If I wanted a buffalo rifle.....

[azmntman]

A modern 'buffalo hunt' is a good way to clean the wallet of city slickers!

16-17 years ago we found a buff farmer that would sell you a yearling for $675 You shot. they dragged up a trailer and to the "shed" where 3 real purtty blondes with butcher knifes had yer beast ready to go out the door in like 15 min with the hide rolled up and aside the carcass. They got commercialized now and wont sell to the public. Few of us locals went up together. One got a TX long horn for like $5K (same cost as a huge bull buff) LOVE to run across that deal today.

 

[jrweis1997]

I just bought a 'new in the box' Zoli replica 1803; very nicely fitted and assembled, dated 1975. They are interesting guns. I read where the L&C expedition had a flint .69 cal. made specifically to place on a riverboat mount in order to take on any possible hostiles on the riverbanks. Imagine if that gun were to be found!

They had all kinds of cool stuff, at one point they said those guys were burning so many calories a day rowing that they were eating 10lbs of meat a day to subsist

 

[jrweis1997]

You ever think about how long the great herds would have lasted if Europeans had never came here? How long the continent would have remained wild? Very sad really.

They say the herds were as big as they were in the early 1800s because most of the natives were killed by smallpox before they ever even saw a European or American, even still some of the first hand accounts make it sound like it was something to behold

 

[Cvkotvkse]

This is part of a response I posted in a thread in the Craftsman section about lance heads:
John R. Cook in his incomparable memoir, "The Border and the Buffalo -- All Gone," recounts hunting buffalo with a Mexican family in the Panhandle in 1874. He says Mexicans would travel north to the Texas country in fall with heavy wagons for meat hunts. The preferred weapon was the lance, with blade about 14 inches long and attached by sinew to a staff seven to eight feet long.

¡Vivan los picadores!

 

[oldwood]

I read a book year or so ago , that records the last buffalo known to be killed in south western West Virginia just before 1800 , and on the east side of the Ohio River. The hunter used a flintlock longrifle , shot the beast , then followed it until it died. Caliber of his rifle ???

 

[stephenprops1]

You ever think about how long the great herds would have lasted if Europeans had never came here? How long the continent would have remained wild? Very sad really.

It was inevitable. Man is a wanderer and sooner or later someone would have found the new world and began settling there.

 

[French Colonial]

HERE WE GO...........!

This thread is going to go off the rails in three, two, one....

 

[OldMaineWoodsman]

Actually, there is a tiny herd of Buffalo in Western NY. They are farm raised but Bison just the same. Sometimes you can see them while driving from Erie, PA to Buffalo.

As to rifles, there is a very nice .58 caliber Hawken type on TOW right now...

 

[BuffaloSoldier]

Been there too - interesting - can't believe for a minute that a whole lot of those carcasses spoiled on the spot. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site

Many years ago, I took a class at my local community college, the instructor pointed out the it was highly possible that by the time they got to the bottom of the pile, several days may have passed. But meat was meat, they couldn't afford to let it go to waste. It got used.

 

[Whitworth]

Somewhere in my readings I have come across the theory that Hoof and Mouth disease up from Mexico was responsible for most of the killing off of the great herds. YMMV

 

[Sam squanch]

A friend's great grand father started a buffalo herd in about 1912.

Did he roller skate in it?

 

[springfield art]

It would not be a Hawken.

Let me explain my thoughts.

Prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition most of the Bison east of the Mississippi had already been killed and that was with flintlocks, at that time mostly full stocks.

When Lewis and Clark returned in 1806 they met with boats and hunter/traders going up river which again would have been obviously flintlocks and could have included some 1803 contract rifles.

So from 1806 to arguably 1836 all the rifles going in to the west would have been flintlocks, 30 years of killing buffalo with flintlocks before percussion guns even made the scene. How fast hunters gave up their tried and true flintlocks for new technology percussion guns is up for speculation but I am also one of those who believe that when they did there were more Leman's and others than genuine Hawken's. Rifles were being made by lots of less famous makers and many in larger numbers than Hawken.

Percussion guns then made the scene but in a very short amount of time were supplanted by cartridge rifles. Remington introduced the rolling block in 1867.

I believe the name Hawken is similar to the name Sharps, there is no question that there were many many more Remington rolling blocks on the frontier in the late 1800's than Sharps rifles (factory records show production numbers of rolling blocks dwarf the number of Sharps produced) and no question more bison were killed by rolling blocks but the Sharps has "the name" (makes you wonder what would have happened if Matthew Quigley carried a rolling block).

It is a little late for the time period I am interested in but I think if I ever go buffalo hunting out west again I will use a 1803, seems like the perfect buffalo gun, at least until the rolling block came along.

Recently bought a NIB Zoli 1803 (1975 mfg.) but it needs mainspring work. No plans to shoot soon anyhow; it's very nicely assembled and tight. Main spring too strong.

 

[BuffaloSoldier]

It's interesting to read about the best caliber for hunting buffalo / bison. Then I think back to when the Native Americans were doing it with bow arrows and lances long before they got firearms.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

So we apparently are done discussing what guns were actually used to hunt buffalo ....,

LD