During a stampede, did cowboys use guns to control the cattle?
Dan Clutter
Denison, Iowa
Absolutely. Cowboys fired their pistols to turn the herd and get them moving in a circular pattern. The noise of the gunfire was an effective method. This would keep them from running for miles, going off an arroyo or cliff or destroying property or themselves.
Trailhands would have done just about anything to get the herd back under control. As Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie once wrote, the na
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