go along with his Mad sHewtin sKiLlz!
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Colorado Pete
Sep 22, 2015 @ 12:46:29
There’s a good story of Turkey Creek Jack Johnson facing down two miners after a dispute. Johnson knew the two miners couldn’t shoot worth a damn, and he knew he could, so he challenged them to start from greater than 50 yards distance and then walk towards each other. The miners’ first shots went wide, and at 50 yards Johnson stopped and dropped one man with a center hit. The other miner started “hosing” (?!!) with his sixguns while Johnson advanced through a hail of misses and at 25 yards, stopped and killed the second man with his second and last shot of the fight.
Skill, and more than a little guts. Things don’t always go according to plan.
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John M. Buol Jr.
Sep 22, 2015 @ 12:59:00
I’ve run shoot off matches with a pair of shooters advancing toward a reactive target with similar results. Winner goes to the first hit, not to the first shot fired.
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