The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-04-09
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TEXAS RIFLE SHOTS.
Broad Shouldered an-Hunters Who
Shoot Quick and Strairht.

Shoot Quick and stnisht.
The rangers were the largest men I sav
ia Texas, the State Of big men, and some
OF them were remarkably handsome in
sun burned, broad shouldered, easy
manly way. They were also somewh a,
shy With the strangers, iietening very in
sently but speaking little, and then in a
Glow, gentle voice, and as they spoke SO
seldom they seemed to think what they
had to say was too valuable to spoil by
profanity
When General Mabry found they would
+ not tell of their adventures he asked them
to show how they could shoot, and as this
was something they could do, and not
something already done, they went about
it as gleefully as schoolboys at recess
doing "stants." They placed board a
foot wide and two feet high some sixty
feet off IN the prairie and Sheriff Scheeley
opened hostilities by whipping out his res
volver, turning 1t in the air, and shooting,
with the sights upside down, into the
bullseye of the impromptu target. He
did this without disseminating what he
was saying to me but rather as though
be were punctuating his remarks with
audible commas.
Then he said, II didn't think a. you
Rangers would let little one penny
Sheriff get in the first shot on you" He
could afford to say this, because he had
been a Ranger himself and his brother
Joe was one of the best captains the
Rangers have had, and he and all of his
six brothers are over six feet high. But the
taunt produced an instantaneous volley
from every man in the company they did
not take the trouble to rise, but shot from
where they happened to be sitting or
lying or talking together. and the air rang
with the reports and hundred quick
vibrating little gasps, like the singing of
= wire string when it is frightened on
banjo.
They exhibited some most wonderful
shooting. They shot with both hands at
the same time, with the hammer under
meath, holding the rife in one bend, and
never, when it was revolver they were
using, with glance at the sights. They
would sometimes fire four shots from a
Winchester between the time they had
picked it up from the ground aud before
il had nestled comfortably against their
shoulder. They also sent one man on a
pony racing around tree about as thick
as mans leg, and were dissatisfied be-
cause he only put four ont of six shots into
it. Then General Mabry. who seemed to
think / did not fully appreciate what
they were doing, gave Winchester rifle
to Captain Brooks and myself and told US
to show which of us could first put eight
shots into the target.
1t seems that to shoot Winchester Won |
have to pull trigger one way and work
lever backwards and forwards; this
would naturally suggest that there are
three movements-one to throw out the
empty shell, one 10 replace il with an
other cartridge and the third to explode
this cartridge. Captain Brooks, as far as
could make out from the sound, used
only one movement for his entire eigh.
shots. As guessed, the trial was to show
Captain Brooks quickness rather than
his craftsmanship. paid no attention to
the target, but devoted myself assidu
ously to manipulating the lever and trig-
ger, and aimed blankly at the prairie.
When had fred two shots into space the
captain had put his eight into the board.
They sounded as they went off like fire.
crackers we'll started into q barrel. and
mine, in comparison, like minute guns at
sea. The Rangers, found after saw
more of them, could shoot as rapidly with
a revolver as with rifle, and had become
SO expert with the smaller weapon tina,
instead of pressing the trigger for each
shot they would pull steadily on it and
snap the hammer until the six shots were
exhausted. Richard Harding Davis in
Harper's Weekly.