Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 53

Gold Rifle, the Sharpshooter; or, The Boy Detective of the Black Ranch By Edward L. Wheeler, appearing as Half-Dime Library No. 58 (published January 14, 1885 by Beadle and Adams). This Western adventure opens in a frontier settlement during a harsh Dakota winter. A turkey-shooting competition attracts soldiers, trappers, hunters, and settlers. Participants fire Remington rifles at a target three hundred yards away; the young bully Jay Toleman wins multiple turkeys through superior marksmanship. A mysterious horseman arrives mounted on a white mustang, carrying a distinctive gold-plated repeating rifle with a diamond-set sight. When the final prize—an enormous seventy-five-pound gobbler—resists every attempt despite over three hundred shots, the stranger, quickly dubbed "Gold Rifle," makes an extraordinary wager: he'll shoot the turkey while balancing upside-down on his head. The narrative builds toward his attempted feat.