That looked like a pretty distant shot for a shotgun to cut him in half, even with both barrells.

BQ78 said:

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That looked like a pretty distant shot for a shotgun to cut him in half, even with both barrells.

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I was thinking the same thing.

I think that, as with the civil war (as a vast generalization), most after action accounts were embellished. Now, he might have folded over, however.

Given the terrain/resources locally, it would not have taken much...for an injury to have led to a fatal infection etc. When a figure disappears from the public stage quickly, the safe assumption isn't that they lived for many years on some sort of island of humanity elsewhere, but that they did in fact die at/shortly after the historical incident, imho.

My grandfather showed me how to score the shotgun shell paper hull at the base so that when you fired it the shot, wadding and casing all stay together like a slug. I have seen No.9 bird shot from a 12 gauge put a fist size hole through a 55 gallon barrel.

A 3 1/2 inch 10 gauge with 18 .32 caliber (Double 00) pellets would do bad things if Earp used this same trick.

So why didn't grandpa just use a slug?

Most older paper shells had high brass so there was not as much paper as low brass. My dad used this trick when he was a LEO. The shot did not really stay in the paper case for more than 10ft out of the barrel but was better than full choke pattern. It allowed, in affect, an advantage over a slug In case you missed by 6-7 inches..... but still carried a hard hit.