Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Buffalo hunt

Quite awhile back I posted a thread about wanting a buffalo hunt.. This past fall I had a lot of health problems and decided I really could not do it, as they would gut/skin and quarter one and put it in my truck. I had someone to put it in a cooler and age it, but then the processing was more than I could handle.

I figured I have shot enough big game, that I really didn't need to kill anything else. I did not want the hide and head as I had no place to put it. So I bought one. The ranch delivered it to a processor, that cut, vacuum wrapped, and froze it and. The ranch picked it up where I could go back to the ranch and pick it up.

Live weight on a 2 year old cow as about 1000pounds, hanging weight was 560 pounds and I received about 350 ponds of bone in meat which is what the ranch told me I would get yield wise.

I want to give a big shout out to Prairie Ridge Buffalo ranch near Limon, Colorado.Good people to work with and they did everything they promised.

My 22 cubic foot freezer is almost full and meat is delicious. The buffalo was finished out on sunflower seeds and grain

I might be able to do some eastern CO deer or antelope hunts, but my elk hunting might be done I think. I will put in for ML cow tag and see how summer treats me.As it is I have more than enough meat for 3+ years.

Wows sorry to hear about your health problems.. I have been having a few but nothing serious. Best of lucK..

That is a lot of meat!!

Alot of meat, but dam good! I shot one on a farm one year, same as you 2 year old cow! Enjoy the good eating Vince!

Congrats on filling the freezer. I’ve never had anything but a Buffalo burger but I’d love to fill the freezer with one. I can’t think it’d be anything but great.

I looked into a buff hunt after reading your previous posting. It has been on my "possibly some
day" bucket list for a while.
But the cost and what would I do with all that meat issue kinda cooled down the fever.

Good for you on getting all that meat and I understand the decline in hunting capabilities over time.
There used to be a buff meat outlet in the area, but I think it is gone now.

Sorry to hear about your health but sounds like you are seat meat wise for some time.

Yes, to me the top 3 are moose, elk & Buffalo, as far as meat goes. I’ve thought about one of those ranch hunts, yes I know, not a ‘real’ hunt, but you get the great meat. One in MO offers a handful of hunts, never really priced one though.

We have a Buffalo farm not far away, I stop by at times for a few steaks. They are always a special treat, nothing goes to waste, any fat or grizzle goes to the dog.

That’s a great supply for your freezer.

What did that run you price wise? Just wondering how it compares to the price of beef.

.

I could not compare to beef because I have not bought any for a long time. For the weights I gave,it cost me about $3250. for the 350 pounds.So that is about $9.50/pound for everything from ground to T-bone/rib eye.

If you want to hunt one in a controlled hunt out in the pasture, (which is really not a hunt) it runs about $3600. It depends if it is a cow, a young bull or older bigger bull, how it is cut up, and how much fat/bone is trimmed. I had them do standard cuts as you would a beef and10% fat in the ground You get to keep head and hide.
Taste is about 1/2 way between beef and elk

Probably cheaper than what a nonresident pays for an elk hunt but you get more meat ,but more expensive than beef if you can buy directly from a rancher

I’ve never had Buffalo, heard it is good.

Several years ago I shot an old bull on a management hunt on Turner's Flying D ranch near here. They were able to drive a tractor up to it, gutted it, and put it into the back of my truck. I then drove it to a local meat marked where they skinned, quartered and washed it still in the back of my truck, then trolleyed it into a cooler. I asked them to cut the hump and loins into 1-2 pound roasts (without bones) and make everything else into 1 1/2 pound packages of burger.

A couple of weeks later the meat shop called that my buffalo was ready, so I picked 490 pounds of burger and another box of steaks/roasts. The burger was great any way that I cooked it, but when we BBQ'd the first roast, it looked great, smelled great, and tasted great, but we couldn't chew it. So I ground up all of the remaining steaks and roasts and made it into jerky, that tasted great.

I also had a shoulder mount of him, so now I can "look him in the eye" every time I go out my door.

Yea.they warned me about taking an old bull.

This young bull was taken in South Dakota and the meat was mighty tasty. I took home a little over 300# of assorted meat cuts. I especially wanted to try the tongue.

"Young Bull" being the operative words .