Bill Jordan, the Legend

SOME YEARS AGO, a PH based at Victoria Falls called to ask if could provide a week’s accommodation for his client who’d just finished a hunt and wanted to spend some time in Salisbury (now Harare). I asked his name; the reply was, “Bill Jordan”. Clearly, the PH had no idea how famous Bill was in the shooting world. Having read his book No Second Place Winner with its introduction by Col. Charles Askins describing Bill’s remarkable talents, I jumped at the opportunity to host him.

Askins described Bill as the “fastest man on the draw that I have ever seen in action” and mentioned some of his feats which, to me, seemed impossible. He would place a ping-pong ball on the back of his hand, held just above holster level, drop the ball, draw, and his shot would hit it as it passed his holster. More impressive was his accuracy. He would place aspirins on a tabletop 4 metres away, standing on their edges, and shoot them off individually, drawing and. He would also split a playing card, edgewise, when thrown in front of him.