Testing Hickoks shot

[Al Cummins]

Im a history nut as Im sure most of you would have to be, and Ive read many different accounts of the Hickok, Tutt gunfight. There are some accounts which say he used the 51 Navy he is known for carrying and others say it was a Dragoon and even some a .32 S&W. Where there can be no doubt a .44 would be more than enough, it made me wonder, would a .36 have the punch it would take to go through you at 75 yards? So I set up a poor mans experiment and tested it, where it might not be very scientific it does give you some idea of what a .36 can do at that range....It will kill you dead.
http://youtu.be/q9Sok14a7VA

 

[Dave Marsh]

Very nice and interesting. Thanks for putting it out there. Gonna give that a try but will probably take a lot of shots for me to hit a milk jug at 75 yards. For sure I will need the bench.
:hatsoff:


Dave

 

[Al Cummins]

It took me many shots to do it, I just didnt film them all. For that short of a barrel, that is a long shot, I was really surprised how much the wind was effecting it.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

Shooting a 36 in the wind past 20 yards is an adventure! Great video, you must be a SASS member.

 

[BillinOregon]

Brushhippie, I liked your video. It's a lot of fun to put history to the test. Did you use a round ball for this? I am wondering what Hickock loaded his Navies with, as in that period, many loaded them with commercially made combustible paper cartridges and conical bullets.

 

[cynthialee]

He was obsesive about his guns and his shooting. He most likely would not have used premade cartidges as they were made by someone else.

 

[Dickydalton]

I was out shooting over the chrono yesterday. I haven't written down the data from it yet, but will later. I was shooting 7 different BP guns. One that I remember is my 1862 Pocket Police was around 840fps with 18 grains of Swiss 3F,lubed wad, and a .380 ball. My 2nd Gen 1851 Navy 7 1/2" was slower with 20 grains of Goex, wad and the same ball.

 

[Tinker2]

I not sure why a person would doubt that having a bullet through your heart would not kill you?
Is it that they think it won’t penetrate soft tissue or that a person can’t hit a target at that distant?
Just wondering what the argument is if the gun was a .36 caliber.

Great video, thanks for posting.

William Alexander

 

[Al Cummins]

I dont know about the pre-mades if he was very obsessive, and I believe he was, I dont know that he would have trusted them, they say he shot cleaned and reloaded them every day.
I had question with the power a .36 would have at that great a distance, I wasnt sure it would pass through which is what they claimed....and I just like experimenting with Black Powder!

 

[cynthialee]

his shooting habits is what has me thinking he used loose powder and balls
to shoot premade cartridges at the rate he went through lead would have been way more expensive than doing it by hand.
Also those premade's back then were not known for being very consistant. As we all know, consistancy is the key to one hole groups...

 

[Robert Egler]

Shooting a 36 in the wind past 20 yards is an adventure! Great video, you must be a SASS member.

SASS shooting at 75 yards!? More like buffalo-sized targets at 10 feet! :rotf: (I'm a SASS member, just a disclaimer :wink: )

That is a great video, thanks for posting! I wouldn't want to guess how many shots it would take for me to hit a plastic jug at 75 yards with my .44 Remington. Let's just say 'a lot'.

 

[crockett]

I think at the time of his death he was supposed to have owned around 130 firearms- how he toted them around is questionable. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a situation where the town fathers (Abilene, KS?) agreed to pay for his ammunition and he ran up a big bill and they were cartridges but when he carried for duty he always loaded with a flask and a ball.
There has to be a reason Hickok stayed with the Navies- maybe they were more accurate than a Peacemaker if they were carefully loaded. If I recall correctly Charles Askins once pulled apart some old Colt45 cases and the powder charges were all over the place- the ammunition couldn't have been very accurate.
It seems to me that head shots might have been more common at that time. A head is a small target so nowadays everyone is trained to shoot at the torso and today's handguns are so powerful that a body shot can put down a perp although the incapacitation time is a little disturbing- I think it is something like 3 1/2 seconds with a 357 magnum- plenty of time for a knife attacker to kill you. In any event to old frontier accounts have stories of guys getting shot in the leg, etc and riding away. With the guns of that day a head shot might have been the best choice even if it was a smaller target.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

Squirrel Tail, every once and a while we moved them steel cowboys out to 50 and 60 yards just to get their attention. I remember them complaining when we had them all shoot pistols at 50 yards!