Make Bison Hunting Great Again

[elkantlers]

What a great experience. Thanks so much for taking the time to do such a great write up.
So Glad Bigfin linked this to his other post because I somehow missed this while doing my own hunts around the first part on November.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

I'm ecstatic, but my celebration is very reserved. My thoughts are "what have we done?".
Perhaps my ambition has gotten the best of me.
It's 2pm.
We're 7.5 miles from the truck.
16 miles from camp via stock trail.
12 miles from the south trailhead.

If you made the roadless area into a target, we would be in the bullseye.

What's done is done- we came to kill a bull bison, and we've accomplished that! We'll get through this- it's just a matter of how sore our bodies will be at the conclusion.

I send an inReach to my Dad, my wife, and Coby. The first two to share the good news, and the last in hoping for good news.

We walk across the canyon and make our way up the slope to the bull. Holy $hit is he big.

With one look, we know we will want to get his feet downhill of him for butchering, as well as a few photos. We set our gear down and each grab some tree trunk sized leg. Deadlifting as best we can, we start to roll him over, using the fairly steep slope to our advantage. As he reaches the apex of his roll, I realize this was a bold move- we're above about a 20-25 foot sandstone cliff, which is down hill of us, and we have no way of stopping him if he keeps rolling.

"Whump!" He goes over once, than completes another roll. He's going. I've never seen an animal of this size fly, and I'm pretty sure I'm about to.

Miraculously, he stops. His back legs have done the splits, and somehow he comes to a stop on the stone, a half roll away from going all the way to the creek.

Relieved, we chuckle at our fortunes, and start snapping a few photos.

The hill and subsequent drop we about lost him off of- also, the amount of blood in an animal this size that comes out of 5 bullet wounds is quite shocking. I shot from the hill to the left.
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My once in a lifetime Book Cliffs bull- I could really have not asked for anything more!
Mid photos, my inReach went off- Coby says he'll be here at noon tomorrow with mules. What a relief! The smile only grew at that point.

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Big congrats! sounds like a hard hunt that’ll be remembered forever! Your descriptive writing leaves the reader with a wonderfully painted picture that draws excitement! I look forward to reading the rest of the thread, as the success has only come in the beginning of it!

 

[Alpenglow]

Great read! You are a fantastic storyteller. Congrats on the great bull.

 

[shrapnel]

Wow! I didn’t see this when it was happening. What a great story and a better bull.

I got tired just reading about it! Congratulations…

 

[Itsbeef]

This is awesome. Looking forward to seeing how this goes.

 

[Salmonloaf]

Following!! Good luck!

 

[The Missing Link]

I hope you get one! Bucket list for me!