100 yards shot kills owl (1861)

[4v50 Gary]

From Page 8 of Missouri in 1861: The Civil War Letters of Franc B. Wilkie, Newspaper Correspondent. Wilike accompanied the First Iowa Volunteer Infantry from its inception to Battle of Wilson Creek and its deactivation after its one year term of service expired. This is one of those don't try this at home kids.

A huge owl sat upon the dead limb o a tree on the shore and hooted mournfully at the crowd. A gentleman of the Greys, sometimes called Barney G____, drew a revolver, shut both eyes, took good aim at a solitary bird, and fired, and the next instant his owlship splashed heavily into the water below. The distance was over a hundred yards, and thus in five minutes a trivial circumstance had turned the whole crowd from melancholy to animation.

And thus, alas! Wives, Babies, and Sweethearts, were you turned 'bag and baggage' out of our thoughts b a gentleman shooting an owl at a hundred eyes with both eyes shut.

 

[Tommygunn]

"Owlship?" Yea, a great shot for sure. To some extent, luck was involved, as must have been also true with Billy Dixon at Adobe Walls.

Hey, I'm not that good myself. I'm not even that lucky. But good for those who are!

 

[expat_alaska]

Why shoot an owl if not attacking you, as some do during nesting time? Been there, done that with Great Grays. Had them on my head in Alaska at one time and it was not pleasant by any means. They are BIG birds. It is just their protective manner. Get out of their way and go on with your business!

Even Billy Dixon called his kill a "scratch shot" as it was taken with a Sharps .50-90 at about 1200 yards or more. In his memoirs he never mentioned more than a paragraph about it but it was convincing enough to the Commanche to leave the area and end the fight after a 3-day siege of the Adobe Walls site.

 

[Franky50]

"A gentleman of the Greys, sometimes called Barney G____, drew a revolver,"
What model of revolver could it be? I would not probably try it with an open frame revolver.

 

[4v50 Gary]

expat_alaska - I concur with you. However, this incident occurred over a century ago in 1861. Times were different then (and yes, it was a waste back then too).

Frank50 - the book did not elaborate. In 1861 many civilians turned soldiers brought what they had until the Army taught them better (long marches with extra weight encouraged them to litter their route with useless impediments.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Why shoot an owl if not attacking you, as some do during nesting time?

Because in 1861 a great many people believed hoot owls to be an omen of evil and/or of witchcraft, and thus shooting the bird thwarted the evil.

Superstition, true, but you did ask "why..., if not attacking you...". The fellow "..., shut both eyes, took good aim..., " well WHICH was it? For all we know the fellow meant to merely scare the bird away by lobbing a ball near to it, and oooops..., but since the crowd enjoyed it, he adopted the position of, "Yeah, I meant to do that."

LD

 

[rdstrain49]

Perhaps an early example of "fake news"?

 

[Tommygunn]

Perhaps an early example of "fake news"?

Can't be .....Waaaaaaaaay before President Trump was born.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Writer was a journalist who accompanied the First Iowa until it was disbanded. The thing to see if it was reported in a letter home, diary or journal entry from a solider in the 1st Iowa. I'm not about to conduct such research over a trivial matter. Just read about a Czech pilot who could speak German. When he was in the hospital, he would go in and taunt the Germans there. "When you get better, we will shoot you." The Germans didn't get better. I'll post that later.

 

[robhof]

I know the feeling of lucky shots, was at the range one day with my DW 357 Supermag, with the 6" barrel for some shooting at 50 and 100yds. The range has an assortment of gongs at the 200 yd range area, there were a couple of guys with AK style rifles shooting at the gongs and not scoring, so when they were reloading their mags I decided to try at the gongs, fired my last 3 rounds in the cylinder and rang the gongs 3 times, needless to say the crowd ran over to see what I was shooting, I hid the rest of my live ammo and said I used the last of it, I tried that a few weeks later without anyone around and got 4 rings out of 12 rounds.