The Yukon Fish and Game Association is allocated a couple of Bison permits to sell or do what ever they want with. What they have been doing is giving the permits to schools that are interested in taking their students on a Bison hunt for educational purposes. It has been a Yukon success story. The Y.F.G.A has done this for years now.
I was a director with the Y.F.G.A and was chosen to participate and hunt in the school Bison hunt.
I am nolonger a director with the YFGA, but I have been invited by the school to be the hunter again this year for the school bison hunt. I am very excited about the hunt. I have writen about these hunts before on Accurate, but for those who know nothing about it, I will explain some of the details other than what I have already mentioned.
A teacher or two ,around 5 parents, a game officer, and myself take a group of about 25 or so grade 7 students on a 5 day wilderness Bison hunt. We stay in wall tents and travel many miles by snowmobile. We set up camp when we get there, which is about a 5 hour drive from Whitehorse. Everyone participates in all activities. From cutting wood to fuel our tent stoves to winter survival. After a successful hunt, the students participate in butchering the animal and then a day is set aside at school to cut up and process the meat. A few weeks after that, the school has a bison feast and slides pictures and student presentations are shown. The whole school and thier families are invited.
This hunt is no easy feat.
The temprature was anywhere from -30 to -40 the whole week, last year. It is a tuff hunt.

I personally found these school hunts to be very rewarding and a positive experience and feel very fortunate to have been invited again. The very fact that we are able to have the privilage to do this, I am very greatful for.

I am also greatful to the Yukon Fish and Game Association for providing the Bison permit. They receive no money for it. They could get a good dollar out of these permits but they don't.

Daryl

yukoner,

What a great program. Nice to see officials with vision. You can't place a value on an experience like this, for you or the children. Outside Alaska, the Yukon is my favorite place. Great country, fine people.

Life is good,

Joe

Daryl,

How about folling up with a photo story for us? This sounds like a great deal for promoting hunting.

This is one of the absolute coolest ideas I've ever heard. Talk about the field trip of all times! I'd have killed to go along on something like that when I was a 7th grader.

This would also make one of THE all time best stories for the average hunting rags. I sure hope you will consider writing this up and publishing it where a lot of other folks can see it. You never know, it just might catch on!

Good work.
Brent

PS. if you do this the old fashioned way and want some old fashioned .45 Sharps buffalo rifle bullets, give me a holler.

Yukoner, this sounds too good to be true!

That is so "politically incorrect" down here, (teaching those innocent children to kill & eat) that the animal rights people would be having seizures in the street!

I hope you are able to continue the program without outside interference. (Don't let ANYBODY in California hear about this...)

BTW, who gets to do the shooting on the hunts?

Rick.

I believe the Crow Nation did this for their children including the butchering of the animal. Very good idea.

Yes, the Yukon is a great place.
but we wave our California types and problems here to. They come from the south and try to tell us how to live.

Ann,
one of the hunts was written up in Big Game Adventures, Seprtember 2001. This year I will keep a diary and take as many photo's as I can. It is not easy to do when you are stalking game and trying to keep a dozen or more kids to be quiet.
rick3foxes,
that is a big part of the reason they invited me. They don't want any problems on the hunt.(wounded Bison, etc.) They said they had confidence in me and I was great with the kids on the other hunts. There is alot of preasure when you have an audience of people watching.

Brent,
Yes I would like to do that but all I have is my guide gun. There is the possibility that the range could be longer as well. I would prefer my .338 WinMag. I am comfortable with it and I don't want to take any chances. Especially with the nature of these school hunts.


There still might be some pictures in the archives on Accurate that were posted by Canuck for me a couple years ago.

Daryl

Very, very impressive!

We could sure use some of that down south ( ... but you can hold the weather THAT cold!)

All,

Yukoner is right. This is no easy hunt for anyone. I hunted here last year and cannot imagine taking care of a bunch of 7th graders in the process of trying to take one of these magnificent critters.

Here is a web-site that some here might be interested in. It is a site maintained by the Yukon school that Yukoner might actually be referencing and has some great photos and fact about Wood Bison recovery. The site is . . . http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/elijahsmith/bison/

I believe Yukoner will be hunting what is known as the "Nisling River" herd of Wood Bison which is one of maybe two herds of this great subspecies that is actually at habitat capacity and huntable

Yukoner,

I am extremely jealous of you. This is, of course, really a great program for the kids and the future of hunting in general. If you, by some very slim chance, need a back-up shooter . . . let me know

Best Regards,

JohnTheGreek

[ 02-05-2003, 01:19: Message edited by: JohnTheGreek ]

Boy! what I would have given to do that in the 7th grade,only thing I remeber learning that year was how to survive the inner loop of D.C.

Yukoner what an awesome program. Everyone benefits in the end. I was just up at Canuck's dad's place to take a very large bull from his herd. They are a very big animals and I hope you don't lose any students in there while cleaning. We kept the cape so when cleaning the bull I had to crawl in up to just short of my waist to reach the wind pipe. It was -30 there also. Have a great time and your very lucky to share the experience with all those kids and their families.

470 Mbogo

JohnTheGreek,
I would love to have you along.

470Mbogo,
thanks for the support. I cut the brisket off first. Then it is not so hard to get the windpipe. The kids(girls&boys) get right involved with the skinning and butchering.

What is Canuck been up to? Have not heard from hiom for awile.

What did you shoot your Bison with?

Daryl

Hi Yukoner,
Canuck has just moved to Chetwyn from Sparwood. It was a job transfer and it's going to take a bit of time yet for him to get the new house in order. I shot my Buffalo with my bow. It was offered by Canuck as an opurtunity to take a Bison with a bow and was not a real hunt so to speak but it was a real adventure. I put in for the limited entry hunting for Bison every year and haven't even had a sniff of a draw. So I took advantage of the oppurtunity. My buddy Chris and I split the Buffalo because if I put that much meat in my freezer it would give my wife an escuse to say that I didn't really need to go hunting next year

This is the bull


Take good care
470 Mbogo

[ 02-09-2003, 22:19: Message edited by: 470 Mbogo ]

Yukoner,

Were it not for this damn work thing I would be there in a second! It is truly beautiful country!

Best of luck and be sure to post photos when the hunt in complete!

Regards,

JohnTheGreek

[ 02-12-2003, 00:13: Message edited by: JohnTheGreek ]