D21ALASKA
Handloader
- Oct 29, 2013
- 275
- 277
Was lucky enough this past week and a half to accompany a couple friends on a very hard to draw Bison hunt tag(s) here in AK in the Delta Junction area. They pretty well won the lottery when they party applied for the hunt and subsequently both drew.
Scouted the area for a couple days prior to their season opener to try and get an idea of locations and movements of the herd(s). It's approximately 400 animals spread over I'm not sure how many thousands upon thousands of acres. This was all of our first time hunting bison, and they are late onset hunters, so there was a sharp learning curve.
First morning didn't show us anything so we went back on the move. Most of the late morning early afternoon was spent continuing to scout. As luck would have it we spotted a small herd at approximately 2pm on a property we had permission on. A quick 1.5 mile double time up the edge of and across a field to get ahead of them and we were in position to intercept them. A quick peek through the brush with the binos reveals.....they're gone. What the? Took a few minutes to verify they're not where they're supposed to be and formulate a new plan based on a guess. A much slower walk across another field to the next windrow and through revealed sometimes I'm not as dumb as my wife thinks I am....there they are bedded. With a good wind and a quick reposition we were again in position, this time for a possible shot if they stood up and separated slightly. A short 3 shivering hours later they did. Unfortunately the shooter did not make an ideal first shot. The animal made it into the windrow we were sitting in for cover with the herd and out of sight not offering a follow up. I immediately told them to go left back through the windrow and up to the knoll in the field to see what they could. I then when straight to where the animal had been to follow up at pace. I covered that 200 yards quickly and followed the track, small amounts of brilliant red blood, another 250ish yards heading back into the windrow. Luckily she did not make it through and had fallen there disabled. I announced to them on the other side that I had found her and confirmed they were well back from me. I ended it for her with 2 shots through her lungs from the 375 with 300gr Partitions. And as always the high fives, hugs and pictures commence shortly followed by the work. In process we learned the initial shot had taken her through the left hip socket, completely shattering it, and into the abdominal cavity. He, the shooter, got extremely lucky. I mentioned it to him in conversation at a later date and he agreed. All ended well though and the 375 doesn't seem to mind batting cleanup.
For the next five days we hunted hard. Sunup to sundown, lots of miles on the truck and feet. Such a big area with the herd broken up and constantly on the move requires it. A few close calls that didn't go our way, along with a couple complete screwups, brought us to Friday the 7th day of season.
After no luck in the morning the 1st shooter had to go to town for the afternoon to take care of some things. 2nd shooter and I put a couple more miles on the boots scouting a new property we had just gotten permission on. Nothing there for us even sign wise so we decided to hop back in the truck and check a couple of the public sections across the highway. Low and behold as we nose out into a field we see a herd about 700 yards down headed our way. The fields were put in by the state I believe for bison habitat and are long and narrow. Usually a mile plus long and 2-400 yards wide for the most part.
So I tell him to quickly back up behind the knoll again and we get out. The wind is not ideal but this is a quickly developing situation so I get us into a position. I'm hoping they're going to take a right when they get to the the field corner 200 yards in front of us and move up into it crossing in front of us moving right to left. They don't. Instead they continue walking straight into the main field. This is going to put them directly downwind of us. We quickly back out and move approximately 700 yards to another position attempting to at least keep the wind crossing or quartering. From this position I identify a very nice bull in the herd of approximately 60 animals. They get our wind. Great. They don't spook but while the bull is in the open a couple times they won't come any closer and the shot distance is much too far at 350. We back out again attempting to get the wind back in our favor while stocking to another point up the field which will put us closer. We make it amazingly. So now they're at 200 and both the shooter and I are good with that. Bull offers a clear shot and he takes it. Long and short he missed clean. Looked for sign of a hit for an hour in the snow and watched the bull himself for approximately 20 minutes after the shot showing no signs of being hit. I tell him to shake it off and we're moving on. We still have the herd in sight down this long field. We make a big, probably mile and a half, circle to stay out of sight and attempt to get in front of them again. Lady luck was with me and I guessed the right field corner to pop out on. Bedded 250 yards in front of us on the far field edge directly upwind. Perfect so we wait. Ideally when they stand up they're going to continue they're previous direction and move from our left to right in front of us. I have the shooter set up sitting on my pad using my pack with a rifle v molded in the frame as a rest. He's solid and ready so we wait. 3 hours later they stand up so we stop shivering. They start moving left back where they came from. Dammit. Ok. We have the wind but we're super shy on cover moving that way. But it's getting late and if it works we should have a shot at approximately 100 yards. Let's go. As we're moving up more animals are getting out of they're beds and coming into view. I spot the bull towards the back intermixed with the main part of the herd. I point him out to the shooter at 200 yards. His response is "but what about that cow all by herself right in front of us?" His tag, his choice. Shot was about 100, I didn't bother ranging, and she was slightly quartering away. A few inches back but decent shot that ended up taking one lung. I watched her flinch at the shot and told him she was hit and to do it again. Had to wait a couple minutes for her to clear, the herd didn't spook and she showed no signs of ill in this time, and a 2nd shot ended up hitting her low in the neck cutting the jugular. I initially thought he missed as I saw the bullet impact in the snow in front of and beyond her. But that was just my angle on it and I watched her fall in the field through the binos as the herd ran off. The blood trail was pretty easy to follow up to where she laid.
Overall it was a great hunt in all aspects. Good times, good people, hard work and success bring it all together. They are also generous people and I made the long drive home yesterday toting great memories and a winters worth of delicious bison meat.
Such an interesting and cool animal in so many ways that not many people get to ever hunt. Feeling super fortunate to have gone and will still be making my yearly donation to hopefully be the tag holder someday.
Scouted the area for a couple days prior to their season opener to try and get an idea of locations and movements of the herd(s). It's approximately 400 animals spread over I'm not sure how many thousands upon thousands of acres. This was all of our first time hunting bison, and they are late onset hunters, so there was a sharp learning curve.
First morning didn't show us anything so we went back on the move. Most of the late morning early afternoon was spent continuing to scout. As luck would have it we spotted a small herd at approximately 2pm on a property we had permission on. A quick 1.5 mile double time up the edge of and across a field to get ahead of them and we were in position to intercept them. A quick peek through the brush with the binos reveals.....they're gone. What the? Took a few minutes to verify they're not where they're supposed to be and formulate a new plan based on a guess. A much slower walk across another field to the next windrow and through revealed sometimes I'm not as dumb as my wife thinks I am....there they are bedded. With a good wind and a quick reposition we were again in position, this time for a possible shot if they stood up and separated slightly. A short 3 shivering hours later they did. Unfortunately the shooter did not make an ideal first shot. The animal made it into the windrow we were sitting in for cover with the herd and out of sight not offering a follow up. I immediately told them to go left back through the windrow and up to the knoll in the field to see what they could. I then when straight to where the animal had been to follow up at pace. I covered that 200 yards quickly and followed the track, small amounts of brilliant red blood, another 250ish yards heading back into the windrow. Luckily she did not make it through and had fallen there disabled. I announced to them on the other side that I had found her and confirmed they were well back from me. I ended it for her with 2 shots through her lungs from the 375 with 300gr Partitions. And as always the high fives, hugs and pictures commence shortly followed by the work. In process we learned the initial shot had taken her through the left hip socket, completely shattering it, and into the abdominal cavity. He, the shooter, got extremely lucky. I mentioned it to him in conversation at a later date and he agreed. All ended well though and the 375 doesn't seem to mind batting cleanup.
For the next five days we hunted hard. Sunup to sundown, lots of miles on the truck and feet. Such a big area with the herd broken up and constantly on the move requires it. A few close calls that didn't go our way, along with a couple complete screwups, brought us to Friday the 7th day of season.
After no luck in the morning the 1st shooter had to go to town for the afternoon to take care of some things. 2nd shooter and I put a couple more miles on the boots scouting a new property we had just gotten permission on. Nothing there for us even sign wise so we decided to hop back in the truck and check a couple of the public sections across the highway. Low and behold as we nose out into a field we see a herd about 700 yards down headed our way. The fields were put in by the state I believe for bison habitat and are long and narrow. Usually a mile plus long and 2-400 yards wide for the most part.
So I tell him to quickly back up behind the knoll again and we get out. The wind is not ideal but this is a quickly developing situation so I get us into a position. I'm hoping they're going to take a right when they get to the the field corner 200 yards in front of us and move up into it crossing in front of us moving right to left. They don't. Instead they continue walking straight into the main field. This is going to put them directly downwind of us. We quickly back out and move approximately 700 yards to another position attempting to at least keep the wind crossing or quartering. From this position I identify a very nice bull in the herd of approximately 60 animals. They get our wind. Great. They don't spook but while the bull is in the open a couple times they won't come any closer and the shot distance is much too far at 350. We back out again attempting to get the wind back in our favor while stocking to another point up the field which will put us closer. We make it amazingly. So now they're at 200 and both the shooter and I are good with that. Bull offers a clear shot and he takes it. Long and short he missed clean. Looked for sign of a hit for an hour in the snow and watched the bull himself for approximately 20 minutes after the shot showing no signs of being hit. I tell him to shake it off and we're moving on. We still have the herd in sight down this long field. We make a big, probably mile and a half, circle to stay out of sight and attempt to get in front of them again. Lady luck was with me and I guessed the right field corner to pop out on. Bedded 250 yards in front of us on the far field edge directly upwind. Perfect so we wait. Ideally when they stand up they're going to continue they're previous direction and move from our left to right in front of us. I have the shooter set up sitting on my pad using my pack with a rifle v molded in the frame as a rest. He's solid and ready so we wait. 3 hours later they stand up so we stop shivering. They start moving left back where they came from. Dammit. Ok. We have the wind but we're super shy on cover moving that way. But it's getting late and if it works we should have a shot at approximately 100 yards. Let's go. As we're moving up more animals are getting out of they're beds and coming into view. I spot the bull towards the back intermixed with the main part of the herd. I point him out to the shooter at 200 yards. His response is "but what about that cow all by herself right in front of us?" His tag, his choice. Shot was about 100, I didn't bother ranging, and she was slightly quartering away. A few inches back but decent shot that ended up taking one lung. I watched her flinch at the shot and told him she was hit and to do it again. Had to wait a couple minutes for her to clear, the herd didn't spook and she showed no signs of ill in this time, and a 2nd shot ended up hitting her low in the neck cutting the jugular. I initially thought he missed as I saw the bullet impact in the snow in front of and beyond her. But that was just my angle on it and I watched her fall in the field through the binos as the herd ran off. The blood trail was pretty easy to follow up to where she laid.
Overall it was a great hunt in all aspects. Good times, good people, hard work and success bring it all together. They are also generous people and I made the long drive home yesterday toting great memories and a winters worth of delicious bison meat.
Such an interesting and cool animal in so many ways that not many people get to ever hunt. Feeling super fortunate to have gone and will still be making my yearly donation to hopefully be the tag holder someday.
