Jigger Bunts: A Western Story

by Max Brand

Every fall Tom Reynard, ramrod for the Bar L, had a hard time finding cowpunchers willing to work the winter range in the bleak badlands near the Sioux reservation. So when Jigger Bunts, an eighteen-year-old from New York who was familiar with riding and roping, happened along, he was hired even though his youth was a red flag to Reynard. To pass the time in the bunkhouse, the other cowhands spin tall tales for Bunts, whom they call the kid, about the exploits of Reynard, and soon Reynard becomes Bunts' hero and role model. Reynard quickly tires of the hero worship, so he concocts a new hero for the kid in Louis Dalfieri, based merely on a picture. Dalfieri replaces Reynard in the kid's mind as his hero, especially when the yarns the punchers tell the kid about this two-gun Robin Hood become outrageous. When a stranger is brought to the ranch by Bunts and he cheats the Bar L cowboys in a game of poker, the kid takes off to get their money back, to right the wrong as he believes Dalfieri would. This decision sends him down a path outside the law from which there appears to be no return, and for which Reynard can only blame himself. Reynard had all but given up hope to help Jigger Bunts when his mind is changed by a chance encounter with an old friend, Maybelle Crofter. Recently discovered among his unpublished works, this untraditional story will delight fans of Max Brand Westerns.

Genres: Westerns, Audiobook

MP3 CD

Published February 5, 2019

About the author

Frederick Schiller Faust (see also Frederick Faust), aka Frank Austin, George Owen Baxter, Walter C. Butler, George Challis, Evin Evan, Evan Evans, Frederick Faust, John Frederick, Frederick Frost, David Manning, Peter Henry Morland, Lee Bolt, Peter Dawson, Martin Dexter, Dennis Lawson, M.B., Hugh Owen, Nicholas Silver

Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.

Reviews

[Ellen Spes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good clean traditional western.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward with a good bit of humor, this isn't just a shoot-em-up Western novel. The happy ending was predictable, but it's the kind of story you want to end on a good note.

[RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up to the cattle ranch rode a slightly naïve but honest and hard=working eighteen-year-old young man looking for work. The boss didn’t want to hire such a youngster but he needed men, so hire him he did. My name is Jason but most folks call me Jigger he said. The other cowhands took advantage of Jigger’s naivety by making up tall tales of the boss until Jigger thought of him as some kind of hero. After a while, the boss was tired of the game wanting out. They all made up a new character for Jigger to imitate, a gunfighter, and Jigger took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. Following in the footsteps of a hard gunfighter eventually got Jigger in trouble. He tried to return to a quiet, honest life on the ranch but it seems trouble followed him. Jigger was walking a dangerous path and it was the ranch hands fault. They must help Jigger get back on the straight and narrow.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cows, Cowponchers, horses obviously it's a western. Jigger Bunts, an 18 year old from New York, was hired to work at the Bar L winter range. Tom Reynard, the ramrod of the Bar L, had his doubts about Jigger because of his age. The cow hands passed the time at the bunkhouse siping tall tales for Jigger.about Tom Reynard. Reynard becomes Jiggers heroe. Soon they Spin a tale about Louis Dalfieri. Dalfieri soon becomes Jiggers heroe. Jigger got himself two pistols like Dalfieri. Jigger wants to become like Dalfieri. He soon rides out and gets himself in trouble. Reynard realizes the damage all
those tales have done.
The plot runs like a narrative that Reynard is telling you. It is entertaining, some action and the question is will Reynard be able to reform Jigger?

[Bcoghill Coghill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Max Brand in my teens, in the 1960s. At the time, I thought the stories wonderful. Today, even as escapism, they are not worth the time. I shan’t read any more Max Brand. ** That being said the reader was splendid.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a rather depressing story, so I won't be re-reading it.

[Marty Solotki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traber Burns is an amazing narrator, and fits this wild story of an impressionable young cow-puncher who takes tall tales too far. So good!