In 1865 Colonel William F. Cody, (Buffalo Bill) and Captain William P. Schaaf of St. Louis became prominent as pistol shots. The latter subsequently joined Captain Travers in a three years’ tour of the United States, giving exhibitions in nearly all the large cities.

About 1880 Ira Anson Paine, a native of Massachusetts, attracted attention by his fine marksmanship with the pistol. In 1881 he went abroad, and for a number of years he traveled over the principal countries of Europe, giving public exhibitions of his skill with the pistol and revolver. While in Portugal in 1882 he was knighted by the King in the presence of a notable assemblage, and made a chevalier of an ancient military order. In his exhibitions Chevalier Paine used a Stevens Lord Model pistol and a Smith & Wesson revolver. His skill with these arms was so far in advance of his contemporaries that he was popularly supposed to accomplish many of his feats by trickery.

Target-shooting with the pistol and revolver, as a sport, may be said to have originated at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association at Creedmoor in 1886. During that meeting a revolver match was scheduled to be shot at 25 yards on the 200-yard Standard American Rifle Target. It was a reëntry match, with the three best scores of five shots each of any contestant to count. In this match three scores of 48 out of 50 were made, the highest individual aggregate of three scores being 143 out of a possible 150.

The same year a similar match was announced at the fall meeting of the Massachusetts Rifle Association at Walnut Hill. Chevalier Paine was a competitor in this match, and made 50—49—49==148 in six entries. The next best three scores equalled 142.

These matches proved so interesting and successful that target-shooting with the pistol and revolver became instantly popular all over the country. It was soon found that the arms possessed remarkable accuracy, and as the skill of the shooters improved the distance was increased to 50 yards retaining the same target.

Fig. 67.—John A. Dietz Fig. 68.—E. E. Patridge Fig. 69.—Sergt. W. E. Petty

Mr. A. C. Gould, editor of The Rifle, and Shooting and Fishing, was the first one to recognize the possibilities of the pistol and revolver, and became greatly interested in the performances with these arms. He assisted and encouraged the shooters, witnessed their work, and made careful and elaborate records of all the important scores that were made in the United States from 1886 to 1900.[11] It was at his suggestion that Chevalier Paine essayed to fire the first 100-shot score at 50 yards on the Standard American Target, scoring 791 points. This shooting was done with a finely sighted .44-caliber Smith & Wesson Russian Model Revolver, regulation full charge ammunition, and a 2½-pound trigger pull. A keen rivalry for the 100-shot record soon sprang up, resulting as follows:

Oct.15, 1886,Chevalier Ira PaineatWalnutHill 791
March7, 1887,Chevalier Ira Paine""" 841
Nov.4, 1887,F. E. Bennett""" 857
Nov.14, 1887,F. E. Bennett""" 877
Dec.5, 1887,F. E. Bennett""" 886
Dec.17, 1887,Chevalier Ira Paine""" 888
Dec.22, 1887,Chevalier Ira Paine""" 904
Dec.23, 1887,W. W. Bennett""" 914

This rivalry led to a long newspaper controversy, and culminated in the famous Paine-Bennett revolver match. The conditions were as follows: Stakes $1000.00; 100 shots per day for six consecutive days; Smith & Wesson Russian Model Revolvers, .44 caliber; factory-loaded full charge ammunition; trigger pull, 3 pounds; Standard American Target with 8-inch bull’s-eye; distance, 50 yards. On the fifth day of the match, and while 9 points in the lead, Chevalier Paine entered a protest and withdrew. Mr. F. E. Bennett continued shooting, as stipulated in the match, scoring 5093 points for the total of the six days. The protest was referred to the National Rifle Association, which decided in favor of Mr. Bennett, awarding him the match and the championship of America.