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Lessons on Gunfighting from Wyatt Earp
Am Shooting Journal ^ | 12/23/2019 | C Cocole

Posted on 12/23/2019 7:26:58 AM PST by w1n1

In his own words, Wyatt is going to explain how he became one of the most feared and accurate gunslingers… even if he was about the slowest.
The most important lesson I learned from those proficient gunfighters was the winner of a gun play usually was the man who took his time. The second was that, if I hoped to live long on the frontier, I would shun flashy trick-shooting—grandstand play—as I would poison.

I was a fair hand with pistol, rifle, or shotgun, but I learned more about gunfighting from Tom Speer’s cronies during the summer of '71 than I had dreamed was in the book. Those old-timers took their gunplay seriously, which was natural under the conditions in which they lived. Shooting, to them, was considerably more than aiming at a mark and pulling a trigger.
Models of weapons, methods of wearing them, means of getting them into action and operating them, all to the one end of combining high speed with absolute accuracy, contributed to the frontiersman’s shooting skill.

The sought-after degree of proficiency was that which could turn to most effective account the split-second between life and death. Hours upon hours of practice, and wide experience in actualities supported their arguments over style. Read the rest of gunfight OK Corral.


TOPICS: History; Hobbies; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: banglist; blogpimp; gunfights; wyattearp
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1 posted on 12/23/2019 7:26:58 AM PST by w1n1
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To: w1n1

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast...


2 posted on 12/23/2019 7:29:52 AM PST by SolidRedState (I used to think bizarro world was a fiction.)
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To: w1n1

I don’t know that Wyatt Earp was ever considered one of the most “feared and accurate gunslingers” in the old west. He just happened to participate in the most famous gunfight from the old west.


3 posted on 12/23/2019 7:33:10 AM PST by circlecity
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To: w1n1

I always though Wyatt relied on a shotgun.


4 posted on 12/23/2019 7:36:06 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: w1n1
It doesn't matter how fast you miss. Conversely, if you're standing there with a bullet going through your brain, you may have taken a bit too much time...


5 posted on 12/23/2019 7:36:10 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: circlecity

I don’t know that Wyatt Earp was ever considered one of the most “feared and accurate gunslingers” in the old west. He just happened to participate in the most famous gunfight from the old west.


He was still alive when it was over?


6 posted on 12/23/2019 7:36:18 AM PST by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: w1n1

Two years in combat in Vietnam and I never once put the selector on anything but single shot. You only get one aimed round, everything else is off target (and a waste of ammo).


7 posted on 12/23/2019 7:36:29 AM PST by BuffaloJack ("Security does not exist in nature. Everything has risk." Henry Savage)
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To: circlecity
I don’t know that Wyatt Earp was ever considered one of the most “feared and accurate gunslingers” in the old west.

C;mon, man. He was on the TV all the time.

8 posted on 12/23/2019 7:37:54 AM PST by TangoLimaSierra (To the Left, The Truth is Right Wing Extremism.)
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To: w1n1

Here’s an interesting bit of trivia. When John Wayne first came to Hollywood (in the 1920s) he learned some of his cowboy mannerisms from ...Wyatt Earp!

(Earp was serving as an advisor on a Hollywood western. Wayne was working as an extra.)


9 posted on 12/23/2019 7:39:50 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: Leaning Right

Wyatt and The Duke,
Interesting.

Thanks!


10 posted on 12/23/2019 7:47:59 AM PST by Big Red Badger (Despised by the Despicable!)
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To: w1n1

I imagine that Wyatt’s information was good but if I really wanted to know how to win a gunfight, I would ask John Wesley Hardin.

I remember Skeeter Skelton wrote of Jeff Davis Milton as one of the great marshals of the old West.


11 posted on 12/23/2019 7:48:25 AM PST by yarddog ( For I am persuaded.)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: Leaning Right

The best gunfighter is the one who doesn’t have to draw his weapon. However, if you had to draw your weapon, intimidation and getting into your opponents head is what won gunfights. That split second of indecision would cost you your life.


13 posted on 12/23/2019 7:49:52 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (When you think about what the left is doing to America, think no further than Cloward-Piven)
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To: chaosagent
He was still alive when it was over?

Holy cow...yes. He lived a long and satisfying life after the gunfight with his sweetheart Josephine Marcus.

14 posted on 12/23/2019 7:50:58 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (The GOP never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.)
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To: w1n1

I used to be quite good at shooting from the hip. More recently I tried to incorporate speed into this and found myself being way off target.

The answer was the Taurus Judge. I load the first two holes with bird shot. At 50 feet I never miss a two foot wide target. The stinging sensation of the birdshot is intended to get an opponent off guard and worry about being hit.

The next two holes have 4 steel balls in a 410 shell. At 50 feet the 4 balls stay inside an 8 inch pattern. Here it is hoped one or more balls will disable an opponent.

The 5th hole is a 45 cal bullet for the coup de gras, which is carefully aimed and usually hits within a couple inches of the center target.

Backup is a 9 mm sig.

IMO the Judge (or S&W Governor) is the best quick draw self defense weapon there is for use on targets that shoot back. I hope I never have to use any of this except for paper targets.


15 posted on 12/23/2019 7:53:12 AM PST by redfreedom
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To: Leaning Right

I wasn’t aware of that, Thanks!


16 posted on 12/23/2019 7:55:29 AM PST by matthew fuller (America's Dark Age-2009-2016.)
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To: chaosagent
"He was still alive when it was over?"

As were the other three people on his side.

17 posted on 12/23/2019 7:56:20 AM PST by circlecity
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To: w1n1

The “gunfight” at the OK Corral was more mob hit than battle. The losers wanted to leave. The winners wanted to kill.


18 posted on 12/23/2019 7:57:47 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: w1n1

Lol. Earp was a pathological liar.


19 posted on 12/23/2019 7:58:14 AM PST by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

That was Halliday.


20 posted on 12/23/2019 7:58:17 AM PST by IronJack
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