Annie Oakley reportedly shot at least 100,000 glass balls without missing during an extraordinary Berlin exhibition.
On September 10, 1890, during her European tour, Annie Oakley gave a remarkable exhibition of endurance shooting in Berlin, reportedly hitting at least 100,000 glass balls thrown into the air in succession without a miss. While exact figures vary by account, contemporary reports and later biographical sources agree the feat was extraordinary in scale, requiring sustained concentration, physical stamina, and mechanical consistency over many hours.
This type of marathon exhibition shooting was a hallmark of the era's sharpshooting entertainment, designed to demonstrate not just accuracy on a single shot but reliability across thousands of attempts—an even more difficult standard to maintain. Oakley's success at this scale reinforced her reputation as arguably the finest exhibition shooter, male or female, of her generation.
The Berlin exhibition added to the mystique already built during her London and Paris tours, further internationalizing her fame across Europe's major cultural capitals. It also served a practical publicity purpose: such feats were widely reported in newspapers, generating word-of-mouth interest that boosted attendance for Buffalo Bill's Wild West show throughout its European tour. The event remains cited by historians and firearms enthusiasts as one of the most remarkable displays of sustained shooting accuracy recorded in the nineteenth century.