When Doc needed the whipit, he eased the coat aside. The barrels moved toward level powered by their own weight With the grasp of the shaped stock Doc swung the gun to eye level. As Tom Swearengen points out, eye level aimed shooting stood as the technique of the day. A trigger pull later, anything on the business end of the Georgia dentist's whipit stopped two 10 gauge loads. Standing in front of Doc Holliday's whipit gun would assure the opponent of a bad afternoon.
History records none who ever tried it.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow studied the Old West and particularly admired Jesse James. Though known as an outlaw, killer, and fairly inept bank robber, Clyde Barrow showed considerable intelligence and skill as a gun innovator. Seeing the same two shot limitations that the old timers did, Clyde added elasticity and capacity to the suspended whipit. He wanted more shots and a very fast system of gun to hand. His semi auto whipits and their suspension systems evolved in late 1932 or early 1933.