THE OK CORRAL PLUS 144

 

The 26^th of this month was the 144^th anniversary of the classic Old West Gunfight, the Shootout at the OK Corral.

 

What follows is a pistoliferous author’s take on the subject.

 

But first, my immodest credentials:

 

I’ve shot thousands of rounds from single-action Colts and clones in .44-40 and .45 Long Colt, on the clock.  Got tolerably good at it back in the day as a life member of the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS).  During the late 90s when I was in my prime (yeahright) I led the national championship team/posse and finished in the top 10 percent individually.

 

The OK Corral shootists used various modes of carry.  Some—notably the Clanton gang’s Cowboys—wore holsters while the Earps mostly carried hoglegs in a pocket or waistband.  The latter methods do not enhance speed, as hammer spurs and front sights can snag.

 

I just mention the foregoing to establish my bona fides.

 

Nowthen:

 

As per Prof. Bill O’Neal’s essential Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, from 1857 to 1924 there were a few hundred dustups over those 60 years.  (The last year is significant to me because it was when my distant kinsman and SASS alias Marshal William “Billy” Tilghman was murdered by a drunken federal prohibition agent.)

 

Arizona logged 60 shootouts in the study period, obviously averaging one a year.  Texas won going away with 160, followed by Kansas and New Mexico with about 70 each.

 

In 1881 Arizona was second overall with seven gunfights, barely behind New Mexico and just ahead of Texas.       

 

The political-economic dispute between the Clanton-McLaury faction and the Earp faction needn’t divert us.  We’re concerned with the immediate factors attending the Shootout at the OK Corral.  (Which, incidentally, was a fur piece from the corral/stable, but editors decided that The Shootout at the OK Corral sounded a lot juicier than The Shootout Behind C.S. Fly’s Photo Studio.)

 

A sidebar:

 

Folks wonder how the corral got its name.  Some clever Googling showed that it stood for “Old Kindersley,” though how owner John Montgomery arrived at that decision seems unknown. The shooting venue was a narrow, vacant lot reported at 15 to 18 feet wide.  Call it six yards; maybe seven or eight paces. Which bears upon our story.

 

Back to the event:

 

The Tombstone lawdogs--Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil Earp with Dr. John Holliday bearing a shotgun—confronted miscreant Ike Clanton and some of his Cowboys who were carrying in violation of civic ordinance.  (Apparently Second Amendment concerns did not arise.)  Ike had said repeatedly that he intended to kill some Earps.

 

Originally the four lawmen faced six Cowboys.  After some back-and-forthing at a reputed six feet, Wyatt and Billy Clanton simultaneously opened the ball, and the fight was on.

 

When the Earps began firing, Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury were hit immediately.  Morgan shot Billy point-blank, knocking him down.  Seconds later Billy’s right wrist was broken so he gamely shifted to his left hand, firing from the ground.

 

Billy Clanton missed Wyatt, who prioritized Frank McLaury, considered a dangerous shooter.

 

Ike Clanton rushed up to Wyatt, pleading for an end to the violence.  According to most accounts, Wyatt pushed him back saying, approximately, “The fight’s started, get to fightin’ or get away!”  Ike fled, as did Billy Claiborne and Wes Fuller, leaving three against four.

 

In the flurry of shooting, Morgan took a hit and went down but his blood was up.  He rebounded, remaining in the fight.

 

Tom McLaury, who possibly was unarmed, stood behind his horse with a rifle in the scabbard.  He tried to unlimber the Winchester but when the horse spooked, Doc unloaded his shotgun into him, sending Frank reeling into Fremont Street where he died.

 

Doc dropped his scattergun and pulled his revolver, shooting at Ike who hastily followed Wyatt’s advice.

                                                                                                  

As per Wyatt’s concern, Frank McLaury (and probably with the fatally wounded Billy Clanton) shot Doc and Morgan.  Then, pulling his horse by the reins, Frank staggered into the street, still shooting, then was killed by a head shot, likely from Doc.

 

By most accounts, in about 30 seconds the three Cowboys were dead or dying while Virgil, Morgan, and Doc were wounded. 

 

Hits and Misses

 

Doctors examined the three Cowboys’ bodies, finding that

 

Billy Clanton was hit three times.  He lingered awhile, reportedly asking that his boots be removed, as he had promised his mother he would not die with his boots on.

 

Frank McLaury was hit in the torso and killed by a round near the right ear, the most difficult shot of the fight although the distance is uncertain.

 

Tom McLaury’s 12 buckshot wounds measured four inches across, indicating that Doc fired from 12 to 15 feet. (Modern buckshot spreads an inch per yard.)

 

The Tombstone Epitaph headlined: “Three men hurled into Eternity in Duration of a Moment.”  But the incident did not gain public traction until 1931 with Stuart Edward Lake’s biography of Wyatt, who died in 1929.

 

Otherwise:

 

So: how many rounds were loaded in seven shootists’ revolvers?  (There’s some question whether Tom McLaury was heeled but let’s assume he was.)  Frontier wisdom held that you carried a six-shooter with five rounds loaded, hammer down on the empty sixth chamber for safety reasons.

 

So, let’s assume at least 35 loaded pistol rounds plus Doc’s double-barrel.  We know that of the reputed 30-plus rounds fired, the Earps scored five pistol hits plus the shotgun blast to Tom McLaury.

 

The Cowboys—probably limited to Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton—hit three lawmen once each.

 

That’s a combined total of eight hits among the reputed thirty, a 26 percent ratio.  The ranges largely were at conversational distances, from near muzzle contact to no greater than 15 of the 18-foot-wide lot.

 

Actually, 26 percent isn’t bad within the broader context.  Start with an adrenaline spike, in-your-face lethal stress, some marginal marksmanship skills, plus a cloud of black powder smoke, and you have some idea of the factors.  In the 1880s hardly anyone shot pistols two-handed, as do most SASS competitors who can cock a Colt really fast with the thumb of the support hand.

 

In recent years police gunfight hit rates vary considerably, though there’s no national database.  New York for instance stopped reporting misses around 2006 but NYPD’s figure from 1998 until then ran from 18 to 37 percent, including incidents with no return gunfire.