If you’ve watched more than a couple of western movies, you’ve probably noticed that such movies or TV shows would lead you to believe the iconic Old West bounty hunter was as common as a modern-day Starbucks location—at least one in every town, if not one on every corner. But was this actually the case? Let’s dig in and find out the realities of bounty hunting in the Old West!
THE AVERAGE BOUNTY WAS WORTH THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS?
Westerns of the big and small screens love to portray the bad guys with their images emblazoned on a tattered and yellowed Wanted Poster, and a dollar amount in the thousands as the prize for capturing such a baddy, “dead or alive.” The truth is, the average bounty was more in the very low three-figure range, not four. A typical bounty in the early 1870s was worth about $100. So the bounties shown in western movies of $1,000, $5,000, or $10,000 were extremely rare, if those prices ever actually happened.
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MANY MADE THEIR SOLE INCOME BY BOUNTY HUNTING IN THE OLD WEST?
It is true that the Old West was a place where people with nefarious natures could escape from the scrutiny of more populated and civilized places back east, and sometimes, those people carried out all manner of reprehensible deeds. But did that mean that bounty hunters were a dime a dozen, just waiting to search out, capture, and collect on such wanted outlaws? Actually, no. For context, that average $100 bounty mentioned above would equal about $2587 in 2025’s economy. That doesn’t sound bad for one job…until you figure all the time and effort that might go into earning that prize. In cases that I have read about, it often took weeks or months to capture a criminal—and in more than a few cases, it took years! Weeks, months, or years of searching a wide-open countryside, in blazing sun or frigid snow, only to lose the target in the hustle and bustle of a busy cattle town or mining community and have to pick up his trail again. Weeks, months, or years of showing up too late to capture him before he robs another bank, kills another settler, or perpetrates some other kind of evil… I’m sure you can see the problem. The effort expended in chasing down, subduing, and turning in a single bad guy could far outweigh the payoff of a $100 bounty.
In fact, many bounties weren’t collected on by “lone wolf” bounty hunters at all. More often than not, when an outlaw was turned in, it was by a local sheriff or marshal, or an investigator for another agency, like a Pinkerton agent, Wells Fargo detective, railroad detective, or the like. The bounties they collected on became supplemental income to their standard wages from their day jobs.
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COLLECTING THE MONEY PROMISED ON A WANTED POSTER WAS A SIMPLE MATTER AFTER TURNING IN THE OUTLAW TO THE NEAREST OFFICIAL?
Again, going back to the western legends and lore portrayed in movies and television, it would seem that all a bounty hunter had to do was turn in the outlaw to the nearest local sheriff or jailor, and he’d be paid on the spot. But like most things, it wasn’t always so easy. Receiving payment on a wanted poster depended on who promised that money in exchange for the outlaw’s capture. If it was a local sheriff or town council who’d put up the wanted poster, then yes, the bounty hunter would (or should) get paid upon turning that outlaw in to the local authorities. However, often, those bounties were promised by a state government, or even more frequently, by a railroad, a bank, or other investigative organization—like the Pinkertons. So in order to collect on the wanted poster, the bounty hunter would have to transport his capture to the office of whatever organization or person who promised the payment to begin with. This could mean days or weeks of travel with a handcuffed, perhaps injured outlaw who might very well be looking for any means of escape—or transporting the corpse, in the case the outlaw was killed during his capture. And according to some of my research, even upon delivering the outlaw to the proper authority, the money wasn’t always readily available. It just depended on who it was. Well-funded banks and railroads would pay quickly, as did the Pinkertons and large government agencies like the Secret Service. But in some cases, smaller, more fly-by-night entities might promise a reward for capturing an outlaw to draw people in—then not have the funds to pay all they’d promised when the bad guy was presented, or not pay in a quick manner.
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IT’S YOUR TURN: What surprised you most about the facts and fictions of Old West bounty hunters?
Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.
Wanted: Family, Love, and Justice
One Old West Mystery Solved Throughout Three Short Romantic Stories
Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice.
Youngest child, Callie, has pushed past her insecurities to pursue a career as a Pinkerton agent. Middle child, Andi, has spent years studying law under her adoptive father’s tutelage. And the eldest and only son, Rion, is a rough-and-tumble bounty hunter.
When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?
