Did Buffalo Hunters and Indians really wipe out the Buffalo?

[Mister Bubba's bulletman]

you need to read the article

Again? Did. Not convinced.

And for some fun entertainment...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ4T9CQA0UM"]Guy On A Buffalo - Episode 1 (Bears, Indians & Such) - YouTube[/ame]

[unclefish]

I know it's hard to believe that humans decimated the Bison population but they did.

Bill Cody won a shooting contest once by shooting 69. Can't say how many second place got. If I recall the article correctly it was a one day event.

This was going on all day everyday by hundreds of railroad meat hunters for years till the railroad reached the west coast.

Use your imagination and ask yourself how long cattle would last is you went out everyday and rode around on horseback and shot everyone you saw.

I can shoot several hundred by the end of the week. And so could most of you if you got paid good money by the head.

Now multiply that by thousand of hunters.

Within a few years there wont be enough left to bother going to go look for them.

Like what someone said about Whitetail can be applied to Elk and Bison. There wern't any tags, seasons or limits.

They just couldn't eat and breed fast enough to keep up.

Its a matter of math. Lets say that 10,000 buffalo were killed every day of the year. That's only 3,650,000 dead buffalo per year. Double that number to 20,000/day that's only 7M+.

The calf replacements alone on 40M - 60M animals would dwarf that number. Its simply not numerically possible for a few thousand shooters to kill off 60,000,000 buffalo. It had to be a mass die off of epic proportions by some other means.

[jpbruni]

They didn't even have 60 million bullets back then! Sure, you can track hide shipments and all... just track the bullet sales and you will have your answer. No way 60 million buffalo were SHOT by hunters.

J.P.

[one66stang]

[dataxman]

good one!

[Landrover]

. If you check everywhere, I think you can conclude that both guns and disease killed off the buffalo. No matter which it was, man was the cause. I think the initial idea behind this post from the original poster was maybe we shouldn't crucify the hunter for the loss of the buffalo and keep in mind that there was more at hand that just evil animal killers.

Best post on the thread!

the more and more you learn about "history" that we were taught by our wonderful education system, you quickly find out that history as its commonly known is a bunch of b.s.

History = his story!!! I was told this almost 30 years ago......never forgot it!

Its a matter of math. Lets say that 10,000 buffalo were killed every day of the year. That's only 3,650,000 dead buffalo per year. Double that number to 20,000/day that's only 7M+.

The calf replacements alone on 40M - 60M animals would dwarf that number. Its simply not numerically possible for a few thousand shooters to kill off 60,000,000 buffalo. It had to be a mass die off of epic proportions by some other means.

Shhhh............that makes to much sense!

[Rudyl]

Hmm, makes some sense.

[Johnny]

There are not 60 million hogs - like there were buffalo

Does anyone tend to think that the number 60 million could be exaggerated?

[Thumper]

They didn't even have 60 million bullets back then! Sure, you can track hide shipments and all... just track the bullet sales and you will have your answer. No way 60 million buffalo were SHOT by hunters.

J.P.

Black powder days, they cast their own bullets and reloaded.

[txchuck]

First the assumption that there were 60 million buffalo is dubious at best and I have never seen any data supporting numbers like that. Who knows how many were simply shot and left lay ndver showing up on a hide shipping report. Certanly disease could have killed lots of buffalo. The folks who saw a bunch of dead buffalo with no bullet holes, really they dug through that fur and turned them over to look at the other side. All this is conjecture What we do know is that a concerted effort was made to kill as many as possible for a variety of reasons.

[DonBon]

This is not unlike the book Guns ,germs and steel. It shows how these changed the face of the world.

[jpbruni]

Black powder days, they cast their own bullets and reloaded.

Well, they certainly didn't cast 60 million of them

J.P.

[txtrophy85]

First the assumption that there were 60 million buffalo is dubious at best and I have never seen any data supporting numbers like that. Who knows how many were simply shot and left lay ndver showing up on a hide shipping report. Certanly disease could have killed lots of buffalo. The folks who saw a bunch of dead buffalo with no bullet holes, really they dug through that fur and turned them over to look at the other side. All this is conjecture What we do know is that a concerted effort was made to kill as many as possible for a variety of reasons.

even if there was only 30 million the figures don't add up

[Thumper]

Well, they certainly didn't cast 60 million of them

J.P.

I doubt there were any where close to 60 million buffalo in the 1840's, if ever.

Everyone shot buffs for food and hides, not just the buffalo hunters. Settlers shot them. Indians shot them and it was common practice for them to run whole herds off cliffs. Loss of migration routes lead to overgrazing and prevented their escape from the harsh winters of the north. We've been killing buffalo for a long time.

[Horitexan]

Interesting article.