Loading the Buffalo Gun on the Range

[Crew Chief]

Crew Chief, (What did you crew on?) I've read that any bullet which did not look perfect was thrown back into the melting ladle. That tells us how they were concerned about consistency with their bullets and their shooting. And it is my guess that they generally used pure lead. I've wondered about those things too. I also wonder about their loading tools. One tool was called a "rimmer" and I'm not sure what that was. Shoot sharp, Mike

Mike, I crewed UH-1H Hueys. One tour in SEA. Mostly crewed the same ship my whole tour except for a few times when other crew-chiefs were on R&R and mine was down for maintenance.

I love the remarks made on this forum about what the buffalo hunters might have done. I am reading one of the Buffalo Hunters Encyclopedias and there are several accounts of buying upwards of 500 lbs. of lead, patching paper and kegs of blackpowder. They also bought a lot of coffee, sugar, biscuit flour, baking soda, dried apples and chewing tobacco. There are accounts of running out of food staples and the hunters complaining about eating buffalo meat for 14 days straight. How do you say, I need fiber in my diet.

I doubt that they weighed their bullets as they would have only had a balance type scale and that would have been time consuming. I agree that they probably just inspected the bullet to make sure it didn't have an signs of a void or obvious imperfection. Like someone said, they probably spent the afternoon hours reloading or had a camp person doing it while they continued to hunt. I wonder if they threw the brass in hot soapy water then just wiped it down?