Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Caliber's for bison hunting

Hello All - I am planning a bison hunt in Nebraska in 2008/09 and would like recommendations on appropriate calibers. Sorry if this subject has come up before, I could not find it using my limited search skills. FYI - I have rifles in every caliber known to man from .17 Mach II to .458 Lott, so availability should not be an issue. Many thanks.

The only cartridge that could possibly work is a 45-70 pushed by some FF black powder. A 405 to 525 gr lead pill should do the job.

Be sure to use a Buffalo Bullet.

'Twer me, anything from a .338 with 250 grain bullet and up. Could cheat a little on the lower end with premium bullets- say a 300 Mag and up.

Do remember that a few million bison were wiped off the face of the earth with lesser calibers, if one considers the old Sharps calibers as "lesser".

I would take your 458 Lott with full on 500gr loads. Read Phil Shoemaker's article in Successful Hunter about hunting bison in Nebraska; he did so with a D'arcy Echols 458 Lott and did not feel overgunned.

i've done it twice with a .454 casull 300 gr swift A-frames. IMO, it's little light (have to pick your shots). watched a friend shoot one with an M1 -- also worked well. anything .277 & up will work but I'd go with a "classic" gun if you have one

The most experienced bison guide I know says that the .25-06 is the best choice, and that a 100-grain bullet just below the ear does the job neatly.

45-110 with black powder :GRIN:

A friend of mine, borrowed my 300 WSM using 168g TSX bullets and shot his bull. One shot just behind the ear at 100 yards dropped it in it's tracks.

I shot mine with a 7mm08. My brother shot his with a 44 mag pistol. My dad shot his with a 358 winchester. All worked fine once you put the bullet in the right spot. The rancher recommended anything over 270. He claims to have killed them with a 17 remington if you put one in the ear. Take whatever rifle you can shoot the most accurate with in all field shooting positions and you should be fine. Are you hunting a herd or an individual. In a herd situation a head shot is the only shot to take. If you do not drop your animal right away the rest of the herd may turn it into buffalo burger for you.Once the herd smells blood their instinct is to kill the wounded and move on. They do not want to be around anything that would attract predators.If you are hunting an individual body shots would be an option. If that is the case take a big thumper to do as much damage as possible. One of the main reasons to "hunt" bison is the meat. The quicker the kill the better.

+10!!!

When I've hunted bison before, it's been with a 338 Win. Mag., and when I hunt bison again, it'll also be with as 338 Win. Mag.

Load premium 250 gr. bullets, such as the Nosler Partition or Swift A-Frame, or else the 240 gr. North Fork (225 TSX should work perfectly, too), zero for 200 yds., and you'll be set for any sort of bison situation............

AD

From the sounds of it - some people's definitions of "hunting" Bison vary quite a bit from other people's.

Oh sure, if you are driving up to the tame ranch bred animals who are used to people and vehicles to "hunt" them - then I'm sure a 25-06, .270 etc. shot into the ear hole or eyeball will do just fine.

But if you REALLY want to HUNT Bison (Northern BC or Northwest Territories) then such talk would be foolish. They are much bigger than a Cape Buffalo - and wounded ones have been known to stomp people pretty good. They have huge lungs too.

In B.C. it is illegal to attempt to hunt Bison, armed with anything with less energy than a 7mm Remington magnum shooting a 175 grain has. Such a law was enacted after a few people hunting them became part of earth, in a manner they'd never imagined. I'm sure the thought of joining the "circle of life" looses all appeal when it actually happens.

I've seen them wild up there - and the herds were as spooky as any wild herd of elk on the planet. When they stampede it's a sight too.

Personally, if I were really "hunting" wild Bison, I know I would be carrying one of my 30-06's with a big "penetrating" bullet like a 200 gr Barnes TSX, or a 220 gr Nolser Partition, or my 7mmSTW with either of those makes of bullets in 175 gr - or something bigger. A big, wild, mature bull Wood Bison is bigger than any Moose, and it has a lot more "attitude" when hit - or so I'm told.

I know a lady outfitter (a native) from the Sikanni River country who has shot a mature Bison bull, once a year, since her youth, and takes people on Bison hunts every year - and she has hunting tales that "can make a man's blood run cold" - to paraphrase old Robert Service.

One tale she told, was about a "know-it-all-city-slicker-hunter" who was charged after wounding a big bull with a smaller than optimum caliber - with great laughter she described how the area they picked him out of looked like a "strawberry snow cone", as he'd done so much bleeding - he turned a wide swath of snow red as the bull tried to grind him into protoplasm. It was funny she said because he was relatively unharmed due to the depth of the freshly fallen soft snow - and but for the blood, and the screaming, and the torn clothing, he escaped with only his pride seriously wounded - when a bullet to the brain finally stopped the Buff.

But, I don't know how they hunt them in Nebraska. Perhaps Plains Bison, particularly farm animals, are different.

If, I draw for a Bison in northern BC, before the "natural conservationists" extirpate them as they are doing with other game species in western Canada, I will not mess around. I will use one of my crf .375H&H rifles, loaded with a 300 NP over H-4350 and I will put as many slugs into the varmint as needed to put him on the sod or snow or even ice!

Having seen too many aboriginal expert hunters and the wounded, wasted and suffering game resulting from their depredations, I have NO desire to see a pile of bloody snow or be part of one, I believe in being capable of dealing with my own potential problems in the bush.

If I had my druthers I'd use something like a case-colored octagonal-barrel 45/70... or 45/90... with iron sights (if that was a reasonable setup for the area). It would be fun to at least pretend, and all... :-)

If I were choosing something from my actual collection of rifles it'd be the .338 WM for sure...

I was off skiing one day last winter when a runaway bull showed up on our property. It had run away about a week earlier, and the owner was concerned it was going to hurt somebody or something, and the terrain and vegetation and size of the properties around ours (5-15 acres) made it about impossible for it to be caught, apparantly... anyway, he and a bud showed up with a .270 and killed it cleanly with one shot.

I wish I'd been here. He says he would have let me try out one of my elk loads on it... that would have been cool!

-jeff

If I ever got to hunt Bison, I think I would like to use my 9.3X62 with the 286gr Nosler Partition.

I would have buffalo jerky for a lifetime.

Not if MY kids were around! They are jerky-eatin' MACHINES.

-jeff

I agree with your sentiments Kutenay,

But, this lady shoots her buff every year, often in the dead of winter, on horseback, often far from any roads in an area with a very high grizzly population. She's also quite a photographer, and she showed me the photo's taken with a delayed shutter, of her gutting it, skinning it, boning it out, putting the meat on her pack horses - all alone, in deep snow, in real wilderness - and all by herself.

She told me that one per year, provided her and her kids with something to break the monotony of moose every meal.

I thought to myself - if every native hunter (or white hunter - for that matter) had her work ethic, her wilderness ethic and her self-imposed conservation ethic - our province would be in good hands.

I sure admired her.

Elk are big



But bison are a lot bigger (this on is a wild one from the Jackson Hole Area)



I'd use the biggest thing you got that you shoot well

Never seen a tame bison. Seen them in fences but would not ever call'em tame. Any shot plenty of them and as usual shot placement is the key. I would'nt go less than a 30 caliber and a careful well placed shot.

Just... WOW!

-jeff