Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire To Kill a Bison...

We wanted of course to get as close to the animal as we could, but we were made right away. I was worried that they would wander off, or worse, bolt, but our bull for whatever reason was about the last to stand. While the herd was obviously getting a little nervous, one by one they just sort of stared at us. As we continued getting closer, some started slowly moving away from us, but our bull was content to just lay for another maybe 30 seconds as we continued to close on him. When he looked directly at us and stirred, looking like he was ready to rise along with the others, I asked Rost495 for a range, and he said "I have 257". Close enough, I figured, happy that the bull had let us get a hundred yards closer to him than we were in the tree line. I put up the sticks and got the 700 nestled in the rest.

"I've got him. When he stands up completely, I'm going to kill him. Watch your ears, bud." And with that, the bull stood. I chose my target spot carefully, in the high shoulder, as I'd been advised, and touched the trigger. I lost the sight picture in recoil but when I got him back in the scope, four legs were literally pointing at the sky. I hadn't expected that reaction. The bull reacted as if he'd been brained by a captive bolt gun in a pen. "Keep on him, and shoot him again if he gets up", Rost495 said. "Yes, thank you sir, though I'm quite certain he's done for". And so it was.

We walked up on him at the ready in case he did rise, but there was no need for another shot from me, or one from Rost495. The only movement I saw after the shot was the tail weakly flicking once or twice. We approached with a little caution, but could see at we got up to him that he was stone dead. I touched an eye with the rifle barrel just in case and got nothing.

You can see him here from about where I originally shot from (yes, the pic was taken zoomed in with my camera after we checked him and made sure he was dead). Not before a little noisy celebration occurred between the three of us. SD had seen the whole thing, got video of the killshot and had come out to us with the gear we'd left behind. Teamwork is a thing...



Inside joke here with the hand, but the lads were pretty damned happy and excited, just as I was. In fact, I was pretty much over the moon.



As he lay when we first came to him from the other side. The tree line in the background is where we glassed from and Rost495 and I began our final stalk. Some might recognize a certain hat in the pic.







After getting the animal set up for a few pics and the processing. Not exactly a small critter.