just went up to take my class, my permit starts on oct 6. took a tour around and got acclamated. i found a beautiful big bull right off the road by himself 300 yds away. i tried to get a guy to shoot it bought he had a cow permit so i watched him for an hour. anyone elso going up? or have any luck yet? let me know, jeff

alaskadude - My hunting buddy, who drew the permit, and I were in the same class as you two days ago. You were there with your brother, right?We left the class and drove south on the Alaska Highway and entered the "panoramic fields" area on the south side of the highway. Drove a bit towards the mountains and saw lots of sign, then found a trail through the woods that looked good. We camped on the edge of the fields and woke up at six; my buddy, just out of the sack, grabs his rifle and says "get your shoes on and get your rifle" - a huge herd (100+) of bulls, cows and calfs, is walking from west to east, directly into the wind and the soon to rise sun. We are located about 450 yards directly south of the herd. We locate a depression in the huge field and, bending down, walk slowly to the northeast to get closer to the path the herd is walking. The field has many "humps" of old trees and grass, must be where the slash was piled when the fields were cleared. We walk in the depression and go from hump to hump with the wind hitting up from our right. We walk about 400 yards and are now about 100 yards away from the front of the herd as they move directly north of us, still walking into the wind and into the now just appearing sunrise. The front of the herd is several big cows, a few bulls and several calfs; the entire herd is stretched out over about 75 yards length, just walking and grazing. Just on their left side, the side opposite us, is a forested area so we have some concerns that the herd will duck into the trees. They don't, it is obvious that we have executed a "text book" sneak on these bison. Good light is still a few minutes away so we are being extremely careful about sex identification (Alaska Fish and Game, great class by the way!) - We spend six or seven minutes looking over the herd while we sit on the east side of the mound, concealed by the grass. We then are aware that a group of four bison has separated from the others and is walking directly towards us with a mature cow in the front. Directly behind her is a nice bull; we quietly discuss several aspects of this bull to make sure this IS a bull and we are both positive. We have to sneak around to the south side of the mound so they don't see us and to allow a bit more time to ID the bull. He is a handsome rascal with the very obvious two tone coloration, quick taper of the horns, the V shaped and very large head and a very easily identifiable penis sheath. My buddy who drew the permit (I will call him Homer as he does not want to be mentioned on the net) is now going over with me all the issues of the hunt and we crawl back to the east side of the mound. About twenty yards away, the mature cow is staring directly at us - The bull that Homer wants is still walking from our left to right and another small cow is behind him so Homer is forced to wait until the bull is clear with no other animal behind; that cow is still staring at us and is not moving a muscle. Finally the bull is clear and Homer's 300 Winny is raised; he mutters something and I realize that the bull is very close and Homer's 4X scope is full of bull bison hair. Homer lowers his rifle and adjusts a bit, aims again and the 300 Winny with 220 grain partition bullets roared. A high lung, rear of shoulder hit drops the bull like a sack of potatoes. The mature cow runs as does the entire herd, with the cow being the only bison aware of our presence. The bull has not expired so Homer shoots it to finally end the struggle. Wow, these dudes are big!!!! Homer paces off seventeen (yes, that is 17) long steps from his hide to the now expired bison. What an animal!! A perfect example of a bison!! Now the process of field dressing, taking blood samples and a hair sample for DNA testing. I will post photos shortly. We spent five hours dressing, quartering, taking samples, getting this bison ready for the trip back to Anchorage after the stop at Delta fish and game. During the visit to F&G, the biologist told us the bull was between 4 and 4.5 years old - excellent condition animal. During the travel back to Anchorage, we stopped on the Richardson Highway so a large group of Nelchina herd caribou could cross the road directly in front of us; two very nice bulls in that group with lots of young caribou and several mature cows. What a great hunt! Photos to follow - KMule

Several photos from Delta - [IMG] KMule

[ 10-04-2003, 20:41: Message edited by: KMuleinAK ]

Anyway to make the pictures bigger? Check your e-mail and drop me a line so I can get you the tape today.

Small pictures. Can you enlarge them any? Congrats on the bison hunt!

Congrats and thanks for sharing.

WTG Dad! Though I didnt know until now that your nick name was Homer!

Visited with Homer and got his permission to post this photo of he and his bison - if the resize didn't work, I will keep working on it so the photos show better. KMule

This is the field we stalked the bison across; the far tree line was the path the herd had chosen and we had to close about 350 - 400 yards to get close enough to identify a bull and to acquire a good shot. The herd was walking from left to right. The small group, which included Homer's bull, separated from the main group and started angling towards us at the group of several trees in the left of the photo. At that point our concern was this group would smell us and run; we stayed down and waited to ID the bull and luckily the group kept angling to us in front and not behind.

Nelchina caribou south of Sourdough along the Richardson highway - a nice way to finish a bison hunt is to see more great Alaskan animals such as caribou

yea that was me that was me talking to you in your truck. man thats a nice buff im jealous! i cant wait to get up there and give it a go. mine stars on the 6th. i tried to look at the fields but i drove that car and couldnt get in. next time ill bring a truck and 4 wheeler. your pics are great!! hey you didnt get to shoot did you?

Handsome animal, and nice on your successful sneak. I just may have to try that one day. :c)

Leighton

Nice Bison and a great hunt too! Should be some good eatin!!