Can anyone tell me if the “Fastest Draw in the West” used a straight draw (in which the right hand gets the gun from the right side, and the left hand gets the gun from the left) or a crossover draw (in which the right hand crosses to the left to get the gun, and vice-versa)?
Thanks.
If this board was excited about such stuff, you could probably get a great debate out of this.
Basically, the crossover motion allows the arm to come up more “cleanly” without some of the awkward bending involved with the straight approach. However, you have to swing your arm across your body to get it started.
Reading through the several hundred gunfights listed in the Encyclopedia of Gunfighters, the most noticeable aspect of the reported fights is that the number of “stand out in the street and face each other” gunfights could be counted on one hand. Generally, two (or more) guys who were mad at each other got their guns into their hands and started shooting, with most of the lead flying wild. This lends credence to the words that Louis L’Amour always had the “old hand” give to the neophyte in his novels: Don’t worry about being fast, just make each shot count. As much as L’Amour enjoyed giving Killkenny and the Sacketts lightning draws, the reality for the quick draw was that it was basically a circus trick.
John Wesley Hardin, with the most successful gunfights recorded, only “beat someone to the draw” twice, I think. (It’s been a while since I saw the Encyclopedia.) Most of his fights were disorganized brawls (with a few occasions when he drew on people who had turned their backs on him or who thought they were about to get into a fist fight). There is no question that Hardin was a dangerous man with a gun, but he wasn’t stupid enough to stnad in a street and let someone walk up and “brace” him.
I saw a TV show years ago in which a modern day cowboy (this was sometime in the 80s) was touted as the fastest gun in the world. He performed at carnivals and such, shooting at water baloons a few feet away, and was so fast that they used slow motion to see exactly what he was doing. If memory serves, he used a straight draw with his right hand only.
An important point to remember, though, is that the position of the holster makes a huge difference in how fast you can draw. The real cowboys used gun belts that were sort of diagonally strung around the waist, with the gun resting more on the thigh than the hip. The topmost part of the grip was just below belt level (pants belt, that is). The Cartwrights in Bonanza show how this looks. With the gun resting so low, you don’t have to raise your arm as much to grab it, and also don’t have to raise it as high to get it out of the holster.
The other way to do it was to put the holster on your pants belt, which makes the gun rest much higher on your hip. This may not make a huge difference with modern guns, but the black powder guns and original Colts of the era you’re thinking of were much longer than a modern handgun. Another example from TV/Movies of how this looks is Josie Wales. He had two Colts, with the holsters on his pants belt. The guns were so high up on his hip that the grips were basically resting in his elbow when he had his arms to his side. So, when he drew, he had to raise his arm much higher to reach the grips, and higher still to get it to clear the holster. I have a similar gun that I’ve tried both ways, and found that with a gun holstered like his, I had to raise my arm so high to get it to clear the holster that my hand was nearly at the level of my shoulder. Granted, Clint Eastwood is much bigger than I am, but he still would have a hard time drawing those guns as quickly as a bad guy with a holster worn lower on his side.
The few that I have seen use a straight draw. They do crouch down so the gun barrel, while in the holster, is pointed in the general direction they plan to shoot.
Do a search on “fast draw” or try someplace like
Back in the old west, gun fights were probably a lot like these trick shooters. The person shooting would want every advantage they could get. The idea is to come out alive, not look cool.
IIRC, in modern ‘fast-draw’ contests, most of the contestants use a straight draw. The way the contest works, there’s this fancy ol’ machine that sits between two shooters, who, on a signal, draw and fire - blanks. The machine shows which one shot first.
Bear in mind that there’s no accuracy to worry about - simply draw and shoot. Most of the shots end up with the gun pointed toward the ground at about a 45 degree angle.
Considering the nature of the contest, a straight draw has a natural advantage over a crossover draw. The guns are all single-action revolvers, and must not be cocked while in the holster. That means the shooter must cock the hammer AND pull the trigger, which is done the fastest by ‘fanning’ the hammer, or pulling it back with the off hand while keeping the trigger pulled with the gun hand. It’s much more difficult to fan a gun quickly from a crossdraw position.
The basic technique for a quick-draw also involves some Elvis Presleyesque gyrations. Just before the signal, the shooter stands with his gun hip twisted to the rear. At the signal, the shooter swivels his/her gun hip forward, while catching the butt of the gun with the gun hand moving backward. This tends to lever the gun out of the holster, which is designed to allow the gun to clear quickly and smoothly. As soon as the muzzle is clear of the holster, the shooter fans the hammer while holding the trigger, and BANG!…contest over.
I don’t really know how popular this sport is elsewhere in the U.S. but here in PA we have these fast draw type contests but with a twist. It’s basically a quick draw type contest but also involves accuracy as well. The shooter is a specified amount of feet away from 5 bowlings pins placed on a table, i think it’s 25 feet but i’m not really sure, and each guy is timed from the inital Draw, must shoot all 5 pins off the top of the table and replace his gun, then the timer stops. The fastest naturally wins the event. Everytime i have watched these guys, every single one of them uses the straight draw as opposed to the cross-over draw.
Straight draw the fastest? Could be, but it would also be safer then the cross-over draw in an event like this when you have innocent bystanders standing directly behind the shooter, and in essence having the barrel of the gun aimed towards the crowd on the inital draw. DRAW! Bang! Ops, Sorry bout that mister. 
JBurton99, that’s a little different from what the OP referred to, I’m guessing. It sounds like you’re describing what the NRA would call an “action pistol” event, where the firearms of choice are usually semi-autos, with capacities ranging from 7 or 8 rounds up to 16 rounds. The OP, however, seemed to imply an Old West setting, which would be limited to single-action revolvers.
Action pistol events are much more than just a quick draw.
Ok, i’m not trying to start a fight here, so please forgive me i was just adding my 2 cents.
Yes, i realize that it a little different from what the OP referred to, but i was just adding a little more info to the subject, since in essence the question was answered within the first 2 or 3 posts.
Does it really matter what year you draw the gun in? 1849? 1949? 2049? Straight draw will win out over a Cross-over Draw almost everytime because of the distance of crossing over your body. Example if i may: Two guys who have never drawn a gun in their life and are exaclty equal in everything – Stud A has a Lazer Pistol from Star Wars <humor me> but has to Cross-Over draw, Stud B has an old Colt Revolver but can Straight Draw. I don’t know about you but my money would be on Stud B.
Sorry for the hijack.
I knew i shoulda kept my mouth shut.
As I understand it, the biggest reason for using a crossover draw in the Old West was that it was far more comfy to ride a horse with your pistols roughly at and parallel to your waist. You could even draw while astride ol’ Trigger, something that isn’t that easy with a low-slung straight-draw rig. In fact, if you’re sitting on a horse, a cross-draw is faster than a straight, because of the angles involved. Then again, Louis L’Amour never wrote about a gunfight at high noon ON HORSEBACK.
And while a straight draw rig is worn more on the thigh a crossover rig sits tighter and the gun is closer to the middle of your gut butt-first. Your hand has less space to travel and is already at firing height.
Accuracy however is another matter.
And we haven’t even discussed the various methods of when the trigger finger enters the guard/cocks the gun etc.
Quite a number of factors to consider.