Tools of the Buffalo hunting trade

[Marshal Deadwood]

[quigleysharps4570]

Wish that gear were mine. 

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Fine pics, M.D!

'Specially the 2nd one!  I know part of the story behind the 2nd picture, but I'll bet the 1st comes with an interesting story, too!

[Tascosa Joe]

The skinning knife cases in both pictures are really unique.  I wish I could get close enough to touch them. 

[Steel Horse Bailey]

The skinning knife cases in both pictures are really unique.  I wish I could get close enough to touch them. 

...  or own the whole shebang!

[cpt dan blodgett]

Most everything is self explainatory but I do not recognize the thing with the 2 rings and hooks

[Durango Flinthart]

Most everything is self explainatory but I do not recognize the thing with the 2 rings and hooks

Tongue scale

[Tascosa Joe]

I knew it was a scale, but never thought about weighing tongue's.  Cool stuff.

MD: What is the source of the picture with all the gear covered with buffalo hide?  I have a copy of the 2nd picture but would like to be able to download the other as well.

Thanks,

T-Joe

[cpt dan blodgett]

Tongue scale

Ah can see the needle now - thanks!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I don't think it measured tongues only.  It's a hanging scale.  Anything hanging from it got weighed ... from the whole carcass to only the tongue.  Hang it on a limb of a tree and voila' !

[wildman1]

I don't think it measured tongues only.  It's a hanging scale.  Anything hanging from it got weighed ... from the whole carcass to only the tongue.  Hang it on a limb of a tree and voila' !

Do ya think that thing would hold 1700 lbs?  WM

[JimBob]

Here's a little better picture of that type scale-

http://wcudigitalcollection.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4008coll1/id/57/rec/16

Note the two rings for hanging and the hooks arrangement.Depending on which ring you used you had two different ranges of weights that could be weighed.They are known as "hide scales" to collectors,bunches of them on e-bay.I hope to get a close look at one today,it should be in the mailbox now.LOL As soon as a buddy comes by to pick up my mail,gotta bum leg from a fall.

The collection in the first picture was the subject of an article in Man at Arms magazine some years ago.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Do ya think that thing would hold 1700 lbs?  WM

Hmmm ...

Gettin' that 1700 lbs up to HANG it might be a challenge!

But, as JimBob states, it's a hide scale, then it does seem like it'd work ... and it would probably measure a tongue, too.  And butchered meat, too - maybe all the way up to a quarter carcass.

I'm sure that JimBob will clarify all this when his new scale arrives.

[JimBob]

Well SteelHorse here's the dope on this type scale-

http://wcudigitalcollection.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4008coll1/id/57/rec/16

If you hang it by the big ring and use the big hook the scale is graduated from 20 lbs.to 350 lbs in 5lb graduations on one side.

If you hang by the small ring and use the small hook the scale is graduated from 0 lbs. to 40 lbs in in 1 lb. graduations on the other side.

It would be usefull for weighing  green hides individually and weighing meat such as hams and shoulders etc. Tongues too.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Thanks for the information, JimBob.

Interesting!

[Durango Flinthart]

Hunters were encouraged to hunt on the Plains to destroy the buffalo.

Ironically, the buffalo became victims of their own instincts. Gun fire did not cause the buffalo to scatter. Their instinctive nature in the face of danger was to stand still in large numbers - a pack of wolves was unlikely to attack such an intimidating sight. Therefore, gun fire was met with animals that stood still and they proved to be very easy targets for hunters armed with the new Sharps rifle.


The animals were skinned and the carcasses were left to rot on the land. Only the tongue was cut out as it was a delicacy for the white settlers and hunters. The killing was vast and relentless. By 1885, the government estimated that only 200 buffalo were alive in the wild. In 45 years (1840 to 1885) the huge herds had been destroyed with the numbers declining from millions to barely nothing. It is likely that such slaughter has not seen a parallel in History.

www.historylearningsite.co.uk/buffalo.htm

[JimBob]

Many hunting outfits did in fact engage in curing and salting buffalo meat to sell if they were in a position that made it practical near a town or railroad.Sometimes it was more of a money maker than the hides,especially when hides dropped to $1.50 and they could get .03c a pound for meat,more for tongues I suspect.There's some information on this in the Ency.of Buffalo Hunters books.

As regrettable as the slaughter of the herds was,where would we put 80 million buffalo today?Can you imagine sitting on the interstate for 3 days waiting for a big heard to pass.

[rbertalotto]

I just finished reading yet another book on the buffalo hunting period. Although much meat was left on the prairie to rot, much more of it was sold to the Army for the forts and to the railroads for the crews.

[Trailrider]

[snip]
As regrettable as the slaughter of the herds was,where would we put 80 million buffalo today?Can you imagine sitting on the interstate for 3 days waiting for a big heard to pass.

Aw, I doubt you could tell the difference between that and normal rush-hour traffic in some major cities! 

[Steel Horse Bailey]