To: Vor Lady
Plug in ‘Adobe Walls’ into Google and check out the story of a buffalo hunter named Dixon.
He took out an indian at somewhere around 1500yds.
He was using a buffalo rifle, possibly a Sharps 50-90.
It broke a siege of the trading post at Adobe Walls, Tx.
Dixon claimed it was a lucky shot but he won accolades.
I’m hoping to visit the spot this year. Don’t ask me why, there’s nothing there but a marker but I’m fascinated with the story.
Found it on Google Earth and have it plugged into my GPS. Ready to go!
http://www.oldwestlibrary.com/OWL/adobewalls.htm
83 posted on
02/11/2008 1:28:33 PM PST by
Vinnie
(You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Jihads You)
To: Vinnie
There was a story on the History Channel last year which attempted to debunk the old Adobe Walls shooting story. It quoted several newspaper articles from that period in which reporters who had gone to the scene of the siege, and some writers claimed the location they were shown where the Indian was hit was much closer than 1500 yards to the building where the buffalo hunters were shooting. IIRC there were also statements given to reporters from one or two of the hunters who said that the story was a hoax, Billy Dixon killed an Indian Chief alright but not when he was almost a mile away. Also some of the people who claimed to have witnessed the shot were found to have not been at the battle, and one or two others who were there said they were not there for some unknown reason.
I tend to believe Dixon and the hunters who were with him because a Sharps Big Fifty was certainly capable of making the shot, a man size target is visible to the naked eye at that range, and buffalo hunters had to be expert shots or they didn't last long at the job. But I guess nobody will ever know for certain either way now that all the people involved have been dead for over 3/4 of a century or more. I am going to go on believing Billy Dixon did what he said he did until somebody proves him wrong.
90 posted on
02/11/2008 4:04:44 PM PST by
epow
(I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!)
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