Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 48 Both at home and in England, Germany, and Western Eu- rope, the Industrial Revolution created demand for extreme- ly sturdy leather belts to drive large machinery. Bison leather was thicker, took longer to wear out, and was, at that time, seemingly endlessly abundant. Thus empowered by government and the market alike, a certain class of Western entrepreneurs found themselves considering "buffalo hunting" as a career. • • • Teddy Blue Abbot, pioneering cowboy and friend of C.M. Russell, described buffalo hunters as men who "didn't wash, and looked like animals. They dressed in strong, heavy, warm clothes and never changed them. You would see three or four of them walk up to a bar, reach down inside their clothes, and see who could catch the first louse for the drinks. They were lousy and proud of it." Others described them as covered in bison feces and blood, with all the attendant smells. Perhaps they weren't vain men. But killing bison was an in- dustry, and the buffalo hunters applied themselves to it with creativity and experimentation. As an example, it wouldn't do to shoot a bison in the heart. That would prove fatal, surely, but in the meantime, the beast might run and kick and panic as gallons of frothing blood pumped through the broken organ. This, in turn, would spook the surrounding bison, causing a stampede and ruin- ing the hunter's vantage. A hunter would only shoot for the heart if he knew his rifle was powerful enough, the bullet large enough, and his aim sure enough to kill the bison with one shot. The .45 caliber "Sharps Old Reliable," also called the "Buffalo Sharps," could do it, propelling a slug weighing as much as 550 grains of lead with 120 grains of powder. According to the rifle's ad- herents, the results would "cut a twelve-pound steak out of a buffalo at 1000 yards." But the prudent hunter would select what he thought was a leader, perhaps an animal standing while others were prone, and place a shot through its lung. As the organ slowly leaked air, it would fill with blood, and the cow would begin to mill around and cough as if struck with colic. Nearby bison would become curious and approach, sniffing at the splashes of blood. Then, one by one, the hunter would shoot approach- ing females—cow hides had higher value on the market. Now, more bison would walk towards the confusion and, eventually, one by one, the lung-shot animals would slump over and their great hearts would quietly cease to beat. Skinners worked with the hunters, and the best teams were models of efficiency. The shooter would generally only kill as many animals as could be skinned that day, not out of any im- petus to conservation but because in winter the skins might freeze overnight and become far harder to separate from the carcass, while in summer they might bloat and stretch the hide. Such corpses were known by bison hunters as "stinkers." PERHAPS THEY WEREN'T VAIN MEN. BUT KILLING BISON WAS AN INDUSTRY, AND THE BUFFALO HUNTERS APPLIED THEMSELVES TO IT WITH CREATIVITY AND EXPERIMENTATION. L.A. HUFFMAN, PHOTO COURTESY MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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