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Joined: Mar 2007
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Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2007
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High_country_: I have given a hand on several Buffalo "harvests" - I love Buffalo meat!
I have never killt one of these ranch raised Buffalo myself but I sure like to eat them - so I go along with my friends when they want to harvest one for their families fare.
The word is Buffalo meat is much better for the human that consumes it than Beef!
In addition to often getting a small batch of Buffalo meat to eat, one year I earned a nifty Buffalo skull that I had "Demastid Beetle" treated.
It hangs on my fireplace and is very attractive there.
Not far from you is one of the ranches I went along to.
Its west of Ronan, Montana (which is 46 miles north of I-90 near Missoula) and the owners name is Bernard Hakes and his phone number was 406-676-3068.
He really helps out with retrieving and then gutting and skinning your Buffalo.
Once you see him you might recognize him - he is the subject of the "Duck Boy" postcard which is titled "Montana Designated Driver" and that is his dog on his horse. The dog is "driving" the horse home and has the reins of the horse in its mouth, Bernard is slumped over asleep in the saddle.
It is really a funny postcard.
That postcard is by far the best all time seller for the Duck Boy Company.
If you get to Hunt on Bernards ranch be sure and ask him about the picture and the financial "wrangling" leading up to it.
Buying a side of Beef may be easier - I don't know about cheaper?
But the buffalo meat will taste good and may just add some days to your life as well as lots of conversations?
Buffal hides are beautiful things once tanned with the hair on - those hides would have value should you wish to trade it off to diminish your "overall costs".
I had a mature Bull Elk hide tanned with the hide on some years ago - my plan was to use it as a comforter or bed warmer on the master bed.
Well that hair on Elk blanket was so warm and so heavy it was uncomfortable to sleep under (for my wife and I anyway!).
Instead my Bull Elk hide is now displayed on a stairwell protecting bannister - it is very attractive there.
I suggest you not forget about the Buffalo "robe" - it has value and would look nice once tanned with the hair on.
Best of luck should you decide to go for a Buff!
Hold inot the wind
VarmintGuy
that may be the sign I was thinking about on i 90 aroung the missoula area. I spent a good summer up at flathead rebuliding the bridge a few years back......i know the drive well.
I would not buy something that runs on any kind of primer given the possibility of primer shortages and even regulations. In fact, why not buy a flintlock? Really. Rocks aren't going away anytime soon.
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Joined: Feb 2001
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Campfire Tracker
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I was in on a hunt here: Clovercreek Their prices have gone WAY up since I was there. They are located in west/central Oregon. They told me they had people coming from Portland that were shooting bison and then donating the meat declaring $10/pound. The shooters were coming out ahead in the deal. Our bison was tougher than either of us and we had to grind the entire animal to make it eatable.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
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Joined: Mar 2006
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Yep.
Buffalo Pasture hunts 'round here are fairly spendy.
I'd find a local rancher and buy his home grown beef also. The rancher might even let you shoot it! You'd have to butcher it yourself. USDA specifies that cattle must be brought in live for processing or else they can't be processed in one of their inspected plants.
molɔ̀ːn labé skýla
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Joined: Mar 2009
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Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Mar 2009
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There are a couple people that come to mind. One in Ronan and there is an outfit just south of Missoula that both raise buffalo. Last year I got one from (Burney)? out of Ronan for $2100. Dont know numbers for either but will get them by tomorrow. www.bitterootbison.com
Last edited by mtbugler63; 12/27/13.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2006
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You coudn't GIVE me beef if I could get grass fed buffler. Short grass country bison is the best chow I've ever put a bullet in. Sent you a PM. Couldn't agree more. So much so, that my wife has "ordered" another one. Took just over 2 years to finish the first one. Going back to Wyoming next Thanksgiving to re-supply. Axis deer, on the other hand, is some of the finest venison I've had. The whole animal tastes like tenderloin to me  +2. EvilTwin and I (along with jorge1 and eh76) did our first buffalo hunt together 2 years ago in WY, harvesting three 2-1/2 y.o. heifers. I am down to my last few pounds of ground meat from that animal, and it has been delicious and nutritious all the way along. One caution I would put in: if you can, and have the space/facilities/time, butcher the meat yourself. My son and I processed the front quarters, backstraps and tenderloins ourselves, so every cut was identified. I took the hindquarters to a game processing shop and while they wrapped the meat well, everything was labelled, "Buffalo Roast" or "Buffalo Steak", regardless of cut. Personally, I want to know if I'm thawing an eye of round versus a sirloin roast. You only get that if you wrap it yourself. As for axis... yes, they are fine eating!! I have a neighbor who has a ranch about an hour south who keeps complaining that there are too many axis deer on his property and wants me to come down to kill a couple-three does in February... I might could do that!!
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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FWIW... it's been a while, but some years ago I did some research into the dietary value of different meat sources... as in, which meats were better suited to human consumption in terms of the actual biochemical components of the meat... basically, the proportion of amino acids in each type of meat compared to the amino acids our bodies require from the protein we eat.
There is a lot of good evidence that cervids (deer family) come closest to meeting our protein nutritional needs exactly. Bison (and other wild oxen such as cape buffalo!) is almost as good. Domestic beef, pork, mutton, etc, are much less well-suited to our nutritional needs.
Some have suggested that this means our species evolved over many, many years, eating cervids as our primary meat supply. I dunno about that, but I like the idea of it... that whether a person is a deer hunter today, he came from men who hunted deer. Hunting deer is in our goldang DNA!!!
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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I suspect that it would be cheaper if you talked to a local farmer/rancher to see what it would cost for you to march out in his pasture and shoot an angus or hereford steer.
You could have the local butcher there ready to drag the critter off to the same place that cuts up your elk.
Jim
"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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 Doc, yer preachin to da choir Hint to prospective buffler hunter(s). SAVE the buff tallow!!! Olden times guys wrote that it was superb eating and useful for dang near everything that needed some sort of fat/oil.
Be afraid,be VERY VERY afraid ad triarios redisse My Buddy eh76 speaks authentic Frontier Gibberish! ![[Linked Image]](http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/EvilTwinMar/Sabretooth-1.jpg)
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Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
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I have my own processing facility. I have cut and wrapped 30 elk and at least as many deer. I will be my own butcher.....and as I said, I won't be buying a beef.
I would not buy something that runs on any kind of primer given the possibility of primer shortages and even regulations. In fact, why not buy a flintlock? Really. Rocks aren't going away anytime soon.
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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My big MT bull from 2007. Shot with a Sharps with blackpowder cartridges and hand cast bullets. Not a hard hunt but fun and lots of meat! ![[Linked Image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/scottkendrix/Mobile%20Uploads/Edit%20print_zpsgbbwi7hf.jpg) Now that is the way I've always wanted to kill a buffalo! Bob
Bob
Enjoy life now -- it has an expiration date.
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
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Joined: Sep 2009
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Me too, and I will one day. Gunner
Trump Won!
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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I did a hunt last January for a spike (1 yr 7mth old bull) ran me $1800 for the hunt on a Ne Sandhills ranch. the pasture was 2200+ acres they had to be HUNTED as they have been shot at since labor day and they know 2 leggeds are bad news. the price include 3 days lodging and homecooked meals. The bull was hauled to a custom butcher shop and skinned ,cooled and processed for $230. I was able to pick him up on the way home. The shop did a great job of skinning with little add'n fleshing needed, after salting and drying the hide I put it in a box and sent it via Fed EX to Moyle Mink AND Tannery at Heyburn ,Idaho. $450 including shipping both ways and I have a beautiful buffalo robe that covers my tired looking leather 7' couch (6 mths). Had a local taxidermist do a euro style skull mount $200. A tip and gas for the trip out and back, I had a great time and great eats this year. 910 lb spike yielded 188 lbs of processed meat. The outfitter is backed up 2 yrs and pretty much just does that with repeat customers. You can find a hunt closer to home. I used my Shiloh 45-110 with 540 gr paper patched lead bullets over 110 gr of blackpowder. Your hunt is what you make it. Magnum Man
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Be afraid,be VERY VERY afraid ad triarios redisse My Buddy eh76 speaks authentic Frontier Gibberish!
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Joined: Sep 2009
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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NIICCCCEEEEEEE!!!!!
Gunner
Trump Won!
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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This. You can get a nice side of beef cut and wrapped for less than it will cost you to go shoot a buffler. If all you want is meat, this is the way to go.
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Campfire Regular
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Hey ET you post a photo for me? Magnum Man
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Mag Man, for anyone who likes that sort of thing. That is an original Sharps 45/110 and it WAS used in that very region 1878-1882 as a buffler rifle. And I stand by my statement that if I could have a shortgrass buffler like her everytime, you couldn't GIVE me beef!!
Be afraid,be VERY VERY afraid ad triarios redisse My Buddy eh76 speaks authentic Frontier Gibberish!
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Joined: Oct 2005
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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I've shot 2 pasture type bison, one in Waterville WA, just west of you and one in Montana. Both were great eating. The one in Waterville cost $1.50 # on the hoof. The farmer has a large barn to hoist the bison up to help with field butchering.
It was a lot of fun on both, and I will do it again.
I didn't keep the hides or heads, and no regrets.
The one in Wateville gave me a lot of latitude on how I wanted to do the 'hunt'.
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Yep.
Buffalo Pasture hunts 'round here are fairly spendy.
I'd find a local rancher and buy his home grown beef also. The rancher might even let you shoot it! You'd have to butcher it yourself. USDA specifies that cattle must be brought in live for processing or else they can't be processed in one of their inspected plants. Lots of butcher shops will process an already killed beef,it just can not go out their door as inspected beef. Grass fed beef isn't worth the cost of a bullet as far as I am concerned. The taste lacks the richness that fat marbling from grain gives the meat.
Ignorance is not confined to uneducated people.
WHO IS JOHN GALT?
LIBERTY!
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Joined: Nov 2004
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Guys, to keep a perspective, in the 1870's, you would ride out of camp hunt the herd. Find the herd, hide the horse and stalk for a stand. Get a stand and shoot as many buffler as you could before they spooked. Nowadays, ya take a pick-up or horse out, hunt the herd, hide the truck or horse, stalk them and get a stand and kill one buffler. It sounds odd, but 50 head of buffler can actually disappear in the high plains. DocRocket,Jorge, eh76 and I learned that pretty quickly. Jim, the robe is well worth keeping at this time of year. LUXURIOUS!! Soft as cashmere. Worth every penny. If the OP is adept at and equipped to butcher his own he is way ahead of the game.
Be afraid,be VERY VERY afraid ad triarios redisse My Buddy eh76 speaks authentic Frontier Gibberish!
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