Ep. 157: Ad and Plinky Topperwein, the Texas Sharpshooters

In This Episode
• [02:44] A December 1907 morning in San Antonio and a pile of small pine blocks
• [03:54] The Toepperwein family comes from Prussia and settles at Leon Springs in Bexar County
• [05:04] Toepperwein or Topperwein? How to spell it and how Ken says it
• [06:01] The family connection to Texas Ranger Max Aue and Aue Station
• [06:39] Gunsmith Ferdinand Toepperwein’s rifle patent, plus a callback to the Sisterdale revolver (Ep. 130)
• [08:22] A crossbow at age six, Doc Carver, and Ad’s job as a newspaper artist
• [09:30] Glass target balls and trick shots from a bicycle and upside down
• [11:57] 979 of 1,000 glass balls at San Pedro Park in 1897
• [13:54] Drawing pictures with a .22 rifle
• [14:30] The Coney Island shooting gallery that ran out of cigars
• [15:42] Vaudeville, London, and a winter with a circus in Mexico City
• [17:10] Signing with Winchester and shooting from a Ferris wheel
• [18:15] Meet Elizabeth, the Winchester cartridge-plant worker who had never fired a gun
• [20:40] How Ad taught her to shoot, and the trust it took to hold the targets
• [22:57] How “Plinky” got her nickname, and where the word “plinking” may come from
• [25:17] The race for the flying-block record against Capt. A. H. Hardy
• [26:18] Ten days, sore shoulders, and every .22 cartridge in San Antonio
• [30:23] Plinky the trapshooter: the 1909 Grand American and 1,952 of 2,000 in 1916
• [32:49] A bumblebee, a suspended murder trial, and an Indian head on a cliff near Uvalde
• [34:14] Annie Oakley meets Plinky
• [34:53] Training World War I flight cadets in Austin
• [35:45] Plinky’s death, Tom Frye’s 1959 challenge, and “Keep your powder dry”
• [37:37] Halls of fame, a Texas historical marker, and the Buckhorn collection
• [38:22] Getting There

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