Fast draw

This skill was made popular by romanticized depictions of gunslingers in the Western genre, which in turn were inspired by famous historical gunfights in the American Old West.

Unlike cowboy action shooting, fast draw is shot with special blanks or wax bullets.

While some competitions are strictly against the clock, with the fastest time winning, many are set up as head-to-head single- or double-elimination matches.

[1][2] Gunfighters Jim Leavy and Tom Carberry became infamous for participating in at least two quick draw duels in their lifetimes.

Though many gunfighters were remembered to be dangerous with a pistol during the American frontier, only a few known historical individuals have been noted by historians as "fast", such as Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, John Wesley Hardin, Luke Short, Tom Horn and Billy the Kid.

In these circumstances, the one who can draw, fire and hit his opponent first was usually the winner, but accuracy and calmness were also, and sometimes more, favored by actual gunmen in the era.

In western movies, the characters' gun belts are often worn low on the hip and outer thigh, with the holster cut away around the pistol's trigger and grip for a smooth, fast draw.

The exhibition shooter Bob Munden, proclaimed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the fastest man with a gun who ever lived", could draw, fire, break a balloon target with a blank using a standard weight single-action revolver and return his gun to his holster faster than the blink of an eye.

Brent McBride played a game of quick draw with his fellow soldier and roommate, Sgt.

McBride pleaded guilty at Fort Hood, Texas, court martial in March 2012 to involuntary manslaughter.