Cane,Turkey feathers,and Bison

[zipper bowss]

 
 
 

[Thebear_78]

This looks like the start of a  good story!!

[GRINCH]

mooooore

[zipper bowss]

 
 

[zipper bowss]

 
 
 

[Jwilliam]

Originally posted by Thebear_78:
This looks like the start of a  good story!!

I agree. Can't wait to hear the whole story from Bill !!!

[Coonbait]

Can't wait!
Glenn

[zipper bowss]

I want to start by saying this is not a high fence hunt. The property is fenced with a 4 ft. woven wire cattle fence. This is a 4000 acre property that has approximately 200 bison on it. I was there to hunt, and aloud to take 1 of the 8 cow bison that had broken one of their horns. It took me a little while to get my head around that 1 of 8 animals on 4000 acres. A hunt indeed, and just what I had been longing for. A bison hunt, that was just that a hunt. This is the nearest thing possible to hunting the herds of days gone.

[Claym]

Very cool! Can't wait for the rest    

[tracker1]

This is on my bucket list.  I will be watching this one.  

[emfunk]

Great pictures, and looking foward to reading and seeing how this adventure turns out. Thanks for posting Zip,

[zipper bowss]

HUMMM, Bison hunting how do you choose your equipment for a bison? It has to be special, because to me this was a very special hunt. The choice was actually quite easy. My buddy Benjy had given me a dozen or so cane arrows over the last couple of years, all of which were fletched with 2 turkey and 1 goose feather. Some of the turkey feathers came from turkeys I had killed. One of these special arrows shot very well from my newly completed longbow. Now all I needed was a good sturdy broad head. Not just any broad head one with some real mojo. Again that was easy. All I had to do is steel an Abowyer Brown bear off of one of Tracy’s arrows that she had taken game with. For my bow I chose my newly designed 3 piece longbow. It is special, not only because it is a super performer but also because it is the sister woods to Tom Jenkin’s new SXT recurve.Even the knives I took on this hunt had mojo to spare. One was given to me by Danny Rowen, another by Bill Kissner, the third was given to me by my grandfather nearly 30 years ago.

[Killdeer]

   

[zipper bowss]

Wayne is an experienced guide who had been in on nearly 50 bow hunts for bison. This was however, only the third with traditional gear. He was confident that we could get within longbow range of one of these great animals. Despite the fact that many of them will be in the herd and have hundreds of eyes and noses watching their backs, Wayne would later explain that not all of the bison would be within the main herd. Only those that needed the protection of the family group would be with the rest of the herd. Since this was the tail end of the breeding season the main herd would consist of those cows with calves and the main breeding bulls. Outside of this main herd would be several smaller satellite groups with the same make up. There are also some lone animals. As I mentioned, these are animals that have no need for the protection or socialization of the herd.  Old bulls that have been kicked out by younger breeding bulls and dry cows will all be on their own or in small groups.

[swp]

Where does your adventure take place?? That don't look like Ohio to me but I could be wrong.     Can't wait for the rest of the story.

[zipper bowss]

Back to the hunt. The first mornings hunt started on a high vantage point with bino’s doing much of the leg work. The plan was to glass from several of these high open points to locate the heard.  We did not have any luck locating the herd from this overlook so we moved on to the next vantage point. From this high point we could see that the main herd of around 100 animals was in a huge meadow nearly two miles away and across the river. That is when Wayne explained that not all the bison will be together and we should keep looking on our side of the river. Then tomorrow if we did not locate one of the 8 cows we were after we could start the days hunt on the other side of the river. It was on our move to the third glassing location that we spotted our first bison on our side of the river. Wayne knew right of that it was either a cow or a young bull. All I knew was it was a bison and it was dang cool just to be within 200 yards of it. As the bison trotted off Wayne put his binoculars on it and could tell it was a cow. She stopped and turned broadside before going out of sight. That is when Wayne told us that this bison we had just blundered on was one of the 8 cows I would be permitted to shoot. I was floored, we had only just begun the hunt and right here in front of us is was one of the 8 animals we were looking for. I just could not believe it 8 animals on 4000 acres and here she is only an hour into the hunt. As I looked her over with my bino’s I mentioned that she did have two horns. Wayne then explained that what I was seeing was the core that the other horn had grown from and it was not actually a horn. To myself I thought, HUH Rookie mistake.

[zipper bowss]

This is when all that good mojo from the special gear was about to come into play. The wind was in our favor from the start and as she moved off it was apparent that she was not overly spooked and would likely not go too far. The ridge we were on was very large and shaped like a half moon. The top of the ridge was fairly flat to rolling ground with steep wooded gully’s going off each side.  I did not know it at the time but the farther out the crescent shaped ridge you go the narrower it got. This too would prove to be in our benefit. After making a big circle to come in from a direction the cow did not expect danger we eased back up to the edge of the ridge to try to relocate the lone cow. She was nowhere to be found.

[steadman]

[zipper bowss]

Now what? A plan was made. Well, let’s just ease out this ridge checking every wooded draw with the binoculars until we either find her or we are satisfied she is gone. At this point I am really feeling it. I have heard folks say I have waited for this moment all my life. I can’t say that I have wanted to hunt bison all my life but I will say I can’t remember not being awed by these amazing creatures. Now thanks to the help of some good friends here I am on a ridge in the middle of nowhere trying to locate a mature cow buffalo. Even now after the meat is in the freezer I still can hardly believe it.
We checked every gully for about 300 yards. Then just as we came over a role in the ridge there she was about 100 yards out on top of the ridge with us! Luckily she was feeding away from us and did not see us pop up over the small hill on top of the main ridge. At this point the bison was in some short grass just feeding along. Because of the short grass and steep side hills there was no way to try for a stalk. We just had to keep an eye on her and hope she would feed to a more favorable location.
After shadowing the bison for a couple of hundred yards she fed around the ridge far enough that some large pines would block our approach. Tracy and I slipped over the edge of the ridge to use the terrain and the pines for cover. As we snuck up to the spot we last saw the bison. It was instantly apparent that the new problem was going to now be that she had fed so far around this ever narrowing ridge. It was going to be tough to get broadside to her for a shot.  The bison was then so generous as to alleviate this new problem by disappearing once again. We did not have to do too much head scratching before the old plan of checking gully’s became the new plan of you guessed it checking gully’s.  At this point of the ridge there were no more gully’s to check. The ridge began to drop off  into  creek bottom on both sides. We could not have gone more than 50 yards when Wayne, who was standing at the edge of the ridge glassing down to the bottom hit the ground. Tracy and I were only about 30 yards down the ridge on the same side of the ridge as he was and when we saw him get down we did the same. Wayne started excitedly pointing over the ridge and toward us. He was trying to tell us the bison was just on the other side of the ridge. I mouthed to him how far? His reply was 55 yards. Keep in mind we were about 30 yards farther down the ridge than he was and when I crawled up to look over the ridge the big girl was nearly in our lap.
I looked back at Tracy and signed to her to come up here the bison is 20 yards. Tracy had the video camera and was trying to get up to the edge of the ridge to make sure she got all this action on film. The bison did not know we were in the world and was just feeding along. Once the bison’s head went behind a bush I stood up on top of the ridge and prepared for the shot. Tracy got up and got the bison in frame as I picked my shot. The shot was to about 25 yards and Benjy’s cane arrow was on the string. This was it. This was the moment we all live for. The bison was quartering away and we were above her. I remember thinking how tall the grass was and it was making it difficult to see just where her front leg was. I knew I needed to hit her at about 5-7 ribs forward of the back of her rib cage and the height needed to be about even with the tall grass that retch nearly halfway up her body. That angle would allow the arrow to intersect with the off shoulder. I don’t remember the weight of the bow as the string came back, I don’t remember touching my anchor, I don’t remember the release. I only remember the white fur tracer hitting the spot I had chosen on her side. PERFECT!!

[Bud B.]

I was seeing it through your words....great telling.

Keep it up. I'm hooked!