What did mary shoot at? Where does this come from?

[Hayduke_Lives]

While in a gas station or mini mart I’ll see some old dude doing a scratch off lottery ticket. When they lose i hear them say “I got what Mary shot at”. WTF:confused:
I assume this means Marry shot at nothing. i don’t get it. where does this come from?

[milquetoast]

I’ve never even heard the phrase before. But I am curious about it, so I’m bumping the post for you.

[UncleBill]

This sounds likely.

Stagecoach Mary

This was more than enough to boil Mary’s blood, and at the very next opportunity the two of them were engaged in a shoot-out behind the nunnery, next to the sheep shed. (Actually it turned into a shoot-out, because when Mary went to simply shoot the man as he cleaned out the latrine – figuring to dump his body in there – she missed. He shot back and the fracas was on.)

Bullets flew in every direction until the six-guns were empty, and blood was spilt. Neither actually hit the other by direct fire, but one bullet shot by Mary bounced off the stone wall of the nunnery and hit the forlorn man in the left buttock, which completely ruined his new $1.85 trousers. Not only that, but other bullets Mary fired passed through the laundry of the bishop, which was hanging on the line, generously ventilating his drawers and the two white shirts he had had shipped from Boston only the week before. What his laundry was doing at the nunnery is not clear.

[Johnny_L.A]

My dad used to say, “I got what the hunter shot at and missed.” Grammatically that would mean that he got what he was shooting at, but in usage he meant that he got nothing.

[AskNott]

I had heard it as “what the little boy shot at,” rather than Mary.