SD and I shared a look, and I looked at him said simply, “let’s go try to kill a bison...”. We got Rost495 on the horn and let him know of the new development. I then called RP and we agreed to meet back at his place at around 12:30pm. I think Rost495 was pretty pleased to be able to be along. I know SD and I were glad for it.
We arrived back at the farm and got the lowdown from RP. There were three herds that he had on and off on the properties, with one that one of his sons had laid eyes on that morning. At the time, they were bedded down on some acreage on one of his back agricultural parcels. He asked me for my map, and he laid it out hood of the truck and pointed out where this particular herd had last been seen.
He went into detail regarding a few other things we needed to be made aware of. “First off”, he said, pointing to a section nearby where the herd we were hoping to find was last seen, said very deliberately, “Y’all see this area? You boys do not want a wounded buffalo getting in there. I promise you that. It'd be absolutely brutal to get him out of there, if you could even find him. It’s a thick and nasty, deep bog. Pure ugly. I repeat, do NOT shoot a bison if he looks like he might make it in there. You’ll regret it.”
We all made sure we understood exactly which area he was warning us about. He then took a pen and made a bunch of horizontal lines across the top parcel of his land, then some vertically. He basically drew about a dozen equal squares on the map. “Each one of those sections is roughly 160 acres”. He marked the Bog of Despair with a big X on it for good measure. “Water here and water there”, he said, marking them on the map as well. “Earlier today, a small herd of around a dozen were against that far tree line. Pretty sure there’s at least one bull in the herd. No idea if they’re still around, but I’d wager they haven’t gone too far. Start your search there.”
He showed us where he wanted us to park on the map. “You boys need to set out on foot from where you park right here. I reckon it’s about two miles to get to them back fields. Remember, they’ve been hunted, so y’all need to mind your wind and hunt low and slow. If they’re still in there and you’re good enough, you should be able to get close enough for a shot at one. Any questions? OK, good deal. If and when you get one down, text me and let me know. Good huntin’, boys.” We all shook hands, and we got started to head on down the road. Just as we were pulling out, RP waved us over and said, “I almost forgot to tell you boys, but a grizzly got a bison down last night out on one of the other areas, so keep your eyes peeled for bears. The excitement level rose as we pulled over and parked where we’d be instructed to set out onto the land on foot. Game time.
The snow was fairly thin thanks to the sun and mild temps, but granulated and crunchy; noisy but easy going for us. We did our best to be as quiet as possible and frequently checked the wind, which was mostly in our favor. We walked on the exposed dirt and stubble in the bare spots without snow crust as best we could. Since we could bump into bison anywhere, we moved slowly but methodically, glassing ahead of us frequently as we made our way to those back fields that we hoped still held those bison. There were rows of spruce with reasonably thick brush amongst the trees running along many of the fields.
We were all traveling light. I had binoculars, a small pack with some things and the .375. The other lads had about the same. Rost495 had his big .458 Win Mag along in case I needed to be backed up. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the spot on the map where RP told us to start to look. Because the land wasn’t exactly flat, with many rises and swales, even looking across a relatively flat looking piece of land had plenty of places animals could be very difficult to see from a distance, even ones as large as bison. When we got to the back field, we scooted across an open area duck walking and got situated in the wood and brush of one of the rows running along the field to glass across it. Again, it was not an easy thing, since it was obvious there were many small rises and small hills and low-lying areas all across the field. The back corner was perhaps a half a mile away. After some hard glassing and Rost495’s trying and failing to get up into a dilapidated tree stand (it was old and rotted and came apart as he tried to get up in it for a better vantage). At some point SD says, “I think I have them”. The man’s about 6’6” in his boots, so almost as good as Rost495 up in a tree…
SD explained to us where to look, and after a few seconds of looking, Rost495 declared that he thought he could see them too. I needed help, but soon after, I had them as well. We never got a look at a whole animal, but we could see the tops of the shaggy heads on a few of them and maybe a rump against the snow at the far tree line near the back right corner. Time for a game plan and hopefully a proper stalk towards them.
We decided it best to keep low and head off far wide to the left corner, staying in the shadows of the tree line opposite to the one where the animals were. We made it to the back left corner in another 20 or 30 minutes, stopping to glass and see if the bison were still stationary. They were. When we hit that corner, we took a breather and decided that we’d be best off getting off the field and into the tree line, then slowly and quietly getting as close as we possibly could, watching the wind and the bison for any reactions that would indicate they’d made us or were getting nervous.
Perhaps 30 minutes later, from the tree line nearest the herd we got hidden down in the snow and brush and began glassing hard. We were about 350 yards from the closest one of them. There were around 11 animals in the herd, and with two exceptions, were all still lying down. The two that were standing were lazily grazing on the remnants of barley in the field.
We needed to be absolutely certain of sex, which is not always an easy thing to do, especially with bedded down animals. Head shape, horn shape, body size are all good clues, but the penis sheath is one that really stands out (ha, ha) as a positive identifier. As long as it’s not confused with muddy, matted hair as on the underside of some cow bison. SD told me that during one prior DJ season something like 4 wrong sex bison were killed. As one might imagine, AKDFG takes a very dim view of such mistakes, and there are consequences that no hunter ever wants to deal with; fairly serious consequences, in fact.
At some point perhaps 15 minutes into our studying them, a big cow, one of those that was standing spun around and faced us and began staring hard into the tree line where we were tucked in and glassing from behind trees and brush. That made me nervous. Over the course of the next ten minutes, most of the other bison who’d been bedded down began slowly rising to their feet, with a few shaking their great heads. It wasn’t cold at perhaps 34F, but enough that we could make out their smoky, wispy exhalations in our binoculars very clearly.
We all strained to positively ID a bull. With some animals loosely bunched up, some behind part of this one and that one, it took some time and a little luck. There was one we all agreed was a bull, and one other possible. The definite bull looked fairly young to me, without the typical distinctive bull horn shape and looked to me to be considerably smaller than a couple of the enormous, mature cows. As the herd began feeding, two at the head of the herd began drifting off away from our location. Not good. At one point I got prone in the snow with the rifle on my pack and asked for a range on that one bull. It was around 375 yards. I held on him, but decided I really didn’t want to shoot that far.
At around that time I quietly asked both SD and Rost495 for their opinions, and I put it like this: “if this was your hunt, would you try for that smallish one we have in front of us here and now, or would you pull out quietly and see about finding a better one? We still have 18 hours or so.” Both men paused, and with them looking equally and tremendously thoughtful, one said “no” and the other said “yes”. Sonofabitch!
