Thanks, I’ve only ever read Louis L’Amour detective stories, so I don’t know if they do this sort of stuff in westerns or not. It just didn’t sound at all plausible to me.
No, as a matter of skill it is not possible.
The man would of been using black, iron sights, looking towards a fire at a moving skull, half of which would of been in light, the other half dark.
I don’t think it is a doable shot, in daylight at a still person. Further, we are talking about the the thickness of skin on a human skull, so say half inch, left or right, max.
One side you miss, the other you take the back of the man’s skull off.
In the dark? With iron sights? Worst lighting possible? Moving target?
Not happening. By the way L'Amour, although his books were fairly purple, he had one of, if not the largest collection of Western diaries, newspapers and original sources in private hands. He said the notion of the violent west was a myth.