I've always thought of bison as amazing animals. Growing up on the Flathead Indian Reservation a few miles from the National Bison Range in Montana, our school would always organize field trips to go see these animals roaming as they once did hundreds of years ago. Teddy Roosevelt founded it in 1908 to give them a free ranging protected environment in an attempt to save a species on the brink of extinction. "As many as 30-60 million" of these animals once roamed the United States and Canada, and in the late 1800's the populations dwindled to a few hundred living naturally in the wild. I feel fortunate having grown up next to one of the wildlife refuges that had a vital part in saving this animal from extinction. So then, with all this conservation, why did I just shoot one? That's another story all in its self.
In 2009 I was lucky enough to tag along with a friend who drew a coveted Montana Yellowstone bison bull tag. Out of the thousands upon thousands of people who applied, he had drawn the tag, and had harvested one coming out of the park that winter. With bison numbers stable in Yellowstone, and at times an overabundance in the park, hunters can play a vital resource in keeping the numbers in balance for the future buffalo to roam. My friend Matt had taken an amazing bull and we spent the day in freezing below zero temperatures getting the buffalo out. Being on a hunt in which a wild, free ranging buffalo was taken is pretty rare. There are very few places in North America that this can actually take place (Wyoming, Montana, Alaska?). Matt's bull was the first one taken that year, and if I'm not wrong, the only one taken on that side of Yellowstone for the whole year. Truly a very rare and great hunting opportunity. This hunt sparked my interest in possibly harvesting a buffalo of my own some day and with that, I started applying every year to draw a tag outside Yellowstone Park with the hope that one day I'd be drawn and get to complete the hunt as my friend had done a couple years prior. The years went by, and I didn't draw...in fact its a nearly impossible endeavor looking at the drawing statistics and although I haven't given up hope, I looked at other ways of harvesting a buffalo.
Ryan, Josh, Matt and me with Matt's Yellowstone Bull - 2009
My interests grew even more after reading Steven Rinella's book American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon. It gives a fascinating historical look at the bison, as well as chronicling his bison hunt in Alaska's wilderness. It goes into great detail of the decline of the buffalo in North America, as well as a historical and evolutionary recap of how the bison, or American Buffalo became what they are today.
Phil and "Stretch"
Well back to my buffalo...my fortunes changed when a good friend and fellow Stalk and Spooker Phil informed me he had just harvested a bull buffalo outside of Billings, Montana. There is a ranch about an hour out of Billings that runs of herd of buffalo and had a couple of rogue bulls that couldn't be herded back into the ranch land and Phil graciously "volunteered" to hunt one of the bulls down. This one, nicknamed Stretch, had actually gored one of the horses on the ranch and was becoming increasingly violent. Although they normally don't let hunters use bows, with these bulls being outside the herd, the normal worries of a wounded buffalo causing a stampede were not present, a bow hunt was allowed. After telling me his experience, he also told me they had room for one more cow hunt. Being that I had not filled my freezer with an elk this year, my desire to actually harvest a buffalo, and a long Christmas weekend ahead of me, my fill the freezer quest of 2013 had one last chance.
Comancho and his prized cow buffalo
As a hunter, I'll say my experience at Sacred Grounds International far exceeded my expectations. It was very spiritual and a lot of respect and honor is given towards these animals, and although surrounded by fences, these animals have plenty of acres to roam freely as they had many years ago. But also, as a hunter, I can't quite describe this as being a "hunt". I like to refer to it as a harvest because there really wasn't a lot of hunter skill involved in the taking of my buffalo, and my chances of success were upwards of 100%, which all hunters know, that high of a success rate isn't really a hunt. At first I was very tentative to actually participate in this as I didn't find it to be a fair proposition to the buffalo. I feel a fair hunt is one that the animal has as a high likelihood to escape. I instinctively desire the challenge, the stalk, the patience and the perfect shot before I can call it a successful hunt. That wouldn't be the case with this particular situation, and after realizing that this wasn't going to fulfill my desire for a fair chase, wild game hunt, I did acknowledge it would in fact fill my freezer. I could be respectful and honor this animal in a way that I felt was fit and coincided with my morals and ethics as a hunter, as well as fulfill one of my goals as a hunter in harvesting a buffalo. One way of doing this is being honest about what it was, and the difficulty involved. I don't want to misrepresent the harvest and call it a crazy, wild, intense buffalo hunt, but it was more in fact a harvest of a great animal. I felt the importance of this hunt/harvest was more involved with the honoring ceremony prior to going out in the field, honoring the animal and blessing it for the nourishment it will provide for my family, friends and me, and making sure that there would be a clean kill with proper use of the animal. Tana at Sacred Grounds International has a ceremony prior to going out in the field that includes a smudging ceremony, where she blesses the hunters and their guns and reminds us that these are great animals and deserve to be honored and respected. I felt very fortunate to have been able to harvest this great cow buffalo and encourage anyone else interested in doing the same to check out Sacred Grounds International.
Tana and Buffy the Buffalo, one of the original 3 buffalo brought to the ranch.
Finished the weekend with our limit on ducks. Hopefully duck and buffalo go good together...
