This is a common story told about George Patton - I first encountered it in a display at the Patton Museum at Fort Knox when I was younger - and it's generally presented as a true event. The story goes that Patton competed in the Modern Pentathlon in 1912, but came in 5th because he completely missed one of his shots during the pistol shooting section. On further review, it turned out that he was so accurate that he had actually bulls-eyed the target twice, through the exact same hole, causing the judges to completely discount the second shot. If counted properly, he would've won the event, but fate and those judges robbed him of the medal yadda yadda.
I've long assumed there's an element of tall tale to this, part of the myth of Patton, but I definitely believed it when I first visited that museum and read about it. Watching the shooting events in the recent Olympics - where the world's top shooters with modern precision guns are nowhere close to doing this - makes me really dubious that it happened at all.
So is there any truth to the story? Was the event different enough back then that this could happen? Or do we know that it's a myth?
There isn't all that much definitive to say on this, in the end, as the facts are pretty slim, but we can at least look at the broader context. Patton competed in the 1912 Olympics, earned a 5th place finish in Modern Pentathlon, and it is possible that his 21/42 placement on the pistol range, specifically, was what kept him off the podium. It is also patently (Pattonly?) obvious that this in particular really grated, as his self-image was one of an excellent marksman, and all around athlete.
Patton did himself no favors though. He specifically eschewed using a .22 target pistol, preferring the .38 caliber service revolver, which certainly added unnecessary complexity to his task and could very well have factored into a missed shot. The source of the claim, as you might expect, is Patton himself, and when a hole didn't appear on the target, he had immediately insisted it was because he had 'pulled a Robin Hood', as you called it, and requested the officials to search for the spent bullet. This was done, and none was found in the area it would be expected. This, in the end, would be the only ironclad evidence that would allow us to give real credence to Patton's claim, so we just simply cannot know. In defense of his own explanation, some other competitors agreed his explanation could be very likely, as the .38 round ripped up the target far more than the .22, and his three misses were all the last shots of a shooting set (2 in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd). Likewise he was not the only competitor to use a larger round - just the only one to make a stink about his misses - and there certainly is a very strong correlation between the Swedish competitors, who exclusively used .22s, and high placement in the shooting, taking 8 of the top 10 slots.
So in the end, again, we just can't really know. To be honest, both explanations are plausible. Anyone who shoots knows how easy it is to have a wild miss when you thought you were dialed in; but likewise knows just how torn up a target can get after only one or two shots.
What we do know though is Patton's ego. He made a stink about it on the range, but it wasn't the only thing he made a stink about. 5th just wasn't good enough for him, and when he returned to the United States the report he provided to the army increased his performance across the board. He couldn't very well change is final place, of course, but while the Official Olympics report was a score of 41 pts, he changed it to 36 pts in the report delivered to the Army, and unsurprisingly the 4th place finisher having 35 pts (Final standing was simply placement int he individual events added together, so lower points = high placement). The only event he reported accurately was his finish in the running, which he placed 3rd for. Aside from his final points, the report he submitted to the army saw his shooting score go from 150 pts to 169 pts, and one fewer miss than in reality, although still 21st place. His placement in swimming went from 7th to 6th, fencing 4th to 3rd, and steeplechase 6th to 3rd.
Daniel speculates although it is hard to prove, that Patton may have specifically felt aggrieved because, having been chosen as the first representative of the US Army for the Modern Pentathlon, he hadn't medaled, while the American Equestrian Team, which was a US Army element under his riding instructor, had managed to win bronze. At the very least the fact that the equestrian component was the one he inflated the most might help to support this theory.
So that about sums it up. The story that Patton claimed this was why he failed to medal in the Olympics is entirely true, and while we lack any actual proof that it is true, it at least could be plausible, but so too is the explanation that he did, in fact, flat out miss some shots. And regardless of the specific circumstances of the shooting event, we at the very least have clear enough proof as to his general state of mind, and wounded pride, which let him to inflate his performance across the board.
Sources
Bergvall, Erik (ed.), The Fifth Olympiad, The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912, trans. Edward Adams-Ray. Wahlstrom & Widstrand, Stockholm, 1913.
Daniel III, J. Furman. Patton: Battling With History. University of Missouri, 2020.
Wilson Jr., Harold E., “A Legend in His Own Mind: The Olympic Experience of General George S. Patton Jr.” OLYMPIKA: The International Journal of Olympic Studies. Vol. 6, 1997. pp. 99-114.