Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, and the rough and lawless Hannasseys over a valuable patch of land.

When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.

One man wants to control all the land in the state to graze all his cattle. His band of outlaws are raiding ranchers and homesteaders, trying to drive them out. Rocky and Fuzzy are brought in to help stop the raiders and keep the land for the small ranchers and homesteaders.

Eddie Dean is a Cattlemen's Association agent investigating a serious rash of rustlings along with sidekicks Soapy (Roscoe Ates) and Waco (Lee Bennett. The latter bears a striking resemblance to Lawrence ranch foreman Bert Ford (also Bennett), who has been the target of several assassination attempts. Rancher Lawrence (Lee Roberts) and Eddie decide that Waco shall impersonate Ford, who is hiding out in a hotel room.

Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journey, his persistence becomes tyrannical in the eyes of Matthew Garth, his adopted son and protégé.

Someone is adding beef to Rocky Brown's herds and changing the brands to make it look like he is rustling. Then he is framed for murder and jailed. Johnny Argyle who has been sent to investigate believes he is innocent and sets out to prove it and starts with hides that have been rebranded.

Dare Rudd takes a shine to his cattleman cousin Tom's girlfriend who asks Tom to hire Dare to head the big cattle drive. Dare loses the money for the drive to cardsharps, but Tom wins it back, but Dare must save Tom's life.

Seeing cattle dying of thirst, a stranger shoots a hole in Hoades water pipeline. Hoades is hoarding water trying to drive the ranchers away. Hounded by the law for stealing a pie, the stranger sees a chance to redeem himself by forcing Hoades to sell his pipeline and leave the area.

A cowboy arrives to help a girl who has a note due. He plans to sell her cattle to raise the money but they are stampeded and most are killed. Knowing who stampeded them gives him another plan to get the money.

A cattle baron takes in an orphaned boy and raises him, causing his own son to resent the boy. As they get older the resentment festers into hatred, and eventually the real son frames his stepbrother for fathering an illegitimate child that is actually his, seeing it as an opportunity to get his half-brother out of the way so he can have his father's empire all to himself.

Cattle baron John Chisum joins forces with Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett to fight the Lincoln County Land War in the New Mexico Territory of 1878.

Tensions erupt within an Arizona cattle baron's household when his three sons vie for control of the ranch.