Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West

The runner’s first target was usually the old cow that typically led the herd. “Buffalo society was a matriarchy, and the cow was queen” was how Frank Mayer explained it. “Wherever she went, the others, including the big bulls who should have known better than follow a woman, went.” The basic strategy for the stand centered on this lead cow. “When she got into trouble, they didn’t know what to do. And our job as runners was to get her into trouble as soon as we could.”

Vic Smith, who killed a record 107 buffalo in a single stand,

liked to put his first shot just in front of the lead cow’s hip. Other hunters shot the leader through the lungs. The goal, in any case, was the same—not to kill the lead animal but to wound it. Not only was a wounded leader immobilized but she also drew the confused attention of the remaining herd. “Then the rest was easy,” said Mayer.

Easy enough that an experienced hunter took his time, alternating rifles to keep the barrels from overheating, even cleaning his guns every five or six shots. Hunters differed in their preferred placement for the kill shots. Some aimed for the neck; others the heart. Runner John Cook put the sights of his Civil War Enfield on what he called the “regulation place,” defined as “anywhere inside of a circle as large as a cowboy’s hat, just back of the shoulderblade.”