Did Buffalo Hunters and Indians really wipe out the Buffalo?

[acearrow]

Interesting read. I agree disease had a huge effect on the buffalo herds, just as diseases had a great effect on wiping out indigenous people from South America to North America. I do think that he is not giving all the numbers killed by guns by just counting on his manifest information or the effect barbed wire had on limiting their range making them more vulnerable to guns and diseases.

[Russ]

Good article and makes perfect sense. If a handful of runners could kill off 60 million buffaloes spread out over half the U.S. and Canada in a few years with single shots and muzzleloaders then it seems plausible that an army of Texans with modern rifles should be able to wipe out our paltry 3-4 million wild hogs in no time.

Hogs hide alot better than a buffalo. Not to mention how many litters of 10-12 buffalo have you seen...LOL

[Big Brass]

Hogs hide alot better than a buffalo. Not to mention how many litters of 10-12 buffalo have you seen...LOL

True, but hogs have been targeted significantly harder than buffaloes yet we can't even make a dent in a single Texas county much less the entire country.

[Skyjunky]

Good article and makes perfect sense. If a handful of runners could kill off 60 million buffaloes spread out over half the U.S. and Canada in a few years with single shots and muzzleloaders then it seems plausible that an army of Texans with modern rifles should be able to wipe out our paltry 3-4 million wild hogs in no time.

Land owners weren't charging $200 a hunt or by the pound to kill back then

[Mister Bubba's bulletman]

Very simple.

Americans manufactured rifles, bullets, and a market for the hides.

Doesn't take long to wipe out an entire population.

[EastTexasMan]

Makes perfect sense. Think about this, I don't know the answers to these ?...

How many whitetail deer roam North America?
How many hunters are there, and how many deer are harvested a year?

I would be willing to bet there are more hunters now then there were in the 1800's in North America. Is the whitetail deer population more then 60,000,000?

[gonehuntin68]

My opinion is they were killed of by people and disease. I sure wish people would stop trying to compare other animals like pigs and deer to Bison because those are very bad comparisons.

[DFWPI]

Thanks

[GTRH8R]

"American Buffalo" by Steven Rinella is a good read on this topic. INteresting read nonetheless. Thanks for sharing.

Great book. I read it a couple of times.

[Team Roper]

I thought global warming and those evil suv's caused all of the worlds problems. Oh and George W.

[millman]

thanks

[RogueSamurai]

Very interesting read. Thanks for sharing. It does stand to reason that disease killed a lot more than bullets.

[Landrover]

Gave this more thought last night! One thing which is very troubling is that the US government had a written policy to eliminate humans. OUCH!!!

I would be willing to bet there are more hunters now then there were in the 1800's in North America. Is the whitetail deer population more then 60,000,000?

Might be a loosing bet right there!!! Subsistence hunting was the norm during that timeframe in the country.......thus the majority were "hunters"........literally!

I thought global warming and those evil suv's caused all of the worlds problems. Oh and George W.

Thanks for your cute input but we can do without that on this thread.

[Johnny]

My opinion is they were killed of by people and disease..

Yep, that's what I got out of that article. A combination of both.

[Shake N' Bake]

Good read!