Which Old West Rifle killed the most Buffalo?

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:05]Must be a Buffalo rifle. Sharps 1874 model. Yep. Let's get that big piece of brass out of there.

[00:00:16]4570.

[00:00:18]Smells good. Yeah, man. Buffalo rifle.

[00:00:20]We're going to talk a little bit about that. I happen to have a few Buffalo rifles. Uh what am I doing with buffalo rifles? I don't even hunt buffalo. I don't hunt anything really except those guys over there. But uh yeah, uh I thought it'd be kind of fun talk about buffalo rifles a little bit. Which one uh I don't know, maybe dropped the most, you know, back in the 1860s, '7s, ' 80s, you know, especially '7s and ' 80s, I guess. 1880s, 1870s. 1870s I think uh was probably the the biggest uh time with the time span there that decade when so many of the herds were decimated, right? But uh I just happen to have three of the most common rifles, singleshot rifles that were used, I believe. And there were others used, of course, the muzzle loaders from Civil War. A lot of a lot of soldiers came home or had their their muzzle loader and yeah 58 caliber or whatever it would do the job, right? And uh then there were uh percussion versions of course of the early sharps. You put the cap on, you know, and all that and uh not a metallic cartridge that were used u I think even with the rolling blocks. I don't know. But there were some early rifles uh used of course and then even some lever guns. I've read of Wyatt Herp. Uh he was in the buffalo trade, hunting trade, and uh he would go out and he did it on the cheap. I I read that he just used like a Winchester 73 or something, you know, and uh they would ride them and get close they could and chase one down. He wasn't into to like uh harvesting, you know, 10 or 30 a day. Uh it was just him and one other guy most of the time. and they just they could get a couple, you know, that was fine. So anyway, I don't remember everything I read about that, but I know he used a lever gun, but these are what we think of as Buffalo rifles. And before I tell you anything about them at all, I want to thank the folks that help us out here and make this possible.

[00:02:25]Davidson's Gallery of Guns, great place where you get a guaranteed lifetime replacement on your firearms. And then the Sonor and Desert Institute, sdi.edu, edu. Some wonderful distance learning there and firearms technology, drone technology, all sorts of things. So, check them out. And this uh this is a sharps 1874, one of the variations of it. This is a Remington rolling block.

[00:02:51]Okay.

[00:02:53]I wonder why they call it a rolling block. Oh, that block just rolls back.

[00:02:57]And this is Trapoor Springfield. Right.

[00:03:01]These are some of the popular rifles that were used. Okay. And various model.

[00:03:07]This is the 1873 and uh the 1874 Sharps.

[00:03:12]And now this Remington rolling block I bought the Civil War show several years back. And it it's really hard to date these uh specifically, but the owner said based on the features of it and everything, just a plain jane model that he would put it in the early 1880s, early 1880s. So this rascal well that that trapdoor Springfield might have as well, but this thing it might have taken a lot of buffalo. Okay. So, and all of these are guess what? What chambering?

[00:03:47]Yeah. 45 70 a favorite. Right. So, what do you think uh which one might have taken the most of them? Some of you who actually uh study this some and uh know a little bit about that particular history uh chime in. I have read uh various things about it. Like I say, there are lots some other firearms used.

[00:04:08]Of course, uh uh I just like today's deer hunters, you know. Of course, we have more choices maybe today. Uh if somebody looking back in history 100 years from now might say, "Yeah, back in 2026, everybody hunted deer with a 3030 or a 270 or something." you know, the whatever the most popular chamber, especially if we were talking about, oh, 1970 or 1980 or 1990 or something, you know, you could easily have the impression everybody deer hunted with nothing but a 3030, you know, Winchester or Marlin or something because it was so so popular. Uh, but that's not the way real history works, does it? However, these were very very common and the Sharps uh gets all the press. Beautiful firearm. Of course, you probably saw it in Quigley Down Under uh variation of it and uh just a wonderful accurate rifle. They've always had a wonderful reputation. And if you were a professional full-time buffalo hunter, there is a good chance that you would have had a sharps, you know, in various calibers, possibly a 50, big 50 of some sort. Okay. And uh it was kind of considered, you know, reliable, the professionals rifle. So, and that's another reason it gets all the glory, I think, in so much of the press. Uh welld deserved, great rifle.

[00:05:40]Uh if you have one a variation of it, whoever it is, Pisolei or Shiloh or an original, they're just wonderful rifles and it's easy to see why uh they would have been so popular because they have a reputation for accuracy and chambered in a lot of big bullets. Throw a big chunk of lead and get the job done. So the Sharps did take a lot of them. No doubt about it. Uh and before I talk about those other two, I want to thank Alabama Holster. I don't know if any of the Buffalo hunters carried Alabama holsters, but I sure do. Great little kidex concealment holsters of all kinds.

[00:06:14]So, appreciate their support as well as rent a gun. A great site where you can uh you know, rent a gun and uh decide whether or not that's something you really want. You might just thought you wanted that, but once you actually get it, you know, have it for a week or so and you shoot it, you ah maybe not. You know, it's okay, but maybe not. So, check them out. Great great company. uh appreciate everybody that helps us. So these things were around a lot of them and they were less expensive from what I remember. Uh I was there no from my reading that the uh rolling blocks in various chamberings were not as expensive uh as as the sharps. And so, you know, the average guy uh is more likely to have a rolling block, you know, or like I said, an old muzzle loader from the Civil War or an 1873, you know, trap door. Uh any of these widely available or more available and less expensive firearms that have a great reputation for reliability and accuracy and and fire big heavy bullets.

[00:07:23]uh you know the they they were probably and I've read that uh I don't who the author was years ago. It was a little bit of a surprise to me because I had always thought the same thing. Everybody had a Sharps rifle if they were buffalo hunting. But uh this author was making the case that there were way more buffalo taken with the old trapdoor Springfields or the rolling blocks than the Sharps, you know, by a a large degree, large margin. And I don't know if he knew what he was talking about, but it kind of makes sense. Whatever most people have, I guess a kind of an analogy today might be like deer hunting. Uh, uh, you know, the popular rifles of today. There's so many, it's hard to say, right? But, um, you know, if you're really into it and you have the means and the resources, you might have an expensive 300 Win Mag or whatever it might be, a really nice 270. But there's still a lot of a lot of fellas and gals too these days, but a lot of lot of folks out there in the deer woods still probably taking deer by the big numbers, you know, with a 3030, you know, uh, cartridge and does the job. So, so it's hard to know exactly. So, I'm sorry. I'm not going to give you a definitive answer, but I am going to shoot this.

[00:08:42]What am I doing talking? Let's shoot this thing. Let's get them all dirty since you all came out. 4570.

[00:08:50]All right, let's chunk one of these heavy slugs over there. We got a buffalo, didn't we?

[00:08:58]We haven't gotten a gong yet. Do I remember where to hold this thing? I, you know, I really don't. Uh, I think I went low.

[00:09:11]Trapoor Springfield. Really nice. And of course, this was a military rifle, right? I don't know why they call it a trap door. I have never been able to figure that out.

[00:09:24]I've asked I've asked John about I must be going high. I need to shoot my guns more often, don't I? Uh, John can't figure it out either. We just have no no clue. I'll tell you what, this thing is so much fun to shoot. Do you mind if I kind of bracket that thing and and just see where I need to hold? I'm going to I'm going hold lower. That's what I always do when I'm having trouble.

[00:09:47]I got him. Okay, I heard it. I heard it.

[00:09:51]Let's shoot it again while it's dirty.

[00:09:53]And let's take out a 2 L right here on the top of that tree.

[00:10:01]Yeah. So, I should just be shooting buffalo and nothing else, right? So, that's a nice rifle. And uh you know, that would have done the job. A 405 grain bullet or you could I guess even in those you could put in a 500 grain bullet, something a little bigger if you wanted to. And this old Remington rolling block. Now, this is some light lightly loaded ammo. So, it's okay to fire in this old rolling block. Let's fire this thing.

[00:10:29]I think I know where to hold this one.

[00:10:35]Yeah. Yeah. The Remington was a a great rifle. They had a wonderful reputation also as being troublefree and reliable, hard hitters.

[00:10:52]Yeah. You can even take a sheep out with that. That's cool. It's cool to fire a gun like that. same cartridge 4570 that probably in 1880s early 1880s uh you took some buffalo out on the prairie you know uh so while that sharps is a beautiful thing I really like it this one uh this has some history you know that we don't know what the history is exactly we just know kind of uh when it was made but anyway these were three of the popular rifles that that were involved in the decimation of the buffalo herds You know, we kind of hate that, don't we? When we read about and hear about it, especially because uh in so many cases they were just killed uh really in uh by by the US government. They was encouraged. They provided I think uh 4570 ammo and old trap doors and things just uh really to make life harder on the Native Americans, you know, to get do away with their food supply. you know, it was kind of a a strategy in those in that war really. Uh so all that's kind of sad sad times those gigantic herds just uh and it wasn't a period of a hundred years.

[00:12:06]It was a period really of what about a decade. They went from, you know, the the millions of them to to almost none, you know, pretty pretty quickly. And these were the rifles uh rifles like this. You wanted a big bore that would shoot a long way and hit hard when it got there. The old sharps 1874 Remington rolling block trapdoor Springfield, you know, you know, muzzle loaders, anything would work, of course, but these were some of the popular ones.

[00:12:35]And if you know, if you can answer the question, help us out. Which one of these do you think took the highest number of buffaloos? really. Which one?

[00:12:48]Uh, we would be interested to know. I kind of think nobody probably knows for sure, but you know, weigh in. Glad you came along. Life is good.

[00:12:59]Oh, yeah. That's better. This is a great gun for defense. Oh, hey, didn't see you guys there. Uh, while I've got you here, I want to remind you of our friends over at Talon Grips and Balistol. Talon Grips makes uh grips, can you believe it? Uh, for all different types of firearms. you can get rough texture or more of a rubberized texture. Uh just sticks right on there. You know, really affordable, really cool option to improve the grip for your handguns um or or rifles. Uh so please check them out at talongrips.com.

[00:13:28]You'll be glad you did. And also Ballistol. Dad has been using Ballistol for many years. It's a cleaner and a lubricant and it's non-toxic. uh it works really great and we're happy to have them on board since it's been a part of our shooting endeavor for a very long time. So go to ballast.com talongrips.com and also while you're out there I'm juggling all these things here. Also uh while you're on the internet please do check out our other social media like Hickok45 on Facebook. There's also Hickok45 on Twitter, the real Hickok45 on Instagram. There's a John_Hock45 on Instagram where I do some things. So check out all that stuff and then watch more videos.