Billy Dixon's Famous Shot at Adobe Walls: The Sharps Big Fifty

Adobe Walls battle site firearms including Sharps Big Fifty and Rolling Block rifles — Cimarron's Pedersoli Adobe Walls Rolling Block Rifle 45-70, 30" Oct. Barrel

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The Shot That Ended a Battle

On the third day of fighting at Adobe Walls in late June 1874, a young buffalo hunter named Billy Dixon raised his borrowed Sharps "Big Fifty" rifle, took aim at a group of warriors silhouetted on a bluff nearly a mile away, and squeezed the trigger. Moments later, one of the distant figures toppled from his horse. The shot -- later surveyed by the U.S. Army at 1,538 yards (nine-tenths of a mile) -- did not kill the warrior outright, but it shattered the morale of the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne war party that had besieged the tiny buffalo-hunting outpost in the Texas Panhandle. Within hours, the attackers withdrew. Dixon's shot became one of the most celebrated feats of marksmanship in frontier history, and the rifle he used -- the Sharps Model 1874 chambered in .50-90 Sharps -- became a legend in its own right.

But there is more to this story than a single lucky shot. The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was a turning point in the Red River War, and the firearms carried by the 28 defenders played a decisive role in their survival against an estimated an estimated 300 to 700 warriors (some sources cite as many as 1,200). This article examines Dixon's famous shot in ballistic detail, the specific firearms that the defenders carried, and what the battle reveals about the state of firearms technology in the 1870s.

The Defenders and Their Guns

Adobe Walls was a cluster of sod buildings -- a saloon, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a hide-trading post -- established by buffalo hunters as a base of operations in the Texas Panhandle. By June 1874, the southern buffalo herds were being hunted to commercial extinction, and the Comanche and allied tribes had had enough. War chief Quanah Parker organized a massive coalition to destroy Adobe Walls and drive the hunters from the plains.

The hunters who happened to be at Adobe Walls on the morning of June 27, 1874, were not soldiers. They were rough, experienced frontiersmen whose livelihoods depended on accurate shooting at long range. Their personal arsenals reflected the best available single-shot technology of the era:

Sharps Model 1874 in .50-90 Sharps, .44-77, and .45-70 Government -- The predominant rifle among the professional hunters. The Sharps falling-block action could withstand massive powder charges, and the heavy octagonal barrels were ideally suited for precision fire at ranges beyond 500 yards. Most hunters at Adobe Walls carried the .50-caliber variants, loaded with 90 to 120 grains of black powder behind a 450- to 550-grain lead slug.
Remington Rolling Block in .50-70 Government and .45-70 -- Several defenders carried Rolling Blocks. The rolling-block action, designed by Joseph Rider for Remington Arms, was mechanically simpler than the Sharps falling block and extremely strong, but it was somewhat less popular among professional hide hunters because its action was not quite as rigid under the heaviest black-powder loads.
Springfield Model 1873 "Trapdoor" in .45-70 -- At least one or two defenders had the standard U.S. Army rifle. The trapdoor action was adequate at moderate ranges but was considered the weakest of the three single-shot designs present at Adobe Walls.
Winchester 1873 lever-action rifles and Colt revolvers -- Used for close-range defense. During the initial dawn attack, when warriors charged to within yards of the buildings, repeating firearms proved essential. But for the long-range dueling that characterized most of the three-day fight, the big single-shots were the weapons that mattered.

The Sharps "Big Fifty": Anatomy of a Buffalo Rifle

The term "Big Fifty" was a colloquial name for the heaviest Sharps rifles chambered in .50-caliber cartridges -- primarily the .50-90 Sharps and the even more powerful .50-110 and .50-140. These were purpose-built for dropping 1,500-pound bison at ranges where the hunter's scent and noise would not stampede the herd. A skilled "stand hunter" could kill dozens of buffalo from a single position, methodically picking off animals on the fringes of a herd while the rest continued grazing, unaware of the danger.

The Sharps Model 1874 that became synonymous with Adobe Walls had several features that made it ideal for this work:

Falling-block action -- A massive steel breechblock, operated by the trigger guard lever, dropped vertically to expose the chamber. When closed, the block locked up with enormous strength, easily containing pressures from charges of 90 to 140 grains of black powder.
Heavy octagonal barrel -- Typically 30 to 34 inches long, weighing the rifle at 12 to 16 pounds. The mass dampened recoil and the long barrel maximized powder burn, squeezing every foot-per-second from the black-powder charge.
Double-set triggers -- Many buffalo Sharps were equipped with a two-trigger system. Pulling the rear trigger "set" the front trigger to release at an extremely light pull -- sometimes as little as a few ounces -- allowing the shooter to fire without disturbing his aim.
Vernier tang sight -- Mounted on the tang behind the hammer, these adjustable aperture sights could be calibrated to specific ranges. Experienced hunters memorized their sight settings for various distances and could adjust with remarkable speed.

Deconstructing Dixon's Shot: Was It Possible?

Dixon himself was characteristically modest about the famous shot. In his later memoirs, he stated: "I was not aiming at the Indian on the horse. I was shooting at the group on the bluff. It was a scratch shot." This honesty only deepens the legend, because modern ballistic analysis shows that while the shot was extraordinary, it was not physically impossible.

The rifle Dixon used for the long shot was not his personal Sharps but one he borrowed from another hunter. Accounts vary, but the most reliable sources indicate it was a Sharps Model 1874 chambered in .50-90 Sharps (also known as .50-2.5 inch). The cartridge fired a 473-grain lead bullet propelled by 90 grains of Fg black powder, achieving a muzzle velocity of approximately 1,270 to 1,350 feet per second.

At 1,538 yards, the ballistics of this load present a picture:

Time of flight: approximately 4.5 to 5 seconds. The heavy, low-drag bullet retained energy better than lighter projectiles, but at this range the shooter was aiming at where a target would be several seconds into the future.
Bullet drop: approximately 200 to 250 feet below the line of bore. Dixon would have been aiming his barrel at an extreme upward angle -- the target was on a bluff above him, which partially compensated for the enormous drop.
Remaining velocity: approximately 350 to 450 feet per second. At this speed the heavy lead slug still carried enough energy to knock a man from a horse, but lethal penetration was uncertain. Historical accounts confirm the warrior was struck but not killed instantly.
Wind drift: Even a modest 5 mph crosswind would push the bullet 20 to 30 feet off course at this range. Dixon's "scratch shot" required either dead-calm conditions or an enormous amount of luck.

In the 1870s, the U.S. Army surveyed the distance from the firing position to the bluff and confirmed the measurement of 1,538 yards. While some historians have questioned the precise distance, the core fact -- that a Sharps .50-90 could deliver a projectile with enough energy to unseat a mounted warrior at extreme range -- is consistent with the known ballistics of the cartridge.

The Broader Significance: How Firearms Technology Won the Battle

Dixon's shot was the dramatic climax, but the entire three-day battle demonstrated the decisive advantage that long-range, heavy-caliber single-shot rifles gave a small number of skilled shooters over a much larger force. The warriors who attacked Adobe Walls were armed primarily with bows, lances, and a scattering of older firearms -- muzzle-loading muskets, a few Spencer and Henry repeaters captured or traded. Some carried Winchester 1866 "Yellow Boy" rifles, but ammunition was scarce.

The buffalo hunters, by contrast, had virtually unlimited ammunition -- the trading post at Adobe Walls was stocked with cases of cartridges for sale. More importantly, they could accurately engage targets at ranges where the warriors' weapons were completely ineffective. The Sharps and Rolling Block rifles could deliver lethal fire at 500 to 800 yards routinely, and harassing fire out to a mile. This range advantage meant that once the initial close-quarters assault failed, the warriors had no way to approach the buildings without taking casualties from fire they could not answer.

The Battle of Adobe Walls became one of the clearest demonstrations of how superior firearms technology could overcome numerical disadvantage. It directly precipitated the Red River War of 1874-1875, during which the U.S. Army systematically defeated the southern Plains tribes and forced them onto reservations. The buffalo hunters' rifles had, in effect, won a battle that the Army subsequently used as justification for an entire military campaign.

Billy Dixon: The Man Behind the Legend

William "Billy" Dixon (1850-1913) was a professional buffalo hunter, U.S. Army scout, and rancher. Born in Ohio, he came west as a teenager and quickly established himself as one of the most skilled hide hunters on the southern plains. After Adobe Walls, Dixon served as a civilian scout during the Red River War and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Buffalo Wallow in September 1874, where he and five other men held off a large Comanche war party while exposed in an open prairie depression.

Dixon later settled near Adobe Walls, where he ranched and served as the first postmaster of the community that grew up around the old battle site. He died in 1913 and was buried near Adobe Walls -- a fitting resting place for the man whose single shot had ensured the site's place in history.

The Legacy: Why the Shot Still Matters

Dixon's shot at Adobe Walls remains a touchstone in American firearms culture for several reasons. It demonstrated the extreme range capability of large-caliber black-powder cartridges -- a fact that modern long-range shooters can verify with reproduction rifles. It illustrated the decisive role that individual marksmanship could play in frontier combat. And it cemented the Sharps rifle as the quintessential weapon of the American West, a status it holds to this day in popular culture, from novels and films to competitive black-powder silhouette shooting.

Modern reproductions of the Sharps "Big Fifty" are produced by companies like Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing, C. Sharps Arms, and Davide Pedersoli. Shooters using these rifles regularly compete at ranges of 1,000 yards and beyond in BPCR (Black Powder Cartridge Rifle) matches, proving that the technology Dixon relied upon in 1874 remains viable -- and deeply satisfying -- a century and a half later.

For more on the Adobe Walls Rolling Block Rifle, the evolution of Sharps rifles, and the .50-90 Sharps cartridge, explore our related articles. See also: Remington Rolling Block: The Most-Produced Military Rifle You've Never Heard Of.

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