This story has been done before. The villains in this episode are not very good. Cliff Osmond has to be one of the worst actors in television history. He was a tall fat guy with a pock-marked face who was a lot grosser than he was menacing. He plays the leader of the hide-cutters. His acting style was very lazy and boring to watch.
His minions are Ken Swofford, who was another actor that usually played annoying characters who were disagreeable. Not scary or menacing, just jerks. The next thug is Conlan Carter, who plays some kind of inbred hillbilly lackey in this episode. He hollers and makes funny remarks and acts like a cheap imitation of Festus. Not a scary guy. Finally we get to villain #4, Eddie Firestone. Just another loser character who usually played town vagrants, hotel clerks, informants, and lackeys. Not a scary guy.
So these hide-cutters are the B Team or more likely the C Team of Gunsmoke villains. On any given day, Matt Dillon could beat them all up with one arm tied behind his back.
The joker in the deck is young Michael Burns, who is an orphan that the group picked up and is constantly abusing, as they mold him into another henchman. Michael Burns became a history professor who taught at Mount Holyoke College until he retired in 2002.
The good guys are the drovers whose herd is being attacked. Joseph Campanella is the ramrod, and Steve Raines (of Rawhide fame) is one of the drovers. They are getting their cows killed off by the hidecutters who follow the herd, and they are pissed off and want revenge.
Matt Dillon rides into this mess searching for Festus, who got his leg broken in a landslide at the beginning of the episode. Like usual, Dillon comes down hard on any "vigilante action" by Campanella. As often happens, Dillon later discovers that the bad guys whose rights he is protecting want to kill him too.
The ending is really good. Lots of action, and redemption for Michael Burns, when he finally realizes that Cliff Osmond and the rest of the gang are just evil people.