Andrew L. "Buckshot" Roberts (1831-4 April 1878) was an American bounty hunter who was famous for his role in the gunfight at Blazer's Mills during the Lincoln County War.
Biography[]
Andrew L. Roberts was born in 1831, and he served in the Texas Rangers, and later in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He earned his nickname "Buckshot" for a wound that impaired his right arm, rendering him unable to raise his arm above his pelvis; this gave him an unorthodox shooting style. By 1876, he owned his own ranch in Ruidoso Valley, and he was known to prefer to ride a mule rather than a horse. During the Lincoln County War, the infamous Buckshot Roberts, who was said by Charlie Bowdre to have killed more men than smallpox, sought to collect the $200 bounty on Billy the Kid. He tracked the Lincoln County Regulators down to a sawmill and trading post on the Rio Tularosa, where he stated his intentions to collect the bounty before engaging in a shootout with the Regulators. He wounded Jose Chavez y Chavez and Doc Scurlock before retreating into an outhouse for cover. After firing continuously at the outhouse, Richard M. Brewer attempted to see if Roberts was still alive, and Roberts, who slid his rifle barrel through a crack in the door, shot Brewer three times, killing him. The Regulators then fired a barrage of bullets at the outhouse and then fled, leaving a mortally wounded Roberts to bleed out in the shed.