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Yes, lol.
You'd be surprised at what eye-witness acounts of gunmen of the Old West report, rather than what the "penny dreadful" novels about them sensationalized. Wild Bill was a showman, and much of the trick-shooting that the travelling shows performed was under fairly tightly-controlled conditions, long after the danger of gunfights and Indian battles were largely gone.
Most gunfights in the Old West were probably under the influence of alcohol, from knife distance. I read a report of one where both individuals unloaded their revolvers at a distance of 6-8 feet, neither one hit anything, and they went back to drinking together afterward.
Cowboys carried pistols to protect themsevles from horses and cattle run amok, wild critters, and Indian attacks. A pistol cost about a month's salary, and people didn't spend much time on target practice because ammunition cost too much. They had no clue about the ergonomics of stable shooting positions, except for a few Army sharpshooters, who had nothing like the modern science of shooting to support thier practice.
Could some of them make extremely difficult shots? Sure. I've seen a guy in Oregon who can out-shoot me with his pistol upside-down, too. My NRA pistol instructor was re-certifying him to be an instructor, and basically told everyone else in the class- "He can shoot anything, any weird ole way. Don't pay attention to him, he's been shooting 'wrong' so long he got good at it, but you won't have the same success he does unless you put in 40 years of shooting all messed up too. If you shoot the way we tell you to, you'll be approaching his accuracy in months or a handful of years, depending on how much you shoot."
Besides, you seem to be missing the point here. "Training" is both formal and informal. Informal training consists of experience under uncontrolled conditions. Formal training is experience under controlled conditions. From the standpoint of developing habits and muscle memory, there's little difference, except that formal training has a better signal-to-noise ratio and compresses the amount of experience into a shorter time frame, which has the benefit of being quicker, and by reinforcing on a shorter timeline, is better maintained than the lessons of random experience spread out over a long period of time.
It makes me laugh when 'old timers' are so convinced they have nothing to learn from anybody. There's a saying that a wise man can learn something from anybody; even a fool. Even if it's simply how to avoid being a fool. Actively engaging in training can cause you to notice something and learn from it, even if it's not what the instructor intended you to learn, and the more advanced you are, the more likely this is to be the case, but the exercise of actually engaging in critical thought during the practice is the key point. I always tell people "practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfection." Lacking perfection in practice, "mindful practice" makes improvements.
Nothing and I mean nothing can replace natural ability.. did I say it could not be enhanced? No, but I've seen one heck of a lot of "instructors" I wouldn't give the time of day to, because what they teach is not right as far as real world combat. The emphasis is too heavy on legality and not enough on the fog of war and the fear of a real world shoot. Until you've stared down a pack of crazy meth head or illegal alien rape packs seeking to kill or beat you near to death so they can get at your women, you have no idea how you will react.. ( I have) and training is not going to save you if you don't have sand and ability to react correctly under stress. Only natural ability and experience can really help you there. I also disagree with you about many Old West gunmen. you can find all sorts of comedy stories, and also lots of real nasty hoe downs where men died fast. And BTW some men can hold their booze and still shoot straight (not advocating, just saying)
I teach JKD BTW and I have only seen maybe 3 people of all I have taught who could actually pull it off in a combat flow on the street. Of course I had to be trained myself, but I was a natural who from age 8 was using some of these techniques, never having been taught them