as soon as i figure out how to post pics here i will. had a great hunt. my son decided not to shoot the buff as he just didn't feel comfortable enough in his accuracy to where he felt he wouldn't wound it. he settled to shoot a ram or axis deer and i thought it was a mature decision. all in all i was present on the shooting of 5 bison. total of 12 now, 4 taken myself. that does not count the culling of problem bulls at my cousins' ranch. here's kind of a breakdown on the kills and what was used and well it worked.

1) my buff -- weighed about 1100-1200lbs. shot with BB 325 grain loads at 1525 fps clocking out of my 10" model 83 at just under 1600fps. i just got this back from FA getting an incredible trigger job done. ran to the range and quickly got the bb resighted in and took it for the hunt. anyway, first shot was right at around 45 yards quartering away and shot on the right wide just in the rib cage and through the opposite shoulder, the buff jumped and came down turned the other way and i put a matching hole through the left side and out behind the opposite shoulder. next shot the gun went off a touch early due to the new trigger which i need more familiarity with, but it happened while was getting center on the buff and missed slightly to the left as the buff was now about 50 yards away. (i'd always needed to two stage the trigger due to alot of creep and i guess it was a little bit of muscle memory on that one. the buff then went down and i decided to spine him right where the spine meets the skull and he took a look to the left spewing blood out of his nose and gave me the perfect angle so i hit him in the neck finishing the job. total elapsed time of shots was apporximately 40 seconds. the last one was at about 30 yards as we walked up.

upon cleaning the buff the first shot traveled about 3 feet of buff due to the quartering angle and blew the front shoulder to pieces. the guide had thought i missed due to the bullet skipping off like it hadn't slowed going through the buff at all. no bullets were recovered as they all just blew through the buff. second shot just punched through the ribs hitting no big bones and the third about completely crushed and vaporized the vertebra hit from the side. it was in about 100 pieces. the shoulder was not shot through the scapula in was in the leg bone just above what would be the elbow/knee joint. it was shattered in about 30 pieces.

2) another in our group shot his which went about 800lbs with a guide gun with BB 430gr hardcast at 1935 fps. two shots through the shoulder at about 70 yards about an inch apart and the buff was down and dead in about 20 seconds. the same big leg bone was hit by one of the bullets on the way in and it was blown to bits. the size of the entrance and exit wounds in the rib cage were much much bigger than .45 caliber. the entrance wounds were about the size of a nickel and the exit the size of a quarter.

3) another one shot with a .375 HH in the shoulder and the buff finished in another couple of seconds with a neck shot. no bullets recovered. used 260 grain noslers in it and they expanded big time and put holes through the rib cage about the size of the .45/70. no difference in the reaction of buff or how long it took to go down but just wasted alot more meat from the shoulders. no saving those for anything. bullet in the neck vertebrae nearly vaporized the vertebrae but there were bullet pieces from the jacket mixed with the bone fragments. no finding the bullet base either as that had passed through.

4) the last of our group was my brother who came and he is in a wheelchair but still wanted to handgun hunt a buff with a pistol and used a 629 .44 mag. being in a wheelchair he had consented to using a rifle and we thought he'd use the guide gun but when after waiting for hours in some brush one of the buff came into range of his pistol and one problem. i had only brought hornady leverevolution .44 mag bullets for my son to use on a ram or axis. no hardcast. he had resigned to the rifle and left his .44. after a little begging i handed him my son's .44 and the hornadays. first shot went throught perfect quartering away, two more and the buff was down. he shot great and i had expected to finish the buff off with the guide gun when the hornaday's failed but on cleaing the buff the first shot went through breaking the opposite shoulder and took out the lungs and the buff's aorta as well. was perhaps a total of a minute for the shots as one of the other bulls milled around in the way trying to get it up. the bullet recovered in the offside hide and the exit wound had bone fragments blown out through it. the bullet began life as a 225grain bullets with the polymer tip. i weighed it today and it weighed 210 grains. surprising performance from those and i'd not hesitate to use them on deer and say a cow elk. the hardcast obviously would've exited but i'm not sure they'd have worked better. btw,this buff weighed almost 1500lbs.

5) last one was another guy needed a follow up as he had shot his with a 300mag two days later. evidently he had lost confidence in his hornady sst's. (poor choice on a buff) he used my friend's guide gun and BB to finish the job. only shot he got was a running texas heart shot on the buff and the bullet entered in the left ham and was found just shy of the right ear in the hide. it traversed the buff and crushed about 4 feet of vertebrae before it rested in the hide behind the ear. bullet quite deformed but not broken apart. weighed it today and it weighed 370 grains. i honestly believe that load at another 200fps less would've exited as bullet deformation would've been less but nonetheless, good results. bull dropped like a sack of taters.

Excellent results and an excellent hunt! Congratulations! I would say that your son has shown some real adult behavior! You should be very proud! Looking forward to seeing the photographs!

all in all a great hunt, but a few observations based on the ones i've been in on thus far, bullet construction is more important than caliber. fps is worth nothing if the bullet isn't up to the task. also, i still maintain a good hollowpoint is perfect up to only the ABSOLUTE LARGEST game available. the BB casull rounds i used were more than adequate in fact, they may be a touch too much in the penetration dept and i've had more definitive results with partitions and xtps in the past on buff. just a larger wound channel and would like to try the dpx rounds from corbon next time.

thanks, and my sons did take rams and alex, the older took a small axis doe for some great bbq. they both made some great shots and showed alot of patience. right now i'm taking the marinading steaks out of the fridge and am gonna cook some and some buffalo burgers on the grill.

tradmark, you need to open a photo bucket account -- www.photobucket.com

Just follow the directions, upload your photos, then you can post them here. Looking forward to seeing them!

i have one but having camera issues hopefully to be sorted out soon.

Where did you go... and would go again?

i would go again, but this is a shoot and imho not as much of a hunt for me. i went for the meat and the ability to use my pistols. i have been in hunt withdrawal through medical school and residency thus far and also wanted the boys to have a good time and introduce my bro in the wheelchair to hunting. the guides do a great job and it's a friendly environment so i'd love to go back, but it wasn't like my buff hunt on 40K acres in eastern colorado, though not far off.

then again it was about the same just on a smaller scale. bowhunting is what i do if i really want a challenging hunt. firearms pistol or rifle are for meat and fun.