“It amazes me how the Sharps Big 50 did that with black powder. It eradicated the buffalo on the plains in a fairly short span of time.”
Firing a 400-500 grain bullet at anywhere between 1200 and 1800 fps will get the job done on any large game present in North America.
And if you factor in the switch to 45-70 government rounds in the late 1870s, it just gets more deadly.
Yep, and they used paper patched cast lead bullets. Amazing use of what was available.
I read in a book by an old mountain man that the Indians loved the 1866 Wubchester because of it’s shiny brass frame, but wanted “Needle guns” for buffalo. It took me a while to find he meant the .50-70 cal Springfield Rifle.