Since moving to MT from AZ back in Sept., I had told myself to make it a point to find the time and do trophy bison hunt while I was living up here. This country is steeped in bison history and I could think of no where else I would want to do such a hunt.. I have a buddy up here who ranches around 12K acres in central MT who just happened to have a herd on his property.. and within that herd, there are a handful of real bruiser bulls.. We made plans back in Sept to wait till the dead of winter to let the bulls grow their full winter capes.. FINALLY, the hunt rolled around and I headed out east to the ranch in the COLD MT winter..
We started out the hunt by stopping at the foreman's house for a cup of cowboy coffee and making sure the tractor had the loader on the front end!! After cussing the wind and the chilly weather for a few minutes, we were on our way.. We then made our way onto the rolling prairie in search of the herd.. Out here on the endless open sea of grass, a herd of 20+ bison isn't too hard to spot. You can see their hulking masses from at least 3 miles away!! We had spotted them out to the south of our location, up towards the foothills of the mountains and a good 500 ft higher in elevation than where we were at the time. With the herd now in sight, we ditched down into a coulee that paralled the herd and would take us right within shooting distance, should they not smell us.. We made our way towards the herd, periodically taking a peek at them to make sure they hadn't made us out..
When we finally got to within range, I eased the cigar sized 45-70 blackpowder cartridge into the open rolling block breach of the Shiloh Sharpes rifle I was toting.. A true bison gun if there ever was one.. As we eased up out of the coulee, we had put ourselves to within 75 yards of the feeding herd. The wind was howling out of the west, and with the wind, the herd hadn't heard us, or caught our scent.. We glassed them over and gave each bull the twice over.. Finally, with pretty much every bull within range, it was just a matter of which one tickled my fancy.. I was hoping to find a bull that was at his full potential...fully mature, with horns that weren't getting any longer, and huge body size.. There was a couple of bulls in the herd that fit that bill to a tee. We narrowed it down, and waited till one of them eased into a open shot. After a short wait, one of the two target bulls fed off a few yards away from the rest of the herd. I eased the hammer back on the Sharpes, slowly sqeezed the set trigger, and then eased the trigger back.. BOOM!! The acrid smell of the blackpowder burned my nose as the smoke came right back in my face.. The bull was hit well, but he didn't hardly react to the hit at all!! I quickly threw another round in and hit him again. This one hurt him alot! He tried to make off with the rest of the herd, but was soon wobbling on weak legs. After about 20 seconds, it was over. The old bull tipped over into the golden grass. But as soon as he did, the WHOLE herd came back and surrounded the fallen bull and started pawing at him and hooking him, trying to rally their fallen compadre back to his feet.. It was quite a sight to see that. It also made clear how a buffalo hunter in the 1800's could set off in the distance and wipe out an entire herd with ease..
When we made our way up to the bull, I was blown away by his sheer size!! He was beyond huge!! We then radioed back down to the ranch house and told them to fire up the tractor!! We took plenty of shots of the bull, and then made our way back to the barn in preperation of the HUGE workload that lay ahead of us!! The amount of work that comes with shooting an animal of this size is staggering..the caping, fleshing,boning, and packaging took us all that afternoon and all of the next day as well!! I was glad when we were do with all of that!

As I now type this, I can reflect on this hunt.. Was it a hard or physically demanding hunt? No, not by any means. But that aspect didn't take away from the experience at all. This was a hunt that I've always wanted to do since I can recall, and can now say I've done it. I probably won't ever shoot another bison, but I am glad I did it. I took a super sized bull and I'll be plenty happy with just him as my only bison I ever take.. It was a fun hunt, and a great way to spend 3 days after all the other seasons have closed.. I didn't get to hunt any big game this season because of the move to MT from AZ fell at the wrong time, so this was a great way to "feed the fire" this winter, in preperation for another African safari coming up this Aug.. A great hunt that I would recomend to anyone!

There were HUNDREDS of Sharptails on the ranch this weekend.. That's my luck though, hunt Sharpies on the ranch all season, can't buy one.. hunt bison, they're everywhere you turn!!


This was the view I had when we had finally got up on them and peeked up out of the coulee. There were about 10 others in the herd that were just outta camera view..


BIG BULL DOWN!! The Sharpe's did the trick!! My bull was estimated to be around 10 to 11 years of age and weighed right in around the 1 ton mark..a giant bull!! And from those of you who are numbers counters, he was a hair over 18" on lentgh, and had 14" bases!!


don't let the warm weather look in the pics fool ya.. it was about 24 degrees with a good 30 MPH wind howling!! It was damned cold out there!!


The ONLY way to take care of a bison in the field!! haul him off the ranch and into a barn and outta that wind!! I now have a whole new apprieciation for the plains indians who made their living off these animals..they are a ton of work, and I couldn't imagine doing one without modern convinences..




buffalo slayer...


thanks for looking, guys!!

Awesome!

What a great trophy

What a great bull ! Congratulations. Man, that country doesn't look like there's anything to stop the wind ... cold, cold.

Does he want take out any more of bulls like that outa his herd???

simply Outstanding congrats on your hunt.thanks for shareing
regards

Sounds like a great time and congrats on a real trophy!

good job! sounds like a fun hunt! congrats on a nice trophy!

Great story, fine flicks and a Trophy Buffalo. Congratulations.

What a great animal! Congratulations!

Thanks for sharing!

Good job!

Great bull and a great written report. I hope to do the same hunt someday with the same style rifle; as you say, just once. Congratulations.

Great Hunt,
The only thing to slow that wind coming from
Alaska is a barbed wire fence,and it's down!

Yeah, you arrived just in time for the Montana wind festival...

January 1st-December 31st (weather permitting)

How much did you pay for the Bull?

AD

Nice one!!

Thanks for the writeup. I'm almost ashamed in that I did a Turner bull "hunt" (more like a shoot) many years ago. It was pretty cheep, two were busting down fences, got a phone call and they wanted them dead NOW. Yours sounds way better, you actually had to walk more than 100 yards. They wouldn't even let me keep the ear tag. At least you had that front end loader!

The meat on ours, about 7 years old, was the best I ever had. Hope yours is just as good.

Congrats

Very nice bull. Thats a bunch of great tasting meat there Congrats.

Oh man, that's really awesome! Please, do tell the details of the hunt (PM if you would!) - who you contacted, costs, etc. I'd love to do that!

Really great story and pics, Many Thanks for sharing.

thanks for the kind words, guys..

mt Al,
as we all know, those buff aren't the hardest critters to hunt.. I could have easily drove up there and shot one, but I wanted to at least try and put a stalk on them!! They aren't scared of the truck at all, but if they see ya out on foot, it's game over!! They will high tail it ASAP!!
I guess you can make these hunts as easy or as hard as you want.. But hey, it's awesome meat, and the mount will look great!

rnovi, if you are sereious about wanting to do a hunt, I'm sure I could talk to him and get ya lined up on one. There are some real bruisers out there. PM me and we'll see what we can do.

again, thanks guys!

Scotty,
Nice bull - very nice.

Not to detract from your story, but Sharps is spelled without an "e" and without the "'". The inventor/maker was Christian Sharps.

And it is definitely NOT a rolling block. It is a falling block.

Just a few details for those of us that have some affection for the rifle.

Brent

good info to have Brent!! I am totally unfamiliar with them, but have always wanted to learn more and such about the guns..
Hell, before that day, I'd never shot one before. Now, I'm thinking of buying one!! It didn't take much for it to get under my skin!!

quote:

Originally posted by Scottyboy:
good info to have Brent!! I am totally unfamiliar with them, but have always wanted to learn more and such about the guns..
Hell, before that day, I'd never shot one before. Now, I'm thinking of buying one!! It didn't take much for it to get under my skin!!

that is the truth. Be careful, but I think it may be too late for you now.

Brent

Very nice bull man, congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by Scottyboy:
good info to have Brent!! I am totally unfamiliar with them, but have always wanted to learn more and such about the guns..
Hell, before that day, I'd never shot one before. Now, I'm thinking of buying one!! It didn't take much for it to get under my skin!!

Very nice write up and great looking buff.
I also seen what Brent did in your story. That is easy for some of us old Sharps shooters. Never the less, it was well written.

On a side note, I have a nice Shiloh Sharps F/S in the classified....

BIG TATANKA!

Congrats on a great hunt. I especially like the use of the John Deere. I wish I could do that with Elk!

Thanks guys..

Red Hawk, I'm learning!!!

I'll be sure and check out the gun ASAP. I may just have to take 'er off your hands!!

It's very important to shoot a bison in the right place. Like next to a front end loader!
Congratulations and good job! Very nice bull.

Nice Bull, Congratulations!!!

A great bull taken with a classic cartridge -- what a perfect hunt!

Thanks for sharing the details and photos.

Great post and gerat pics. Thanks for sharing.

Bill

Typical reaction from the herd..They always return once and sometimes return twice. Be sure they are gone before you walk up to your downed bull..