Buffalo hunt..........

[Bushwacker30]

Wattsey very nice buff.what was the location ? I live west of ya,in Forest Grove.Very interested in doing the same.does the rancher have a web site?

 

[wirehairman]

The only places that offer free ranging hunts are in Alaska, Canada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming and Montana. As a rule you have to enter a lottery drawing for the tag and they are hard to obtain.

The buffalo coming out of Yellowstone Park are typically more tame than most of the buffalo on the various game ranches. Also, the Montana hunting regulations for bison specifically state:

The only means of taking allowed are center-fire rifles. Muzzleloading, black powder rifles, and/or archery equipment are not permitted.

No ML's = no bison hunt for me.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have some good Cast Bullet, smokeless powder loads to use in a .45-70 that will fill the purpose. You choose the gun you want to use on the buffalo hunt. I would rather be able to load Black Powder. If those are the silly regulations, then you might as well education the authors by using a "BP cartridge", using smokeless powder loads.

 

[jmforge]

Couple of points. Like previous posters have said, bison don't fear much of anything, so any hunt for them may appear "canned" The big difference is going to be how far you have to walk to get one. Even back when they covered the landscape, I suspect that hunting them was more like hunting a domestic cow than going after a cape buffalo. Humans don't have four legs and they don't bark, howl roar, snarl or growl, so there is nothing in the bison's playbook that says he should run from you. Now if you take a couple of your big dogs along for the hunt, you might see a different reaction. :grin:
As for predators, bison still have one predator in North American and those are the grey wolves incertain parts of Canada. That one group of wolves tend to be almost twice the size of some of their cousins that prey on deer, etc, because their prey was and remains what was the last surviving wild herd of bison in North America. The male wolves in that pack supposedly can get as big as 125 pounds from what I have read.
As for the comments from our British cousin, I'm not sure how much less "fair" this hunt is compared to having a bunch of servants driving every winged critter in creation toward a group of well heeled hunters each with multiple guns and more servants to reload them set up in a fashion that resembles the flak batteries surrounding Hanoi circa 1970. :wink:

 

[John Wasmuth]

Gotta agee with that. Besides, when yer that big, what exactly is there to be afraind of?

 

[shmrck1]

Gotta agee with that. Besides, when yer that big, what exactly is there to be afraind of?

Micanopy,
Besides the wolves,man and his arsenal,and
old age! :hmm:
snake-eyes

 

[John Wasmuth]

Well, aint a lot of wolves left in the lower 48 for them to be scared of, the ranch raised ones dont worry to much about old age, not sure that buffalo really worry about anything except where the good food is, and with the cost of hunting them these days, not so sure they worry to much about man. We raise them, even though they are used to us being around, used to being fed, and used to noise and comotion, I am still real cautious around them. They can turn you into a bloody pile of gue real quick.

 

[BrownBear]

Dang good idea to be careful around them! They may be pretty docile most of the time, but that little pea brain they have can go sideways in a hurry, especially in spring and summer with calves around, or in the winter when their body is saying times should be tough and food should be short, whether it is or not. Kodiak Cattle Company has lost three horse to buff in winter. Ripped their guts out in food disputes when there was plenty of food and everyone was fat. And you dang sure better be a horseman or have a tree handy if you get near cows and calves in the spring.

I never hunted one of their hunts because I just can't afford it, even if I am a friend and might arm-twist a special rate and strain the friendship. If they had a by-the-pound field shoot for cropping, I'd be there in a New York minute. Buff is great eating, and that price is a bargain. If there's fence post in plain sight, heck it would make a good rest for my coffee cup while I dropped the hammer. But that night I'd be eating fresh tongue or mebbe heart and liver. And within the week my freezer would be chugging under a load of cheap buffalo. How in the heck could you beat that?

Good shoot and good post Watsie, and I'm betting you inspire lots more to get in line. It's a dandy deal.

 

[paulvallandigham]

My ex-wife has a wolf hide "blanket" that is almost 6 feet long- taken by a Great Uncle in Canada back in the 1930s, so you are not exaggerating about the size of those wolves. The ones re-introduced back into the lower 48 are smaller than what you describe.

 

[Vaino]

A buffalo harvest wouldn't be something I would do, but....it's slightly better than pushing a cart over to the meat department in a super market.....Fred

 

[Vaino]

The preceding post was out of line...to each his/her own. Every time I've eaten buffalo meat it was delicious, but have a question. Seeing beef steers have been bio-engineered for more steaks and better cuts and seeing a buffalo has a radically different shape vs a steer, what are the predominant cuts on a buffalo?.....Fred

 

[jmforge]

My ex-wife has a wolf hide "blanket" that is almost 6 feet long- taken by a Great Uncle in Canada back in the 1930s, so you are not exaggerating about the size of those wolves. The ones re-introduced back into the lower 48 are smaller than what you describe.

Paul, from what I have read, the 60-80 lb wolves that were reintroduced back into the US are "normal" sized. The ones in that one particular part of Canada had to evolve into giants because eventually, they had one major food source, bison, which, on a bad day, would be at least 50% bigger than pretty much every other hoofed critter that wolves would go after. 2000 pounds would be some kind of major record for a big Yukon moose, but that would be pretty common for a full grown bison. Even if you account for the fact that wolves go after the uyoung, injured or sickly animals, that is still the size of prey that you expect to see lions going after when they can't find something smaller and easier to catch!!!! The scary part is once you shave off all of that fur, those big wolves are still just a mass of muscle, bone and teeth like their smaller brethren with none of the body fat we see on big domestic dogs.

 

[John Wasmuth]

We process them the same as a beef. Kinda glad that you saw the error of what you posted. Worst thing we can do as hunters is foul mouth another hunters way of doing things, or the game they hunt. The antis love that. Buffalo T-Bones are the bomb.

 

[tjohnson56]

Micanopy, what do those hump ribs look like when you cut them up? I always see in novels about the hump ribs being so good, is that big hump all good meat or does a buff's backbone curve up by the hump so it's just like a steak further back?

 

[John Wasmuth]

The spinious process along the vertabra of the hump are very long compared to a beef, if you bone them out like a deer the back straps resemble a wedge as they come off the front of the hump and go down to the hips. On a good size cow or bull the tender loins are shaped like a long foot ball. Like any animal, the old bulls are tougher than the youinger bulls or cows, still good eating but can be tough. The ribs are not as meaty as a beef, unless the beef has been raised free grazing, no feed lot finish, kinda like a long horn, then they dont collect the heft that feed out beef do. I have never done a study on it, but some one once told me that you can actually get more meat off an elk then you can a buffalo because of the bone structure. I think maybeso I will investigate this idea coming soon.

 

[bdhutier]

Man, oh man... Great shoot, and also glad you've got the kiddos in on it all the way through the skinning. Things like that are a dying art, but will come in handy in a split-second without warning. You never know when they will need to use those skills.

Even if that day never comes, they will be telling the story for YEARS, of the day their dad bagged a buff!

 

[Marc Adamchek]

What do you Brits call driven pheasant shoots? I know your queen Madonna called it murder.

 

[saber]

Well you are in for some good eating, and good hunt sir nicely done. I have hunted the Delt herd 3 times and take one bull with reg gun do to state regs it is a free roaming herd and it is not that one wolf will kill a buff but, the packs up here are big a pack of 14 wolves is a small pack a pack of wolves run 20-30 wolves and they are a killers,they will hunt and kill a moose every 3 days The average timber wolf will run 120 up to 165lbs and still when on a streacher will run 6-7 foot or 9 foot tip of nose to tip of tail. as for England that is why we had a revolution

 

[saber]

Almost forgot save some of the bigger leg bones in the frez and cut up in too 6-10 inches long and when winter comes take out and drop on to a bed of coals in the wood stove for a bit to cook then when done just push out the center and it is almost as good a t-bones