Free Range Bison/Buffalo Hunts

anyone know any place where this can happen? Im assuming North/South Dakota or Eastern Montana

Draw - Arizona, Utah, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana

what about private land large acreage? Ted Turner Ranches?

Bunch of large ranches that host hunts, CO, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Dakota’s etc.

What’s you minimum acreage?

Sounds like fun... can you imagine gutting one of them... all that hair!

Wouldn't surprise me if you could go to Vemejo Ranch and get you a buffalo. I actually heard that Jane Fonda was a pretty active hunter. No kidding.

Kansas has some that are on a huge ranch. Utah and Arizona have free ranging herds they issue permits for. I took one in Montana years ago on a special permit after they left Yellowstone on a winter hunt. SD has some on the Crow Reservation. You can hunt free range Wood Bison in Canada and Alaska.

Vermejo has them, I can't remember how much to shoot one. They have ear tags and will let you drive literally right up to them

Would like a big ranch. Want it to be a real hunt not some drive up and shoot hunt. I can do that within 1 1/2 hrs of my house.

And when are you adding on to your house?

Those kids rooms.....yeah I rent those to them and their lease has a sunset date......

Is this a hunt where you just drive up to a buffalo and shoot it? If so not much challenge there.

I think they have hunts on the big reservations up north. Maybe the Rosebud (Sioux) and I'm pretty sure on the Blackfeet reservation ('can't remember it's name). 'Probably a hassle to sign up and qualify and then, it's the luck of the draw on the guide's warm personality. But I've always wanted to do it too.

Some ranch hunts in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and SD.
Wyoming has a draw for bulls, I wouldn't recc. the cow hunt anymore.
They can be hunted in the NF or later when they move onto the National Elk Refuge.
You can do them DIY or hire out an outfitter. Guide is not needed but Tag and Drag is after the animal is down. Very reasonable fee for dragging and gutting, meat processor will come out to the NER and pick up.
We have 3 cows from the hunts and they are not gimmes.
It is pretty satisfying to get one yourself and we did our own processing after aging.

How do you real hunt a buffalo unless it is with a recurve bow shooting flint points?

No it actually needs to be a bow that you made from wood and flint points you also made for the arrows.

So that means your going with me right ?

You need an excuse to shoot the .416 again

I’ve been around quite a few buffalo. Some conditioned to people some not so much. It’s been my experience they have a tolerance within a certain distance ( a animal of their size doesent have a lot of predators therefore they are tolerant of a lot ) then they either haul arse or want to fight.

I just want something that’s out on the prairie / northern hills and a hunt where the mountain man used to roam

Of course 'depends on when it is, but you know I don't need an excuse to shoot "my big gun."

On the bucket list. I don’t know the name of the outfitter but am fairly certain in Montana there is an outfit that does it “Wild West” style. Saddle up on horseback, camp and all. Ride across the prairies chasing the herd. Try and make it fun and memorable. I’ll have to research it a little more.

I did talk to guy at DSC out of Utah that has a private herd on a fairly large piece of property (400,000 acres maybe). I think a hulk was around $7500. I’ll have to dig up the flyer when I get home.

Otherwise as others have suggested, it’s a draw or private ranches/reservations that I recall.

I'd be interested in either of those hunts if you can get more information on it.

would also be a good excuse to go to the Dakotas.


Do a combo Buffalo/Pheasant hunt

I’ll do some digging around and send it your way mid-part of next week when I get back.

Appreciate it

Not exactly on point but Randy Newberg did a video of his archery hunt in Utah. It appeared considerably more challenging than I expected. That is a high preference point draw, but a bow would be a good challenge even on private land.

There is a place called High Adventure Ranch in Missouri that has all kinds of large game, including bison. I would be very wary of them at this point though. They had my e-mail address and got hacked...what a mess. Thousands of folks got mail telling them they owed money to the ranch. The ranch sent out apologies to people telling them the problem, but now I get ads plastered all over the sites on my computer for the ranch. I sent them an e-mail about this and they are blaming Google for putting the cookies on everyone's computer.
I've heard a lot of good stuff about the ranch as far as the hunting end of things, but they scare me now !

Call this guy out of Larime, WY. He has a friend who raises and processes Buffalo. When the bulls get to old he wants them hunted and not just run through the Slater house.

Kevin Monteith 605 690 4214
Kevin is a stand up guy and a world class Taxidermy.

It doesn’t matter where you hunt wild bison will let you move right up on them. They are not scared of anything.
The danger begin after you shoot and go to retrieve your bull. If there are other bulls nearby they will basically attack the one down and gore it and rip it up. Trying to get them to run away is dangerous. If you shoot one in a herd they will gather around it and defend it. If you shoot one in a herd and it walks or runs off the whole herd goes with it.
Shooting one is easy though.

I've guided plenty of Buffalo hunts on private land in South Dakota. Some are really easy and some are quite an adventure just depending on the animal. Ours are on large private low fence ranches and it is spot and stalk. We don't just drive up and shoot them out the window. We take limited hunters and are filled for several years.Usually we are only hunting the 10 year old and older bulls. Once the mount is done it looks like the front end of a car sticking out of your wall. Most of the meat on these bulls is best for hamburger once they get this old. Some steaks and roast turned out but it is a gamble. We usually get over 600 pounds of meat on the big boys.Shot placement is critical and the anatomy of Buffalo is different than most deer and antelope and the such. If you do go on a hunt really study up on that. Also remember that there are usually several inches of hair hanging below the animals body in the wintertime when the hide is best for a mount. It can really mess with your shot placement.

this is what i'm looking for....a hunt for a wild ( wild meaning not raised for meat or ranched ) buffalo somewhere in the Dakotas or an area where they traditionally ran. For $2500 I can go shoot a buffalo tomorrow on a place a touch over an hour from my house, but I'm about the experience as much as the hunt.

I want to do spot and stalk, make it about authentic as I can although I will be carrying a weatherby instead of a sharps rifle.


I figured I would put a 180 grain nosler in the neck and the bull will fall. I also have a .375 I can get ahold of if I need more gun.

I saw a guy shoot one low in the heart with a .416 rigby. at the impact you didnt' think anything happened to it. then it slowly started to turn and when it was facing the hunter it looked like a faucet of blood was turned on below his armpit. After several minutes he layed down and yes, the other bulls started attacking him. This was on a game ranch though were they were glorified yard art.


I want to do this for the mount and the experience

Neck is big and a shot can go right through and bison will walk away. I know this from personal experience.
Shot my second one right behind the ear and it went straight down. No meat ruined.
The hamburger deal is the way to go. Best hamburger you can eat. Steaks were very tasty but tough. The t bones were more like chewing sirloin.
The tongue is also good if cooked right.

one outfitter suggested I put it behind the ear.


what outfit did you hunt with?

Yes, how do we get on the list? And...it wasn't me and it wasn't my .416 Rigby in the above recollection. I'm sure we can get a falling block of some sort to make it more authentic. Just don't make me piss on the barrel to cool it off.

Don’t tempt me, I’ll go buy a sharps 45-90, put on a full head dress and war paint and go slay the mighty tatonka

I can’t remember the name. We were in North Dakota on a huge ranch. Horse back hunting. The herd roamed a lot but found the bulls were pretty near but not in the herd. They ran together mostly.
Once found the animals were easy to shoot though. Then the real fun began. They are big SOBs. It was a sponsored hunt with Swarovski back in the day.
Next hunt was on a ranch in Wellington in a ranch where the absentee owners had let the herd grow to large. Real easy hunt just
for meat. Used a 45-70 sharps both times.

Kevin is a great guy, he scored my bighorn sheep. He does research for G&F and at UW.
He would be a wealth of knowledge about mule deer hunting up here as well.

I wonder if the ranch he has contacts with is here in Laramie, if so it is not the kind of hunt the OP wants.The bison are in a pasture right outside of town.

This year Wyoming had 25 tags for NR and 509 folks applied for them. The license is $4,402 for a NR.

Be careful when you book a hunt, some places only give you the hide and head with a hunt , you have to buy the meat.
Not all do that but many do, make sure you get your meat if you book a hunt.
Diamond Tail Ranch is in Colorado right near our southern border. Their bison hunts are in the foothills of the mountains.

Saw this posted on CL.
https://wyoming.craigslist.org/spo/d/rapid-city-hunts-buffalo/7061635511.html

Here's another bison hunt I saw posted on MM.
https://www.monstermuleys.info/xf/threads/prime-time-montana-bison-buffalo.179326/

Custer state Park in South Dakota does hunts. I did one a few years back for a young bull. Probably the best meat I've ever had.

That is my thought. Like shooting a cow.

I'm not sure if these links are allowed, but I remembered some Bison hunts done by some traditional archers. Most aren't very recent, but their stories are interesting.

http://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=114915.msg2102855#msg2102855 (2005)


http://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=12638.msg199877#msg199877 (2007)


http://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=119059.0 (2010) Guy from Lubbock

http://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=54902.0 (2011)

For the Arizona hunts the odds of being drawn are poor.
Hunts at House Rock are free range, Raymond Ranch hunt the Game and Fish tell you which one to shoot. It's not in the corral but not your vision of a historic hunt.

M

Well, we've taken 3 cows on Wyoming state tags and none of them were like shooting cattle.. My last cow had us post holing through thigh deer snow for 3-4 miles on a couple of days.
Yes they will somewhat let you approach them, not always. We were sneaking on a herd from down wind when some guy decided to try and approach them directly up wind. They bolted and we had a snowshoe hike to get on them.
Once you get near they ball up for protection and after a shot many times they do not want to leave the area or the down bison. Watch some touron videos in Yellowstone of you want to see how docile they are."Tourons" are the idiots that do stupid things , illegal , things in the parks.

Yes, bison in a pasture can be like shooting cattle but not wild ones.
The Custer State Park hunt can be a fun one.
Some good free range bison hunts out there but odds are long to draw a tag.

Oh, and you'll be hunting with grizz and wolves on the Wyoming state hunt.