Bison Hunt?
 

I am curious if anyone has ever gone on an American Bison hunt? If so, where and how was it? I know there are some free range in Alberta and some fenced. Seems like the Dakotas have a number of fenced operations.

Any experiences you want to share appreciated.

Thanks, Rob

I've shot 5 of them but none of them were free ranging in UT,AZ or SD. I got mine off of big ranches in either WY or MT. There are several ranches that raise bison for the meat market but that market is fairly small and they try to keep the herds in check and don't want them getting too big or they would flood the market and kill the price. So these ranches often want to take out young heifers before they get the chance to calve. All the bison I have taken were yearling heifers for meat.

Bison aren't a really difficult animal to hunt, that's why they could slaughter them by the millions in the 1870s. Once you locate them and even on those big ranches that can take some looking, it is merely a point of picking the one you want. They are big and the carcass is hard to handle. That thick hair is full of dirt and grit and is really tough on knife blades.

This one came off a ranch in MT. we found a small herd raiding some haystacks for the cattle in a remote pasture on a 100,000 acre ranch outside of Billings. A bison like this will give you about 350-400 lbs of meat.

Nice photo. What did you shoot it with and how far were your shots? I have had Bison meat before and it was really good. Where these good eating? Seems like you are able to keep to entire animal from what I have recently read. Was that the case in your experiences?

Many places that offer Bison hunts do not give you your own meat. You get the head and hide and some meat that was killed by another hunter and butchered and frozen. I did some research on bison hunts not all that long ago. There are some places where you do keep your own meat so research before you buy.

All the bison I have taken were shot with a 450 Marlin. Average range was probably between 125 to 150 yards. Bison is great on the table and I have always been allowed to keep the entire animal. The skin of the one in the pic is tanned and I use it as a bed spread when it gets cold. You won't be chilled sleeping under a buffalo robe!

slaughtered by the millions????? yep we were taught that in school but that couldn't have happened. 60 million bison don't disappear in 10 years by hunting. Disease got most of them.

Nonsense, you should have believed what you were taught in school, it wasn't disease, it was the white man. They killed that many Buffalo that a whole new industry spring up, buffalo bones for fertilizer. There were huge piles of buffalo bones through out the area that there used to be Buffalo. They used to have train rides where the so called "sports sat on the train and shot the Bison as the train went by and left them lay. They killed them for just their tongues and left the rest of the meat lay, they killed them for their hides after buffalo robes became a popular item in the east. They also killed them because they were the plains Indians main food source. Make no mistake about it, it was the white man, not disease that for all intent and purpose wiped out the American Bison. You need to throw away that revised history book you got your information from. If you have ever hunted Bison you would quickly see they are not the brightest bulb in the box, they are pretty much stupid, the buffalo hunters would kill hundreds at one sitting by shooting around the outside of the herd. When a Bison goes down, it is common for the cows to rush to its aid. When I killed mine we had to chase the cows away three times when they came back and were trying to get the one I shot back on its feet. Don't think that doesn't create a pucker factor. Nope, there is only one entity at fault in the slaughter of the American Bison and it was the white man for fast money and politics.

And just where did you come up with that "10 years" estimate? Pre 1800's estimate at 60 million and you honestly have to think about that estimate just because of the time period. But that decline was from PRE 1800's at 60 million to 1870 at 5.5 million... Now forgive me if my Math is wrong here but that is a hell of a lot longer than 10 years!

Now as to your other 100% uneducated statement, the white man decimated around 45 million of those numbers while Bovine diseases took out an estimated 10-12 million (Cattle are not native to the Americas so the white man is still responsible for that 10-12 million since they brought them over). It's pretty hard to argue with documented evidence even though many try and fail. Especially since there are literally thousands of photos documenting the many train cars loaded down with hides and the many bone piles stacked up to over 30 feet or 7 feet and 100 yards long.

:rock::rock::rock::rock::rock::rock::rock::rock:

Wow those photos are shocking.