Exhibition Shooting

For the first half of the 20th century, exhibition and trick shooting was a common and popular form of entertainment. Famous shooters from Annie Oakley, Ad and Plinky Topperwein, Ed McGivern and Bill Jordan put on shooting demonstrations as part of Wild West shows, circuses, county fairs, and later, on TV shows.

In the second half of the 20th century, Herb Parsons, Tom Knapp, Bob Munden, Jerry Miculek and others kept the tradition alive.




Exhibition and trick shooting has made a bit of a comeback, with many 21st century trick shooters like 22plinkster, Gould Brothers, Howard Darby and Chris Cheng still putting on shows, making online and TV appearances.

Latest news is that Chris Cheng will be one of the performers on a new “talent show” to be televised on TBS. More about his involvement in that show in this Ammoman article.

This episode of the Time Suck podcast tells the life history of Annie Oakley, who the most famous of the early exhibition shooters. (Warning: host Dan Cummins drops a lot of f-bombs. Spoiler: George the Poodle does not get shot.)