Buffalo Rifle

The  is a weapon featured in Red Dead Redemption.

The holds only one round, but it's the most powerful rifle in the game. Shooting all animals and NPC's in the head is a one shot kill. It does not kill the legendary animals with a shot to the head (especially Brumas) with the exception of Gordo the Boar and Khan the Jaguar. Shooting small animals with the rifle, such as skunks, rabbits, and armadillos or any type of bird, (except vultures) will destroy the animal, but only if within a "20 foot" radius, rendering them unskinnable.

Singleplayer

 * It can be purchased from any Gunsmith after surpassing Master Hunter Rank 5 (reaching Rank 6).

Multiplayer

 * Buffalo Rifle is unlocked upon reaching Rank 50.
 * Killing a player who has the weapon equipped.

Tips and Tricks

 * Be careful when using the Buffalo Rifle in Level 2 Dead-Eye Targeting mode as it is a one-shot rifle and painting the target in any location will cause Marston to fire it off right away. Even being the most powerful rifle, if the shot is not placed in the center mass, or the head, the target can survive. Especially if the target is a Grizzly Bear.
 * With the legendary animals, it may take two shots to the head instead of the one for everything else.
 * A useful trick is to repeatedly go in and out of Dead-Eye while firing the Buffalo Rifle, as this increases the rate of fire because of Dead-Eye's effect of refilling the ammo in the player's weapon.
 * In Multiplayer in gang matches you can sometimes get this gun but it has only about 5 bullets, you can however grab an ammo case and it will refill almost 15 bullets(the bullets are counted as normal rifle bullets).
 * Another tactic to achieve quick kills in multiplayer is to, take one shot, then go into dead eye for another and finishing shot. This is a great way to circumvent the long reload time.
 * May be a glitch, but if the user can pull the trigger fast enough, the rifle will skip it's reload animation and fire another shot immediately for as many times as the trigger is pulled. Useful against grizzly bears in a pinch.

Trivia

 * The Buffalo Rifle is the Sharps Model 1874. The name "buffalo rifle" arose due to its popularity with the professional hunters who it used to hunt bison to near extinction thanks to its exceptional accuracy and huge, very powerful cartridges (.44-77, .45-90, .45-120, .50-90, .50-110 etc).
 * When Marston or the multiplayer character is on a mount and fires at something behind him with this rifle, he will hold it with one hand. In reality, the Sharps buffalo model had an extremely long (30") and heavy barrel, intended to be fired from a bipod or rest, and would be virtually impossible to aim in one outstretched hand; moreover firing a rifle with a powerful shoulder-bruising cartridge such as the Big Fifty one-handed would likely snap the user's wrist.
 * The particular rifle in game is equipped with a non-standard hooded front sight and flip-up aperture rear sight.
 * A glitch exists for the in singleplayer on the PS3 version of the game; if Marston has the bandolier equipped and has more than 120 rifle rounds, shooting it will bring it down to 99 rounds. This glitch has not been observed on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
 * Though challenging, it is possible to get the Buffalo rifle soon after unlocking the Master Hunter Challenges. Doing so will make the game much easier, since you have an accurate, high powered, long range rifle near the start.

Achievements
The can be used to unlock the following achievements.