INCREDIBLY LONG SHOTS

DOWN RANGE

- Mike Venturino

Back in 1874, there were supposedly two incredibly long-range shots made by frontiersmen in fights against Native Americans. The best known one was by bison hunter Billy Dixon at a fledgling settlement in the Texas Panhandle named Adobe Walls. In June, several hundred Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne warriors attacked Adobe Walls. Twenty-eight people, about half of whom were bison hunters, fighting from behind walls repulsed the warriors. After Billy Dixon’s death early in the twentieth-century, his widow wrote his biography, said to be based on the stories he had related to her about his very interesting life. It was titled Life of Billy Dixon.

In the book, it is stated that a few days after the battle a group of Native Americans appeared on a mesa over 1,500 yards away. Resting a borrowed .50-90 Sharps over a window frame, Dixon was said to have knocked one off his horse.