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“Fire early”
Uhhh, “cowboy duals” were on “draw,” not “make ready, aim, fire.” They had rifled barrels and six shooters by then not smoothbore muzzle loaded flintlocks with one ball that’s likely to miss.
“There was 40ft between them when they stopped to make their play, and the swiftness of the Ranger is still talked about today. Texas red had not cleared leather 'fore a bullet fairly ripped”
This line means Texas Red was slower on the draw than the Arizona Ranger with the big iron on his hip, that’s all. Texas Red reached for it (they stopped to make their play), but the Arizona Ranger was so much faster (the swiftness of the Ranger) that Red’s gun never even fully made it out of the holster (Texas Red had not cleared leather) before the Ranger’s shot connected ('fore a bullet fairly ripped).
BTW: These duals are almost entirely an invention of hollywood. They did happen but very very rarely and not exactly like the movies portray. I fucking love Marty’s music but the music he made isn’t based on historical fact, but rather hollywood fantasy. It’s basically The Outlaw Josey Wales in song form, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
https://hi-luxoptics.com/blogs/history/wild-west-quick-draw-duels-how-real-were-they
That said, by the hollywood rules, the dual was fair as all hell.
Reading dual instead of duel messes so much with my head.
Lmao well alright I never claimed to be a spelling bee champ, there’s no squiggles on homophones! Haha
Kinda weird that we don’t have grammar checking just built-in to language packs, etc.
Of course, as I’m writing this, Boost is giving me grammar checking, so now I don’t know what to believe.
Tbf I’d probably reject it anyway because it’d rely on AI and I’m basically 2s away from microwaving anything “smart” and communicating by encoded mail only lol.
Fire quicker than your opponent is the essence of the duel. There’s no way to “fire early” because they are watching for you to reach for your gun.
Although I always found the genre contrived. If they were an actual threat, you’d shoot them in their sleep.
There’s no way to “fire early” because they are watching for you to reach for your gun.
The ‘conventional’ wisdom is to wait for the other duelist to reach for their gun because reflex is faster than conscious action.
Well it’s not. Not even close. Action beats reaction every time.
Honor is dead
But I’ll see what I can do.
Maybe the poster thought there was a countdown. Not this one though, so you’re absolutely right.
It works better when both gunners care about innocents. Imagine the ranger couldn’t find hits hideout, a big enough place it wasn’t easy, and Texas red didn’t wanna shoot up the place he was living.
The ranger might get a message saying a time and place, so they can meet without causing a bunch of damage or risking innocents.
Of course, the moustache-twirling sort of villains wouldn’t work with that at all. Just can’t trust them. But there’s plenty of room for this to make sense sometimes.
These were the “good old days” when fighting had rules. National armies would literally line up facing each other in uniforms with literal X-marks-the-spot targets.
National armies would literally line up facing each other in uniforms with literal X-marks-the-spot targets.
The reason for armies meeting up like that, and in bright colors, is to avoid friendly fire, not because of honor or anything like that. When you have a bunch of peasants dragged from their homes and shove a musket in their hands, anything more complex than “Holy shit, holy fucking shit, do NOT shoot or stab the guys in BRIGHT RED, only those in BRIGHT BLUE” tends to get lost in the chaos of battle.
For those that don’t know the song Big Iron from Marty Robbins:
My favorite cover
Guess it’s back to patrolling the Mojave again.
Really makes you wish for nuclear winter
Given the current global situation? Fuckin’ A. It’d be a step up, for sure.
It’s not the first shot counts, it’s the first that hits. Take your time kid.
Big iron on his hiiiiiiiip
The town of Agua Fria is safe once more.
