The Good News/Bad News Buffalo Shoot.

[ArmyBrat]

The good news first: The handsome 3 year old Bull Buffalo that I harvested went down in one shot.....no thrashing, no kicking, no twitching, NO kidding.. I shot, the bullet smacked, the buffalo dropped straight down and fast as gravity would pull it from standing up. As in "BOOM! thwack! WHUMP!" nothin' in between. I felt good about a fast humane dispatch.

The bad news: I met up with my brother-in-law's group who harvested three cows that did not go down in one shot. Some extra shots required on all three. more details on rifles used, shooters, etc... if you ask.

The good news: I took my Buff with a Sharps rifle with black powder. .40-65 Caliber. Head shot.

The bad news:It wasn't with a Shiloh Sharps....I think I have a month a half to two months to go before the Shiloh is ready.

And finally...the REALLY good news....I got lots of decent pictures.

and the REALLY, REALLY BAD news: I left my digital camera card reader at work..........@!#$%&$!!!


Guess y'all gonna hafta wait til Monday before we get to take a look see.

The butcher/proccessor says that after aging it 10-12 days he'll cut it up and freeze it and I'll be getting about 550 pounds of meat (including 10# of teriyaki jerky) in two weeks (gotta go buy a new extra freezer the other is full of Alaskan Salmon filets), plus when ready,a beautiful robe, hair on tanned hide. The skull will be European mount with cleaned, oiled and polished horn caps and a bullet hole in it cause that's where I shot him. A little high and slightly off center from between the eyes maybe 3-4 inches up and over to the left a tad. More details with the pictures.

PS- if we share the meat with family and friends, have a LOT of BBQ's, and eat the supply down....why then I get to go back in the late fall ...WITH the Shiloh -Bull Barreled Buffalo Buster. "yeeee...Haaaaaaa!!"

[powderburner]

So are you a little pumped up ........

congradulations and Im glad you got your buffalo . a great way to start your sharps shooting career..........Dean

[ironramrod]

Army,

I would really enjoy seeing your pictures, when you get the chance to post them. Also, would like to hear about the guns, loads and shots of each of the other party members, and your analysis of the need for extra shots (e.g. wrong shot placement, poor wound channels, etc.).

Additionally, having 1 deep freeze full of buffalo meat, and another full of salmon makes perfectly good sense to me. Kinda of a fun dilemma to handle, huh?

Regards

[mdeland]

You guys are putting the interest in me to shoot a buffalo. We have the Delta herd of a couple thousand animals I think it is up here in Alaska that permits are given for each year and there is a farm on Kodiak were one can pay to hunt. A shooting buddy took one there a couple of years ago with his Borchardt. The Delta heard is wild and is usually done in pretty deep snow. It is open farming country in some areas up there and usually pretty accessible by snow machine I'm told. I was surprised to find out that Bison are indigenous to Alaska. It seems that many have been dug up from the past in certain areas. SSD

[ArmyBrat]

powderburner- thanks for that...it was a good way to spend the day not at work. Hope to repeat it next year with the Shiloh.

Ironramrod- here's the gist of what happened with the shooters, guns and shots taken.

Cow #1: Shooter - a teenage son of one of the dads in the group. About 17 or so. Rifle may have been a Remington. Short barreled pump action .30-06 with a scope. Shots taken: 5

Shots 1 & 2-WAY high over the back of the animal. I hear the rifle reports but don't see the misses due to the distance and terrain.

Shot 3-impacts above shoulder, above spine, a pass through but doesn't drop the animal.

Shot 4- although far away I see the impact dust cloud and now the cow is not happy one bit. This one hits behind the rib cage quartering away and the bullet goes forwards into lungs and clips major arteries.

Shot 5- this shot was immediately following shot 4 and drops the animal. It was a neck spine shot.

Reasons IMO for # of shots are speculative. Scope set too high for longer range- hence the clean misses. Younger shooter with less experience. Moving animal. Most likely lack of trigger time and practice in recent timeframe. Not sure.

The skinner showed us the damage shot #4 did by sweeping at least a gallon of congealed blood out of the chest cavity when he gutted it; saying it would have died very soon from that shot.

The rancher had told us a neck spine shot was about 5 inches or less of area in the middle of a foot and a half of fat, fur and meat behind the head. Relatively small window in that area.

Cow #2: Shots required to dispatch:2

Shot 1- Same young man or his brother, not sure. This time I heard the report, saw the impact and the animal went right over on its side away from the shot. BAM! animal down. The rancher then retrieves the animal with a large bucket on a front end loader. About halfway back to the gutting area the animal starts kicking and thrashing in the bucket then stops. A little while later he pulls up to where the rest of us are around the first cow and begins to lower the bucket. Just before he pivots the bucket to dump it the cow "revives" again: this time with wild eyed desperation. With whites showing and legs pumping for purchase it starts to scramble furiously. In two steps, I'm up and over a 6 foot gate nearby. No time for rubbernecking....it was feets don't fail me now.

Imagine a semicircle of 8-9 guys getting a gift of one thousand pounds of wounded upset bufflao dropped at your feet. Having been around sheep rams back on my NC homestead, I knew you didn't stand there thinking "wonder what that critter is going to do?" The ram comes at you like he's sacking the quarterback with no defenders around. You better get something between him and you quick. Move first - then you think.

Lucky for the older less agile guys in the group that did not jump or climb the fence in that the cow's hind leg wedged in between two extended forks of the bucket and its front feet barely touched earth or somebody besides the buffalo would have been bleeding. I hear that buffalo will gore with their horns but then mostly stomp you into a bloody mud puddle. The rancher yelled for the kid to shoot it in the head which he promptly did before it freed itself. No one could have foreseen this happening as the cow arrived "appearing dead" with that sloppy, floppy, no-life look. The head shot finished it off.

Cow #3 Shots required to dispatch:2

The shooter, about 50 years of age, using a 7mm Mag in perhaps a Remington bolt gun, scoped. Distance was around a hundred yards.

Shot 1- A neck shot- pass through-the animal did not hardly flinch.

Shot 2- In the ear. The cow dropped dead right on the spot.


After these varied results episodes you can understandably feel my concern and waning confidence. These critters are TOUGH! Shot placement is paramount for quick humane dispatching these beasts.

I took my Sharps over to a side area of stacked railroad ties and placed a napkin in the ties and backed off around 50 yards and shot once. Near dead center of the napkin- I pull to the right just an inch or so. I felt a lot better already.

And it went like the original post above....I waited for the shot...a seemingly long time.....5,6 minutes at least. Then BOOOM! thwack! Whump!..all before the smoke cleared. It almost felt anti-climatic after the other shooters worked up some anxiety. I'll repost tomorrow with the pics.

Steve

[Gene]

Way to go Steve,
Sure glad it worked out for you. Can't wait to see the pictures.

Gene

[ArmyBrat]

....and..... finally.....the photos and captions about each one.



Me- the Armybrat..AKA...Steve Price with my Buffalo bull. With the animal laying on his brisket, the size is deceiving. But if you measure with your fingers the horn max width then slide that over my body width, you'll see how it compares. Approx. weight is 1800 plus pounds.



Another shot with me, the spaghetti, and the good eatin' critter.




This shot looked good to me. I later realized the other guy took pics with his camera that I don't yet have. Maybe next week or so when we meet back up to go fetch the meat.


My bull hung to be gutted. The kid in the red shirt is the same size as myself roughly 6'2" and 175 pounds. the rancher is in the coveralls at about 5' 10" or so. On my computer I measured the kid at 2.5" and there's 2 more inches of buffalo above his head plus the back feet are still dragging the ground. I estimated 11 feet at this view and most likely 12 feet stretched out.

BIG is all I can say. The cows were right at 1000 pounds live weight. When the bull was laid beside them he was almost twice their size. Hope you like the pics. Looking forward to some outstanding steaks on the grill this spring!

Steve

[Hornman120]

Nice Pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them.

[ironramrod]

Army,

Nice pictures, and a very good looking animal. I've eaten buffalo a number of times, and it is really good; I'm sure you will enjoy it. Thanks for the info on shooting of the other animals.

Also, it looks like your barrel browning project turned out well for you, too. Nicely done.

Regards

[High Plains Shooter]

ArmyBrat,

Thanks! for the pics and story.

I know of what you speak as to the feeling of a humane one shot, one kill experience.

My family has been raising buffalo on the plains of western Kansas for over 20 years and we cull our herd for meat with Sharps rifles. Whether it is an original Business Rifle in .45-2 7\8, an original .44-77 Sporting Rifle, or my .45-120 Shiloh....there is no better shot than right between the eyes.

Boom.....done!

One ton animals will go down as if hit with a bolt of lightning.

I have used an original .40-70 BN, but i will say this....if you hit a little high with this caliber, the bullet will ricochet straight up in the air....with said buffalo wondering what the 'hell' was that.

Never will a high power smokeless rifle ever be shot at a buffalo at our ranch....never.

Good eats to you!

Daniel

PS...Did you get the tongue and the nuts?

[ArmyBrat]

high plains- yep, this bull hit the ground so fast, I really saw more smoke in front of me than buffalo dropping. I did hit a tad high but he was dipping his head slowly and I wanted to be sure I completely missed his sinus cavities from the eyes on down to his snout. My homestead experience from harvesting our hogs and sheep helped. But that was done with a .22 single shot Savage using Aguila SSS 60 gr bullet ammo from fairly close in.


These little rounds make for great CHEAP shooting practice at 100 yrd offhand since they approximate or rather simulate the trajectory characteristics of BPCR quite a bit....i.e.-a rainbow flight path. If I recall they drop either six or twelve inches @ 100 yards. they don't group so well unless you have a 1 in 9 twist or other fast twist barrel. But still tons of fun for a quiet, slow, thumpin' .22round. Several Fox noggins and other predators around the chicken house can attest to that.

Had to pass on the Buff Nuts.....I've had calf fries before ....once....that was enough. I prefer my oysters out of the ocean from inside a hardshell. Tongue, yes. the hearts and livers were cut out right then and collected by the host of the group for some Peruvian friends of his to cook up for him.

I'm impressed to hear of your ranch and harvest methods. i'm trying my best to get an original Buffalo rifle....very costly. My Shiloh order, due soon, will be a Buff rifle configuration, and I came within a hairswidth of having them "antique" it for me for the extra $350.00 but then thought I'll put the honest wear on it soon enough.

best to ya,

Steve

[Dphariss]

The good news first: The handsome 3 year old Bull Buffalo that I harvested went down in one shot.....no thrashing, no kicking, no twitching, NO kidding.. I shot, the bullet smacked, the buffalo dropped straight down and fast as gravity would pull it from standing up. As in "BOOM! thwack! WHUMP!" nothin' in between. I felt good about a fast humane dispatch.

The bad news: I met up with my brother-in-law's group who harvested three cows that did not go down in one shot. Some extra shots required on all three. more details on rifles used, shooters, etc... if you ask.

The good news: I took my Buff with a Sharps rifle with black powder. .40-65 Caliber. Head shot.

The bad news:It wasn't with a Shiloh Sharps....I think I have a month a half to two months to go before the Shiloh is ready.

And finally...the REALLY good news....I got lots of decent pictures.

and the REALLY, REALLY BAD news: I left my digital camera card reader at work..........@!#$%&$!!!


Guess y'all gonna hafta wait til Monday before we get to take a look see.

The butcher/proccessor says that after aging it 10-12 days he'll cut it up and freeze it and I'll be getting about 550 pounds of meat (including 10# of teriyaki jerky) in two weeks (gotta go buy a new extra freezer the other is full of Alaskan Salmon filets), plus when ready,a beautiful robe, hair on tanned hide. The skull will be European mount with cleaned, oiled and polished horn caps and a bullet hole in it cause that's where I shot him. A little high and slightly off center from between the eyes maybe 3-4 inches up and over to the left a tad. More details with the pictures.

PS- if we share the meat with family and friends, have a LOT of BBQ's, and eat the supply down....why then I get to go back in the late fall ...WITH the Shiloh -Bull Barreled Buffalo Buster. "yeeee...Haaaaaaa!!"

The 44-45-50 caliber Sharps with fairly heavy bullets 400+ will generally keep Buffalo from running off or coming back to life better than some ofthe high rated modern stuff like 30 magnums. This is based on limited experience but tallys with some other hunters.
But remember the old buffalo hunters figure 2-3 shots to the buffalo.
Years ago a guy i know shot a buff in the head with a 54 round ball from a flintlock. Bull collapsed. Then got back up and had to be shot again. First shot passed though the brain side to side.

Dan