As the largest game animal on the continent, the American Bison, or buffalo, became an iconic symbol of the western frontier. From the Texas panhandle to the Montana foothills, these giants of the Great Plains dominated the center of the country, and specialized large caliber firearms were developed to efficiently bring them down.

A "frontier issued" Sharps Bridgeport Model 1874 buffalo rifle in .45-70 Govt.

From the Hawken rifle to the Marlin 1881 and beyond, Rock Island Auction Company offers some of the finest historic examples of the frontier buffalo gun. Click on the images throughout this article to learn more about each model.

A Remington heavy barrel Rolling Block buffalo rifle.

Early Buffalo Guns

For early mountain men, the invention of rifling offered greater accuracy and range compared to smoothbore barrels. While smaller calibers were more common in the eastern United States, hefty chamberings like .58 caliber and .69 caliber were more ideal for hunters and pioneers out West due to the risk of grizzly bear encounters and the greater prevalence of large game such as elk and buffalo.

A rare and historic Jacob Dickert U.S. 1807 contract flintlock American long rifle with a .62 caliber barrel.

The introduction of the percussion cap improved reliability and modestly increased loading speed compared to its flintlock predecessor. Many hunting rifles were converted to percussion, as exampled by the long rifle featured below that was owned by famed mountain man and pioneer Seth Kinman.

Hawken Rifle

One of the most famous percussion buffalo gun models is the Hawken rifle. Produced by brothers Jacob and Samuel Hawken, who worked in St. Louis starting in 1825, some of the early Hawken rifles are known to have been used by the mountain men active in the fur trade in the 1830s, including by General William Henry Ashley and the American Fur Company.

An extremely rare S. Hawken St. Louis signed full-stock percussion rifle.

After the end of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, Hawken rifles continued to find demand as new territories opened up for settlement in the West and gold rushes spurred further migration. Mountain men like Jim Bridger and Kit Carson found work as hunters, guides, and scouts, depending on their Hawken rifles to put meat on the table and for personal protection.

Rock Island Auction Company sold the most expensive Hawken rifle to every pass the podium in May, 2024, an enormous .70 caliber buffalo rifle from the collection of President Theodore Roosevelt that he personally attributed to Kit Carson. Needless to say, such a potent firearm would have been well equipped to bring down even the largest bison.

Rise of the Breechloading Buffalo Gun

In 1846, Boston writer Francis Parkman traveled West to report on the Oregon trail and the buffalo hunting techniques the wagon trains used to feed their company. As Parkman observed, "The chief difficulty in running buffalo, as it seems to me, is that of loading the gun or pistol at full gallop. Many hunters for convenience' sake carry three or four bullets in the mouth; the powder is poured down the muzzle of the piece, the bullet dropped in after it, the stock struck hard upon the pommel of the saddle, and the work is done."

The buffalo gun truly came into its own with the innovation of the breechloading action. Inventors scrambled to develop faster firing breechloaders for the hunting market, as exampled by an April 17, 1847 advertisement in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that touts: "Buffalo guns- a new patent rifle, just the thing for buffalo hunting."

An outstanding Civil War U.S. Sharps New Model 1863 saddle ring carbine.

One of the most popular early breechloaders to find use out West was the Sharps rifle and carbine. Christian Sharps' "falling block," or "dropping block" action provided greater strength and reliability compared to most of its breechloading predecessors. The Sharps design would see numerous upgrades over the next few decades and became a popular option with with buffalo hunters.

The Sharps sporting conversion buffalo rifle pictured below illustrates some of the popular period upgrades for the percussion Sharps rifle, including a heavy octagon target style barrel fitted with an under rib, a German silver "Rocky Mountain" blade front sight in a dovetailed base, a Lawrence pattern folding ladder rear sight, and an additional rear sight dovetail that was filled during the period of use.

This Sharps New Model 1863 sporting conversion buffalo rifle is pictured in 'Sharps Firearms Vol. III' by Roy Marcot, Ron Paxton and Edward W. Marron.

Though initial Sharps models were designed for powder and ball, the platform proved well-suited for chambering the newly developed metallic cartridges of the 1860s. Another popular conversion platform, what would go on to be known as the Springfield Trapdoor helped spearhead the commercial buffalo hunting industry in the years following the Civil War.

Springfield Trapdoor

Developed in 1866, the .50-70 Government centerfire cartridge became an early favorite of professional buffalo hunters. A wave of immigrants traveled West with the railroad, leading to a rising demand for heavy fur coats and robes in the cold Midwestern reaches of the country. The rise of steam and water-powered factories in the East also created a lucrative market for strong leather belting. In both cases, the buffalo presented a readily available resource.

Springfield Master Armorer Erskine S. Allin was commissioned to convert thousands of Civil War muzzleloaders into cartridge breech loaders using a hinged breechblock. Buffalo Bill Cody earned his reputation with a .50 caliber Allin conversion Springfield, a rifle he lovingly named Lucretia Borgia. Cody worked for the Kansas Pacific Railroad, using Old Lucretia to take 4,282 buffalo in 18 months and provide meat for the construction crews as they expanded across the plains.

(Top) A scarce U.S. Springfield Model 1865 First Model Allin Conversion Trapdoor Cadet rifle in .58 RF, available this May. (Bottom) Buffalo Bill with his famous "Lucretia", a Model 1866 Trapdoor in .50-70 Govt., his buffalo gun of choice.

The Allin conversion rifles were the direct predecessor to what would be dubbed the Springfield Trapdoor rifle, which was adopted by the U.S. Military in 1873 along with its .45-70 Govt. ammunition. The model became one of the most prominent buffalo guns of the 1870s, and its cartridge would be chambered by numerous single shot rifles, including the famous Sharps Model 1874.

A U.S. Springfield Officer's Model 1875 Type II Trapdoor rifle attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Lafayette E. Campbell.

Sharps Model 1874

"A robe for a cartridge" was a saying among buffalo hunters used to illustrate the economics of their venture. Where a buffalo hide could bring between two and three dollars in the 1870s, factory loads could cost up to 25 cents a round. As professional outfits grew, the profit from each hide had to cover wages for a team of skinners, cooks, and teamsters.

Another concern was not damaging the hide with multiple shots. Accuracy was paramount, and the Sharps Model 1874 offered an impressive long-range platform. Billy Dixon, famous for 1,538-yard shot during the Second Battle of Adobe Walls, favored the Sharps 1874. Hunter Frank Mayer also relied on the model and helped popularize the use of mounting telescopic sights on buffalo rifles as well as devising a steel bipod that attached to the barrel of his gun.

A fine relief engraved A. A. Kellogg Sharps Bridgeport Model 1874 sporting buffalo rifle.

From a shooting stand, a skilled marksman could take buff after buff with remarkable efficiency. The challenge was shooting from a far enough distance not to frighten the herd while remaining close enough for an accurate shot. In his book, 'The Buffalo Harvest,' Frank Mayer claimed to have once taken 59 buffalo hides with 62 cartridges from a single shooting position, preferring shots at 200 yards.

A J.P. Lower retailer marked Sharps Model 1878 Borchardt single shot buffalo rifle.

The Dec 19, 1879 issue of 'The Buckner Independent' of Kansas writes of a stage line proprietor named Mr. P. G. Reynolds who "made his start with a buffalo gun." Reynolds claimed to have taken over 40 hides a day an average, and on one occasion took 74 buffalo in 76 shots.

The Sharps Model 1874 was offered in numerous chamberings designed for long-range accuracy and penetration. Large caliber cartridges included .40-70, .45-70, .50-70, .50-90, .50-110, and the .45-120-550. The latter offered nearly 2,400 foot-pounds of muzzle-energy, enough power to drop even the largest buffalo in their tracks.

A special order Sharps Model 1874 sporting rifle in .44-90 (top) and a Remington No. 1 Rolling Block rifle in .40-70 Sharps (bottom.)

The Sharps Model 1874 rifle pictured below is a true buffalo gun from the era of the commercial hunts and is accompanied by numerous accessories, tools, and a buffalo hide case. An accompanying copy of the gun's factory letter indicates that this rifle "is listed in Order Book No. 7 as a Model 1874 Business Rifle and was invoiced at the Bridgeport factory on April 1, 1878 to Arthur S. Winchester, President of the Sharps Rifle Company."

The rifle and accessories were featured in the 'Roll of Honor' section of 'Man at Arms for the Gun and Sword Collector' magazine, Volume 27, No. 3, 2005, which notes, "The original owner of this outfit was Charles Parker, a native of Vincennes, Vermont, before moving West. This equipment would have been carried to the hunt in a wagon and contained all of the tools of Parker's trade."

An extremely rare buffalo hunting outfit's Sharps Model 1874 rifle with numerous accessories from the 19th century American West.

The magazine also notes that the set includes, "A buffalo fur-covered traveling box for the rifle, a buffalo fur-covered knife block holding eleven knives and a sharpener, another cylindrical knife block with six knives [one absent] and a sharpener, a nine-inch wooden canteen, various heavy knives, an unusual buffalo-hide document case, photographs of the hunter's brother, buffalo skinners and a mounted buffalo head."

The condition and overall completeness of this historic buffalo hunter's set is an immensely rare opportunity for 19th century collectors.

Other Single Shot Buffalo Guns

Numerous single shot models saw extensive use as buffalo guns, including the popular Remington Rolling Block. Developed from Joseph Rider's "Split Breech" Civil War-era design, the Remington Rolling Block became the world's most widely used single shot breechloader of the 19th century thanks to its strength, accuracy, reliability, and sturdy action.

Frank Mayer recounted that his friend and fellow hunter Bob McRae achieved a single day haul of 54 hides with 54 cartridges with his Rolling Block buffalo gun.

E. Remington & Sons No. 1 Rolling Block heavy barrel sporting rifle in .45-70 Govt.

Other prevalent single shot buffalo gun models included the Peabody, the Stevens, and the Ballard. Local gunsmiths produced their own big bore buffalo rifles as well, like the legendary John Moses Browning of Ogden, Utah. Many single shot buffalo guns were designed with heavy barrels that allowed for steadier aiming and helped manage the heat that came from repeated shots of large caliber ammunition.

A factory engraved Marlin deluxe Ballard No. 5 Pacific rifle chambered in .40-70.

Lever Action Buffalo Guns

A surplus of firearms traveled West after the Civil War, including early repeating rifles like the Henry and Spencer. Both were used as buffalo guns when it came to taking meat, where the condition of the pelt was less of a concern, but neither firearm was suited for the commercial hunting industry.

According to Bill Cody, in the Spring of 1868 he competed with fellow buffalo hunter Bill Comstock, the Chief of Scouts at Fort Wallace, Kansas, for the right to the name "Buffalo Bill." The wager was $500, and the winner would be decided by which man could take the most buffalo from horseback in an eight hour day. Cody felled 69 buffs with his .50 caliber Allin conversion Springfield, while Comstock managed to bring down 46 with his Henry rifle.

A Civil War production, U.S. martially inspected New Haven Arms Company Henry rifle with cleaning rod.

While both the Winchester Model 1866 and Model 1873 were measurable upgrades from their Henry predecessor, their pistol-sized cartridges couldn't compete with the big bore single shot buffalo rifles.

Winchester's next model, the 1876, used a larger and stronger receiver that allowed it to chamber rifle cartridges like .45-75 WCF and .50-95 Express. While the 1876 wasn't able to chamber longer rounds like the widely available .45-70 Govt., the Winchester cartridges proved more than capable of bringing down buffalo at the right distance.

This Winchester "Centennial" Model 1876 rifle in .50-95 Express is documented as the first Express rifle in the United States.

In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt took his first buffalo with a Winchester Model 1876 rifle in .45-75 WCF. The hefty Winchester allowed nearsighted hunters like Roosevelt the ability to get close and take rapid follow up shots while keeping their rifle shouldered. As Roosevelt describes, "I crawled up to the edge, not thirty yards from the great, grim looking beast, and sent a shot from the heavy rifle into him just behind his shoulder, the ball going clean through his body. He dropped dead before going a hundred yards."

The 1882 manufactured Winchester Model 1876 example pictured below was upgraded by the Freund & Bro. gun shop, a legendary frontier destination for buffalo hunters, ranchers, and railroad men seeking arms, ammunition, and gunsmithing services. The Freund brothers, two German immigrants, moved gradually westward with the Union Pacific Railroad and ultimately set up permanent shops in Denver, CO and Cheyenne, WY. Their customers included General Philip Sheridan, General George Cook, and Theodore Roosevelt.

A rare Freund Patent marked Winchester Model 1876 rifle chambered in .45-60 WCF with a Freund's Patent sight.

Gunsmith John Marlin of Marlin Firearms Co., who'd been producing the successful single shot Ballard sporting rifle, beat Winchester to the punch by developing the first repeater capable of chambering the .45-70 Govt. caliber. Advertisements throughout the West in the summer and fall of 1882 unveiled the Marlin Model 1881, dubbing it, "The New and accepted buffalo gun."  

A factory engraved Marlin Deluxe Model 1881 rifle with a Malcolm telescope on a Slotterbek mount sold for $99,875 in RIAC's December 2023 Premier Auction.

Winchester would answer back five years later with their Model 1886, but by this time the great bison herds had been decimated by commercial hunting and reduced to rapidly shrinking pockets. Roosevelt's first buffalo hunt in 1883, for example, had involved a nine day trudge through the badlands of North Dakota, giving the future president a firsthand look at how dramatically the buffalo population had dwindled.

In 1887, Roosevelt received his Winchester Model 1886 chambered in .45-90, a rifle he used extensively over the next 7 years. In 1889, he would take his second buffalo with the prized gun, though it proved a bittersweet success, with Roosevelt reflecting, “Mixed with the eager excitement of the hunter was a certain half-melancholy feeling as I gazed on these bison, themselves part of the last remnant of a doomed and nearly vanished race.”

An excellent documented antique Special Order Winchester Model 1886 Deluxe rifle with specific stock configuration and chambered in .40-82.

The Fall and Rise of the American Bison

In 1873, the classic cowboy song 'Home On the Range' began as a poem published in the Kansas 'Smith County Pioneer.' Its author, Dr. Brewster M. Higley, painted a vision of the West where buffalo roamed free against a wide open sky. Yet, within a decade, the vast herds that once symbolized the frontier had nearly vanished.

The devastation of the bison was one of the largest factors in Theodore Roosevelt’s transformation into a staunch conservation activist. In addition to forming the Boone and Crockett Club, Roosevelt assembled a coalition dedicated to ending commercial slaughter of wildlife, promoting fair-chase ethics, and preserving America's wilderness through the development of the US Forest Service and National Park System.

L.A. Huffman’s photos of bison roaming the open plains are some of his most historically significant works.

Thanks to ongoing conservation efforts, North America is home to half a million buffalo today. Most bison reside on private preserves where they can be hunted under controlled conditions. However, fair-chase buffalo hunts are offered in states like Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming, where tags are awarded via lottery, allowing today's sportsmen to experience a taste of the challenge our forefathers faced while helping to preserve and sustain buffalo populations for future generations.

A historic, factory master game scene engraved and signed pair of Browning Model 1885 Bicentennial rifles presented to President Gerald R. Ford Jr. with case.

Buffalo Guns For Sale

The big bore buffalo guns of the 19th century were legendary for their accuracy, range, and raw stopping power. Models like the Hawken, Sharps, Trapdoor, and Rolling Block proved just as crucial to conquering the frontier as the legendary Colt revolver and Winchester rifle. Today, a buffalo rifle with the unmistakable character of an Old West working gun represents a classic piece of Americana and makes a perfect addition to any firearms collection.

A special order Winchester Model 1876 rifle with scarce full nickel finish.

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