How did cowboys travel?

[derfb1]

Supposed to be NOT
I wrote NOY      Sorry about that.

[Dixie Dude]

I think Hollywood got real cowboys mixed up with mountain men.  Usually they had a horse and a packhorse.  Carried their cooking equipment and flour, sugar, coffee, smoked or salted bacon, dry beans, and their traps.  If you notice, especially east of the Mississippi, county seats with their towns are about 20-30 miles apart.  If someone was traveling by horse, or horse and buggy, they could make it from town to town until they hit the plains and mountains, then they traveled by wagon train until the railroads were built.  Even a person walking could walk 20-30 miles a day at 2-3 mph.  For a horse rider with a bedroll could sleep along the way.  Killing fresh meat would probably be much easier back then while traveling. 

[SHOOTALL]

For whats its worth if you do a serch you will see a Winchester rifle cost $17.00 and a box of ammo was $2.00 in the 1880's . My gracd father said many times his twin brother and him got two single shot shotguns and 4 boxes of shells for 15 dollars just after 1900. It was alot of money for them.

[ace1001]

That 2.00$ was a lot!  More than two days of top cowhand wages on a drive.   But it was almost nothing to reload.  Every hardware store had a kid in the back reloading after school.   Now that is illegal.   SxS double barrel shotguns were the cheapest and most plentiful.   Around $6 new.   Every blacksmith in Belgium made shotguns and they carried the name of the importer not the maker.`

[ppine]

This is an interesting thread, but I have a question.  Why is it all in the past tense?  The simple answer is of course 2 horses (or mules).  One to ride and one to pack with a bed, chuck, and implements.

Cowboys today sometime use trucks and old military vehicles for a chuck wagon, but more often than not are still horseback.  The Spanish Ranch in Elko Co, NV is a good example of an oufit that still rides big circles ie 40 plus miles on snuffy horses.  They use military trucks to support their spring, summer and fall works.

[SHOOTALL]

Past tense because the OP said did. Guess we should decide how they traveled while working , on horses furnished by the company along with tack. When traveling from job to job often it was on foot since few made much money or owned their own horses , tack or even weapons . They worked for low pay but got 3 hots and a cot or bed roll.