The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-01-29
(NeW York SUM

t-NcW ! OK SUM
Buffalo Bill said recently in New
York that the best rife shot he ver
knew was jeff Durfey of Kansas.
"Durfey was the only man ] knew
who could beat me shooting butaloes
on the run said Buffalo Bill.
jeff Durfey lives in Osborne coun-
ty, Kansas. nine miles south Of the
county seat. His marriage in 1872
was the first wedding hat ever took
place in Osborne county and he took
his bride to live in the house he had
just built, the first one in the county
That house. built Of a logs, that he
cut forty-one Years ago. stands today
about Il rod from the big farmhouse
that lie built Inter when he became
rich from enormous wheat crops. The
old house is typical Of the old pio-
ncer civilization of Kansas, as the
bigger and newer home near it is typ
ical of the modern Kansas.
The old log cabin is used now as
a storehousc for odds and ends OF the
farm. It's loft is cluttercd with parts
of rcapers n binders, threshcrs and
disk drills. and from among them
Durfcy tished out the other day some
old horns of buffaloes tina he shot
forty years ago on that very farm.
Before he became a wheat farmer,
1"A' '1S " vi
hunter for Years on the Kansas plains.
Buffalo hides brought him the money
that paid for the first 100 acres that
he bought from tho government,
Wheat paid for the other 1,19O acres
in his big farm.
Dnrfcy keeps books on the smooth
pine door of the old log house. Chalk
ed upon that door is this record:
Wheat raised in 1910-4,S3 u
bushels
Durfey tells Of the time when Buff
falo Bill rode nine miles across the
plains to sec what kind of a rife he
used to shooting buffalo.
THAT was when Buffalo Bill was
supplying the Kansas Pacific railroad
with buffalo meat" said Durfcy the
other day. II was shooting buffalo on
the head of Walnut creek. Bill heard
a good deal about what l was doing.
He rode over to see what kind of a
rifle ] was using. He supposed
had some new tangled kind Of a gun
and when he drove up he says to me:
Jeff, / heard Dave Willis telling about
you going after nine buffalo bulls and
killing sever of them OH tho run.
There's no man can do that with any
kind of a gun I've ever seen and il
You don't mind. Id like to sec your
gum
ouSul u IdNe seen MS lace
when / handed him my rife. 1t was
an old government Springfield musket
made over into IL needle gun. 1 had
paid S25 for it in Solomon City. 1t
was not So much the gun as the man
behind the gun ] guess"
Durfey was asked how many buffa-
10 he had killed in those days.
Il don't know-thousands of them.
I used to kill from twenty to fifty
Il day. one day ! killed tifty-six. 1
could have killed hundreds in a day,
but we didn't waste cartridges on cows
and small bulls. A bull hide was
worth more than a COW hide so we
used to pick out only the biggest
bulls. l had IA way of my own. A
herd of buffalo wouldn't stampede as
long as tho hunter kept out of sight, SO
I used to creep up within good shoot
ing distance and kill the big bull that
always led the herd. Therd would be-
come excited but would soon settle
down to grazing again and another
bull would step out as leader. I
would shoot him and then the next one
and so on until the herd became
frightened away.
I'm those days there were millions
of buffalocs on these plains. I stood
nee on the divide between the two
Solomons and looked down on a solid
mass of buffalo as far as the eye could