This might be interesting to bullet and cartridge collectors. The below paragraph is from the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in N Texas in June 1874.
Billy Dixon's lucky shot[edit]
Adobewalls.jpg
Controversy prevails over the exact range of Billy Dixon's shot. Baker and Harrison set it at about one thousand yards, while a post-battle survey by a team of US Army surveyors, under the command of Nelson A. Miles, measured the distance: 1,538 yards, or nine-tenths of a mile. For the rest of his life, Billy Dixon never claimed that the shot was anything other than a lucky one; his memoirs do not devote even a full paragraph to "the shot".[3]
Forensic archaeologists have discovered that the guns in use at Adobe Walls included: several Richards' Colt conversions, some Smith & Wesson Americans, and at least one Colt .45 (then new on the frontier) pistol, along with numerous rifles in calibers .50-70, .50-90, .44-77, .44 Henry Flat, and at least one .45-70 (also very new). At the time, Sharps did not use designations like .50-90 ("Big Fifty" Sharps). Instead, Sharps designated cartridges by bore size and case length. Technically, the "Big Fifty" was known as the .50 Sharps 2-1/2 Inch. Depending on the bullet used, the case could be loaded as any of what was later designated .50-90, .50-100 or .50-110. The .50-90 loading used the heaviest bullet and gave the best performance at relatively short ranges out to about 100 yards. The two heavier loads used relatively lighter bullets and gave better performance at extended ranges. This makes it more likely that Billy Dixon's shot was made with a .50 Sharps 2-1/2 Inch case loaded to .50-110 specification. In Sharps' nomenclature, the .50-70 was first known as the .50 Sharps 1-3/4 Inch and later as the .50 Sharps 2 Inch, and was sometimes referred to as the "Little Fifty."
Aftermath[edit]
