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Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot
cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."
The mythbusters need to test this!
This is the opposite of what the article is saying...
The article says that the first person to draw will be the last one to pull the trigger, but the one reacting (drawing second after seeing the first person draw) will draw and pull the trigger quicker but they are less likely to get a hit.
It was always the intent of George Lucas to have Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan ride on Greedo's ship, The Manka Hunter, but Harrison Ford was cheaper than keeping famous actor Paul Blake around (who demanded more money for sitting in a rubber suit most of the day) so he decided to rewrite the script to have Han kill Greedo instead of the other way around.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
This was my one experience with it in paintball.
It came down to me and one person from the other team.
I and a single shot gun and he had a machinegun. But to be cute, they let him use a second machinegun from a dead person on his side.
I was behind a 3' tree. He was running towards me rambo style with both guns going from his hip.
I *calmly* leaned out one one knee, took aim, and shot him with one shot in the chest from about 25'-30' away and then leaned back behind the tree so some stray ball wouldn't hit me.
He probably fired 10 shots while I took my one but they were all at the tree and over my head and off to my right into the bushes.
I have no gun experience and don't play tons of paintball. And I'm about as big as a barn.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
If you can shoot accurately from the hip. People who participate in quick draw competitions practice this. Otherwise its a wasted shot.
You've also got to size up your opponent. There are times when a first, wild shot will psyche them out, so they'll miss. And then there's your equipment. If you can get multiple shots off fast, a first, low probability shot is worthwhile. You can correct your sight picture and fire again. Old cowboy guns were largely single action pistols. Re-cocking and firing a second time was difficult.
And if your opponent is holding his piece sideways, it means you've got all the time in the world. Because he can't shoot worth shit.
Have gnu, will travel.
As someone who has spent his life around guns, as well as spent many a day out shooting with a professional marksman (man you should have seen his competition pistol, seven changeable barrels and deadly accurate) the problem isn't the speed, it is the nerves.
You see, when you are standing there staring at a man that could quite likely kill you it makes you more than a little nervous, and thus more likely to pull the trigger instead of squeeze. If you just jerk on the trigger like that it is more likely to go wild, and if you are nervous and trying for max speed you might even squeeze too early and have the shot go low. In those single action revolvers that gives your opponent plenty of time to drop you clean. Trying to outdraw that professional marksman I found that while I could pull faster in about 1 out of three tries, when you looked at his target and looked at mine my shots were all over the place and his were grouped right in the kill zone.
So I would have to agree with the findings. In drawing a weapon, especially a pistol where it is easy to have a non kill shot or miss altogether, accuracy is FAR more important than raw speed. And as for quick draw artists, it was probably quite a rare occurrence to run into a Wild Bill or Wyatt Earp and much more likely to end up against the drunken cow hand with a bad attitude.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
A bunch of buddies of mine played paintball in the woods, and after months of nagging I bought some cheap used equipment and joined them. My buddies were high school jocks, and one of the guys they played with had been in the army. The army guy sized me up and made a snide comment, and when they picked teams I was picked last and ended up on the team opposite him. That very first game I personally knocked their entire team out.
In the months that followed I played with them many weekends, and everyone soon acknowledged that I was the deadliest player there. I has shot real guns previously I was as accurate a shot as I could be with my cheap paintball marker. More importantly I have read a lot of WW2 books and I have played a lot of first person shooter games and I had a good layman's understanding about suppressing fire and flanking. Often I would let the rest of my team rush in first to draw fire while I moved around the edge a bit to study the other team's positions. Many of my kills were a single shot from the side or from behind at very close range while the target was otherwise distracted. Even when a match was down to one on one, once I got the opponent to duck behind cover I could approach their position obliquely, keeping him suppressed with bursts of fire, until I had the angle to get in a kill shot.
Then one weekend came where a bunch of serious "speedball" players joined us. My tactics weren't any good against them, because they could not be suppressed. They would use cover VERY well. They knew to return fire regardless of being under fire, exposing only the nose of their gun and just enough mask to get one eye down the sight. They were vigilant about constantly scanning for movement, so I could not flank them without running through a hail of paint balls first. Their expensive guns had long range were very accurate. That day was humbling.
Vonnegut was right: Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."
I have cop relatives. On more than one occasion, I've heard said that police are trained not to draw their weapon unless they intend to use it.
And when you think about it, it makes little sense for an officer to draw a gun and make an armed criminal *more* nervous. That is, unless he intends to put a bullet in the criminal.
Think about the typical cop-criminal standoff in the movies. Both point their guns at the other, but no one fires. Why?
In short, a cop gains no tactical or situational advantage by drawing his weapon but not firing. In real life, the movie standoff doesn't end with the criminal laying down his gun; it usually ends up much worse.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Even shots to the head don't necessarily stop unless you've taken out some part of the brain
There was a Japanese fighter pilot in WW2. He mistook a torpedo bomber (from the USS Enterprise no less) as a fighter. He walked right into the line of fire of both rear gunners and took a .30-06 to the head. It blinded him in one eye and paralyzed half his body but he still managed to fly his plane home and land it in one piece.
Never underestimate what the human body is capable of.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.