buffalo powder horns

[Birdman]

off n on there has been discussion about buffalo horn powder horns east of the Ol Miss. Was reading an old Dixie Gun Works annuel n low n behold is a great article about buff east of the big muddy. I still have it at work but will bring it home to morrow n jot down some of the dates that are in it. Blew me away on how many references there were to buff from the late 1500s on until they were finally wiped out in the early 1800s. Sightings of thousands at mineral licks n such SUGGEST that having a buff horn powder horn during the colonial period is not at all unfesable(sp) I'll post more tomorrow with dates quoted n such. YMHS Birdman

 

[paulvallandigham]

Buffalo tongue was considered delicacy in Paris, during the 18th century, and French trappers and hunters, working the Illinois Country would kill the buffalo, and pack the tongues in salt in barrels, then float them down to New Orleans for shipping back to France. Most of the Buffalo herds were wiped out before there were many "English" or American hunters who came west to Kentucky, following Daniel Boone. The few left were killed off not to far into the 19th century. Everyone thought there were more Buffalo( bison) over there, and communications was so poor- depending on river traffic-- that no one noticed that the buffalo were gone for some time after they WERE gone. The attitude then was that without buffalo the settlers were free to bring in cattle and farm the pastures where the buffalo once grazed. If you wanted Buffalo, all you had to do was boat across the Mississippi and up the Missouri, to find vast herds of Buffalo to shoot.

 

[BillinOregon]

Birdman: For much more on bison east of the Mississippi, find a copy of "The Long Hunt, Death of the Buffalo East of the Mississippi," by Ted Franklin Belue. It's a good read, and Belue is a great researcher into the periods of our interest.
He also was a frequent contributor to the greatly missed Dixie Black Powder Annuals.

 

[crockett]

I thought I read Daniel Boone had a cabin that got almost run over by buffalo.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I thought I read Daniel Boone had a cabin that got almost run over by buffalo.

Dunno 'bout that. But, I do know I had a little blue tent that almost got run over by them in Custer State Park in South Dakota. With me and the family inside. :shocked2:
But, I digress. :wink:

 

[crockett]

I may have my historical characters confused, it might have been another long hunter, but a herd of buffalo stampeded by his Kentucky home and came close to leveling it. In any event I think a buffalo powder horn during the long hunter period is pc even if not the most common choice.

 

[Birdman]

Bill that the author of the article. Small world huh. Problem is, like the air head I can sometimes be I went n left the dang magazine at work again. Got busy near the end a the day n never thought to put it into my bag. I'll have it tomorrow though n post some of the dates n people he listed. Some of those older articles really have a bunch of good info in them, ya just have to do more recent research to verify those old facts n such. YMHS Birdman

 

[ohio ramrod]

Actually, I had a neighbor when I was growing up who shot the last "wild" Buffalo in Ashland county Ohio. He is the man who got me interested in black powder. He was in his seventies when I was a teenager. It seems when he was about twentyfive and was working near a train stop a man had purchased a pair of buffalo and was going to try and raise them. Two truely wild buffalo where shipped in and when they unloaded them the bull crashed through the "heavy fence" they had ready for them and went on a rampage. Since my neighbor had the only large caliber gun around it was his "honor " to stop the destruction. He always like to tell the story about how he save the town from rampaging buffalo. :idunno: :idunno:

 

[mazo kid]

The last wild buffalo shot in Wisconsin is said to be 1832. I am not certain but these may have been the Woodland buffalo?

 

[Cascade Pete]

Yes. They were the woodlands...A sad loss to the gene pool

 

[VEARL]

We have Buff here in Oklahoma. I even have a black buffalo powder horn.
The only way you could ever hunt one here is to pay several thousands of dollars to a private hunting preserve and shoot the one that the guide drives you up to and says shoot this one.
Not my kind of hunt.
Could by a truck load of prime beef for the same amount of money.

 

[ohio ramrod]

You could buy the beef and not tell the difference in taste. Several years ago Whitetail paid a small fortune for buffalo steaks from whitefeather meats buffalo farm. He brought them to a rendezvous at the P.A. Reinart club and we cooked them over the camp fire along with some corn feed venison and local beef steaks. You could not tell the difference between the three!The taste depends on diet, rut stage, processing and way the meat is handled and cooked. :idunno:

 

[dry ball john]

:wink: I guess between buffalo, deer and steak I still prefer med. rare groundhog. Cheers All dbj

 

[Rifleman1776]

I've seen and eaten buff. I believe I can tell the difference between bison and bovine by looking at it as well as tasting it.
BTW, buff tastes just fine. I like.

 

[Cascade Pete]

I'm With dry ball, well cooked groundhog makes a fine meal...Buffalo is much richer than beef..A good fat cow is the best eating meat in the world...

 

[BrownBear]

We have Buff here in Oklahoma. I even have a black buffalo powder horn.
The only way you could ever hunt one here is to pay several thousands of dollars to a private hunting preserve and shoot the one that the guide drives you up to and says shoot this one.
Not my kind of hunt.
Could by a truck load of prime beef for the same amount of money.

You'll still pay a small fortune, but we have a local rancher here that offers buff hunts. But it's all on horseback and his 300-400 head are unfenced on 24,000 acres. It can take days of hard work to get your animal, but it doesn't get any more fair chase and authentic than that. And the big lone bulls that dominate the hunts are as skittish as any whitetail, sometimes requiring multiple stalks over several days and many miles for success.

I've never been able to afford a hunt, but have been in on the meat and trophy recovery via my friendship with the rancher and rep for dogged work. That's neither here nor there, but it's given me the chance to talk to a number of successful clients. Some were more than a little overwhelmed by the effort, but all gained a new respect for buffalo, as well as our ancestors that went after them. As it should be.

 

[hoochiepapa]

I'm With dry ball, well cooked groundhog makes a fine meal...Buffalo is much richer than beef..A good fat cow is the best eating meat in the world...

I have to disagree. Elk is better than anything. If I could, but I don't have any right now, I would cook you an elk steak and you wouldn't be able to put your fork down. And I don't season it with anything.

 

[BrownBear]

You guys take the steaks and send me the tongues! Buf and moose are the size of beef tongues, elk are middling and it takes several deer for a family of four, but they're all prime.

Back in the days of commercial buf hunting, barrels of salted tongues were the only meat I know of that traveled east with the hides. That pretty well sums it up for me! As a side note, the tongue has always been my price for helping haul out the buf up here, and I feel well paid.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I've et groundhog. Nuttin' special.
Would eat again for survival.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Gotta show off a little.