MONTANA, USA HUNT REPORT - 2023

We just returned from a two day buffalo hunting trip in Montana, USA. We followed that up with tourism, mostly in Yellowstone National Park.

OUTFITTER: Montana Hunting Company.

LOCATION: Flying D Ranch, owned by Turner Enterprises and located just southwest of Bozeman, Montana, USA.

HUNTING DATES: August 9 and 10, 2023.

BOOKING AGENT: None. I booked this hunt at the 2022 SCI convention.

TRAVEL AGENT: None.

GAME TAKEN: American Buffalo, also and more properly known as North American Bison. For purposes of this report, I will call them buffalo, as almost all Americans traditionally (but wrongly) do.

RIFLE: Shiloh Sharps Model 1874 falling block single shot rifle in caliber .45-70. What was once, and still is now, THE buffalo rifle.

HUNTING:

The Flying D Ranch, in southwestern Montana, is a huge game refuge, where deer, antelope, elk, black and grizzly bears, wolves and thousands of buffalo roam.

The first half-day of hunting was spent touring the ranch and finding out where the buffalo then happened to be roaming. No shooting is permitted on the first day.

Nor is it certain that where the buffalo are roaming on the first day is where they will be found on the next.

Buffalo roam.

We found on the first day that the buffalo, including bulls, cows and calves of all ages, were everywhere and in large numbers.




The country was wide open and beautiful, and the thousands of buffalo were surely enjoying it.



The number of good bulls was, to me, astonishing. They were towards the end of the rut and down from their top weights, but still enormous.



The second day of hunting started early and was devoted to finding a big, old bull, preferably one that had decided to graze or bed down and chew his cud away from the herd. The chosen bull must also be reachable by a heavy truck with a winch and block and tackle.

These animals can weigh over a ton and once killed, without a truck, they are next to impossible to field dress and remove from the field for proper skinning and butchering.

We found such a big, isolated bull, hunkered down in the sage brush all by himself. We glassed him for a while, but could not see him clearly because of the sage brush.

We got out of the hunting truck and stalked to within a bit less than 100 yards from him. He was facing away from us upwind and undisturbed. His horns were broomed and heavy and his fur was bushy and thick. I put a round in the chamber of my Sharps rifle and put the fore end on the shooting tripod. My guides, Zack and Cody, then shouted at the bull. He jumped up.

As he got to his feet, we could see that he was indeed a good, old bull.

I shot him just behind his shoulder. He flinched but otherwise did not move. Then he took a few steps.

I shot him again, and again, several more times, all smack in his boiler room, until he had finally had enough and keeled over dead. These animals are incredibly tough and can absorb vast amounts of lead. No Cape buffalo I have ever shot was harder to kill.



My bull, as fully dressed, i.e., minus head, guts, hide and feet, weighed in at 1,109 lbs. As a rule of thumb, live weight of a buffalo is estimated to be twice his fully dressed weight, which would put my old boy at 2,200 lbs. Buffalo lose a few hundred pounds (or more) during the rut, as their minds are on more than just eating, so one can imagine what he must have weighed when in tip-top condition.

His age was estimated at 11 years.

After we wrapped up the hunting portion of our trip, we spent several days touring Yellowstone National Park and the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

Thank God our forebears set this wonderful land apart and have since kept it untouched.

Undine Falls:



Old Faithful:



Mammoth Springs:



Lower Falls:



Buffalo are not difficult to hunt on the Flying D Ranch, but they have never been difficult to hunt anywhere.

The work of Turner Enterprises in furthering the conservation of this iconic American species is laudable. Out of the thousands on the ranch, for game management purposes, they permit only about two dozen a year to be taken by hunters.

I felt privileged to be one of them.



As hunters, we have so much for which to be grateful in this world, and especially, in these United States, on the rolling prairies of southwestern Montana.

Forgive me some sentiment, but I hope we will all agree, long may the buffalo roam!

Home On The Range

Excellent
Thank you for great report Mike

Glad to see you got it done in style Mike. I remember your earlier posts about plans to hunt a Bison. Congrats on such a fine bull.
Did you get to sample any Bison beef ? I'm told it's quite good.

Teds grill in Bozeman has buff menu to die for

We dined twice at Ted’s. Great food. Loved the buffalo especially.

We brought home 134 lbs. of tenderloin, blackstrap, buffalo burger and sausage. That was the most we could fit into two 50 qt. Coleman coolers and get onto the airplane without going bankrupt after paying excess baggage charges!

The rest (a lot!) I donated to local food banks.

I’m making buffalo tenderloin steaks for dinner tonight!

Nice. Can you tell us about the bullet you used?

Roger - I used Buffalo Bore .45-70 Magnum ammunition loaded with 350 gr. JFN bullets at a nominal 2,150 fps with a ME of 3,600 ft. lbs.

I was under the impression from the Buffalo Bore website that the bullets in this ammo are tough, maybe even bonded. They are not. The jackets of all of the bullets I fired into my buffalo separated from the lead cores. None of them exited.

They killed the buffalo, but not as quickly as I would have liked. If I ever again use a .45-70 on buffalo, or any other big game heavier than deer, I will use heavier 400+ gr. hard cast lead or bonded core jacketed bullets.

Honestly, if I used old Sharps, I would use lead ball as a proper tribute to the gun
Have used BP gun and I swear by good old fashion round lead balls

Mike,
Well done. You paved the way for me. I am in line for a tag!
Now, I need the Sharps folks to get my twin to your rifle done!
Ross

That is a nice bull. Congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Roger - I used Buffalo Bore .45-70 Magnum ammunition loaded with 350 gr. JFN bullets at a nominal 2,150 fps with a ME of 3,600 ft. lbs.

I was under the impression from the Buffalo Bore website that the bullets in this ammo are tough, maybe even bonded. They are not. The jackets of all of the bullets I fired into my buffalo separated from the lead cores. None of them exited.

They killed the buffalo, but not as quickly as I would have liked. If I ever again use a .45-70 on buffalo, or any other big game heavier than deer, I will use heavier 400+ gr. hard cast lead or bonded core jacketed bullets.

Thanks for the info.

Yes the 350 grain bullet is a Hornady I believe and likely a bit fragile for an animal that big. Buffalo Bore does offer a 430 grain hardcast. I’ve gone to 405 grain hardcast which works well for my purposes. Grizzly offers a great load with them.

Congratulations on a great hunt Mike, and I'm glad you enjoyed Yellowstone and the Custer Battlefield.

Living less than 100 miles from Yellowstone NP, I've probably gone there 100 times, but I haven't seen the falls in your first pic. What falls are they?

quote:

GAME TAKEN: American Buffalo, also and more properly known as North American Bison. For purposes of this report, I will call them buffalo, as almost all Americans traditionally (but wrongly) do.

"Bison bison" is their Latin name. They have been known as the "American buffalo" for over 200 years. Why is that wrong?

quote:

Thank God our forebears set this wonderful land apart and have since kept it untouched.

Ted Turner also had the foresight to put his Flying D ranch under a conservation easement so that it will forever be the beautiful land that is is and never be destroyed by the greedy developers of Yellowstone Club and Big Sky.

A friend of mine has been a Buffalo guide on the "D" for many years and finally retired after this year's season. Was your guide Mark?

Thanks, all.

Ross, you will not regret it.

Roger, I suppose it's like the old contradiction: How did the bullet fail if the animal died?

But based on this experience, I do think the heavier lead or bonded core bullets would be better.

buffybr, I only mentioned the bison/buffalo difference for scientific/taxonomic reasons. For me, calling a North American bison a buffalo is traditional and is completely normal.

I should have labeled my photos of the park and have edited my original post to do that. The falls in question are the Undine Falls.

MHC has changed hands in the last year or so, and I understand that some of the older guides have retired. My guides were two younger fellows named Zack and Cody who are relative newcomers to the ranks. They were excellent.

There used to be a father son combo that often skinned buffalo for that ranch. I wonder if your one guide's last name is O'Connell.

I hunted antelope a couple of times with them years ago by Round Up, Montana. The first year I was there Cody was only 10 years old and he was constantly going around causing grief to the local rabbits.

His Dad had some kind of 45 pistol and already Cody was an expert with that smoke wagon. And completely careful with it. His dad was a most excellent teacher.

A fine family and sadly I have long ago lost touch with them. (They moved somewhere?)

Congrats on your fine buffalo bull. Yum!

scruffy, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't get the last names of either of my guides. They didn't offer and I never asked.

I did find that my guide Cody was very knowledgeable about guns of all kinds, reloading and hunting, so he may be the same person you recall.

From our conversations, I believe he now calls Libby, MT his hometown.

Krikey - I woulda driven over with empty coolers!

Nice bull. They are incredible animals. Neat you used a Sharps.

BaxterB - If I had had your number, I would've called!

I have eaten no meat but buffalo since our return from Montana.

It is so good!

Breakfast:

They have some excellent elk hunting on Flying D

.

Nice to read an American hunting report even if posted in 'Rest of the World' section

Two Zim trackers, a driver and a skinner will put that on the back of a Toyota in no time. No need for a truck and a winch!

Great looking animal and great pictures! Thanks for posting and sharing.

Shoulder mount?

.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
Nice to read an American hunting report even if posted in 'Rest of the World' section

Two Zim trackers, a driver and a skinner will put that on the back of a Toyota in no time. No need for a truck and a winch!

Great looking animal and great pictures! Thanks for posting and sharing.

Shoulder mount?

I puzzled a bit over where to put this report, but there are only two "Hunt Report" fora, "Africa" and "Rest of the World," and even I know that the USA is not in Africa.

Three grown men could not even roll this beast over.

This bull dwarfed any Cape buffalo you will ever see.

Yes, I am having my taxidermist put together a full head and shoulder mount.

It will be massive!

I downloaded some more photos from our camera today.

When we winched this bull upright, we discovered a huge wound on his left side.



This was why he had been hunkered down in the sage brush far away from the herd.

He had been severely gored, all the way down to the rib cage, by a rival bull in a mating fight.

He also had other puncture wounds on his left side and neck.

That had to hurt.

There's a lot of power behind those bulls when they're rutting.

When I shot my buffalo bull on the D, he had at least 5 wounds similar to yours, but the wounds were older and full of maggots.

My bull's wounds were fresher than that, for sure! But he was clearly hurting badly and trying to do nothing that required any effort or even movement.

I joked with my guides that we should have hunted and found the bull that gored him!

For all I know, my old bull may have fully recovered from his wounds, but after I saw them, I was glad I had put him out of his misery.

I would recommend hunting these iconic beasts only during the rut, from mid-July to mid-August.

We saw bulls fighting, feeding and fornicating all around us on both days we were there.

It was like going back in time.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Thanks, all.

Ross, you will not regret it.

Roger, I suppose it's like the old contradiction: How did the bullet fail if the animal died?

But based on this experience, I do think the heavier lead or bonded core bullets would be better.

In a tough media test I did nearly 2 years ago, the 350gr Hornady lost it's core and was flattened after 4 inches of penetration. The 350 TSX peneytrated 16.5 inches, was fully expanded and retained 100% of unfired weight.

A 500gr Speer GS retained 310 grains after 6 inches of penetration.

The media was dry glossy magazines wedged into a 16.5 inch box. The rifle was my Ruger No.1 in .45-70 (with a long throat) to simulate a .458 from about 100 yds. Range from muzzle to box was 5 yards. I sold the rest of my 350 Hornadys to a fellow .45-70 shooter who loads it much more mild than I do. I'll never purchase those bullets again.

Nonetheless, congrats Mike on your success and beautiful report.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Very interesting.

All of my bullets penetrated into the lungs and heart, and some all the way to the off-side rib cage. Yet they mostly turned into shrapnel.

The heavier and harder 400+ grainers would definitely be the ticket if I ever hunt anything this big again with my Sharps.

The last bull I shot was with my 470 NE, at the shot (125 yards) he humped up and ran 75 yards and stopped, laid down with head up and a number of bison gathered around him hooking him to get up, then they ran off,he died, then they returned two more times, this is a very typical scene with Bison, after the second return they don't come back according to the guide, and Ive seen it several times..They die hard slowly as a rule, regardless of caliber, like a moose..The old buffalo hunters used this action to make a "stand" and kill the whole herd.

Had a great elk hunt on that ranch about 20 years ago.

Ray, my old bull was a loner. His ass had truly been kicked. No one came to his rescue. Nature is hard that way.

Bwana1, on the first day, we saw a huge bull elk on the top of a ridge about a mile away.

I should say Zack, our guide, saw him, along with two cows by his side.

We of lesser eyesight greedily looked through Zack’s spotting scope.

Even at that distance and at 60x magnification, he was clearly huge.

Elk have always eluded me. I have certainly found Nature hard on that score.

Maybe I’m gonna have to try to change that.

Looks like a fun, no pressure hunt Mike! I had a friend do something similar years ago on the Crow Reservation, bison with a Sharps... great trip, thanks for the report.

I hunted South Africa twice with Shiloh Sharps rifles, with 520 gr. flat nose cast bullets (1:20) loaded to 1350 fps. I found that those bullets, with 1/4" flats, penetrated ~28" and expanded to an average of 3/4"-15/16". With 5/16" flats, penetration was slightly less but expansion diameter slightly more and still having full penetration on broadside shots. All kills were quick except for wildebeest that was hit slightly to the rear, clipping only one lung, and requiring another shot.

Light bullets work fine on deer-zize game, but the heavier bullets are much to be preferred on larger game.

Thanks for the report,two bison to my credit,I shot the first one with a 45-90 480 gr lead 1-20,ahead of the shoulders halfway up,she dropped where she stood,it was my first ever hunt,man were we surprised

#2 was shot with a 376 steyr factory 270 gr speer,same shot placement,it fell slowly stunned & as we approached,got to its feet & the chase began lol,four more to put it down.

Thanks for sharing!

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Mike, thanks for this report, it takes me back in time to a few weeks after 9/11; when I shot a very similar 12 year old bull on the Flying D Ranch. I was shooting my .338 with 225 grain Bearclaws. I shot my bull in the neck and he collapsed… then got up just a quick and looked at us like ‘what the F did you do that for’? Then he ran off like nothing happened. Another Bearclaw, this one to the heart and he turned to give us the same look before trotting back to where he originally was standing and I finally put him down for good. When we recovered the bullets, they were pretty much shredded.

James Thompson, “JT”, was my guide. He was a professor at Montana State who guided on the ranch on days off. He made it a very fun hunt. He messed with Ted Turner a bit, planting pheasants in one drainage for him and Hanoi Jane to hunt, but telling them he released them elsewhere. The dialog between them on the radio was hilarious!

I did the same as you, took the best cuts and donated the rest to the Gallatin food bank. It was so good I went back and shot a yearling bull a few months later for my own freezer.

Thanks for bringing back some good memories.