tomahawk
12-03-2009, 12:06 PM
We had closed the gap to 17 yds on the big bull! It seemed almost surreal that we were able to get this close to him as he lay there unaware of our presence. We could now see the tips of his horns and the top of his head as he gazed over the meadow. Suddenly he stood up, 17 yds away.......
This was our 4th LEH draw and we knew we would need to go well prepared for all weather and hunting conditons and with as much equipment, quads, snowmobiles, game cart and yes even a boat in case we needed to go where no other hunters had been.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09008.jpg
We arrived at the Pink Mountain Motel 2 days before the draw opened and were treated to the comfort of a warm room, comfortable beds and a TV with a sheep hunting DVD playing continually, this felt like heaven to us!! We introduced ourselves to Jamie (HBC member "sheep.elk.moose.fanatic") and his lovely wife. The next morning after a great breakfast and a viewing of some nice trophies that Jamie has taken we made our way to the airstrip and set up camp.
Day 1 we scoured the designated vehicle route, side trails and hills for track but realized quickly that the bison had headed deeper into the area. There were machines and hunters everywhere.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09012.jpg
Day 2 we headed to a location that has produced a big bull for us before but the tracks around it were plentiful but were about a week old. That was a huge disappointment for us. So it was now on to plan # 2.
Day 3 we headed out and went deeper into a new untouched territory where no other hunters had been but there was not enough sign to warrant another trip back to it. On the way back the pull cord on one of the snowmobiles broke 24km from camp but luckily the machine started as the cord failed and we were able to drive it back and into the tent for a repair.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09010.jpg
Day 4 we were on to plan # 3 and were very pleased at what we found, fresh sign and a whole new breathe of fresh air with respect to finding our bull.
Day 5 Mid afternoon we spot 2 bulls, one big, bedded behind a tree about 1000 ft up a mountain and about 2 kms from our position. After a 3 hour stalk to get into the area and up the mountain, it was disappointing to find the beds were empty (except for several pounds of poop). The tracks showed that they had got up from their beds, fed straight up the mountain to the ridge and then followed the ridge to the peak and went over the back side.
Day 6 we were tired and needed a day of sleeping in and rest.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09023.jpg
Day 7 we were up early, I pulled my ugly white lucky sweater out of my container much to the dismay of my good buddy Rod. He has hated the sweater for years but said that if it works again like it had on the moose trip in Sept he would never say anything about it again! We were well into the area as the sun started to come over the horizon, excited about the 2" of fresh snow that fell overnight. As we made our way into the valley, suddenly a monster lone bull appeared at 655yds, like a ghost out of nowhere,(we believe he may have been bedded behind a clump of trees) There was no need for binoculars on this big boy we named "The Burger Bull" as he would have been over 2000 lbs and was massive everywhere!! We quickly formulated a plan and the stalk was on. For those of you who have never hunted bison, closing the gap on a lone huge bull that size is not an easy task as there stride is over a yard long. The sheer challenge of the terrain he was in which was full of steep creeks, uneven ground, clumps of trees and thick forest with hidden meadows throughout added to the difficult odds of ever catching up with him. After closing the gap but never seeing him again the stalk was called off. We decided we would let him rest and would come back at the end of the day in the last 2 hrs of light and try to cut his track and hunt him again. As it turns out that would never happen! We carried on and after about 40 minutes down the trail we cut 3 sets of fresh bull tracks with one track noticably bigger. We started out following the largest tracks and within a 100 yds found lots of fresh droppings that were not frozen yet so we knew that we had a chance at catching them. We scanned the area ahead of us but there were no bison in sight. One set of tracks headed left across the meadow and towards the thick bush so we followed it right to the timber line where it turned and went back into the middle of the meadow. Before turning back with the tracks into the meadow we scanned the meadow and spotted the head of a bull laying at the base of a tree, his entire body hidden by the terrain, with just his head looking out over the meadow in front of him. He was 257 yds from us. The wind was blowing across the meadow between us and the bull, the snow was soft and dry so we made a plan for a stalk which would keep us down wind and out of sight of the bull as we made our way towards him. The stalk took us 40 minutes to go 240 yds with slow and careful steps, counting 5 or 6 steps at a time before stopping momentarily, moving only when the wind was blowing so that it would hide any noise we made, we constantly scanned the meadow to try and locate the other 2 bulls so that they didn't bust us before we finished our stalk. We had closed the gap to 17 yds on the big bull! It seemed almost surreal that we were able to get this close to him as he lay there unaware of our presence. We could see the tips of his horns and the top of his head as he gazed over the meadow. Suddenly he stood up, 17 yds away and immediately so did the other 2 bulls right beside him that were completely hidden by the landscape. The big bull towered over the 2 smaller bulls like a cow over her calves. All we could see was the top half of his chest and front shoulder. One shot through the lower area of what we could see of his chest and he buckled to the ground, crashing into a tree, sending branches scattering into the snow and causing it to lean away from him. The other 2 bulls ran about 35 yds and stood looking back, trying to figure out what was going on. The downed bull tried in vane to get to his feet but another round through the back of the skull layed him to rest as the other bulls ran quickly towards the bush. It was only 1.5 hrs till dark so we quickly took some pictures and then field dressed, skinned and caped him out which was not easy given he was up against the leaning tree, but with the help of the snow machines pulling his legs we were able to move him about 3 ft from the tree. The long ride home in the dark didn't seem so bad with the success of the day playing through our heads.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09-1011-1.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09041-1.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09051-1-1.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09056-1-1.jpg
This is the gut pile only, NO lungs, liver, heart etc, beside my full size hydration day pack
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09061.jpg
Day 8 we made our way back into the area to retrieve the bull, glad to see that no wolves had been near it. We brought a "meat" chain saw to quarter the bull
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09065.jpg
and then loaded it on the skimmer and out we went. About 2/3 of the way back the rear bumper on the snowmobile tore off leaving the skimmer loaded with meat stopped dead in its tracks, luckily for us it was within the designated Quad area, so our "McGiver hunting partner" Rod jerry rigged a receiver on the quad, hooked the skimmer to the back of a quad and we towed it the rest of the way out.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09072.jpg
Their body cavity is not built like other ungulates, you can see here that the hump is almost half of the chest area, so shooting mid chest on the bison is not a good shot. Lucky for us the first shot went through the center of the spine dropping the big boy to his knee's! That's a 4ft pallet its laying on.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09075.jpg
Tidbits
His horns are 14" at the base and 17 " long.
His head alone weighs 125 lbs
We only saw a total of 6 bison, all were bulls!
My lucky sweater has scored again, this year alone for our group it produced the bull bison, a bull moose and a muley buck!
This was our 4th LEH draw and we knew we would need to go well prepared for all weather and hunting conditons and with as much equipment, quads, snowmobiles, game cart and yes even a boat in case we needed to go where no other hunters had been.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09008.jpg
We arrived at the Pink Mountain Motel 2 days before the draw opened and were treated to the comfort of a warm room, comfortable beds and a TV with a sheep hunting DVD playing continually, this felt like heaven to us!! We introduced ourselves to Jamie (HBC member "sheep.elk.moose.fanatic") and his lovely wife. The next morning after a great breakfast and a viewing of some nice trophies that Jamie has taken we made our way to the airstrip and set up camp.
Day 1 we scoured the designated vehicle route, side trails and hills for track but realized quickly that the bison had headed deeper into the area. There were machines and hunters everywhere.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09012.jpg
Day 2 we headed to a location that has produced a big bull for us before but the tracks around it were plentiful but were about a week old. That was a huge disappointment for us. So it was now on to plan # 2.
Day 3 we headed out and went deeper into a new untouched territory where no other hunters had been but there was not enough sign to warrant another trip back to it. On the way back the pull cord on one of the snowmobiles broke 24km from camp but luckily the machine started as the cord failed and we were able to drive it back and into the tent for a repair.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09010.jpg
Day 4 we were on to plan # 3 and were very pleased at what we found, fresh sign and a whole new breathe of fresh air with respect to finding our bull.
Day 5 Mid afternoon we spot 2 bulls, one big, bedded behind a tree about 1000 ft up a mountain and about 2 kms from our position. After a 3 hour stalk to get into the area and up the mountain, it was disappointing to find the beds were empty (except for several pounds of poop). The tracks showed that they had got up from their beds, fed straight up the mountain to the ridge and then followed the ridge to the peak and went over the back side.
Day 6 we were tired and needed a day of sleeping in and rest.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09023.jpg
Day 7 we were up early, I pulled my ugly white lucky sweater out of my container much to the dismay of my good buddy Rod. He has hated the sweater for years but said that if it works again like it had on the moose trip in Sept he would never say anything about it again! We were well into the area as the sun started to come over the horizon, excited about the 2" of fresh snow that fell overnight. As we made our way into the valley, suddenly a monster lone bull appeared at 655yds, like a ghost out of nowhere,(we believe he may have been bedded behind a clump of trees) There was no need for binoculars on this big boy we named "The Burger Bull" as he would have been over 2000 lbs and was massive everywhere!! We quickly formulated a plan and the stalk was on. For those of you who have never hunted bison, closing the gap on a lone huge bull that size is not an easy task as there stride is over a yard long. The sheer challenge of the terrain he was in which was full of steep creeks, uneven ground, clumps of trees and thick forest with hidden meadows throughout added to the difficult odds of ever catching up with him. After closing the gap but never seeing him again the stalk was called off. We decided we would let him rest and would come back at the end of the day in the last 2 hrs of light and try to cut his track and hunt him again. As it turns out that would never happen! We carried on and after about 40 minutes down the trail we cut 3 sets of fresh bull tracks with one track noticably bigger. We started out following the largest tracks and within a 100 yds found lots of fresh droppings that were not frozen yet so we knew that we had a chance at catching them. We scanned the area ahead of us but there were no bison in sight. One set of tracks headed left across the meadow and towards the thick bush so we followed it right to the timber line where it turned and went back into the middle of the meadow. Before turning back with the tracks into the meadow we scanned the meadow and spotted the head of a bull laying at the base of a tree, his entire body hidden by the terrain, with just his head looking out over the meadow in front of him. He was 257 yds from us. The wind was blowing across the meadow between us and the bull, the snow was soft and dry so we made a plan for a stalk which would keep us down wind and out of sight of the bull as we made our way towards him. The stalk took us 40 minutes to go 240 yds with slow and careful steps, counting 5 or 6 steps at a time before stopping momentarily, moving only when the wind was blowing so that it would hide any noise we made, we constantly scanned the meadow to try and locate the other 2 bulls so that they didn't bust us before we finished our stalk. We had closed the gap to 17 yds on the big bull! It seemed almost surreal that we were able to get this close to him as he lay there unaware of our presence. We could see the tips of his horns and the top of his head as he gazed over the meadow. Suddenly he stood up, 17 yds away and immediately so did the other 2 bulls right beside him that were completely hidden by the landscape. The big bull towered over the 2 smaller bulls like a cow over her calves. All we could see was the top half of his chest and front shoulder. One shot through the lower area of what we could see of his chest and he buckled to the ground, crashing into a tree, sending branches scattering into the snow and causing it to lean away from him. The other 2 bulls ran about 35 yds and stood looking back, trying to figure out what was going on. The downed bull tried in vane to get to his feet but another round through the back of the skull layed him to rest as the other bulls ran quickly towards the bush. It was only 1.5 hrs till dark so we quickly took some pictures and then field dressed, skinned and caped him out which was not easy given he was up against the leaning tree, but with the help of the snow machines pulling his legs we were able to move him about 3 ft from the tree. The long ride home in the dark didn't seem so bad with the success of the day playing through our heads.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09-1011-1.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09041-1.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09051-1-1.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09056-1-1.jpg
This is the gut pile only, NO lungs, liver, heart etc, beside my full size hydration day pack
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09061.jpg
Day 8 we made our way back into the area to retrieve the bull, glad to see that no wolves had been near it. We brought a "meat" chain saw to quarter the bull
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09065.jpg
and then loaded it on the skimmer and out we went. About 2/3 of the way back the rear bumper on the snowmobile tore off leaving the skimmer loaded with meat stopped dead in its tracks, luckily for us it was within the designated Quad area, so our "McGiver hunting partner" Rod jerry rigged a receiver on the quad, hooked the skimmer to the back of a quad and we towed it the rest of the way out.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09072.jpg
Their body cavity is not built like other ungulates, you can see here that the hump is almost half of the chest area, so shooting mid chest on the bison is not a good shot. Lucky for us the first shot went through the center of the spine dropping the big boy to his knee's! That's a 4ft pallet its laying on.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Bison09075.jpg
Tidbits
His horns are 14" at the base and 17 " long.
His head alone weighs 125 lbs
We only saw a total of 6 bison, all were bulls!
My lucky sweater has scored again, this year alone for our group it produced the bull bison, a bull moose and a muley buck!