Annie Oakley's Playing Card Mastery

Annie Oakley's Playing Card Mastery: A Shot on Edge

St. James Hall in Buffalo, New York, was filled to capacity on that cool November evening in 1901. The audience sat on the edge of their seats as the small woman with the wide hat took out a revolver. She was 41 years old, but her fame had not faded with the years. Annie Oakley, the legendary "Little Sure Shot" from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, stood 27 meters from the target – an ordinary playing card placed on its edge.

Not flat against a background. On its edge.

The target surface was barely visible to the audience – an object only 0.3 millimeters wide. But for Annie, it was as if the card was illuminated in neon lights.

"Ladies and gentlemen," announced the show's emcee. "What Miss Oakley will now attempt is something other shooters would declare impossible! She will shoot through a playing card set on its edge at a distance most shooters would find challenging to hit an entire door lock!"

The audience held their breath. Annie took up her characteristic sideways shooting stance – a position she had perfected since she began hunting to support her family as an eight-year-old. She raised the revolver, a custom-built Smith & Wesson with mother-of-pearl grips, and aimed.

There was no dramatic build-up, no exaggerated concentration. Annie Oakley shot as she breathed – naturally and effortlessly. The shot rang out, and the card disappeared in a cloud of paper bits.

The emcee rushed forward and picked up the remains – the card had been hit precisely through the middle, split perfectly in two.

"Impossible!" shouted a man from the audience.

Annie reloaded her revolver. "Let's do it again," she said calmly, with a modest smile.

She performed the same feat five times in a row, each time with the same result. As additional proof, the cards were later framed and given to prominent audience members, including the famous industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who reportedly hung his card in his office to remind him that "the impossible can be achieved with perfection."

Historians and shooting experts have subsequently attempted to recreate Annie Oakley's feat, and most conclude that it requires precision approaching the supernatural. To hit an object 0.3 millimeters wide from 27 meters away, with a weapon from the 1800s, requires a precision of 0.0006 degrees – about as precise as modern Olympic rifle shooters with high-tech equipment.

But for Annie Oakley, daughter of Quaker immigrants who learned to shoot to keep her family alive, it was just another shot in a lifelong pursuit of perfection.