Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Where the Buffalo Still Roam

Went to South Dakota on business this month and took a couple of days to shoot prairie dogs. Stayed on a working buffalo ranch and wanted to share some of the pictures. We found plenty of dogs and saw eagles, hawks, owls, badgers, wild turkeys, mule deer, coyotes, horses and cattle. However, the coolest thing was the buffalo. The bull was huge! Here are the first 5 pictures. More to come Hope you enjoy.

Rick

Here are 5 more pictures.

Buffalo (American Bison) can be some mean critters, I would not get too close.

Cool, imagine hitting one of those big bastards doing about 60.

So it was in bad taste that I told my wife to go pet a little one.

Last batch.

You getting tired of her?

Not in the least, but she could use some running.

There are a number of small herds of them around here, but I've never seen any get real big, even the brood stock. I think they must butcher or sell them before they get very big.

I think I read that bison average about 14 tourists a year in Yellowstone, mostly dumbazz tourists getting too close for camera shots. Last year, one nailed a lady tourist while she was talking on the payphone, with her back to it.

They are big, tough, and can be mean, if they take a notion. One thing's for sure, do NOT ride near them on a horse, one took after my uncle while he was checking on his cows on horseback some years ago (the neighbor has a dozen or so bufflers), and damnere caught him and the horse. It could've and would've killed them both, it sure as hell tried.

One time we were going to shoot prairie dogs in western South Dakota. We took off the evening before I was going to camp in the Badland National Park. Well When we got to the park it was about 1:00 in the morning. We didn't want to set up a tent that late at night so one guy had made room in the pickup bed for his bed roll. The other guy laid down in the extended part of the pickup with the seat down and I just reclined the seat and slept in it. About 6:00 or 6:30 the buffalos started wandering through the campground. I will never forget the lady that stuck her head out of the tent only to be face to face with a buffalo with their faces about 1 1/2 feet apart.

Great stuff. I love them buffler...

Took this one last year in Wyoming in the Tetons if I remember with a long lens. I watched them for part of the afternoon. They are definetely an animal that likes to push and shove each other around. This was after a pushing match ended.

I only spent 1/2 a day in Yellowstone but yeah I saw a traffic jam for the buffalo and people getting out and walking up to within a few feet and taking a pic with a camera phone.

Looky who I just found.

per the buffalo, I'd like to butcher one just to see how the good meat lays compared to a deer.

Nathan,

Great picture, thanks for sharing. I only had a little pocket camera with me on my trip, and as others have noted, I didn't want to get too close.

Rick

Lots of Bison farms out here,and still some free ranging ones farther north too. I live a short sistance from Elk Island park,which has a huge herd of buffalo. There's also a bison farm a couple miles down the road from where I live,and some of the bulls are ubelievably huge. It's interesting that the people around here who are familiar with bison and work with them give them lots of respect while those who are clueless will try to walk right up to them. Maybe it's becasue they look slow and lazy that makes people so complacent. I know some real honest to god cowboys out here who a little nuts when it comes to horses and cattle but they do not mess around when it comes to bison.They said trying to work bison on horseback can be damn near suicidal,those things can spin on a dime and hit top speed in a couple of strides. I worked for an outfitter who had a coupe hundred acres of fenced property with bison in it. Sometimes he would let his clients go in and try to get one. They got charged on numerous occasions and several times took numerous 7mm and 300Wm rounds to the head before they went down.