Alpo Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Louis L'amour story. These two guys go into partnership. They go wandering along the Goodnight Trail, looking for lost cows. Cattle that had gotten unattached from their herd. Strays. They rounded them up and drove them over to this patch of grass, and started ranching. The local ranchers showed up to tell them that they were not welcomed. That that grass belong to somebody else. And one of them says, "You have a bunch of vented brands. Matter of fact, all of your cattle have them. We don't like vented brands around here." A web search was no good in defining that term. Seems like it would either be changing the brand on the cow to another brand - theirs. Or lining through or maybe X-ing out the original brand, and then rebranding the cow with their brand. So the cow would have a crossed out Lazy A, and next to it would be an R bar R. I guess. But I would like to know for sure. Any of you western-type folk know the term? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrel Cody Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 No idea, but what book is that? I thought I had read them all(multiple times) and don't remember that term in any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 From Cowboy Bob's Dictionary. Vented Brand - A changed or blotted brand used to indicate a change of ownership. (Derived from the Spanish word venta - "sale.") Questions soon arose in the West as to whether a person in possession of a cow with a vented brand did not simply steal it outright from his neighbor's herd and put his own brand on it. As a result, vented brands are only considered legal when authenticated by a written bill of sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 23 minutes ago, Tyrel Cody said: No idea, but what book is that? I thought I had read them all(multiple times) and don't remember that term in any of them. Book of short stories. Valley of the Sun. The first story. WE SHAPED THE LAND WITH OUR GUNS. >“My outfit’s the Bar L, and this is my graze.” Tap Henry had turned away from the corral and walked down toward us. His eyes went from Lucas to the redhead and back. Me, I was off to one side. Tap wore his gun tied down but I carried mine shoved into my waistband. “We’re not riding,” Tap replied, “we’re staying. We’re claiming all the range from the creeks to the Pelado.” “Sorry, boys”—Lucas was still friendly although his voice had taken on a chill, “that’s all my range and I wasn’t planning on giving any of it up. Besides”—he never took his eyes off Tap Henry—“I notice a lot of vented brands on your cattle. All I saw, in fact.” “See any of yours?” Tap was quiet. Knowing how touchy he could be, I was worried and surprised at the same time.< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fence Cutter Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 15 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said: From Cowboy Bob's Dictionary. Vented Brand - A changed or blotted brand used to indicate a change of ownership. (Derived from the Spanish word venta - "sale.") Questions soon arose in the West as to whether a person in possession of a cow with a vented brand did not simply steal it outright from his neighbor's herd and put his own brand on it. As a result, vented brands are only considered legal when authenticated by a written bill of sale. Also..... ....... and in more everyday use, A vent is a notch on the actual face of the branding iron, that is located on a corner or joint area of the brand to prevent blotching from excessive heating where the two pieces meet. Take the letter L for instance. Where the vertical and horizontal meet on the corner, the face of the iron is notched to allow relief from the heat of the two sides making contact in a small area, otherwise it would blotch from basically twice the heat in the single area and not make a clean corner. That notch is called a vent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grass Range Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 The notch in the iron is a vent. A brand that has been vented has been altered. Usually by a thief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 Up Montana way, two neighboring ranchers had been feuding for years. Finally a reconciling arrangement was made. To seal the deal the one rancher invited the other to dinner. He said, "I'm going to feed you something you've not eaten in years...yer own beef!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.