I am getting ready for a Bufallo Hunt in Texas they say the bulls are 1200-1400 lbs. My set up is a 60# Longbow I am shooting Traditional Only 400 Carbons with 125 grain Woodsman Elite Broadheads. I am looking for any recomendations that you guys have. I won't take a shot outside of 25 yds.
recommendations? I recommend you bring me some meat.
have a great time. I'd love to do that hunt.
Study the anatomy of the bison. The kill zone is tighter then you would think with an animal of that size. Do a search on Buffalo and you should get a bunch of info.
Mike
Get a lot more weight up front on that arrow. A wounded bufalo is a dangerous animal and they are known for putting the hurt on people when provoked. Crank your FOC up and shoot a heavy arrow at least 650 grains. Buffalo ribs are tough and the animals can be hard to kill.
I would recommend at least 250 to 300 grains up front. Get some brass or steel adapters or inserts that weight 100 or 125 grains. Use a razor sharp head thats weighs up around 150 to 200 grains and you should be able to get a complete pass thru on a good shot.
Make sure you guide is carrying a heavy rifle on the hunt. Not tyring to spook you, but reality is that buffalo are not tame and have been known to kill people. In Yellowstone they kill and wound more people than the bears and elk combined.
I am sure you guide is competent and knows how to hunt them safely. Just ask and verify that. Also ask the hunting lodge what they thing you should use for arrow weight.
QuoteOriginally posted by Ragnarok Forge:
Make sure you guide is carrying a heavy rifle on the hunt. Not tyring to spook you, but reality is that buffalo are not tame and have been known to kill people. In Yellowstone they kill and wound more people than the bears and elk combined.
They are fast too. I came around a bend to find a small heard while hunting the other day. They were on the left and one darted across the road and took a flanking position. We were done here. LOL He got there fast and he was just at a fast lope.
I have a large picture of one I encountered if you would like to make a target. He's right here. PM me if you want the big size.
(http://i48.tinypic.com/2dqq9i1.jpg)
forgot to subscribe
I was just thinking and I would want to shoot a few rounds so I know he's got my or your back if somthing goes wrong not saying it will.Good luck hope you get one.
Take Wingnuts advise,as far as arrow weight goes,don't sacifice accuracy.From my own experience take a broadside shot,those ribs are thick & close when quartering away.Good luck & be safe.
Leland
they are HUGE ! but not what you could say is a hard hunt / just find some walk up to about 10 yrds fire away !
somehow they never learned that men are what eats them / BUT they will be more than willing to stomp a mud hole so be carefull!
they taste just like chicken ! lol
Arrow weight,FOC,accuracy, all go together, I would not even attempt it again with less than 680 grains! Low and tight in behind the front leg, slightly quartered away,I centered a rib with my first shot (700gr ash) and bent the "grizzly" broadhead! Only penetrated to the one lung, that is NOT enough to kill a Bison. The follow up shot was what I described as ideal, it went through the heart, story over.
QuoteOriginally posted by shakeyslim:
they are HUGE ! but not what you could say is a hard hunt / just find some walk up to about 10 yrds fire away !
somehow they never learned that men are what eats them / BUT they will be more than willing to stomp a mud hole so be carefull!
they taste just like chicken ! lol
Seriously...you just said that?? When was the last time you killed one Shakey???
I have a friend that killed one last year in Canada. Not a farm but a wild bison. He is a really great hunter and he said it was one of the toughest animals to get on that he has ever hunted. Tell you what though , the meat is fantastic.
From Ron's site:
http://shrewbows.com/carbon_arrows.html
Here's some info you might can use.....
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/terry/tgbuff2.jpg)
(http://tradgang.com/tg/images5/tgrev.jpg)
That Buffalo was taken with a
70# Morrison Cougar Hybrid Longbow,
an Original Wensel Woodsman broadhead
riding on an Arrow Dynamics Trad Heavy
weighting a total of 630 grains in the
beautiful state of Montana.
Est. weight on the hoof - 2000 pounds.
Buffy yielded 695#s of meat and a beautiful Mount.
(http://tradgang.com/tg/images5/buff3.jpg)
(http://headstaxidermy.com/images/photo_gallery/EB53014.jpg)
Best of luck to ya....and yes, the meat is the best you can get!!!, and ya gets lots of it!
Terry, beautiful animal. Just curious on the cost of the mount (ballpark)??
Joe,
If you look at what people who have taken animals that size use in their arrows, you will see the total weight is much higher than what you plan to shoot, and the front end weight is generally much more. I agree with the minimum arrow weights others have already suggested, and I think you could go as high as 800 grains without it being too much for your 60 pound bow. The heavy arrows will shoot just fine out to your 25 yard maximum distance and will penetrate better. I would personally suggest a really good two blade single bevel broadhead like the Abowyer Brown Bear, the Grizzly El Grande, or the best of them all -- the Ashby broadhead from Alaska Bowhunting Supply. The Ashby's are very expensive as you might expect when you see their incredible quality, but half a dozen will last you many years if you don't lose them and will be one of the cheapest aspects of your hunting if you amortize their cost over all the hunts where you use them. Like Terry, I like the AD Trad arrows and for the heaviest weight arrows prefer the Hammerhead shafts. They are nearly indestructible and are very forgiving of different point weights. You can add brass inserts along with heavy broadheads to really get the weight up there where you want it and the arrows will almost always fly great.
I love your buffalo Terry. That makes a great pedestal mount that looks like it is about the size of a VW.
Allan
Terry that is and Awesome Buffalo,
I shot mine with a 64# Robertson Vision Falcon. Arrow was a lam birch with a 200 gr Ace Super express up front, arrow weighed over 800 gr. You need a heavy arrow. Shot was from 25 yards and I hit the elbow, went through that and centered the heart. Listen to the the advise above. And do not believe you can just walk up on them, even ranch raised they will not just stand there. Took me over two hours to get my 25 yard shot once we found the herd.
Good thread guys, keep it coming. Bison are definitely high on my "someday" list.
OK the next obvious question is where? I know Terry took a Montana bull. I have major interest in this thread as I am planning my hunt schedule for next year...so any favorite places or outfitters?
I harvested my bison on the same ranch as Terry, the arrow I used is a 625 grain lodge pole pine shaft, footed with purpleheart, and tipped with a 190 grain grizzly; total weight of the arrow was 625 grains. I used a 58# selfbow and got plenty of penetration (18 inches through a rib to the off shoulder) at fifteen yards and put the bison was down in 15-20 seconds. These are big animals, they hold a lot of blood, so it take them a little longer to bleed out then your typical whitetail. My shot was slightly quartering down wind and the arrow was tailing about three or four inches on impact, which probably hindered the penetration some. I shot mine in December when it was around 15 degrees with sixty mile an hour winds (gusts above eighty mph) but don't remember seeing enough ice on the sides of the bison to effect penetration. My hunting buddy, Lenny Brown, used a Wensel with the factory tip on a bison with excellent results (centered the heart). His setup was a Robertson longbow which pulls about 53-55#'s at his draw length and a cedar arrow weighing around 525 grains.
I will go against the conventional advice of the others; it appears to me that your setup has plenty of energy to do the job, if you put the arrows where it needs to go. Re-read the last part of again "if you put the arrows where it needs to go", that is the most important part of killing any animal. You do that and all the arguments about bow and arrow weight are moot. Just make a good shot! My only recommendation to your setup would be to use a two blade broadhead if you are worried about penetration.
Here is a picture of me with the bison, estimated weight of 1100-1200 pounds.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/Slivershooter/Buffalo2007007.jpg)
Great thread. Love these type of "dream hunt" type.
Terry, is that mount in the school library? How did you get that done????
Terry,
May I ask if you have info on where you hunted?
Thanks
Bob
Walt,
That is one BAD animal right there. I'd love to do that someday. Congrats on that one. Sweet.
Bob, The ranch Terry and I used sold all their bison last spring so they no longer have hunts. Run a search on bison here at Tradgang and there are several others that can give recommendations regarding where they got their bison.
Terry/Walt can you give so information on the Ranch that you Hunted?
QuoteOriginally posted by CA BOWHUNTER:
Terry/Walt can you give so information on the Ranch that you Hunted?
Yes please :pray:
Read Walt's post above...
Always enjoy seeing that snow pic Walt. It was too hot to fool around with mine, Doug was worried about getting it to the meat locker, but I wanted to 'roll him up' like yours for a pic let me tell ya. But I'm sure happy with what I got.
Its in a school teacher's confrence room in that pic. I took it there 1st when I got it from the taxidermy cause my girls wanted me to do a show and tell. The teachers put it in there to keep it safe so all the kids could look in and see it on their way to lunch, but they couldn't get to it till I was there to tell them about it.
The cost was $1150 for a wall mount, which it also can be still as it has the hole for it, and the pedestal/mount was an extra $600.
Please, lets not confuse slaughtering a bison at a restricted ranch enclosure and bison hunting. There are two conversations going on here in this thread, differentiate......
QuoteOriginally posted by Steve H.:
Please, lets not confuse slaughtering a bison at a restricted ranch enclosure and bison hunting. There are two conversations going on here in this thread, differentiate......
Judge not... :readit:
This thread is ACTUALLY about how effective the gentleman's setup will be.
Steve,
I'm with you. There is a difference between a bison hunt and an bison harvest. I did a harvest last year that was an adventure. I'd love to get to come to Alaska and hunt the big boys or NWT.
There are so few places in the world that you can hunt them. So a harvest is what I settled for and man does he eat good.
Mike
My brother shot his mature bull with a 56#@28 shrew and grizzly stick Alaskan with about 350 grains up front.Two blade steel force head.He had a 100 or 125 grain steel screw in broadhead adapter and some extra weight in the front at the insert.125 grain head.
I would recommend a different head personally than what he used.Like the Abowyer,or Ashby heavywieghts.You Might consider steelforces new 190 grain African screw in head as well that has a .080 thick blade.
It was a heavy arrow.
Yep...I've never claimed my bison harvest to be a hunt. I was just offering up some info on my set up for him to chew on.
Here's the story in the Articles/Stories forum....
Shot him back in 2005, and we are STILL eating off of him,....had burgers in deer camp last week.
A Montana Longbow Adventure (http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=000120#000000)
Good point Steve, my bison was a harvest/slaughter, not a hunt: hopefully everybody realizes the distinction. However, like Mike stated it does eat good and I will add it eats really, really, good. Also, as Juan pointed out this tread is about an effective setup for killing a bison.
Harvest or hunt Who cares... Nice Bison's Terry & Walt. I would love to do either a hunt or Harvest on one of them Big Boys... More so with a bow then anything.
A couple of things come to mind here....
The 4500 acre ranch I was on, they are managed by hunting. Most have been born there and live in the "wild". The small herd I ran into you could NOT walk through them (from what I understand) and from coming too near them personally. You would have to "hunt" them. I realize the difference between finding one in the wild and finding one that has a fence. Wouldn't it still be hunting if you have to stalk, track and have the danger of being killed?
Another thing comes to mind.
What about the weight tubes that 3Rivers sells?? I'm shooting darn near the same set-up as our original poster. My arrows are 485gr. I have 50gr. brass inserts though. That's the only difference basically. Do the weight tubes mess with the spine???? Old boy has the arrows, but can't they be modified for the intended purpose??
Thanks for all the help guys this is my first attempt at posting picture
Took this bull at 16 yds shot it a little foward but great penetration almost a complete pass through when the bull took off the arrow was only holding on by the fletching good blood at 10 yds and tracked him for an hour. He finally laid up and the rest is in my freezer. My Arrow set up were tradtional only 400 grain with tube weight inserts plus 100 grain brass tips with 150 grain Woodsman Elite broadheads.
(http://i902.photobucket.com/albums/ac228/joehysong/P1020469.jpg)
Nice!Lots of fine meat for the freezer.
Leland
Congratulations! :clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
I day dream of hunting a bison
F-Manny
oh i can vouch for the taste of Bufflao as Bob Walker made me the best damn Burger i have ever tasted in my life. and i took home about 3 to 4 bags of buffalo jerkey mmmmmmmmmm that i got from basspro. i just love the stuff.
I think the original thread was asking about his setup - WOULD IT DO IT...
Somebody said two threads here...I don't think we are debating the type of hunt we are just making suggestions on the setup.
Whether you are harvesting one on a ranch or in the wild...the setup better work.
There were two fellas that harvested bulls up here at two different ranches.
One fella was a wheelie fella here in the yukon that bought a bull and wanted to shoot it with his bow and video it. I saw the video it wasn't very "how do you say it nicely" "easy on the animal".
He was shooting over 300fps but his setup was so light (mechanical blade broadhead and total weight around 380-425 grains I think it was awhile ago, but I remember thinking of how light it was). He wanted flat trajectory for sheep - WELL THESE AREN'T SHEEP.
Anyway he got piss poor penetration on the first shot quartering away at about 45 yards...maybe 6 inches....so then the bull wheeled around heading for the herd and he fired another one at about 25 yards I would guess (bull was on the run) and (extreme angle) and it glanced off the ribs and hit the dirt (snow).
The whole time the ranch owner is getting madder and madder. So now he heads into the group and he is trying to see which one has the arrow sticking out of him.
Takes about 5 minutes to see him and he's right in the middle of the pack....so he closes in and the herd scatters. He fires his third arrow and it hits the bull pretty much in the same spot as the first arrow but about gets about 14" of penetration. the bull veared off and headed for the trees with the rest of the herd.
He told me they waited for about an hour because of the last shot and they went in and found him laying in his bed still breathing.....the farmer finished him with the 338 behind the ear.
So I come along (before I knew all this) and ask if I can pay for a bison (had three ppl to share the cost/meat etc) asking if I can harvest the bison with my longbow and video it....
Can you guess what his answer was?
Well lets just say I haven't shot a bison yet
Jer Bear
Joe, I am interested as to where you are going and I would like your feedback when you get done. Trying to get good information with regards to doing this with trad equipment is hard to come by. Ben
Nice bull! Glad you had a great hunt and the setup worked.
Wow Terry! That pedestal mount really puts the size of these beasts in perspective.
If you get ever have a chance to hunt Buffalo in Wyoming, wear your running shoes.
Once spooked they can get across country like no animal I have ever hunted.
We spooked a heard of 4 giant bulls right off the bat. They ran up the side of a hill and out of sight. Figuring them to stop on the other side we took off after them only to discover they had crossed the valley on the other side plowed threw a 5 strand bobwire fence and were topping out on the hill a mile away still loping along like we were shooting at them.
3 hour's and a couple of mile's later, we thought we had them cornered as we watched them feed into a deep canyon. As I made my way to the mouth, the guide circled to the top, hoping they would catch his scent and turn back past me. It worked kind of, except for the fact they came loping down the trail I was laying on instead of the one 20 yards below me.
I'm not sure who was scared the most when they popped up out of the canyon right on top of me but there was never a chance for a shot as they spun and ran up the hill.
My feet were raw and my chest throbbing 2 hours later as we lay on top a hill and watched the Buffalo cross a deep cut in a valley floor below. The plan was made for me to drop down into the 10' deep cut as the guide circled back and tried to reverse the Buffalo.
The only hitch to our plan was the Buffalo came pouring into the ditch at a full gallop. As the giant beast crashed down into the cut I was on full auto pilot drawing my bow and swinging on the closes one as he started up the bank. There was a loud crack as the Razor Cap tipped shaft smacked into his side. We watched as they galloped out of sight over the next hill the bright yellow fletching shinning in the sunlight. It took us about 2 hours to hike back to the truck and another to locate my buffalo. When I got to him I was amazed at the size. I have seen lots of them standing out at a distance but the sheer size of one on the ground is overwhelming.
(http://www.buffsblackwidow.com/images/buffalo.JPG)
Yes they are bigger than a bread box lol. Congrats guys on some fine Buffs. They are big, it must be like having a Moose walk by you (which I have many times) when huntin lol.
So who has shot one while ridding a horse, just like the native Americans did.
Some great Bison there guys!
Terry, thats quite a bull mate! wow :scared:
Those are some realy nice pics.What ever set-up you do.Remember,"PICK A SPOT".And it should all work out for you.
Joe, yours being a younger one, how many pounds of meat did he yield?
We had about 250 lbs of meat That I took with me home I Donated the rest. We could have got another 50-60 rib and sholder meat but just didn't have the cooler space. If anyone has tried to fly with coolers full of meat lately they need to know the price is big. Make sure you are ready. You can only have 100 lbs per cooler no flex on that. No Ice unless Dry.
Cool, thanks for the info. Hoping for a cow or young bull hunt in the future and was just curious as to how much meat one yields. Besides the coolers for transport I'm worried about freezer space once I would get home.
Congrats to Terry, Walt and anyone else who has had the good fortune of harvesting a buff with archery tackle. I would love to do just that with my longbow. Would enjoy the meat no doubt, but to get up close and personal to a buff with longbow in hand would be a memorable experience. :thumbsup:
i shot one from horseback with a friends "grandfathers" bow, what looked like a rosebriar arrow shaft with an agate heard on it.
don't know what kind of feathers as they were'nt all there.
the buffalo was one they waqnted to kill for senior nutrition and diabetes diet purposes, in an 80 acre pasture.
the bow was so old and fragile looking i was afraid to pull it back very far. maybe 35-40 draw weight.
got him galloping along and kneed my horse into him, leaned down and shot from about 8-10 inches. the arrow penetrated about 9" total. got both lungs deflated and cut the big artery. he went about 120 yards and turned back towards us, stood for three or four minutes, wobbled and fell dead when he tried to move.
the tribe gave him the head and hide and he has a half head mount with the hide attached on his wall along with grandpas bow and arrow.
according to custom i got one side. (first helper). i'm fortunate in that i've had to deal with buffalo since i was little and having killed, "herded", trucked, roped, and eaten buffalo most of my life i'm pretty much used to them.
should add that i was riding one of my ranch horses with a good hamley saddle and bridle. not your mental image of n/a riding bareback etc.
From my meager experience, go with a heavy arrow, high FOC and a heavy single bevel SHARP broadhead. For your bow, I would try for 700 gn minimum. You won't regret it.