Let's Talk Bison!

[Jtelarkin08]

Ill be chasing bison beginning october 1 in BC. Good luck.. I have my arrow and bow set up for bison even tho moose is my number 1 animal

 

[airlocksniffer]

Bison is good stuff. We used to buy 1/4 to 1/2 each year as I try not to eat much store-bought meat. The animals we get are raised on grass up in the Mission valley and slaughtered around 2 years old. I'd definitely try to get some bone-in steaks made. We'll probably need to order some more this year as I didn't get an elk last year and our game supply is dwindling fast. Nothing like making you a better hunter than hunger...

 

[mtnkid85]

Sounds like a great hunt! Bison is a hunt Ive been wanting to do as well, really need to get a couple of families to go in on it though, as my wife an I would have a heck of time eating an entire bison!
Ill be watching this for tips on processing and or having processed the meat. I think your right It might be worth it to have it professionally processed just to ensure you get the best possible end product.

 

[Elkfitness]

Cool! My wife has given me the full okay to go on a buffalo hunt. She loves the meat! Good luck in your hunt. I'll be following!

 

[bearstalker]

Which hunt?
I drew Copper River Bison this year. I will hunt in October and then again in March.

DI403. Delta bull bison. I went up two different times (late Nov/early Dec and then in early February) before I got mine. You got a awesome tag!

 

[colonel00]

Alright, bumping this up again in case there is any fresh information to glean.

One thing I was thinking about today, for those that live in the area or have done the trip, would snow shoes be of value?

Right now it looks like we are looking at the second or third week of December as that slots in between Thanksgiving, Christmas and the rifle deer opener here in Kansas. I am hesitant to go before Thanksgiving as I'm afraid that might be too early to catch them coming off the park. Any comments?

 

[mtnrunner260]

Might be to early but stay in touch with the fish and game. They'll tell you what the bison are doing as they want them harvested. Snowshoes just depend on the year. Sometimes needed sometimes not.

 

[colonel00]

Yeah, I'll definitely stay in contact with F&G or the local bio. Bad thing is the drawing deadline for the NER permits is tomorrow so we kinda have to pick a set of dates now and see how it works out.

On the snow shoes, that's pretty much what I was thinking. I just don't know that I can make a case to drop money on a good pair just for one use and I don't want to go out with a cheap pair that might fail. I'll have to look more into maybe borrowing a pair or renting some.

 

[mtnrunner260]

Bunch of places in Jackson to rent if needed.

 

[Zbot]

we pull the straps and loins and maybe some roasts and the rest is pretty much ground. ?

I can tell you right now, you are grinding way too much if you are only pulling those cuts. The least amount of anything I get off an animal is ground meat, most is simply packaged pieces of straight muscle group for making into whatever. To me, ground is a waste.

Here is my bighorn, two small 1 pound packages of ground total.


In short, don't waste all that bison in the grinder.

 

[colonel00]

I can't argue your opinion but it's what works for us. Ground finds use more often than roasts or steaks. Plus we crank out tons of sausages, summer sausage and other mixed stuff as a process in large batches.

 

[idahobow]

What does Tag and Drag charge to help break down the Bison and load in your truck?

 

[KClark]

My nephew with his AK bull:



I wasn't there but from what I've been told kids plastic sleds/toboggans were extremely helpful. It was cold, like -15* and he was hard to kill, 338s to the ribs took awhile to show effect, one in the spine at the base of the skull ended the chase. My sil was a butcher so it was done at home and there was a lot of it, like 800+bs of packaged IIRC. I did get in on the eating, it was excellent.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Definitely use a meat processor, hunt it early winter when the coats are nicest and allow it to hang for as long as possible. My first bull (2009lbs) hung for 7 weeks (fat completely encased the carcass so it could age w/o costing me meat loss) and my second (est. 1700lbs) aged for only 3 weeks. Big difference and the 1st bull was bigger and older but was more tender. Tell the processor to age it like it belonged to him...they know when to break it down. Have it vacuum packed in thick plastic bags and store it in a chect freezer that DOESN'T use auto defrost. It takes years to eat a bison.



If bow hunting then heed my advice, watch the tail. If it's down the animal is at ease, if it's halfway up then it's on alert. If the tail goes vertical it is pissed and ready to charge. There is nothing as stimulating as chasing a big beast with a bow.





Nothing tastier either. But easy to overcook. The meat is much redder than beef...this is medium:



This is rare:



Overcooked bison is like eating your boots.

There is room for all God's magnificent beasts...right next to the mashed potatoes.

 

[hodgeman]

I've been on a couple of bison hunts with buddies that drew tags. If you can swing having someone process it- do so. It's not hard, it's just a LOT of meat to tackle for one or two guys working without typical butcher shop tooling.

 

[colonel00]

Thanks. I'm definitely open to the idea of a processor. Hopefully people can chime in with some recommendations of both a processor and a tag and drag.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Thanks. I'm definitely open to the idea of a processor. Hopefully people can chime in with some recommendations of both a processor and a tag and drag.

Call around, I found a taxidermist in Utah with his own tractor. Ya just call, provide the GPS numbers, he loads the tractor on the trailer and drives his truck to the nearest road then travels the rest of the way by tractor. Then threw a chain around the horns and hoisted it up for gutting. Drove it back to his trailer, took it to his shop, removed the head and robe and delivered the carcass intact to the nearest processor. Easy peasy. The processor was stoked because the guy did such a great job with it, he was able to age it twice as long as usual.

 

[colonel00]

Alright, another bump looking for tips or other information. We arrived in Jackson Hole this afternoon and got our bearings. Apparently there is a decent herd (30-60) holding just north of the refuge and the rest if the herd is still well north a few miles. So, we are waiting on weather to hopefully push them onto the refuge. I'm curious, if anyone can speak to this, but when they do finally move, I assume they will head south and cross the river west of the little town of Kelly. From there, once they cross the river, there is a fairly large "mountain" in their way. I'm just wondering if bison would typically climb a large incline or just traverse the lower areas around such an obstacle? I know there are numerous variables in play but I didn't know if anyone had any insight to how they typically like to move.

 

[wyosteve]

My experience while elk hunting in that area is the bison will not likely climb a 'mountain', but rather will stay down along the Gros Ventre river. I think you're referring to Blacktail Butte and I've never seen a bison up there. They may cross the highway to the west and follow the Snake if needed until they can cross to the east again. Is your tag only good on the refuge?

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Bison go wherever they wanna go. Their field of vision is amazing so once you are set up don't be moving around. That's a lot of eyes.