It’s So Hard…To Say Goodbye….To September…

September was again filled with bugling elk and starlit nights, mostly spent with my two good friends Kirk and Shawn.  These two hard working, hard hunting guys of high moral fiber and questionable hygiene, and I always meet up every year to see what September has in store for us.  We spend time chasing the elusive elk that Montana graciously provides us with every fall, while trying not to laugh or screw up too much along the way.  This year was no different than the last, mainly spent in our local honey hole that has few to far between elk and numerous other hunters, but we decided to give it hell again and see what lady luck would bring us.

It turns out lady luck, like she almost always is, was on the side of the elk again this year as we had numerous Stalk and Spook successes.  My greatest success to date actually was exploding the top of a fallen tree as I had a 6 by 6 bull at 30 yards.  Had my arrow been one cm higher, I would have had a very nice bull on the first day we went out, but instead, I have a broken arrow and a spooked off bull. Nothing better than learning some new Stalk and Spook techniques while out in the field.  Just because your shot looks good through your sights doesn't mean the arrow flight will be.  I believe it was Socrates, or maybe Aristotle (always get them confused) who once famously said “Elk hunting is a bitch, and then you die.”  The extreme high of calling in that bull to an absolute perfect spot for a shot on him was something that happens maybe once in a season if you’re lucky, and I had completely blown it.  It’s definitely something that will linger until next September even if I get a bull later this year with my rifle.  There’s something special about that perfect September setup…the perfect call, the big bull, the wind in your face, and he’s on a bee line to a broadside shot.  It’s something you dream about and to have it go south like that for a small oversight will constantly stick in your head until you can attempt to recreate that scene again, but finally put that arrow where it was intended. 

September didn’t pass without its blessings though.  Days spent with great friends, hearing the elk bugling, watching elk come in quickly to calls, and disappearing just as quickly with a shifting wind, and being able to fill my Elk B tag were all blessings I soon won’t forget.  You can’t complain about Montana grown organic elk in the freezer, and on top of that, I still have my general tag to keep on Spookin’.   Cheers to you September…I know you’ll be back, and when you do arrive, we’ll be somewhat ready for what you may have to offer.

"It's hard to describe the emotions that go through your body as a hunter. We experience the ultimate of low's immediately followed up by the ultimate of highs. We leave the trailhead each day never knowing what the story is going to be by the time the sun sets on the horizon and we anxiously await the next sunrise. It's a feeling that is so natural and deep within our bodies there is absolutely no way to ignore it. This is naturally what we were put on earth to do....Hunt, Respect, Conserve, Provide." - Jason Matzinger of Into High Country

_CTN

Montana Buffalo

I've always thought of bison as amazing animals. Growing up on the Flathead Indian Reservation a few miles from the National Bison Range in Montana, our school would always organize field trips to go see these animals roaming as they once did hundreds of years ago. Teddy Roosevelt founded it in 1908 to give them a free ranging protected environment in an attempt to save a species on the brink of extinction. "As many as 30-60 million" of these animals once roamed the United States and Canada, and in the late 1800's the populations dwindled to a few hundred living naturally in the wild. I feel fortunate having grown up next to one of the wildlife refuges that had a vital part in saving this animal from extinction. So then, with all this conservation, why did I just shoot one?  That's another story all in its self.

In 2009 I was lucky enough to tag along with a friend who drew a coveted Montana Yellowstone bison bull tag.  Out of the thousands upon thousands of people who applied, he had drawn the tag, and had harvested one coming out of the park that winter. With bison numbers stable in Yellowstone, and at times an overabundance in the park, hunters can play a vital resource in keeping the numbers in balance for the future buffalo to roam. My friend Matt had taken an amazing bull and we spent the day in freezing below zero temperatures getting the buffalo out. Being on a hunt in which a wild, free ranging buffalo was taken is pretty rare.  There are very few places in North America that this can actually take place (Wyoming, Montana, Alaska?).  Matt's bull was the first one taken that year, and if I'm not wrong, the only one taken on that side of Yellowstone for the whole year.  Truly a very rare and great hunting opportunity.  This hunt sparked my interest in possibly harvesting a buffalo of my own some day and with that, I started applying every year to draw a tag outside Yellowstone Park with the hope that one day I'd be drawn and get to complete the hunt as my friend had done a couple years prior. The years went by, and I didn't draw...in fact its a nearly impossible endeavor looking at the drawing statistics and although I haven't given up hope, I looked at other ways of harvesting a buffalo.

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Ryan, Josh, Matt and me with Matt's Yellowstone Bull - 2009

My interests grew even more after reading Steven Rinella's book American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon.  It gives a fascinating historical look at the bison, as well as chronicling his bison hunt in Alaska's wilderness.  It goes into great detail of the decline of the buffalo in North America, as well as a historical and evolutionary recap of how the bison, or American Buffalo became what they are today.

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Phil and "Stretch"

Well back to my buffalo...my fortunes changed when a good friend and fellow Stalk and Spooker Phil informed me he had just harvested a bull buffalo outside of Billings, Montana. There is a ranch about an hour out of Billings that runs of herd of buffalo and had a couple of rogue bulls that couldn't be herded back into the ranch land and Phil graciously "volunteered" to hunt one of the bulls down. This one, nicknamed Stretch, had actually gored one of the horses on the ranch and was becoming increasingly violent.  Although they normally don't let hunters use bows, with these bulls being outside the herd, the normal worries of a wounded buffalo causing a stampede were not present, a bow hunt was allowed. After telling me his experience, he also told me they had room for one more cow hunt. Being that I had not filled my freezer with an elk this year, my desire to actually harvest a buffalo, and a long Christmas weekend ahead of me, my fill the freezer quest of 2013 had one last chance.

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Comancho and his prized cow buffalo

As a hunter, I'll say my experience at Sacred Grounds International far exceeded my expectations. It was very spiritual and a lot of respect and honor is given towards these animals, and although surrounded by fences, these animals have plenty of acres to roam freely as they had many years ago. But also, as a hunter, I can't quite describe this as being a "hunt". I like to refer to it as a harvest because there really wasn't a lot of hunter skill involved in the taking of my buffalo, and my chances of success were upwards of 100%, which all hunters know, that high of a success rate isn't really a hunt. At first I was very tentative to actually participate in this as I didn't find it to be a fair proposition to the buffalo.  I feel a fair hunt is one that the animal has as a high likelihood to escape.  I instinctively desire the challenge, the stalk, the patience and the perfect shot before I can call it a successful hunt.  That wouldn't be the case with this particular situation, and after realizing that this wasn't going to fulfill my desire for a fair chase, wild game hunt, I did acknowledge it would in fact fill my freezer.  I could be respectful and honor this animal in a way that I felt was fit and coincided with my morals and ethics as a hunter, as well as fulfill one of my goals as a hunter in harvesting a buffalo. One way of doing this is being honest about what it was, and the difficulty involved. I don't want to misrepresent the harvest and call it a crazy, wild, intense buffalo hunt, but it was more in fact a harvest of a great animal.  I felt the importance of this hunt/harvest was more involved with the honoring ceremony prior to going out in the field, honoring the animal and blessing it for the nourishment it will provide for my family, friends and me, and making sure that there would be a clean kill with proper use of the animal. Tana at Sacred Grounds International has a ceremony prior to going out in the field that includes a smudging ceremony, where she blesses the hunters and their guns and reminds us that these are great animals and deserve to be honored and respected. I felt very fortunate to have been able to harvest this great cow buffalo and encourage anyone else interested in doing the same to check out Sacred Grounds International.

Tana and Buffy the Buffalo, one of the original 3 buffalo brought to the ranch.

Finished the weekend with our limit on ducks.  Hopefully duck and buffalo go good together...