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.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast...
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.
I always though Wyatt relied on a shotgun.
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?
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).
C;mon, man. He was on the TV all the time.
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.)
Wyatt and The Duke,
Interesting.
Thanks!
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.
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.
Holy cow...yes. He lived a long and satisfying life after the gunfight with his sweetheart Josephine Marcus.
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.
I wasn’t aware of that, Thanks!
As were the other three people on his side.
The “gunfight” at the OK Corral was more mob hit than battle. The losers wanted to leave. The winners wanted to kill.
Lol. Earp was a pathological liar.
That was Halliday.
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