I'm not "chompin' at the bit" right now to shoot a bison bull, no matter what. But I was wondering, from those of you that have hunted them, in your opinion what is the most fair chase, as close as it use to be hunt out there? I know they're not as "skittish" as a whitetail or quite as dangerous as a cape buffalo, but I think there are hunts that don't feel like you're shooting a cow. An Indian Reservation would be a plus, but I don't know if any offer bison. I would want some meat, but I know most outfits make you buy that seperately.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

the crow rez in montana have buff hunts
but the best wild buff hunt i know of is the henry mts hunt in utah.
VERY wild population and a very challenging hunt.

I killed one out of the Jackson Hole herd 2 years ago, not my most exsiteing hunt but it was no walk in the park either.
he did put a 100 yrds between us real quick when he 1st saw me, but slowed to a slow walk after he could not see me because of thick timber

Everyone says they are not as dangerous as cape buffalo. And I will agree that they have not killed as many people. But think about how many folks in Yellowstone get run down by bison every year and you might change your tune.

Bison are fast and bigger, though not quite as mean.

I would love to see a bison bull fight a cape buffalo bull. I am betting the cape buffalo would run away from an animal twice his size and twice as fast.

but when you watch the tourists in yellowstone, its a wonder that they don't get kill by mice

D99 is correct. They get considerably bigger than cape buffalo. They're probably not as mean because there aren't as many predators trying to make a meal of them! All bovine have the capacity to be ornery -- just ask anyone who has spent time around cattle.

They are 800 to 1300 pounds heavier, can run almost 45 miles an hour, and move en mass tighter than any animal I know of other than Aoudad and Blue sheep.

Their danger must never be underestimated, or they will plow you into small bits in the landscape.

Doeas anyone have contact info for the Crow Res. hunt? I seem to remember reading about it once in SCI Mag several years ago, but didn't keep information on who to talk to in order to arrange the hunt. I also seem to remember that the tribe kept the meat.

Well, I was going to recommend Hawes out of Kansas, but it looks like they are booked up this year.

If you care about trophy importation, check out http://www.mvpoutfitters.com/ or http://www.silvertipoutfitters/hunt/bison_hunts.html or http://www.sikanniriver.com/bison.htm.

If you don't care about importation, check out www.yukonsheep.com. None of these options is inexpensive but all give you the chance to do this hunt right without having to draw a tag in Utah, Arizona or elsewhere (which may take decades).

You can also hunt Bison in Custer State Park of South Dakota or a variety of Indian Reservations all of which are "fenced" to one degree or another. These are defintiely hunts but not nearly as "wild" as the above.

Good luck!

I am hoping to go on a hunt at Custer State park in South Dakota this fall for a cow bison.

One thing that needs correction however, is that Cape Buffalo and North American Bison are roughly about the same size.

A mature bison/buffalo can weigh in at 2000 pounds, maybe a little heavier in some cases, as can a Cape Buffalo.

The heaviest Bison I have ever heard of weighed in at 3000 pounds, but that was an extreme exception.

The average Bison/Buffalo bull goes between 1500 and 2000, with 1700 to 1800 being a good average.

Having worked with them, Buffalo are not overly impressed with human superiority.

I am sure Free Range animals act differently than animals that have lived all or most of their lives captive or semi-captive.

While they can be astonishingly fast, I believe that they are a lot more prone to flee from a hunter than a Cape Buffalo is.

Yes, people get run over and tossed by Bison/Buffalo annually, but there are, and have been fewer people killed by Bison/Buffalo, than by Capes.

The only large bovine I have hunted is Musk Ox, but in conversations I have had with folks that have hunted Bison, is that if the hunter has an adequate rifle and can properly place their shot at from zero to 150 yards, Bison/Buffalo are easy to kill in comparison to a Cape Buffalo. JMO.

First muskox isn't a bovine it is a sheep/antelope like the Takin.

Second no cape buffalo on this planet has ever reached the size of an average bison bull.

The bison cows are very small and a 1000 pounder is a big one, but bull bison are at least 800 to 1000 pounds bigger than any cape buffalo walking the african continent.

We also don't know how many folks have been killed by either one.

Cape buffalo get hunted by sportsmen in greater numbers than bison do. The ratio is probably something like 24 to 1. That and we have records on cape buffalo hunting by sportsmen that go back to the 1800s.

Bison were protected in North America from the late 1800s until 1960s and in most places the 1970s. So we don't have almost 300 years of hunting lore for bison. We know about the market hunting of buffalo with sharps, springfield, and winchester rifles, other than that we have bison hunting as mostly an obscure thing since then.

Crazy horse you have experience with cape buffalo?

Asiatic water buffalo are mid size between capes and bison. I have seen lots of asiatic buffalo in the 2000-2200 pound range.

In order from largest to smallest among wild cattle it would go like this.

1. Woods bison
2. gaur
3. plains bison
4. asiatic water buffalo
5. wisent (european bison)
6. cape buffalo
7. bangeng.
8. African forest buffalo

I didn't include Curabow from the Phillipines, Kourprey and Seladang as I have never seen these cattle.

Let me get this straight D99, your saying Cape Buffalo Bulls weigh less than 1200 pounds?

Bison, were NEVER Protected.

By the late 1880's early 1890's, there were less than 1000 Bison left in North America, the only "Protection" they received is from the fact that some of those animals were in areas that would become National or Provincial parks, while the vast majority were in the hands of private ranchers like Charles Goodnight and Scotty Phillip and Michael Pablo and others.

The only protection Bison received is because their numbers had dropped so low, that practically everyone during that time frame knew where and who had control of practically every Bison in North America.

My "experiences" with Cape Buffalo are limited totally to the few I have seen in the various zoos I have visited.

Since you seem to be so knowledgable on this subject, please explain how the Encyclopedia Britannica could have made such an obvious mistake with their information?

The Cape buffalo is not very tall—it stands only 130–150 cm (51–59 inches) tall and has relatively short legs—but it is massive, weighing 425–870 kg (935–1,910 pounds). Bulls are about 100 kg (220 pounds) heavier than cows, and their horns are thicker and usually wider, up to 100 cm (40 inches) across, with a broad shield (only fully developed at seven years) covering the forehead. The coat is thin and black, except in young calves, whose coats may be either black or brown.

And to compound the error, they list this for the Bison.

Bison are large, powerful animals. A mature bull stands about 2 metres (6.5 feet) at the shoulder and weighs more than 900 kg (1,980 pounds). The female is about 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall and weighs about 320 kg (700 pounds).

I am not sure where you came up with your information, but from every research paper I have read, the Gaur is the largest of the wild bovines, with the asiatic Water buffalo being next and then the Wisent/Woods Bison/Plains Bison/Cape Buffalo, all group together due to differences in weight, with the Bison/Wisent group having an edge in heighth.

Also, yes, I am well aware that a Musk Ox is not a Bovine, but it ain't an antelope either, it is Ovibos, which is a link between sheep and bovines.

If we are to believe wikipedia, male cape buffalo and male plains bison weigh in at 900kg on average. Wood bison top out at around 1000kg. If I had to guess about the extreme high ends, I think a larger than average plains bison will likely weigh more than a larger than average cape buffalo. Apparently, again if we are to believe wikipedia, even the smallest Gaur (the Malayan) can tip the scales at 1300 kg while the largest Southeast Asian Gaur can go 1500kg.

Ultimate ungulate is the best source not wikipedia.

tendrams, I did not use wikipedia, those figures are from the encyclopedia Britanica web site.

Are you saying that with average animals of either species, Cape Buffalo are 800 to 1000 pounds lighter in weight than Bison?

On average, not exceptional animals of either species, but AVERAGE animals, Cape Buffalo and Bison are fairly close in weight, to each other.

D99, you did not answer my question, are you saying adult male Cape Buffalo weigh 1200 pounds or less?

The average American Bison, again, not the exceptional animals weigh between 1600 and 2000 pounds.

If as D99 maintains, a bull Cape Buffalo weighs 800 to 1000 pounds less than that:

quote:

but bull bison are at least 800 to 1000 pounds bigger than any cape buffalo walking the african continent.

the above is directlty from his earlier post, then that means Cape Buffalo weigh no more than 1200 pounds and that would be for ABOVE AVERAGE animals.

Do You Agree With That Tendrams?

I never use Wikipedia as a source for ANY of the information I use in my posts or responses, there are too many more reliable sources of information on the internet.

Here is the information on Bison, both American,

General Characteristics

Body Length: up to 380 cm / 12.5 ft
Shoulder Height: up to 195 cm / 6.5 ft.
Tail Length: 90 cm / 3 ft.
Weight: 545-818 kg / 1200-1800 lb.

And the Wisent/European Bison.

General Characteristics

Body Length: 290 cm / 9.6 ft.
Shoulder Height: 180-195 cm / 6-6.5 ft.
Tail Length: 80 cm / 2.6 ft.
Weight: 800-1000 kg / 1760-2200 lb.

Now here is the info on the Cape Buffalo from the same source.

General Characteristics

Male African buffalo are considerably larger than females, and savannah races can be up to twice as heavy large as S. c. nanus, the forest race (Nowak, 1991). Forest buffalo tend to measure less than 120 cm in height and weigh under 320 kg (Kingdon, 1997).
Reported measurements for African buffalo (Syncerus caffer)

Source Adult Weight Head & Body Length Shoulder Height Tail Length
Alden et al., 1995
(for S. c. caffer) 500-700 kg 240-340 cm 140-160 cm
-

Alden et al., 1995
(for S. c. nanus) 265-320 kg 180-220 cm 100-130 cm
-

Buchholtz, 1990 265-680 kg 220-340 cm 100-170 cm 70-110 cm

Kingdon, 1997 250-850 kg 170-340 cm 100-170 cm 50-80 cm

Nowak, 1991 300-900 kg 210-340 cm 100-170 cm 75-110 cm

Now, with the exception of the figures given for the Forest Buffalo, and using 2.2 pounds per Kg, the above figures, from your highly regarded source D99, clearly show that Cape Buffalo range in weight, just thru these samples, from 1500 pounds to almost 2000 pounds.

Niow you were the one that suggested this source material, are you still going to maintain that American Bison on average are 800 to 1000 pounds Heavier than Cape Buffalo, or are you going to dispute the information given by your own recommended source?

Tendrams, this is from Ultimate Ungulate, same as the info posted above at the recommendation of D99.

Gaur:

General Characteristics

Body Length: 250-330 cm / 8.3-11 ft.
Shoulder Height: 170-220 cm / 5.6-7.2 ft.
Tail Length: 70-100 cm / 28-40 in.
Weight: 700-1000 kg / 1540-2200 lb.

Gaur are considered by most knowledgable authorities as the largest of the wild bovines, I feel they are going in accordance to Shoulder heighth.

For some reason, this highly recommended information resource does not list the heights nor weights for Asian Water Buffalo.

quote:

Are you saying that with average animals of either species, Cape Buffalo are 800 to 1000 pounds lighter in weight than Bison?

NO. Read my post again. I am agreeing with you! Average animals of both species are for all practical purposes probably fairly close in weight. However, exceptionally large bison are probably also generally much heavier than exceptionally large cape buffalo. This is doubly true for Wood Bison which start out being (on average) 20% larger the plains bison.

Gaur stats, whatever they may be, are really beyond the scope of this discussion and far afield from the original topic put forth by Cazador. Nobody here is all that likely to be hunting one anytime soon anyway.

Cazador,

Whatever the weight stats may be, understand that you really have a few options. You can hunt bull Bison on a ranch for between $2000 and $4000 (not all that interesting), draw a tag in Custer State park and pay $5000 (moderately interesting), miraculously draw a tag in Utah, AZ, or Montana and pay between $1000 and $2000 (VERY interesting), or you pony up the big bucks and hunt in Canada for between $6000 and $10,000 (Out of this world interesting). In short, at the top end, you can hunt cape buffalo for LESS money than you can hunt bison under some circumstances. That said, the top end bison hunts are EVERY BIT the adventure that you will have hunting cape buffalo.

Crazyhorse,

For someone trying to sell a product your an opnioninated guy aren't you? I am too but my job allows me to run my mouth without it hurting my pocketbook.

I think we are going to agree to disagree. As two guys that have mostly school book experience on cape buffalo. Wikipedia, Ultimate ungulate, and the ecylopedias are only as good as the information they were given.

If you told me the sky was falling tommorow and wild bovids were falling out it, hopefully some will of each species will fall on some scales so we can figure this out.

I have seen mature bull bison come off the scales at 2400 pounds, and have been told that some bulls weigh 2700 pounds by bison ranchers. I have always been lead to beleive mostly by reading Boddington that capes weigh 1500 pounds on average. Though the very rare one will weigh 1800-2000, again according to Bodington.

Water buffalo are bigger, and I can attest to this from seeing them.

I have seen Gaur in person in Zoos in Asia and Europe. I have never seen a Gaur that would weigh over 2000 pounds let a be bigger than the biggest bison bulls I have seen.

I guess being from Texas you have seen Brahman bulls. And they are huge, some Brahman bulls can be almost 2800 pounds. I have often wondered if someone switched the data on Brahaman and Gaur as I have never seen a Gaur that was like I said over 2000.

Be ware you can not bring Woods bison trophys back to America. They do not have CITES imports for them.

quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:
GAUR VIDEO ...

What languages is this it sounds like Portuguese. Klingon and Spanish combined.

While you guys continue to banter off topic I'd like to inform the poster of another option.
The Henry Mountains in Utah has a completely free ranging herd, very wild. My brother had a cow tag we were unable to fill this last year, these Buff were spooky, agile and mostly in dark timber as steep as any elk hunt and near timberline trying to get as far away from roads as possible. These wild Bison were a completely different animal than pasture Buffalo and Park Buffalo no comparison.
Alaska's Wood Bison herd is also wild and has large numbers however transport will cost you plenty.
My nieces have shot many ranch Buff, all one shot kills 25-06 at the base of the skull.

Thanks all for some excellent suggestions and places to look into. I really appreciate it.

I have shot exactly one cape buffalo. Since I was obsessed at the time with wondering when we could stop the "duck walk" and then, killing the thing, I completely forgot about asking him if he wouldn't mind stepping on the bathroom scale before I began to blast away.

quote:

Originally posted by D99:
Crazyhorse,

For someone trying to sell a product your an opnioninated guy aren't you?

You note that too, huh? Hope his hunting skills are better than his marketing.

quote:

Originally posted by D99:

quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:
GAUR VIDEO ...

What languages is this it sounds like Portuguese. Klingon and Spanish combined.

Sounds like Serbo-Croataian a bit ... not sure ...

+1 on Custer State Park in South Dakota. This is NOT a canned ranch hunt, the hunter will have to work (a little) for his trophy, and the Boone & Crockett Club recognizes CSP as fair chase. A patient shooter should be able to kill a book bull, as I did. Then he can sell the old bull buffalo carcass to a meat packer--I got 90 cents/lb or $860 for mine last year. Then I gave several hundred dollars back to the meat packer for young, succulent bison cuts that were the most delicious wild game I've ever eaten.

quote:

Originally posted by D99:
Crazyhorse,

For someone trying to sell a product your an opnioninated guy aren't you?


You note that too, huh? Hope his hunting skills are better than his marketing.

D99 and Kamo Gari, I ain't trying to market one damn thing, and a persons opinion about something does not have one thing to do with their hunting ability or their ability to provide their customers with a good hunt.

To throw those comments into the discussions shows a level of immaturity and internet BS because you have the computer to hide behind.

The discussion degraded into an arguement about the weights of Bison and Cape Buffalo, D99, you were the one that cited Ultimate Ungulater as your source material and seemed pretty sure of its information, until I posted actual information from the site.

Also, since you have missed out on some other topics, I worked at the Fort Worth Texas Zoo for 24 + years, 16 of that managing a small herd of Bison including the hand raising of two animals.

Now, since you have abandoned your own recommended source for weights on these animals, my discussion with you and your cheer lerader KG is at an end, I am sure to most people's relief.

As to the Bison herd in the Henry's Mountains, I have talked with a lady in Saginaw Texas that drew a tag and was successful on that hunt.

I can not remember the exact statistics as far as herd size, but the animlas have free range over something like 4200 square miles of land.

As for the Woods Bison in Canada, I know that in 2000, when I did my Musk Ox hunt, Jerome Knapp was offering "Free Range" hunts for animals in the NWT that had migrated out of Wood buffalo Provincial Park.

I checked into the hunts he was offering, but at the time it was out of my price range.

As I have stated elsewhere on AR, I am trying to get my act together and apply for one of the cull cow buffalo tags up at Custer State Park.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
I know that in 2000, when I did my Musk Ox hunt, Jerome Knapp was offering "Free Range" hunts for animals in the NWT that had migrated out of Wood buffalo Provincial Park..

Actually, I think it is only Eric Grinnell and one other outfitter who offer those hunts in Alberta. Does the NWT gov't even view bison roaming outside the WBNP in the same way that the Alberta Government does? If so, I can see Mr. Knap offering hunts similar to Grinnel's (running about $5K-$6K) though I have never heard of it and don't know the territorial legalities.
What was the cost of the hunts you heard of being offered in the NWT as I think you may be thinking of another hunt? Knap did used to have a contract with the local natives to provide hunts within the NWT MacKenzie Bison Sanctuary. Those ran about $9000 as of two or three years ago. That contract however, apparently through no fault of Mr Knap, was not renewed a few years back.
The tribe now offers those hunts on their own and, to be frank, I would be VERY wary of this one. Honestly, from what I saw, they didn't take really big bulls out of there anyway.

JMHO

Tendrams, first off let me apologise for my mistaking the intent of your earlier post.

I was not, nor am not looking for people to agree with me on the weight issue that I was involved in, just trying to get folks that had or have experience with Cape Buffalo to confirm or deny the contested information on their weight in comparison to Bison/Buffalo.

To the best of my memory, the hunt Jerome Knapp was offering was in NWT, not quite 1/3 of Wood Buffalo National Park is in NWT with the balance being in Northern Alberta.

It seems like the hunt he was offering was based out of Hay River. The cost was around $6000.00 US for a 5 day hunt.

Again, as I do not have any of the old literature on the hunt, the hunt was done in the winter after good snow cover, with the guide and hunter using snow mobiles to drive trails in the hunt area, lo9oking for fresh tracks made by Bison/Buffalo that had left the park boundaries.

I had thought about trying to do the hunt, but never long enough or hard enough to attempt it.

At about that same time,circa 2000, Jerome was also offering a hunt for limited numbers of Wisent in one of the former Soviet Bloc countries.

After 2001, I lost track of where or what Jerome Knapp was doing in the way of offering hunts.

2,200 lbs? Heck, I was sitting in the auction the other day and they ran black bull through, looked cross-bred to me, that wieghed 3,020 lbs and meaner than a rabid buzz saw. You guys and your sissy buffalo/cape/lions.... haha I'd wager that "domestic" bull would have killed anyone twice before a buff would have thought once about it.

Anyway, many of the domestic buffalo herds have cattle genes. The Henry Mtns herd in Southern Utah are pure. The Henry buffalo will test even the best hunters and have you pulling your hair out. Of course some happen along one in the middle of the road, but many times they are hunted at timberline or down in the PJ jungle benches. They can move as fast as an elk and out distance even the best mule. They can go up, down and through about anything they encounter. 2,000 lb mountain goats that move like a frieght train.

Once a guy hunted truely wild buffalo he could never shoot a ranch bull for sport. I'd rather buy buffalo meat and a processed hide than spend $xxxx to shoot one on a ranch. Take the money and go on a real hunt.

..

crazyhorse,

For $6K my guess is it must have been a hunt for those roaming outside the park. I think you can still pick up a similar hunt for around that money in Alberta but have heard of no one doing such hunts in the NWT. These hunts are a good management tool designed to help keep the disease in WBNP from infecting other nearby herds. I also know the natives with the rights to the MacKenzie Refuge were looking to get a good bit more than that...even then...so it must have been a separate deal.

MC,

You are absolutely right about the Henrys. Add to the terrain issues the fact that you aren't guaranteed snow during your hunt season and animal recovery can get really interesting really quick I imagine. In other words, BRING FRIENDS! As someone who has been lucky enough to take a few free roaming bison, I also agree wholeheartedly with your final comment. Guys should spend the money and do it right....they won't regret it.

Remember if shoot a Wood Bison or not you can't import them. No CITES import permits on Wood Bison.

I never questioned your ability as a hunter. This seems to be an ongoing concept to do so on this platform and I don't like it either.

All I am saying if I was selling hunts, I wouldn't be such a cratchety bastard.

Not hiding behind anything. Just not stupid enough to put private information on a public forum, as I have no financial business to sell here. I have had private information stolen from me and used against me financially.

In all honesty everyone should review their credit report (especially if they have a common name and live in area with many people with the same name... i.e. Bob Jones, Mike Smith and such). Posting private information in a public forum is not a good idea.

www.ftc.gov is a good resource for privacy on the internet. I am a Navy personal financial management advisor when I am not in the war zone as a collateral job.

D99 - PM sent.......

quote:

2,200 lbs? Heck, I was sitting in the auction the other day and they ran black bull through, looked cross-bred to me, that wieghed 3,020 lbs and meaner than a rabid buzz saw. You guys and your sissy buffalo/cape/lions.... haha I'd wager that "domestic" bull would have killed anyone twice before a buff would have thought once about it.

Thanks for the information D99, and yes my wife gets on to me about the amount of Personal information I put out, I probably should be more careful.

As far as being a crotchety old bastard, in many ways I am, and while I am probably wrong to many folks on this, I get just about all the clients I want yearly, I did not go into the business as another career.

If that had been my intention, I would be dealing in offering deer hunts, not javelina.

I have seen too many folks use the same analogy you and Kamo Gari used concerning my salesmanship/marketing/hunting ability on other forums, and don't like it.

Whether a person is a Guide/Outfitter/Writer or Craig Boddington or Capstick, they are entitled to their opinion on any subject, and no one, potential client or not, should judge them over their opinion on a particular subject.

As I have said elsewhere, if a person is going to base their decision on not booking with me because of my opinions on an InterNet Forum, than I would not want them booking with me, my past success rate and the references from my former clients is all that should matter.

Anyone and everyone, is entitled to have their own opinion on any subject, and should only be judged on their actual abilities.

At one time people were respected for the ability to have an independent opinion on a subject, and stand behind that opinion, and not be a sheeple, just to fit in.

Are you guys done now? If not please start another thread.

If you can get a permit for the Henry Mountains, I agree with other posters that is the place to go for a fair chase bison hunt.

Another option is Alaska. There are several free range bison areas here and I think most of them are very challenging fair chase hunts. The most difficult parts are getting into and out of the hunt areas, locating the herds, and separating a bison from the herd that goes with your permit. Permits are on a draw system. Generally you have the least chance of being drawn in the Delta area, however ADFG may issue more permits for that area over the next few years to reduce crop destruction. The hunts are conducted in the fall and winter and you may be assigned a hunt time any where from October to February. Success rates are usually higher in the Alaska hunt areas than in the Henry's.

Just my opinion on the subject, but I think the main aspect about hunting/shooting a Buffalo/Bison for many folks is the "Fair Chase" concept.

Except for the animals in the Henry's Mountains that are or can be extremely wild, and those in Alaska that probably are pressured more by folks than most of the other populations on the North American continent, Buffalo are just large critters that don't really fear much, up to and including humans.

Yes, I am sure that there are people that draw tags, that for various reasons, do not kill an animal, but I wonder how many times an animal not being killed is the result of the shooter not seeing anything he/she wanted to shoot, and not the result of not seeing anything.

I want to go shoot one in the worst way, and I too want it to be "Fair Chase" as possible, that is why I am hoping to get in on the cow hunt at Custer State Park.

I could do the same thing on a private ranch here in Texas or in Oklahoma cheaper and not have to travel as far, but it would feel like shooting someone's milk cow.

The realist in me however, reminds me of the Musk Ox I shot.

The trip was excellent and getting all the details worked out and the hunt put together was exciting, but when it came down to taking the shot, it was just exactly like shooting someone's milk cow.

The bull stood out there on the Tundra, watching me, not one bit impressed on where I ranked on the food chain.

The cow buffalo hunt is the same way at Custer State Park, it is a One Day hunt, not griping, because I ain't picky.

For a real trophy hunter wanting a hunt of a Life Time experience, the Henry's Mountain hunt and possibly some of the stuff in Alaska would be at the top of the pile.

Hey Guys

I thought I would add my 2 cents worth on this one and give you an excellent opinion on both Cape Buffalo and Bison! I have only shot 2 bison, but itching to find some time to go shoot some more! I did not have much of a hunt for my bison--more of a get out the truck and shoot hell out of them, but it was fun anyway, but still that is not the best part!

I have shot a bit over a dozen cape buffalo too. This is big fun and all of them were hunting. Still that is not the best part!

Size wise bison looked about the same as my cape buffalo to me, both big and bovine looking!

So what is the best part of the whole thing?

Eating the damn things! God Almighty ain't nothing like the back straps of a cape buffalo that has ripened for 3 days, and no burger on the planet can match bison burgers!

Shooting is the fun part, followed by eating!

Michael

quote:

Eating the damn things! God Almighty ain't nothing like the back straps of a cape buffalo that has ripened for 3 days, and no burger on the planet can match bison burgers!

Shooting is the fun part, followed by eating!

I ain't never had any Cape Buffalo, but if it is half as good as Buffalo/Bison meat, it has to have come straight from Heaven.

I turned my Son-In-Law from wanting steaks well done to at least eating them Medium Rare.

There is a store in Fort Worth that sells Buffalo meat, not just the ground stuff, but Strip Loins and Rib Eyes and Briskets.

One evening I went by there and bought 4 of the prettiest Strip Loins in the case, took them home, ran a little seasoning over them and grilled them on a Mesquite wood fire.

I told my S-I-L he had a choice, eat it Medium Rare of do with out, because I was not going to ruin one of those pieces of meat by cooking it too done.

This was ranch raised Buffalo, not a Free Ranging, Prairie raised animal, but it is plenty damn good.

I can only guess as to how a Cape Buffalo must taste.

Many Thanks for passing along the info.

Crazy horse,

Unless things have changed since the retirement of the head guy at Custer a few years ago, the cow culls take place on a separate and smaller fenced area of the park and not on the expanse of the entire (but still fenced) Custer State Park. You might want to double check just how different the experience might be from some hunt on a big private ranch somewhere. Frankly, the only bison herds that are 100% fair chase and wild, in that they are recognized by B&C for the "ALL TIME book" (as opposed to just the "records" book) are those in Canada and Alaska. Even the Henry Mtn. herd, as it is apparently subject to some pretty "hands on" management, is not eligible for the "all time book". (EDIT: only trophies from Canada and Alaska are eligible for "place awards"....all free roaming trophies are eligible for the books). Of course, those animals coming from probably the wildest hunt of all, bulls in Alberta roaming outside WBNP, aren't eligible either as there is technically no season on them and no license requred to hunt them. Go figure. In short, a book eligible, 100% wild hunt that you don't need to draw for is darned hard to find and you pretty much need to look north of the lower 48 to have much luck at finding one.

Hope this helps.