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Writer's pictureDon Ratkowski

What made the Notorious Gunfighters so deadly?

Updated: Mar 23, 2023


In this video we discuss what made the notorious gunfighters so deadly and what can we learn from them. When we look at history there are always many things that can be learned, and when we look at the notorious gunfighters we can learn a lot from the things they did that made them so deadly. If we examine closely we can see some of the, seemingly little things, they did or sometimes the completely unorthodox methods they used that were successful. Sometimes we can see that although they may have had success with some of these techniques not everyone else did.


"In the case of "Wild Bill" Hikock, we see the use of the Cross-Draw. This method wasn't used by a lot of gunfighters of the old west but was used with deadly accuracy by Wild Bill. the reason for this is because he spent time with the Calvary as a scout and carried a saber sword. He learned to draw his sword and I imagined practiced it thousands of times to make sure it was comfortable in his hand. So when it came to placing guns on his body he employed what is referred to as the cross draw method, Right hand draws the weapon from the left side, left hand draws the weapon from his right side and the guns are reversed in his holsters and slightly canted. As I stated earlier it wasn't a widely popular way to carry in the old west but was utilized with deadly accuracy by Wild Bill.


Wild Bill would "blade" his body and cross draw his firearm like a sword. He drew his gun using the same muscle memory he built with the saber. This made him very deadly in a gunfight because he would be a "thinner" smaller target as a result of the "blading" technique learned from drawing a sword. He also developed muscle memory and strength by drawing his sword countless times, then when it came time to draw a gun it was much lighter and easier to handle which helped to develop his deadly Accuracy.


I think there is a lot that we can learn from examining history and some of the great gun fighters of the past.

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