The first Flying D cow bison hunts were last weekend, and it's looking like these are going to be a lot wilder than anybody was guessing! Following is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to a guy who we booked for this coming weekend.
Just got the report from the initial cow hunts last weekend. Wow!! I think
you're gonna be in for an adventure....This ain't no "fish in a barrel" kind
of deal...
The first one on Friday, Rob Arnaud took the hunter out. Took 'em a while
to find the bison, but then located all 2500 in one drainage. He said the
folks want to "trophy cow hunt", and turned down a few scrub horned ones.
Finally located a good one and whacked it at about 45 yards. There was also
a sick one nearby, that the ranch bison manager had asked them to kill, so
they had the hunter shoot it also. The whole herd went nuts!!! I guess
they do that when they smell blood. Rob said it was like the old Indian
attack on the wagon train movies; the whole herd is rampaging around their
trucks. Said it was the wildest, bellowingest, dangest thing he'd been in
on in some time. They couldn't even get out of the truck for like ten
minutes. Then he scampered out & got the chains on the dead cow & got it
hoisted onto the truck. They made a run for it, and about a hundred bison
chased them for about four miles....So the folks got their money's worth and
then some...The next day Jim Doran took out a 70+ year old guy. The bison
were still wild as all get out, & they had a little trouble getting up on
'em. The guy finally shot one at about 150 yards, & then had somewhat of a
lesser repeat of the previous day's experience.
You're gonna have fun...
Also, hot off the press (or phone line, as the case may be), they just released five 3-year old management bulls on the ranch. They're from another ranch, and were culled for breeding purposes
(too short, too tall, who knows?). They'd be fine for hunting, though, he
estimated they'd score 55-65 SCI points, which isn't too shabby, as the
"trophy" bison score 65-70. This will be a real hunt for sure, as locating
those five bison out of thousands of others, on a 113,000 acre ranch isn't
going to be a five-minute deal. Best is the price- $1750. Plus the meat will be as good as it gets. Also, the taxidermist that does a lot of the Flying D stuff says head mounts actually look better with their summer hair. So, if any of you can break loose and make it to MT in the next few weeks, that's going to be a heck of a deal.
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Cowboy Heaven Consulting
http://www.cowboyhvn.com
