Fast Draw: The Wild West Gunslinger Myth That Became a Real Sport

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The showdown at high noon, with two men waiting for a flinch above low holsters, is mostly a Hollywood invention. This episode sets the cinema against the record. In the Old West, being quick on the draw meant being hot tempered and ready to pull a weapon over a slight insult. Real gunfights were spontaneous, close range, and often drunken. The rare formal duel was a crude version of the Southern code duello, fought standing sideways with careful aim. Holsters were soft leather worn high for comfort, and many men carried revolvers in a waistband, a coat pocket, or a slotted metal Bridgeport rig.

Because the history never matched the films, enthusiasts built a sport that did. Governed chiefly by the World Fast Draw Association, competitors fire blanks at balloons or wax bullets at metal plates, timed to the thousandth of a second. Average human reaction time is 0.2 to 0.25 seconds, yet top shooters react in 0.145 and then draw, cock, and fire in just over 0.06. The episode explains the techniques and the neurology that make this possible, and why reflexes trained for a game can be dangerous when the target is not a balloon.

• Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, John Wesley Hardin, and Billy the Kid are cited as rare exceptions in an era when most men were simply trying to survive an ugly close fight.
• Wax bullets are driven by the primer alone, with no gunpowder, which lets the sport chase speed without lethal risk.
• The open class standing balloon record is 0.208 seconds from the light to the pop, achieved by fanning or slip hammering a single action revolver.
• Bob Munden, named by Guinness the fastest man with a gun who ever lived, was a gunsmith who rebuilt his revolvers to keep up with his hands.
• A fatal game of quick draw between two American sergeants in Iraq in June 2011 shows why professional training puts judgment and target identification ahead of raw speed.