Posted by (+11) 19 years ago
The general perception that William F. Cody was the most famous buffalo hunter is in error. The most famous buffalo hunter of all time was a gentleman named Frank H. Mayer. Below is a brief history:
Frank H. Mayer was born in 1850 in New Orleans, La. In 1855 his entire family moved to Pennsylvania and settled in the Allegheny Mountains. As a youngster growing up he had access to hunting and fishing country that was unlimited. He had one major wish in life which was to see as many "gunshops" as possible! There in the heart of the mountains there were many riflemen and rifles with the latter outnumbering shotguns by, in his words "a hundred to one". Frank H. Mayer had numerous gunshops to visit including some of the most renown makers of the day. Names such as Golcher, Lehmans, Henrys, Billinghurst, Schalk, Rein, Miller, whose names today are world famous for expert craftsmanship. With ALL of the above, Frank H. Mayer was personally acquainted, most of which lived near where he and his family had homesteaded. In his words, "urged on by itchy feet, my people were constantly on the move, always hoping for social and financial betterment. This suited me fine, for that itch was, and is, hereditary, as my after years so proved to be"! Whenever he saw a mountain range, he was always constantly obsessed with a great desire to see what was on the other side.
Frank H. Mayers' personal experience with these "gems of guncraft" as he called the gunshops was at the early age of ten years when he traded his entire fur catch of two years work to the owner of a general goods store for a 120-to-the-pound, full-stocked Kentucky rifle with double set triggers and a 51" barrel. He kept and maintained this rifle for 74 years and had the worn rifling recut three times until the caliber was exactly .45. He never sold it. Using this rifle and in his words he stated "I shot against the cream of those nail-driving mountaineers, and was able to lick up a few drops of victory now and then, fairly holding my own in the goodly company"! By this time he was indissolubly wedded now to the rifle and his interest in its actual manufacture began to awaken and from this time on he became more or less a nuisance around the gunshops. The "smiths" soon discovered that he could not be driven away by anything short of a beating and the owners cannily proceeded to take advantage of his obsession and made him pay for his footing by keeping him busy by redding-up the shop and making himself useful. Apparently Frank Mayer was a very observant young man for his age and soon he became familiar with every facet and method of gun-making, from the raw iron, brass, and wood to the completed masterpiece. In time, he was actually permitted, without pay, to really help in the actual making of quality rifles. In the authors' opinion, there is no doubt whatsoever that Frank H. Mayer was until the very day that he died....a true, dyed-in-the-wool "GUN-CRANK"! By the time he was sixteen years of age he had graduated sufficiently in the art of gun making to the point whereby he could build, unassisted, accept for some invaluable advice by his peers, a rifle complete in all its appointments, from the purely American-sourced billet up to the globe and tang sights, and the checkered "flame" maple stock and Schuetzen buttplate. In addition, he also made the bullet mould, the cherry which cut the mould, a graduated-measure "honey-bull" powder horn, bullet pouch, and the patch-cutter....all of his own manufacture!
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For those wishing to know more concerning Col. Frank H. Mayer I suggest reading "The Buffalo Harvest" available from Amazon.com.
As a side note, recently I was in Forsyth, Montana to shoot the Quigley Match which is held annually upon the ranch of Mr. A.G. Lee; a finer man never existed IMO! While there I had a chance to examine the Sharps rifle owned by Mr. Lee that belonged to Peter Jackson, the father of Miss Edith Finch, who in his own right was a buffalo hunter who took roughly 5000 buffalo around the Forsyth, Montana region.
Frank H. Mayer was born in 1850 in New Orleans, La. In 1855 his entire family moved to Pennsylvania and settled in the Allegheny Mountains. As a youngster growing up he had access to hunting and fishing country that was unlimited. He had one major wish in life which was to see as many "gunshops" as possible! There in the heart of the mountains there were many riflemen and rifles with the latter outnumbering shotguns by, in his words "a hundred to one". Frank H. Mayer had numerous gunshops to visit including some of the most renown makers of the day. Names such as Golcher, Lehmans, Henrys, Billinghurst, Schalk, Rein, Miller, whose names today are world famous for expert craftsmanship. With ALL of the above, Frank H. Mayer was personally acquainted, most of which lived near where he and his family had homesteaded. In his words, "urged on by itchy feet, my people were constantly on the move, always hoping for social and financial betterment. This suited me fine, for that itch was, and is, hereditary, as my after years so proved to be"! Whenever he saw a mountain range, he was always constantly obsessed with a great desire to see what was on the other side.
Frank H. Mayers' personal experience with these "gems of guncraft" as he called the gunshops was at the early age of ten years when he traded his entire fur catch of two years work to the owner of a general goods store for a 120-to-the-pound, full-stocked Kentucky rifle with double set triggers and a 51" barrel. He kept and maintained this rifle for 74 years and had the worn rifling recut three times until the caliber was exactly .45. He never sold it. Using this rifle and in his words he stated "I shot against the cream of those nail-driving mountaineers, and was able to lick up a few drops of victory now and then, fairly holding my own in the goodly company"! By this time he was indissolubly wedded now to the rifle and his interest in its actual manufacture began to awaken and from this time on he became more or less a nuisance around the gunshops. The "smiths" soon discovered that he could not be driven away by anything short of a beating and the owners cannily proceeded to take advantage of his obsession and made him pay for his footing by keeping him busy by redding-up the shop and making himself useful. Apparently Frank Mayer was a very observant young man for his age and soon he became familiar with every facet and method of gun-making, from the raw iron, brass, and wood to the completed masterpiece. In time, he was actually permitted, without pay, to really help in the actual making of quality rifles. In the authors' opinion, there is no doubt whatsoever that Frank H. Mayer was until the very day that he died....a true, dyed-in-the-wool "GUN-CRANK"! By the time he was sixteen years of age he had graduated sufficiently in the art of gun making to the point whereby he could build, unassisted, accept for some invaluable advice by his peers, a rifle complete in all its appointments, from the purely American-sourced billet up to the globe and tang sights, and the checkered "flame" maple stock and Schuetzen buttplate. In addition, he also made the bullet mould, the cherry which cut the mould, a graduated-measure "honey-bull" powder horn, bullet pouch, and the patch-cutter....all of his own manufacture!
***********************************************************
For those wishing to know more concerning Col. Frank H. Mayer I suggest reading "The Buffalo Harvest" available from Amazon.com.
As a side note, recently I was in Forsyth, Montana to shoot the Quigley Match which is held annually upon the ranch of Mr. A.G. Lee; a finer man never existed IMO! While there I had a chance to examine the Sharps rifle owned by Mr. Lee that belonged to Peter Jackson, the father of Miss Edith Finch, who in his own right was a buffalo hunter who took roughly 5000 buffalo around the Forsyth, Montana region.