Now that we have established the veracity of Wild West Tech, here is the story they told of this famous shot.
I had heard of this shot but never in such detail.
A few years after the Civil War, there was a group of 29 buffalo hunters hanging out at an adobe structure, known as Adobe Walls.
A band of 700 Cheyenne warriors, led by famed war chief Quanah Parker, decided to wipe the white men out.
In a battle that lasted several days, the hunters held off the Indians, while inflicting massive casualties on the red men. The hunters were armed with .50-90 single shot breech loaders, were expert shots, and had lots of ammo.
When the battle had pretty much wrapped up, a group of the hunters had come outside of their fort and they saw a group of Indians on a hill about a mile away. The Indians were sitting on horseback, and one of the Indians was looking at the white men and smacking himself on the butt. This was a gesture of contempt.
The hunters turned to their best shot, Billy Dixon, and almost jokingly told him to try to shoot the Indian. Dixon fired, and the Indian dropped. They watched his buddies pick up the body, and the Indians raced off.
All the hunters were astonished, including Dixon. Later, an Army surveyor came to Adobe Walls and measured the shot, it was 1,550 yards.
The hunters had several dogs. One of the dogs was a fierce war dog and during the battle had killed several Indians. In the second day of the battle, the Indians killed this dog. They cut a patch of skin off of the dog, as a sign of respect, this was a kind of war trophy.
Dixon had a dog, but it was lost in the battle.
A few months after the fight, Dixon returned to Adobe Walls with a group of frontiersmen. The little fort was abandoned. To Dixon's astonishment, out of the bushes came his dog! The dog was protecting her litter of new born puppies.
Dixon was delighted to see his dog, and he and his buddies took the dog family back to the Fort where they were staying.