What a Wild West Duel Really Looked Like
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What were Wild West duels actually like? Today, we look at how common the “classic” quick-draw duel was. We also touch on rates of violence in Old West frontier towns and explain what kind of day-to-day violence most closely mirrored the Wild West gunfights we see in films and books.
A big thanks to our viewers and Patreon supporters, especially Bobby Jordan and Sean!
Sources:
DeArment, Robert K. Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West. University of Oklahoma Press, 2010.
Dillinger, Jessica. “The Most Dangerous Cities in the World.” World Atlas, 25 Apr. 2018, www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world.html.
Dykstra, Robert R. “Quantifying the Wild West: The Problematic Statistics of Frontier Violence.” Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 3, 2009, pp. 321-347.
Nichols, George Ward. “Wild Bill.” New Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1867, pp. 275-277. Hathi Trust, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b000541577;view=1up;seq=7.
Pak, Eudie. “Famous Wild West Duel: Wild Bill Hickok vs. Davis Tutt.” Biography.com, 30 May 2012, www.biography.com/news/famous-wild-west-duel-wild-bill-hickok-vs-davis-tutt-20835321.
Roth, Randolph A. “Guns, Murder, and Probability: How Can We Decide Which Figures to Trust?” Reviews in American History, vol. 35, no. 2, June 2007, pp. 165-175.
“What a Medieval Duel Really Looked Like” is out now! kzhead.info/sun/a9mDfZmEj6ihgIU/bejne.html
You guys should do a "what a real Gladiatorial fight looks like" Also talk about hoplomachus and retiarius, and the other various Gladiatorial arts.
The whole wild west had less shot outs and gunning down than one major city in the US that have tuff gun laws. When their was shot outs in the old west everybody in 5 states heard about it because it wasn't that common but now it's on the news everyday. It's because of bad upbringing at home and schools filling kids heads full of hate now days. We don't have a gun problem we have a people problem.
@@neganrex5693 it's not that I disagree, but that was a weird topic to pivot onto from this video
@@Frosty_tha_Snowman My mistake. That comment was for some one else. I put it where it didn't belong. That is what I get for baby setting the grandkids and commenting at the same time. LOL. Have a nice weekend and thank you for bringing that up.
@Karl with a K Just responded to you on a different chain, but the fact you've copy-pasted your reply and stuck it here, giving yourself a like, makes you seem a heck of a lot like a bot.
“Most gunfights were spontaneous and sloppy” so, just like my RDR2 playthrough. sweet.
Like when I crashed my horse into a tree
Fr
Me anytime i try to use deadeye😂
My aim anytime I’m hunting a small animal in rdr2
Sometimes I'm smooth, in and out on a job like a sleek cougar. Other times things go bad quickly, sometimes by total accident, the body count gets waaay outta hand, I got an entire community out to kill me. Gotta take good wi the bad.
My favourite gunfight story concerned writer Mark Twain when he was a newspaperman in Virginia City. Challenged to a duel he had no idea how to use a revolver so the day before a friend who was an expert shot took him into the woods to practice. Twain was hopeless, so his friend took the revolver off him and proceeded to shoot a couple of birds out of the sky, before handing the gun back to Twain. At which point his opponent who had also come out practice heard the gunfire approached them and wished them good morning. Seeing the dead birds and the revolver in Twain's hand he asked if he shot very often and Twain replied "Fairly often". They parted on cordial terms and when Twain turned up for the duel he found his rival had left town by train that morning. If it's not true it should be.
If Twain was challenged, didn't he have the choice of weapons ? Shotguns at 20 feet.
"In France, there much dueling and even more talk of dueling and I read of one case where a man was actually killed in a duel...if I was ever challenged to a duel, I would politely and friendly take my Challenger aside and kill him"-- The Innocents Abroad
It was destined that the twain would never meet! :)
It’s true, read it in his autobiography recently
As Mark Twain said, "Never trust a man who wont lie for the sake of a good story. 'Makes you wonder what he's saving them up for."
The fact that their aiming was so damn accurate even when they had their guns to their side hip already makes it stranger than fiction .
We only hear of the shots that landed though. They were probably horrible shots, considering they spent most of their free time getting drunk.
If you want a realistic western, Appaloosa is a good book and film.
Hip? Again, fiction. Weapon would have been drawn then aimed.
They were not shooting from the hip, that is just movie stuff. If you look at any illustrations from the time, they always brought the gun up to eye level and aimed down the sights.
Many violent “cowboys” or outlaws were low IQ petty criminals with poorly maintained cheap weapons who fired them when drunk and emotionally triggered. They were notoriously awful shots and barely hit anything. A few guys were like marksman show shooters who did demos as entertainment, they’d point shoot from the hip and do all the cowboy stuff, but even that was later on when the west was already starting to become mythologised, only a few cowboys could point shoot accurately under pressure like this, besides, they were almost always drunk when the shooting started. They’d typically extend their arm and shoot one handed using the sights, like in older European style pistol shooting, and even then their guns weren’t always in perfect condition, and weren’t necessarily all that accurate, especially after 20-30 feet. Hip firing was for if the guy was 5 feet away on the other side of the poker table, and speed was paramount. Factor in RNG and survivor bias, and you see a more scrappy and way less elegant reality.
My father was born shortly after the turn of the 20th century. He talked to a lot of the old timers of the day. He said that the Hollywood style gunfights were very rare. Most of the gunfights were ambushes and spontaneous drunken battles.
Your father? How old are you?
@@bunnyfreakz My father was born in 1904. He was 49 when i was born. Do the math.
@@bunnyfreakz you do realize "20th century" means the 1900's. just like in today's world we live in the 21st century = 2000's
Most things were tamed after the 20th centuries
If you don't want to do the math he's 69 years old
The quick draw duel may not be historically accurate but it makes for great cinema.
You sound like my hubby. I'll make a remark about a show and he'll say "Yeah... but it Makes good TV."
Laurie Schnurer well then your hubby is absolutely correct
No, it doesn't, as it looks so utterly unrealistic
@@liveAiming That's kinda the whole point of TV, to get away from reality
Dragon Man getting away from reality is something totally different than being unrealistic
The most common cause of death was actually lumbago.
Raffica lUmbAgo
Actually, the most common cause of death was not following the *GOD DAMN PLAN*
Raffica it’s very serious
Hasta lumbago, Señor!
I always wondered what the hell lumbago is. What is it?
I’m impressed that Hickok actually managed to hit him with a revolver at that range
A .36 caliber cap and ball revolver at that, and as everyone knows a round ball doesn't fly very straight when fired from a pistol or rifle, lands and grooves inside the barrel helped somewhat but at 75 yards (225 feet) would still be a miraculous shot with a pistol firing a round ball. I personally don't believe it. In my western history books it said Wild Bill hit Tutt in the forehead and not the ribs. Who knows???
@@billw2710 Maybe 75 feet.
Yep impressive
@@billw2710 Cap & ball is criminally under rated, especially with rifling involved. But agreed, though they can be very accurate at range, a pistol at that many feet is a pretty insane shot
@@billw2710 he could have been using conical shot though. Shaped more like a modern round but also a bit new (this ammunition style became extremely popular in the 1850s to the point it was the main ammo used during the American Civil War, Minié ball if curious). Far more accurate than the old lead ball so the shot gets a little bit more likely but still for a black powder handgun 75 yards is a heck of a shot
Hitting a man from a hip shot quick draw at 75 yards is very impressive, possibly the luckiest shot ever.
He probably aimed and then changed the story. It's not like anyone would dare call him a liar.
It’s like Gene Hackman said in Unforgiven. The fastest draw isn’t usually who wins it’s the one who can stay calm when bullets fly.
Hickok was said to be the greatest gunfighter.
I saw an account by a cowboy from the 1870s where he claimed that no-one would have ever considered a duel as a way to resolve a dispute. He said what actually happened was that one party would hide behind a rock and shoot their opponent in the back.
Seriously, there are so, so *many* accounts that say just that, I'm partial to thinking they just might be true. They by far outnumber the accounts the chucklehead who spammed this thread claims to have seen...
@@nicholashodges201 because humans weren’t any different back then. History is so romanticized that it’s full of fud, people were not more honorable they were less so. People were still afraid to die and when no one will ever see the duel… how will anyone ever know what really happened
@@dirpyturtle69 that's kinda what my point was
Exactly. Like why was it assumed there was some sort of honor among thieves? Who would they be trying to impress with risking their lives in some honorable duel in the street in front of witnesses? Hollywood turned the inhabitants of the wild west into Samurai.
Bro I hope you have the brain cells to realize no one is alive from back then😂Damn yall internet niggas believe whatever y’all hear💀
Love the rdr2 music in the back. Pretty sure that’s the train heist theme.
Its actually from the first mission, Outlaw's from the west Arthur , dutch and micah
Jose heisenberg the song is called train heist theme
It’s outlaws of the west
It’s from when you save Sadie Adler from the o’driscolls
I thought it happens when your in the snow
"Being fast is fine, being accurate is final" Wyatt Earp
i never thought the duels how they where shown in the movies is how they were done, but i know for a fact that the moment before the gun fight happens they 100% had that old western music in the backround
Finally a breath of fresh air. I'm in my twilight years. I have had the chance and pleasure to know my Great Grandfather as well as Grandfather, Grandmother and a couple others. My Great Grandfather (long since deceased) was actually born in a wagon on the Oregon Trail. When he was a little older (12 or 13) he worked on a number of wagon trains as a packer and a number two trail boss (Boss's assistant) He also worked as a town Sherrif in a few towns in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before becoming a U.S.Marshal in the Oklahoma Territory and he had the opportunity to actually witness more than one gunfight before moving to Canada and working in a Slaughter house till he retired. He also lived to be a very old man ( passing away at 97 in 1953) and was familiar with the portrayal of gunfighters on television. He really enjoyed that because it made him laugh at how gunfighters were described on television. He told me that the stuff you see on television (fast draw, shooting from the hip, fanning the hammer) was largely a lot of junk. He told me that there were guys in those times that could do that kind of stuff but these were not really gunfighters more like exhibition shooters. You would only see at a shooting exhibition or wild west show. My grandfather told me that in the history of Canada and the United States there were less the half dozen actual witnessed and recorded face to face gunfights the first of which was Hickok verses Tutt. He said majority of gunfights were either shooting someone in the back by Ambush or someone pulling a gun shooting someone during a drunken brawl in a saloon. He said that the gunfighters he actually saw shoot and kill people were the fastest at getting off an aimed shot. They did not use fancy holsters, often had their revolver stuck in their belt or pocket. Some had holsters waist high all were intent in being the first to get off an aimed shot not just the first guy with a gun out of the holster. He also told me that gunfighters (in those days) were pretty much cold blooded, hired killers - and were known as such. They were not thought of as heros - just killers. So, once again, popular media has "spun" the stories for popular consumption - not for truth. At least that is, ... Untill Now! Thank You for Posting facts on the Real Old West
Thanks, Daryl! Must have been amazing to hear his stories!
@@HistoryDose absolutely. Awesome stories some I wished they made a movie or tv series on all sure are differant from the tv and movie and most books from.the mid 30s to present day. Some of the true stories although very interesting it's easy to see why they would exaggerate things and make things up. First to keep or try and keep everyone's attention second to make something that only lasted a few second possibly few minutes but in telling it 8n factual realize truth giving some background and history on all involved the telling takes 5 maybe 10 minute so to male it exciting they fill it with B@#$S*@# and make it into a 30 minute with commercials tv or radio show or an hour and some minutes movie. The sad part is the Real Life Actual True Facts and History fade off into the sunset as people beging to beleive the stimulating and exciting tv/radio show or movie which creates myths creating legends and soon people beging ti think.then beleive that is as it really actually factually was and before you know it the Absolute Truth Actual Factual Real Life People Places Events etc disappear
Yes, I think one problem is that fiction understandably wants to tell only the most exciting parts of history. Thus, even if duels like Hickok-Tutt were very rare, every Wild West movie wants to include a duel, leaving viewers with the impression that they were more common than they actually were.
@@darylnahorny8326 wow awesome story
Nope...popular media is still spinning stories for their liberal agenda.
For those doubting the 75 yard distance - bear in mind that in duels like this, being WILLING to shoot and be shot at is often enough to satisfy honour. Most duels ended with neither participent actually hit. If all duels ended with one party dead, there would have been a lot fewer duels.
that applies when maintenance of honor is the goal, but that was only really the case among noblemen in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. random cattlemen and gamblers had no reason to fight in this way.
@ that's two first name's.
@ thanks for that mate.did always wonder on that one.
A 75 yard shot with an 1851 Navy Colt would be one hell of a shot,not doubting but it would be one hell of a shot at that range.
@ If you're going to be pedantic regarding grammar, at least practice what you preach. My name is a proper noun, so it must be capitalised.
Most of Billy The Kid's kills were him shooting the other guy in the back.
* Billy- "I'm gonna kill that fella with this here rifle." * Other guy- "there ain't no honor in that son. Do it the right way. Pistols at dawn. * Billy- "Oh, alright... Wait, would he get one too?"
Isn't that how he died too? from his own gang member even
@@Frosty_yo no that was jesse james, billy was shot by sherrif pat garrett.
Or, even unloading the other guy's gun while supposedly admiring the gun. Billy the Kid was super overrated and mostly just a punk murderer.
@@chrisclarke6344 and even thats a subject if debate
"Cowboys" didn't appear in the Wild West until 1867, when the first cattle drives from Texas North to the Kansas rail heads began. That era only lasted about 10 years. The wildest, most violent towns in the Old West were much more dangerous than cow towns like Dodge City, KS, or Abilene, KS. The wildest, most dangerous towns of the Old West, (and some were in existence more than 25 years earlier than the cow towns!) were the mining towns like Virginia City, NV, Helena, MT, Deadwood, SD and Tombstone, AZ. There are a LOT more reasons for armed gangs, cheating gamblers, etc to hang around mining towns, hoping to pick off a lone prospector who has struck it rich, than to hang around cow towns. There were a lot more prospectors than there were cowboys, and the prospectors did MUCH more to open up Western Frontier trails, supply chains, and towns than the cowboys did! Samuel Clemens (Yep, the same guy who became Mark Twain!), ventured out West with his brother Orion in 1861, to the new Nevada Territory. Just arriving, and getting off the Overland Stage in Carson City in July, 1861, Orion and Samuel witnessed a gunfight in the street! Sam soon wandered up to newly built Virginia City, and kinda settled in there, first as a unlucky prospector, than as a laborer in the Stamp Mills, and finally as a newspaper reporter on the "Territorial Enterprise". Sam reported that of the first 35 men buried in the Virginia City cemetery, NONE had died of natural causes. As Virginia City's population then was between 4000 and 5000, that is roughly a per capita murder rate of around 800! Sam wrote a great book, ROUGHING IT, about his time in Virginia City, and it is a must read for anyone who wants to know what the real Wild West was like, outside the narrow "Cowboy lens" that Hollywood keeps giving us unfortunately.
"Cowboys" appeared long before that. In the 1830s for instance there were cattle drives in the South, around Texas. Most people you see in Westerns aren't cowboys in the sense of the profession. The "Wild West" as we remember it definitely existed long before 1867, the famous image of the old man panning for gold, as an example, in the '49 gold rush..
@@SStupendous There were also Mexican (and earlier Spanish) cowboys called 'Vaqueros" as back as the 1600s. Plus, there was Black Cowboys in Texas from the beginning of Texas. It was, after all, a slave state.
@@thebighurt2495 that's where cattle ranching began in the new world. Gregorio de Villalobos established the first cattle ranch in 1521. The first cattle drive that brought cattle into the American Southwest was by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540. It took I want to say 500 men majority Mestizo to move through Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and up to Kansas. The first permanent cattle ranch in the Southwest was established by Juan de Onate in 1598 in New Mexico. Majority of the actual working cowboys in the Southwest at the time were Mestizos which are Spanish/Indigious mixed.
In those days, the term “cowboy” had a negative connotation: a cattle rustler. The owners were usually called “cattlemen” and their workers were usually called “ranch hands” or simply “hands.”
@Karl with a K Could you give us a couple of accounts with names?
I was watching the TV show "Wyatt Earp" with my Grandfather back in the 1950's. He told me that he was in a bar in a Colorado silver mining town in the 1890's. Two drunks standing next to each other at the bar got into an argument. Each pulled out a pistol they had stuck into the waist band of their pants - no fancy holsters. A huge bang as both revolvers went off. Luckily for everyone else in the bar, neither of them missed. And yes, they killed each other. Grand Daddy did not think much of the TV version of an old west gunfight. It kinda verifies what is said in this video.
@League of Un-Serious Gentlemen My great great grand dad was a US marshal for a short time. They paid him in land but he left it because he said it was worthless. Not worthless today.
@Truth It was the 1950's smartass, what's your point? If a WW2 vet told somebody that the war movies were nothing like the real thing, would you be snarky and give the vet shit? Also, there are plenty of movies that actually do go out of their way to stick to realism, dick.
@@TomYawns Yeah I would I'd also say how the fuck are you not dead yet bro
aintplaying games But it was worthless to him. He probably left it because there was no way he could have held onto it. That's often the case when we look back at some of the land our ancestors had and say, "Why did they give it up? It's worth millions now!" Yes, but they would have spent their entire lives working that land, getting deeper and deeper into debt, working at a loss year after year, and eventually mortgaging it, losing it, or failing to pay the taxes and having it seized. And to be honest, if I had any asset that would make my life and the lives of my children miserable but had the chance (and not a sure one at that) to bear fruit in 100 years for some descendant of mine, I wouldn't risk it. I want my descendants to live in a good world, but I'm not going to throw my life away so that some punk I'll never meet can grow up in unearned privilege.
@Truth having sex in part of the real life raising children too just saying
In the Old West, as today, people who stayed home and minded their own business suffered no harm. The idiots who hung around saloons got in trouble, same as today.
jack fenn Not necessarily. There were bandits and robbers, serial killers and rapists, as there is now. Difference is there was almost no effective law enforcement, so these lunatics could pretty much just run around with only the fear of bounty hunters and some rarely good-hearted and honest policemen. Plus, you had the native Americans that attacked settlements and homesteads in rural areas. Not to mention the wildlife. At the time of the early 19th century, wild animals were much more common in the United States than they are today, which is unfortunately due to urban sprawl, farmland and general habitat loss. Grizzly bears, grey wolves, timber wolves, and even coyotes have been historically documented as attacking people back then relatively frequently, especially those who chose to live in the wilderness away from the towns.
@@curatorcogs5438 I think he meant that if you hang around sleazy areas, you are more likely to get shot. That part still holds true today. you make some good points
Introverts live long life’s Extrovert die
Safe at home, just minding your own business : kzhead.info/sun/hNWNlqaxqn5mqn0/bejne.html
I can’t be bothered To think of a name How it always was and always will be
According to one historian, there were a couple dozen cases of duels like the kind we see in the movies, but only about 5 of them were documented by reliable sources. It's crazy. Before hearing that, I assumed there must've been thousands.
Sad to know "this town ain't big enough for the two of us" was probably never said in a serious manner
@@BroheemBroseph-iy9nl nooooooo 😭😭
The headless horseman by Maine Reid (1866) had an interesting duel. As I remember (I read the book 30 years ago) the good and the bad guy decide to settle it with a duel. So everybody leaves the saloon and they walk in from different doors. They start shooting as soon as they see their opponent, but after a few shots the saloon gets so full of smoke that they can't even see where are they shooting. They took a bullet or a few each, but both survive their wounds.
I hear that rdr2 music in the backround... Nice
I hear new vegas...
it aint rdr2 music its rockstar that used that music in the game dumbass
@@m0nsnor547 TF are you on about, kid?
@@m0nsnor547 wait whats the name of the music tho
@ProGamer 8090 i found it the name of the soundtrack is train heist
Now give us “what a samurai duel really looked like.”
GuiltyKing27 this is knowledgable we need more people like you.
GuiltyKing27 give me your pfp sauce 😂
@GuiltyKing27 idk about that... Maybe for samurai its different but European duels could vary from 30 seconds like you mentioned to 20 minutes, an hour, or even all day. It depends on the skill stamina and equipment of the opponents, if all the categories are equal, duels could realistically last until the fighters give up or a judge calls it a draw, for example I believe that trial by combats would always cap at sunset if they started before or at midday, while admittedly there are no cases I could find of duels lasting this long its interesting that they would add such a rule if all duels lasted mere minutes. But that's just my opinion and I haven't studied Japanese warriors as in depth as their European counterparts to say whether or not their duels were similar, I also wouldn't call sword fights messy if the combatants were experienced and know how to fight correctly it could almost seem like a dance of some kind, but again this changes drastically if the combatants are inexperienced and swing swords like clubs lol. Overall I don't think there's anyway we can say how long a sword fight could last as there is simply far too many variables to take into account, like whether it rained the night before and if the ground is muddy or hell even if the sun is positioned into the view of one combatants sight, that alone could be a determining factor of duel.
@GuiltyKing27 ah yes, sorry I thought you had meant a 1 on 1 duel and completely misunderstood what you meant, yes absolutely the European battlefields were as messy as you could imagine, even more so when gunpowder was introduced like wars such as the 100 years war, it was near impossible to have a fair and square duel in the closely packed lines of your formations without getting stabbed from your blindside, and as I said gunpowder made things worse as loud explosions caused panic and friendly fire due to how hard the primitive cannons and gunpowder weapons were to use so friendly formations were at great risk of being bombarded by their own cannons at times. But even without gunpowder being thrown into the mix battles still would get messy like the battle of Agincourt, the mud just made it far too difficult to use armour so anyone wearing it would just slip and slide around falling over, this meant for the French that didn't realise armour would be useless, that even the lowest level English infantry had an advantage over the French knights as they literally couldn't stand on the muddy terrain, you can imagine the panic and slaughter that ensued after that, not exactly elegant fighting lol. Anyways sorry about the misunderstanding I hope you found my ramblings at least a little interesting XD
@@Joe-uz7vd Europeans were nothing compared to mastered samurai katana. Why the fuck would it take 20min to fight someone. And no it doesn't depend on their stamina. No one fights with big ass swords and big ass chain armor 20min-1hour-1day. That's just big ass cap. What do they call a timeout when one of they gets a boo boo or gets tired? Samurai were quick clean and ruthless. The fuck they needed 20min for? Its parry/block then counter -execute. Clean kill lots of blood. On to the next.
75 yards is not a quickdraw duell, thats a precision contest. oh and if you can identify your foe in that distance you don't need glasses.
Maybe 75 feet.
@@jimtruscott5670 i think some chronikler or newspaper guy misread a 1 in handwritten notes for a 7
@@arumatai Could well be.
Ever stand in a football field?
I know people who compete in pistol competitions that include ranges of up to 100 yards. As for myself, I don't often shoot a pistol at over 15 yards, but I can shoot 200-400 with a rifle.
I was actually a little concerned when you didnt mention that most gunfights didn't involve gunfighters fanning their revolvers in a quick draw fashion. That rarely very rarely ever happened. Fanning revolvers aka firing from the hip was more a creation of hollywood and gunfighters doing that in a duel tended to end up very dead
It is also terrible for the revolver and can break it lol. Cant imagine cowboys with old weathered revolvers were basically trying to break them
Fanning was known to have happened but it was only really used to get 2 consecutive shots off fast. Remember you had to thumb the hammer for every single shot and a single shot from a black powder .45 wasn’t always going to stop your opponent. It wasn’t something you’d want to do with only 5 shots (yes 5 you always had your firing pin sitting on an empty chamber when caring) before having to reload.
@@Nitro1000 Actually, some guns have grooves so you can load six.
@@c-secofficer123 Especially since firearms back then weren't exactly inexpensive as the are now, relatively of course.
@@darrenmuse oh yea, a revolver was almost a months wage for the average Cow hand, and a carbine repeater was even more.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are so naturally good together the feds decided to name an entire agency in their honor.
Which one
Bruh Moment the ATF
I don't know why tobacco is with those other two. Tobacco smells and tastes like shit, and only an addiction makes you smoke... it's not like it could get you killed and others around you... in the immediate future...
@@gustarddonut1452 ha ha! Okay. You got me.
Should be a convenience store and not the worst government agency
I'll bet a lot of "gunfights" were a shotgun blast in a dark alley.
And most of targets were kidneys of drunken puking men. I mean shot from behind. And yet, yankees are proud of their history and heritage.
laon FUCK OFF!
@@iaon652 Better than the hicks that backstabed their nation so that they can keep people in chains
@James Smith You definetely can. Diferance is, we are not proud of it. And when making movie about it, we do not twisting the story how great it was.
@James Smith It is called bolsevik propaganda. Even russians lauhhed over it, silently, of course. Open expresion would sent them to gulag. In USA - land of freedom on the other hand, general opinion about Hollywood made western in 50´s was like dead indian=good indian. I mean they was still OK with extermination of native americans, short after world experienced one final solution. Hollywood production was about to make profit, which mean they satisfied general population demand.
Dueling was outlawed and was replaced by tort law, which today works in much the same way as dueling did in the Wild West, a zero sum game with no holds barred. the courts, being corrupt as hell, declaring the survivor as the winner.
Maybe we need to go back to dueling with guns!
It's good to get the real story from someone who was actually there.
yeah one can always rely on a historian to get the facts and truth out to people lol.
Wild west film: Draw! My 5yo brain: i can also draw :D
Are you 5?
robert campbell No I’m turning 6 next munth
I’m 12
I'm 13 :|
Who asked you fools what your name was?
"Of course I shot him in the back! That guy coulda killed me!"
Woulda
Sounds like Uncle Fester’s logic
1:32 train heist theme? nice
Hello stranger.
Got confused for a sec since i was opening rdr2 at the same time
@@kingman-fm4dq LOL
@@jaykore3589 you still active after a year?
@@kingman-fm4dq duh 🙏
I always love when people who've never been in an actual fight where someone was trying to really hurt them, and it shows when they talk about war and fighting in general. They treat it as if people will do and act exactly as they want them to and that things happen in a perfect world in a fight and some slow motion bs. In reality, when you fight, time speeds up and your body just kinda does what it needs to survive, so people will literally do anything to make sure it's you and not them. And the messed up thing is, strength and skill have nothing to do with it, how far you're willing to go is the deciding factor in real combat
took the words out of my mouth
the shoot effects and sounds you used were amazing and really added to the video my dude
Glad you liked them!
Who you be call'n dude, dude? LOL
@@HistoryDose but in the real world rifle shots don't sound that good, the movies have a lot to answer for.
I lived in Tucson and made many trips to Tombstone , there were many gunfights there, some of the original saloons still stand and there are plenty of bullet hole's , they point out one saloon where they changed the front door from the East to the South of the building because patrons of the bar across the street would shoot through the door at their rivals on a regular basis.
@Karl with a K the majority of duels was in europ at that time as i have only found two duels from the wild west
@Karl with a K im not sure what you mean whit just started but i dont mean that duels did not happen
Great job on the video. As an Aussie kid I never got into Western but now some 50 years on there are quite a few that I love mostly with Clint Eastwood or Terence Hill and Bub Spencer in them.
My favorite gunfight story. Read it in a Time Life wild West book and don't know how much veracity to credit. Two cowboys were squaring up to slap leather. One was a shade over five feet tall. The other somewhat taller and tipping the scales at over 300 pounds Big guy was having second thoughts, and allowed that he was a bigger target. Little guy says, why don't we chalk an outline of someone my size onto you, and any bullets outside the lines don't count. No report on how that shootout went down.
This is actually a very accurate description of GTA Online. There are duels that follow honor rules between players, but most are sloppy griefers and wanna be try hards without rules and without skill who will kill you in the most underhanded ways. And most players are just trying to make money and get by.
True😂😂
"Things have a way of escalating out here in the west, one thing leading to another" -Buster Scruggs
"Do you need a count?"
@@kgpspyguy “no si-
I read an account of one of the few organized, probably even 'courteous' gun duels in the Wild West. Two gunfighters stand opposite each other, armed with shotguns. They approach each other, firing a shot with every step. A few seconds later, there are two dead bodies in the prairie.
Sad L
They didn't beef no more, though.
Your point on how spaghetti westerns portray gunslingers as heroic vigilantes and how the Wild West was actually a very dark and violent period is the reason why I love the Red Dead games.
- Hey you! - Are you talking to... Bang!
75 yards, really? That’s 225 feet, almost the length of a football field. Your lucky to hit a barn door at that distance with a six gun.
you're
Imagine what he could do with today's ammunition and firearms
Probably 75 feet dunruden- Thanks Karen
I want to know who got out the measuring tape?
Bob, a football field is 360 feet. 225 feet isnt that far when you’re looking for someone. Sit down.
One Brother a artist, the other historian creating this amazing channel. Each video better than the next, this channels, and its creators are truly amazing
This makes so so much more sense, the closure I didn’t know I needed
Cowboy helping cattle ranchers sounds like John marston
*Jim Milton :D
*Rip Van Winkle
*Johnthur Morgston
After watching countless security cameras of real gunfights, mostly in Brazil, I have come to the conclusion that the same exact thing happened in the Wild West. There was ambush or someone draws first without declaring he was gonna do it to the other party. You can't draw on a drawn gun and win. You can counter ambush if the opportunity arises. And many other scenarios. But you never stand in front of the other guy, gun in holster, and give the other guy the chance to draw on you first. That is stupidity.
Hey I heard Brazil :)
we got the Wild West, and now we got Brazil - the Sussy South
Really cool video I'm going to check out more of your content!
Clint Eastwood was the best gunfighter in the Old West of the 1960s .
Yeah the quick shooting feature in rdr2 was inspired by that movie aswell
He probably has dead eye
Yes but he’s only actor.
@@swaldron5558 no what actor, back in 1860s he was the most feared outlaw, him,tuco and the late angel eyes,learn your history bro
@@FrankEly28 True that adventure happened during the Civil War .
That RDR2 theme in the back though, you did us dirty ;)
Fuck RDR 2, that's the They Call Me Trinity theme at the end.
@@TucoBenedicto Fuck YOU, sir. He's not talking about the score in the end, he talks about ambient music throughout the video.
I like the "sir" part, keeping it respectful and classy
@@MarcillaSmith But of course, m' lady! After all we live in a civilized society.
@@yubos98 But I don't give a shit of what he was talking about. I'm pointing at the actual good stuff.
Just found this channel a few days ago. I am so impressed.
Congratulations on your JR shout-out, bro. I'm glad your channel is gonna blow up.
I really, truly enjoyed this video from start to finish. It was well edited, brilliantly paced, and extremely informative while still maintaining an entertaining comedic timing. Fantastic work.
Someone in the saloon: *decides to punch someone* Everyone in the saloon: “It’s my time to shine”
YES! indeed it is
COME HERE PRETTY BOY
@@sigmacall4148 Pretty boah? You're kidding me! Pretty boah?!
*starts throwing chairs for no real reason*
Very good video, really clears the misconceptions people have about duels. And the Wild West in general.
This is consistent with other things I've read about the Wild West. Thanks for this
Bro I was waiting for a reenactment of a wild west duel the entire video.
In a parallel universe: The domestic west
And on the Eastern seaboard, everything was chock full of duels in the middle of a high class establishment in New York. That’d be a real fun alternate reality
The game where Arthur Morgan teams up with his best friend Micah Bell to improve agriculture on the frontier
@@HistoryDose But don't rats eat up crops and ruin harvests?
Isnt that just Russia?
The New Caliph Not in this one, it the cornered tigers that eat the corn and crops.
I had a history teacher in jr high who de-romantized the wild west sheriff hollywood image who he said had no desire to duel, but reached for his double barrel shotgun when some disturbance was going on in town. There was no standoff, just a lot of shooting and a few dead guys. The sheriff sometimes included.
I never had any doubt about the estated in this video. Another thing I always considered is that mostly of duels that ended with someone killed was not about of who was the best shooter in the sense of who was more accurate and quick in "pull" their guns. For me things at that time were just like nowadays... no "pulling" guns from the holster... guys already came handling their guns and started arguing while swiginging pistols in a menacing way until one decide to pull the trigger. Just like that. By the other hand I am sure that in several occasions no one would actually pull the trigger because among all the cursing and yelling there could be time enough to think right and decide that it wouldn't worth the headache after all.
What an amazingly well made video dude! I seriously loved your editing. No offense to the rest, it's all great in complete honesty, but it was the best part of the video
Fantastic quality from a small channel, can't wait to see it grow. Also I REALLY appreciate that you include sources. Many others have glaring inaccuracies and don't bother sourcing much if anything.
Thanks! We always try to be transparent with our sources. It provides reading material for those who want to investigate the issue further, while also showing you guys that we've done our research.
I love how you used "outlaws from the west" as the background music!
loved it! Great video/ docu. Any other video amde about the Old Wild West? An historic period i've always been appeald by
Based on reading a lot of other people's research my conclusion was the "quick draw duel" was entirely the product of films, where it was assumed every gunfighter was well practised enough to always hit their mark, but the fact most "gunfighter duels" were drunken armed assaults more than formal duels never entered the writers' minds, wouldn't have passed censorship. The reason for depicting a holstered draw would be to qualify for self defence as opposed to a murder charge for the duel, for this to work you would have to let the other guy touch his gun first, however be faster at clearing your holster and firing, but this would be more a product of the 20th century, which is when these screenplays were written. Historically a formal duel, such as researched by historical enthusiast Ed Harris for his film Appaloosa occurred in the manner portrayed by Viggo Mortensen at the end of the film, with gun in hand pointed at the ground, turned sideways to present a reduced target and sidearm brought up in classical, extended and sweeping fashion for a single, well aimed killing shot. Rushing to fire first would likely be as fatal mistake as taking too long to aim and fire, the object wasn't to fire first but to fire accurately first. The only real difference in the style of western duel to an English duel would be less fanfare in the preparation and no other parties involved but the manner of dispatching the opponent was the same, gun readied in hand and no pretence about why you're there. Hence they were banned specifically, whereas during the colonial period, under English law they were a legitimate way in which consenting adults may handle a dispute without legal repercussion. However as mentioned most historical western gunfights weren't formal duels, they were nothing more than violent criminals committing homicide or attempted murder, whether or not they or someone else tried to dress it up retrospectively. In fact for qualifying as a formal duel if you had to draw from a holster, or from a coat pocket and kill an opponent it was murder, not a consenting duel, technically you were supposed to be handed your sidearm by a witness whom inspected both weapons and thereafter it was to remain within common view, in your hand until firing.
Of course the other classic duel in the Wild West occurred in 1881 in Tombstone, AZ. In addition to the standoff and "quick draw" elements, the Gunfight at the OK Coral included the tension building "Walk Down" to the site of the fight!
Most gunfights back then were between drunken gamblers and were at such close ranges that if they missed, they could practically reach out and hit their opponent with a gun barrel. One notable exception was Wild Bill Hickock, who shot a man through the heart at 70' during a gunfight. It was over a poker game, I think.
Thank you for this, now I can add that bit of realism to my wild west comic about a dead sheriff coming back to life!
“I’m a survivor Black Lung, a survivor all there is living and dying.”
Shut up micah
soap offical 2 You’re no better than me, Morgan!!
@@micahbell5262 he not but im yes rat!
Love you micah, the only realistic character in that game
The quick draw from a holster is a Hollywood invention. Holsters rigs back in the day were nothing like those seen in the movies.
When Andrew Jackson dueled Charles Dickinson he knew his chances of beating a superior marksman were slim to none. So he let Dickinson shoot first. He even went so far as to wear a coat much too large for his frame in an effort to conceal his silhouette and lower the chances of Dickinson landing a fatal shot. Even through all that, he still took a shot to the chest and then took his time to place his shot square in Dickinson's chest. Eventually Jackson recovered but Dickinson died the same day.
And the tied down holster is only for effect in cinema like a black hat.
I remember an episode of Wild West Tech that addressed duels. Standing back to back and advancing ten paces was much more of a European thing. And Keith Carradine (the host of the show before his brother David took over), did attempt to recreate Hickok's famous heart shot at 75 yards with a Colt Navy. He only managed to hit the target once out of four shots fired.
Now THAT I can believe. Great research and video.
"I'm the roughest, toughest, root'nest, toot'nest, fastest gun-slinger west of the Pecos!" Yosemite Sam.
Yosemite Sam vs. Nasty Canasta, who wins?
"north, south, east, aaaaand west of the Pecos"
Or Pecos Bill. Lol.
LOL 😆
My favorite: walk into the bar and loudly proclaim "I'm the most badass futhermucker in here! Anybody want to argue that....oh crap, this ain't the Boys and Girls Club!" Hint: don't try that in a bar where they don't know you well.
Well done and informative.
Just discovered your channel,,, very informative!!!!
very well done... nice graphics.
I really liked this. Especially since the closing music was the theme from, "They Call Me Trinity". 👍
Great video, guys
would love to see a return to this setting. great stuff!
Yeah we’ve thought about it. With our more recent art- and narrative-focused style we could have a lot of fun creating the Wild West ambience
My great grandparents would have lived during the Old West era of the 1870s. My great grandmother was still alive when I was a toddler, but other than family photos when we were together, I have no other memories of her. I do remember my grandfather who was born in 1897. What a good, decent, nice man he was!
In 1970 I wrote a contrast-and-compare paper for a bonehead college US history class, "The Wild West Movie vs How It Really Was". It was a hoot, fun to write, and got an A. It is said somewhere that it was gratifying to see the puffs of dust front and back, and was referred to as "dusting" one's opponent. Thanks for the vid.
Where'd you hear that bit about dusting?
I'm sure it was something from the likes of Outdoor Life, Guns and Ammo, Shooting Times, or the like. It was nearly fifty years ago, and, IIRC, the actual quote was something like "...gunfighters of yore would cackle with glee when they 'dusted' an opponent". (Grins). Take it for what it's worth. Some of that paper's documentation would include MAD magazine, which did a spoof on Hollywood westerns vs the way iit really was way back in the 60s when Westerns were about all there was on TV. I wrote the paper (and the comment) tongue-in-cheek, but the professor sure liked it. Said he was going to use it as an example of how to write a term paper. Hehehe, I still get a kick out of that.
On second thought...I think it was an article in Gun Digest, 1964-ish, by Arvo Ojala, the guy who invented the Hollywood fast-draw holster, the very same guy that Matt Dillon guns down at the beginning of every episode of Gunsmoke.
I think there might be a bit of an anachronism fusion of the traditional duels of Europe and the Eastern United States and the gun fighting of the Western United States. We know Alexander Hamilton died in a pretty regulated duel, he even had his own dueling pistols he requested he and Burr use for the occasion and we know his sons also died in duels. Dueling with all the rules and protocols was a real thing in the East Coast and in Europe. My guess is that when the papers and novelists sensationalized the West for the East Coast and European audience they fell back on the well known phenomena of dueling to make the gun fights more glamorous and noble.
Yes, it makes sense to try and relate a newstory to something with which the audience is already familiar. Watching this, I also wondered if there was some degradation of the formalized dueling to the point of a "duel" consisting of ambush "dueling" someone in the back, what might become of the modern equivalent "litigation," if that is a fair comparison
Where in Europe? Lol. No one in Europe did anything like this, if they did provide evidence and I'll completely change on my stance.
@@ArthurMorganFan123 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_combat
@@ArthurMorganFan123 People have dueled in Europe since like Ancient Greece
Shua it became such a problem with guys killing each other governments had to ban it as they were losing all sorts of talent.
Great stuff I'm now subscribed!
Great video. The cherry on the top was the final song from Trinity (Lo chiamavano Trinità) with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (aka Mario Girotti and Carlo Pedersoli) sung by Annibale.
Thanks for not coming at the subject with a wild pendulum swing to the opposite side of the Wild West myths. The west had violence as your video well explained. You have a good take on the truth with no agendas and I appreciate that.
That is very true just look at Jesse James.
Dutch: *I HAD A PLAN, ALL I NEED IS FAITH!!!* michah: *WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY IN BLACKWATER* Arthur: *LENNNNEEEEYYYYYYY* Hotel: *TRIVAGO*
This comment is on crack.
Uncle : LUMBAGO
@@Rubenz343 LMAO
Having shot a handgun from time to time...being able to draw and shoot quickly while being shot at and hit your man at 75 yards is very impressive. Even at 25 yards, most times, both shooters would miss.
One of my distant relatives was present at the shootout at the O.K. Corral, but on the wrong side (William Claiborne). He didn't have a gun, so he ran at the first sign of trouble. Years later he would get into an argument with a gunfighter in a saloon who was allegedly (a lot of the accounts are legendary at this point) badmouthing his former employers, who were killed at the O.K. Corral. He was of course drunk, and went outside and called the gunfighter out. The gunfighter went out a side door and shot him in the back, at least according to one account. He died several hours later. This story strikes me as a much more plausible progression and outcome to most gunfights. More like a gang fight than two people facing each other down in the middle of a street.
Plus the likelihood that 80% of the men working as cowboys in the 1870s and 80s were either involved in Indian wars, the Civil War, or both and knew how to use a revolver.
know how to kill!
“Gunfighters often took every advantage they could”, as they should, should they not? In a gunfight to the death I’d sure as hell take every cheap shot I could.
“need a count?”
@@JKing-mj6yv "No sir"
@@bjorn8992 🤠🙄💀
very interesting and informative!
75 yards apart? That is a very long pistol shot to hit a man-sized target. heck, 75 feet would usually result in missing
well, they didn't have anything else to do anyway but practice, so it's plausible :)
As time grows longer, distances increase🙄
I guess they approached to a distance they could shoot, but also they wouldn't get too close because they would fear getting shot themselves.
4:01 Jesus, talk about women weighing you down.
John Snyder that’s funny!
That was karma.
@@awesomeone2979 It was his GOD DAMN PLAAAAAAAN
John Snyder LET GO, HARLOT
Great video, I really enjoyed it, but I have to say, fiction doesn’t always depict “honorable duels” either. That last example of the guy going to get his gun and catching Peele off guard, that totally sounds like something in a show like Justified (albeit, Justified isn’t an “Old West” show, but it’s a fictional show about gunslingers and outlaws still)
Amazing video, thanks
Thank you for informing me.
Wait what the hell you only have 2.6k subs? I was expecting a lot more
Because only 12 year olds like you would like it.
@@Nitrodino7875 Evidence that I'm 12?
@@dyslexicbatnam1350 "oh yeah yeah". Maxmus whoever the fuck that is his profile pic.
@@videogamebomer the only way to settle this problem is through Duel
The song at the end is from one of my favorite movies called: "they call me trinity"
Oh my goodness! The They Still Call me Trinity theme! Love it!
Glad you used the Trinity theme at the end of the video