15 Badass Facts About Annie Oakley That Prove She Could Outshoot Any Man

As the story goes, Oakley was 8 years old when she first picked up a gun. Her father had taught her how to hunt and trap, unusual pursuits for a young girl in the 1860s.

Oakley was once quoted as saying, "I was eight years old when I made my first shot, and I still consider it one of the best shots I ever made." Apparently, her first shot was a kill - she aimed a heavy muzzle loader at a squirrel, and got it right in the head.

After Oakley married Frank Butler, the pair began traveling and performing as sharpshooters together. Mrs. Butler took the name "Annie Oakley," perhaps inspired by the Oakley neighborhood in Cincinnati where they lived.

In 1884, they joined the Sells Brother's Circus, but only stayed with them for one year, because a better opportunity came along: Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. At the time, this was one of the most successful traveling acts in the United States. The performing troop traveled to 130 different U.S. cities, and even went abroad to Canada and parts of Europe.

Oakley met her future husband Frank Butler when she was just 16 years old. At the time, he was working as a traveling marksmen, showing off his shooting skills to any available paid audiences. His main trick involved a series of 25 trick shots that he rarely missed.

On the day that Butler met Oakley, he offered to challenge local sharpshooters. Jack Frost, a Cincinnati hotel owner who happened to be in the area, ponied up enough money to pay for Oakley to take on Butler's challenge. Butler missing one shot, while Oakley made all 25. He was so impressed by her skills that he took the time to get to know her, and the two married in 1876.

Oakley and Butler joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1885. "Champion Markswoman" Oakley performed a number of sharpshooting tricks in the rowdy revues. She shot holes in playing cards, and could even hit the thin edge of the cards. She could shoot corks out of bottles. She could aim backwards and hit targets by simply looking in the mirror. Oakley also entered a number of shooting competitions, racking up plenty of medals and ribbons with her skills.

Sitting Bull, a holy man for the Hunkpapa Lakota tribe, became good friends with Oakley after he watched her perform. Sitting Bull reportedly sent her a note, as well as $65, in order to purchase an autographed picture of her. She responded with the picture, but contacted him personally as well, and the two struck up a rapport. He gave her a pair of slippers made by his tribe, and called her "Watanya Cicilla," or "Little Sure Shot."

Out of all of Oakley's feats, one of her best tricks involved shooting the lit end off of a cigarette. She was so good at this, in fact, that Kaiser Wilhelm II let her aim at a cigarette that he had in his mouth in 1890. She cleanly removed not only the lit part of the cigarette, but she knocked the entire thing out of his mouth.

After World War I started, Oakley supposedly quipped that she wished she had missed that shot.