At age 61, Annie Oakley hit 100 clay targets in a row, breaking the women's trapshooting record.
On March 5, 1922, at the age of 61, Annie Oakley hit 100 clay targets in a row during a trapshooting exhibition, breaking existing women's trapshooting records and demonstrating that her extraordinary skill had barely diminished across nearly five decades of shooting. The feat was widely reported in contemporary press coverage as remarkable both for its technical difficulty and for the age at which she achieved it.
Trapshooting, which involves hitting clay targets launched at varying trajectories and speeds, requires split-second reaction time, sustained concentration, and physical consistency—qualities not typically associated with achievement at an advanced age, particularly for women in the early twentieth century, when female athletic achievement past youth was rarely showcased or celebrated. Oakley's accomplishment therefore stood as a powerful rebuttal to assumptions about the physical decline of older women.
This record-breaking performance came late in Oakley's public career, following decades of touring, injury, and reinvention, and it reinforced her enduring legend as "Little Sure Shot" even as she approached the final years of her life. It is frequently cited by historians and sport-shooting organizations as evidence of her lasting technical mastery, and it remains one of the most celebrated late-career athletic achievements documented for any woman of her era, further cementing Oakley's legacy in the history of American shooting sports.