MovieChat Forums > Young Guns (1988) Discussion > they lost the ability to shoot

they lost the ability to shoot


They were all good shooters until Buckshot Roberts approaches them and it is 6 against 1. The Charlie Sheen character gets killed and Kinney is holed up in the outhouse and they let him live. They seem to have lost all of their shooting skills.

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Huh? I could of swore that was Buckshot Roberts, though admittedly, I have not seen the movie in a long time. In either event, I’m pretty sure that exact incident did go down as it did in the movie. I was surprised to learn later that in many ways, the movie did stick to the true story. The scene where Billy lets Bob Olinger have it with both barrels from the second story of the jail was true (Though I’m pretty certain that the gun wasn’t loaded with nickels, therefore it wasn’t the best $1.25 that Billy ever spent :D ).

I’ve read up a lot on this subject, hownos. There been many years of myths being perpetuated about the old time gunfighters. The old television or movie westerns, of the 1950’s show the protagonist blasting off countless rounds at tin cans and various other objects. But I read that would have almost never been the case, as the ammo was too costly to justify practicing in such a way. As such, many of the old time gunfighters were not particularly accurate shots, as one might expect. What they did have was a cool, calm, demeanor, that enabled them to place a shot accurately enough at close range, to cause sudden, if not instant death.

A really good book on the subject was written by the legend himself, Bat Masterson’s:

“Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Luke Short and Others, written in 1907.

He detailed what made for a good gunfighter. One dude was a particularly accurate shooter. But when he went up against a dude that was not as good of a shot, but had nerves of steel, he lost his life.

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here is the scene - it makes no sense to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqvuJLOCSxc

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That old coot shook them up pretty badly, three injuries, the Foreman was a fatality...I think they just wet themselves and ran away

Fun movie, I'd like to think old Buckshot Roberts made it to Old Mexico and into the arms of sweet Mexican ladies (and hopefully a vat of Tequila!)

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I checked it out. Yeah, I’m sure that the movie took a lot of liberties with the way it actually went down. Though the part about Dick Brewer getting killed, I’m pretty sure is correct. I certainly wouldn’t think that holing up in a 4’x4’ outhouse would be very wise, from a strategic point of view :D

Below is one of the better old west sites that I’ve come across. The bottom link is on Buckshot Roberts. Looks like the part where Buckshot Roberts holed up in an outhouse was a hollywood fabrication (It was actually a mill).

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-lincolncountywar/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-buckshotroberts/

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