Can anyone enlighten me on why someone would dispatch a cow with a skillet handle? I feel like I may be missing something here. I've looked at various versions of this online, and they most all say he "shot" or "hit" the stray with a skillet handle.

Now, I'm far from a cowboy, but this seems like a very ill-advised action. The only reason I can figure for it to be in the song is that "kill it" and "skillet" is a superb rhyme. But why use the handle in particular? Seems the body of a skillet would be the intuitive way to whallop something.

Is there something I am missing, or am I just overthinking it?