Oh-oh, now what? Any words of wisdom out there? I put in out of policy and actually got drawn. Exciting and worrisome at the same time.

Dean

I say contact F&W and try to get advice on where to look/start your hunt.

Watched a show on Wild TV and the Fish cops actually set these people up on a couple of problem bulls. Up at Zama.

A buddy went last year, had tough going, ended up settling on a cow.

No words of wisdom that might help you but I'm very interested in a bison hunt like you have been drawn for so please keeps us posted.

Here from a couple of years ago when they were hanging around the Assumption res on the road to Zama. Your best bet would be to see if you could find a couple of battery operators who could give you a good idea where they are at a given time.

Spend some time scouting.

My advice....bring friends.

Buy a big freezer.

What a great stroke of luck! That's a dream hunt for me! I would want to hunt with a black powder big bore, and have built a a .50-70 on a Swedish rolling block for this very purpose. Being as you are Canadian, I can think of no finer choice for this hunt than a a two-band Snider.

You must be riding a good horse. Brian

Bring lots of good help and a tractor with a front end loader. My 21 cubic foot freezer would not quite hold all of mine after it was processed, frozen, and wrapped. This is not a joke post. They are BIG, and if you are unprepared, the size and amount of meat will overwhelm you. You are definitely not dealing with a deer or elk.

I have hunted two. A four year old bull will go between 1400-1600lbs. A hundred pounds of that is hide.
Wow! What a great deal!

bring some hands.

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
My advice....bring friends.

And warm clothes.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I have hunted two. A four year old bull will go between 1400-1600lbs. A hundred pounds of that is hide.
Wow! What a great deal!

In -30 C , with two feet of snow on the ground ?

Grizz

Hot Damn!!
Congrats! That is awesome! Spent some time around them when I was a kid, they might look big and clumsy, buggers can turn pretty quick when motivated. And tasty. Damn tasty!!

Went with a friend a couple of years ago. You need lots of help and a good sled. Stay hydrated it may be cold, but this cold will suck the moisture right out of you. The 8 days we hunted it was between -25-35 Celius so be prepared

My take. Haven't actually done the Zama Hunt, but was hooked up with a group to hunt bison east of High Level, no license needed there. More of an expedition than a hunt, especially if you live in the southern part of the province. A long drive at the worst possible time of the year, weather wise. Better have a suitable vehicle. Then there's accommodation to consider, not to mention getting around in extremely cold weather and deep snow. The Bison aren't hard to find by all accounts, but you've got to deal with an animal that can weigh close to a ton and again there's the weather factor. Estimated cost for our group was going to be 1500. each. Good luck but go in with your eyes open.

Grizz

Thanks for the input guys, some good ideas. I think the idea to treat this as an expedition, not a hunt is a good one. 1000km north of my house in the dead of winter is no joke. I've lined up 3 volunteers so far. Critically, one was born and raised in Grand Prairie. His hunting family still lives there have offered up some sleds and a trailer.

The other two volunteers are a Brit and a South African. Both fit, enthusiastic and addicted to venison. They're not the perfect volunteers because they aren't dumb, just not real familiar with -30. It will be a learning experience.

My biggest concern is getting a bison out without any dramas. I still flip between excited and terrified at the logistics of getting a bison out safely. Excited is winning more as the bones of a plan come together.

One thing I'm still struggling with is the timing. The season runs Dec. 1 to Feb. 28. Early on, the meat and hide would likely be a bit better and if things went bad, there'd still be time to try again. Later would have longer days and better chance of enough snow for the sleds. Easier to work out the holidays too.

Thanks,
Dean

I drew that tag and got a huge bull on the trip. Weather to prepare for....-25 celcius, snow was shoulder deep and fluffy. Snowshoes were useless and I cannot imagine fighting with a snowmobile. I am not a snowmobile guy so that is my take on it. Basically walked on the grass as the snow had no stability. I shoveled a trail to the bull, all 675 meters of it. I became very familiar with the distance. I had 2 large calf sleds. The guts did not come out easy, I skinned then dismantled the bull on the spot, top side first. 4 knives. My bull died in the wide open and my rope/strap supply was short by about 200 meters, the bull end was good, the tying off end was too short to hit anything but snow. I had my wife for company, she did great keeping the knives sharp and pulling hide, helping to lift the meat into the truck etc. Less attractive hunting partners would be a bonus sometimes.
We put 780 lbs of boned out meat in the freezer, and I left a whole tenderloin in the snow. It was a blizzard from the time we left Red Deer until we got home. Took a rock to the tranny cooler at Peace River on the way up, bypassed the cooler in the Canadian Tire parking lot and bought all their fluid. Booked 4 nights at the Hotel in High Level, slept in it a total of 8 hours. Shot the bull at noon wed north of Zama, got him in the truck and back to the Hotel by 1:30 in the morning. Took the meat to the meat cutter 2 days later....not 1 ounce was frozen, -20 the entire time. I rolled the meat in the snow to knock the heat out of it, drug it to the truck, piled it all in then covered it with a tarp, pulled the hide over it. That was wed, travel home thursday and delivered it Saturday. Killing one in warm weather would add some pressure before it starts to rot. I wore a merino wool long sleeve shirt the entire day, no gloves, the heat from the bull and the hide kept my hands warm. Wife looked like the michelin man and said she was comfy.
Buy a current map book for the area, we choose a route from Zama City travelling north then west, south to Rainbow Lake. Plan was to look for a single track and chase it down on snowshoes. Found a single track, tried the snow shoes for about 5 minutes, chased the bull about 2 miles into a large opening, the lease road skirted the edge luckily. Snow was shoulder deep off his trail, waist deep on it.
Would I do it again? In a second!
Terry

Equipment list: 2 calf sleds, a ramp would be a huge help. I had a rope pulley system rigged in the back of the truck but still had to lift the sleds up. Good knives, sharpening system. The usual tarps etc.
Shot distance was under 50 meters, I used a 7wsm with 160 grain bullets. The Game Warden was not totally impressed, they like a minimum of 30 cal. I thought it worked fine. Talk to a vet, do some research on their metabolism, its slow. That may explain why some people shoot the hell out of them waiting for them to tip over. Just a theory. Have Fun.
Terry

Terry,

What time of the year were you up there? I am planning to take snow shoes and sleds. I just hope the snow is packed hard enough. Two high sided calf sleds are on the packing list for sure.

Dean

Good on you, amigo for getting that nearly impossible bison tag ... You have had lots of experience world wide so this is certainly not your first rodeo ..

It certainly will be a great adventure .. If I had my druthers (and a bison tag) ideally I would take two late model 4x4 trucks, one with a winch, a snowmobile, three tough guys with good attitudes, a satellite phone and a spot messenger, a huge amount of rope, go when the weather reports are not too grim, a bottle of dark rum for later on at night in case of snake bite ...

I am betting that you will get a big honker of a buffalo !!!

All the best !!!

We went up in January, missed the opening rush. Game Warden said guy's had been up there for 2 weeks and had not seen a buffalo, we got lucky. I had never experienced snow like that before, it was super dry and would not pack at all. That's how I ended up shoveling a trail. Snow was really light and fine. I tried to build a ramp but it wouldn't pack, just shifted out of the way. It was over the hood of the truck on the lease road, truck went through no problem, drove right on the dirt, very strange stuff.
Terry

Been there! Twice!
I was fortunate enough to be drawn in Zama the very first year of the draw. The local Fish and Wildlife office out of HighLevel was very informative. Lyle Fullerton I beleive is what the main contact's name was. They really WANT you to succeed on this hunt to help control the numbers, so if they can point you in the right direction, they certainly will. Keep in mind that bison are grazers, and are very nomadic. The cows and calves in general, seem to keep to a certain route of grazing, and it may take them quite a period to show up again in an area that you see full of tracks. They seemed to all be following the same ridges of land. I assumed that this was the same routes they would take in the milder seasons, when they would be deterring around muskeg swamps and low lying areas.
The bulls seemed to hang out in singles and pairs. They would stick to certain grazing areas for longer periods.
You can ask the locals, and the battery operators, for locations,but they always seemed to respond by throwing their hands in the air. They are where you find them! They move that often, that you may never see the same animals in two consecutive days of searching.
My first trip up there (15 hours north of my home in southern Alberta), I was the lucky tag holder. I was fortunate enough that three other guys volunteered to make the trip with me. It took all of us to load the animal in the truck, and that was with shooting it off the road!
It is a glorified road hunt. At the time of year when the hunt goes on, there can be 2-4 feet of snow on the level. These bison were made for this climate, and it is amazing to watch them feed through the heavy snow to the grass below. They thrive on the lush grass, and make it look easy getting to it.
The only thing easier for them, is grazing along the graded oil roads that criss-cross the hunting area. They would rather graze along the edge of a plowed road with two inches of snow, than fight through the two feet of snow on the open. This is where the problems, and the need for number controls come in. There got to be such a high number of vehicle collisions with bison (and when you're that big, you tend to "win" a few) that the need to control the numbers and frighten them back into the bush escalated. They still tend to hang out along the roads for easier feed, but now they duck into the bush when a vehicle comes along.
When I shot my bull, the temperature was -45C. Because he was close enough to the road, we were able to rope him and drag him out to the road for pictures, and dressed him out right on the road. We were fortunate enough to be able to load the dressed carcass onto a small trailer whole. Even propped open at -45C, there was enough body heat trapped in behind that heavy robe, that we lost a fair jag of meat to spoilage in the shoulder area. I have always recommended to everyone since, to at least get the hide off for transport home. His dressed weight, without hide and head, was 1150 lbs. That was more than all four of us needed for our freezers!
My second trip up north was just this last year, and my son-in-law got the draw. The season started a month earlier this time, and the weather had been fairly mild. Everything was frozen solid, but there was little-to-no snow, and the temperatures were -15C. Lots of old tracks, but the animals had no real reason to be out along the roads, other than for easier travelling. Without the snow, there was abundant feed everywhere!
This time around, we came back home empty handed. We did see lots, but we were holding out for a trophy bull, and the opportunity just didn't present itself. On the very last day, we stumbled across a steaming hot bull trail (literally steam coming off the fresh dung), but just never did catch up to the animal as it moved through the bush.
We had seen a few animals every day, and had passed on a number of cows (either sex tag). We planned on taking the first animal we saw on the last day, but then a major storm front hit, and we ended up not seeing anything. We went from where we could drive anywhere in two wheel drive, to being hard pushed to make it out to the main road and a foot of snow on the ground within the last twentyfour hours of the hunt.
Congratulations on drawing a once in a lifetime opportunity, and good luck with your trophy.
A very unique hunt for an amazing animal. Be prepared for anything, and keep in mind there is no cellphone service through much of the hunting area. If you run into trouble you could very well be on your own.

Hey Scruffy,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm starting to feel a bit of confidence too. A buddy and possible bison skinner has come up with an important contact up in High Level. So far, I've got 2 trucks, 2 sleds, a side by side and a trailer lined up along with someone to driver the second vehicle. Could use another person strong of back and dim of mind to commit, but we should be good to go for the middle of January. Now if I can just figure out how to organize a sunny -15 instead of a stormy -45 .

Speaking of getting going, Ky and I are taking the girls on their first proper northern paddling trip this week. We are heading out along the Churchill River via a Turbo Otter out of Missinipe. I was a bit reluctant to head to this part of the Churchill, having been there before. Kalli pointed out that she'd never been there. Once I figured out how much it would cost to get to my first choice and that I hadn't been there for 25 years, Needle Falls started to look like a great place to start. Ky and I have a bit of history with the plane too. We were in it together in 2001 and I was in it doing field work in the early 90s when it still had a radial engine. The north is á big place, but with so few access points and people, it seems pretty small sometimes too.

I've done the Zama hunt and my only words of wisdom are USE IT with that tag! Many draw it and throw it away, doesn't sound like you have that issue.

It's a very straightforward hunt and can be accomplished mostly with driving. If in winter sleds are handy.

Small Zama meat bull from years ago,

Dean ... have you whacked the buffalo yet ?

Oh ... not middle of January yet... ???

Sounds like a fun hunt! Can't wait to read the report/see photos.

Have you gone on the bison hunt yet?

Heading up this weekend. Lucked out with the weather, maybe. Day time highs around freezing. No no idea what that means for bison concentration and movements.