Old West Marksmanship

Old West Marksmanship

Despite popular myth, not everyone in possession of a firearm in the various American Western territories during the 19th century was an expert marksman. 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 competitions, and published educational resources such as books, videos, and other outlets, gun owners have more opportunities to learn than ever before. Contrast this to a person traveling along the frontier with no access to shooting clubs, libraries or book stores, or the Internet. Good information has never been more freely available so the lack of skill today in gun owners today is due to willful ignorance.

W. Milton Farrow pictured above was the 1880 winner of the Wimbledon Cup. He wrote a book about his shooting called How I Became a Crack Shot. Download for free:

How_I_became_a_crack_shot.pdf

https://archive.org/details/howibecameacrac00farrgoog

In the chapter about his journey to the American West, Farrow 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.

There’s also a good story of John “Turkey Creek Jack” Johnson who rode with Wyatt Earp as a member of the posse during the Earp Vendetta Ride. 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; 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; at 25 yards, he stopped and killed the second man with his second and last shot of the fight.

Some other 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 shot 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.

For more on this topic, master trainer and competitor Karl Rehn of KR Training has some great resources on the history of handgun training and technique. He also offers Historical Handgun as a formal, in-person training course.

Also, in an attempt to help, here are some free video resources.