Legendary Trick Shooters After the Wild West
Trick shooting is where exhibition shooting meets showmanship—whether that means using unorthodox targets, performing outrageous feats, or just exuding a stage persona that would normally be reserved for a performer rather than a firearms instructor. It’s a profession that has mostly disappeared with the Old West, but the end of the Old West was not the end of the world’s fascination with marksmanship or legendary trick shooters.
Twentieth-century Vaudeville performers picked up where their Old West predecessors left off, and penny arcades showcasing coin-operated mechanical shooting games let our parents and grandparents try their hand at being a crack shot for themselves for a change (pun intended). The world’s love for trick shooting was alive and well, and even though Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show closed for good in 1913, the show must go on.
If you’ve ever wondered who made history after Annie Oakley and Johnny Baker left center stage, here’s a few legends whose stories will always be worth telling.
Sylvester Schäffer Jr.
Son of a famous juggler, Sylvester Schäffer Jr. began training for a career in showmanship at the age of 3. Talk about pressure! But considering that he was known as a talented juggler himself, as well as a magician, horseman, marksman, violinist, acrobat, tamer of wild beasts, and a few other titles, it’s safe to say that he rose to the occasion. During his career in Germany as a vaudeville (or Varieté, as it was known in Berlin) performer, he famously hit moving targets, used Annie Oakley’s mirror trick to hit targets behind his back, and he even shot potatoes off of his assistant’s head à la William Tell. Yikes!
He performed in New York during the 1910s but was prevented from continuing his US performances after the start of the Great War due to the American Government’s apprehension surrounding all things German. He then returned to Germany where he made a new name for himself as a film star, in addition to his already outstanding reputation as one of the highest paid performers on stage. Legend has it that, during this time, he refused to give a performance for Hitler himself. Who doesn’t love a professional who puts principles before paychecks!
He eventually moved back the United States during World War II, where he lived out the rest of his life. It’s incredible to known as a great performer on one continent, but Sylvester Schäffer Jr. was famous on two- and it’s easy to see why.
The Wonderful Topperweins
Elizabeth Servaty is said to have never even fired a gun while she was working for the Winchester factory in Connecticut around the turn of the twentieth century. It was around this time that she met her husband-to-be, Ad Topperwein, who was an aspiring marksman and the son of a gunsmith. Ad famously impressed a Vaudeville promotor with his marksmanship at shooting gallery, and Ad soon signed a contract to become a performer. He taught Elizabeth some of his impressive marksmanship skills, and she soon adopted the name Plinky- a named derived from “plink,” which was the word she used to describe the sound of bullets hitting tin can during her shooting lessons.
Plinky quickly became his co-star and an impressive shooter. In the 1904 World’s Fair, she set a world record by hitting just 3 shy of 1,000 airborne clay pigeons in a row. Ad Topperwein became a renowned shooter himself, with 14 world records in shooting. The pair were famous for their crowd-pleasing performances and seemingly impossible marksmanship. In one such stunt described by According to Gene Fowler of Texas Co-op Power, Ad “ […] placed his rifle on the ground, threw two eggs into the air, ran and somersaulted, then grabbed his rifle and shot the eggs before they hit the ground.”
Plinky Topperwein sadly passed in 1945, and afterward, Ad Topperwein performed for another six years before opening a shooting school in Leon Springs, Texas. Not everyone is lucky in love, much less in their careers, but the Topperweins were successful in both.
Kim Ye-ji
You may recognize Kim Ye-Ji as the South Korean competition pistol shooter from last year’s Summer Olympics. She set a world record for the women’s 25-meter pistol event and won the silver medal in the women’s 10-meter air pistol. You may wonder why she’s been included in a list of trick shooters, but make no mistake, she definitely belongs. Obviously, she isn’t hitting non-traditional targets or performing any death-defying feats as an Olympic performer, but what qualifies her as a performer among the ranks of legendary trick shooters is her undeniable charisma and showmanship.
Her devil-may-care posture, distinctive style in front of the camera, and her really unique eyewear have made her go viral. At a glance, her eyewear may look like nothing more than a typical diopter that could be worn by any Olympic shooter, but her eyewear has a really distinct mechanical iris that allows her to “adjust the depth of field for better clarity,” according to an article on Precision Eye Care’s site. The word cyberpunk has been used to describe her in a number of articles, and it’s a description that would be fitting if weren’t for the images of her carrying her daughter’s plush elephant- often seen hanging out of her pocket while competing in Paris.
GQ has called her a “sportswear-wearing sci-fi assassin,” and, apparently, a Korean entertainment company called Asia Lab must have taken notice because she’s set to play an assassin in an upcoming Korean TV series called Crush. She’s so closely associated with her 4.5mm caliber Morini CM162EI that the very idea of casting her as an assassin makes me think of a killer-for-hire wielding nothing more an air pistol. As impressive as Kim Ye-Ji is, I’m sure an air pistol is all she would ever need to be considered armed and dangerous.
Whatever the future has in store for Kim Ye-Ji and the other great shooters that have captured our attention, rest assured that world is the world is watching. And we love a good show.
Written by: Lanna Perkins, Education Writer
