Monday, September 17, 2018

Wyatt Earp on gunfighting

When I say that I learned to take my time in a gunfight, I do not wish to be misunderstood, for the time to be taken was only that split fraction of a second that means the difference between deadly accuracy with a sixgun and a miss. It is hard to make this clear to a man who has never been in a gunfight. Perhaps I can best describe such time taking as going into action with the greatest speed of which a man’s muscles are capable, but mentally unflustered by an urge to hurry or the need for complicated nervous and muscular actions which trick-shooting involves. Mentally deliberate, but muscularly faster than thought, is what I mean.
Today we'd say 'trained reflexes' I believe.  Some interesting reading.

Which reminds me of something.  Great-grandfather on Dad's side, among other things, rode the cattle trails from Texas to Kansas three times, and over his life witnessed a number of gunfights.  One day Dad and a friend took him to a movie, a western.  Came out seriously upset about the gunplay, short version: "It doesn't work that way!"

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