This is a great story that comes from my good friend and Doubletough hunting camp founding member Aaron Enget of Colorado. This hunt occurred a year after he backed me up on a rifle hunt for a buffalo near this same area.
A rancher friend of Aaron’s who does rifle hunts on the side had been considering bow hunts. Aaron offered to take one with a bow so the rancher could get an idea of how it might go. They started talking a couple years ago and finally pulled it together.
The ranch is near the Missouri Breaks in South Dakota. The rancher had set up a tree stand but Aaron told him he felt more comfortable on the ground. Good idea because there are not a lot of trees and it would wind up being important that he be mobile.
The bison were on 40 acres – they called it a “controlled” hunt – and Aaron set up among some aspen trees. His wife was 150 yards away filming from a truck. The rancher went to one end of the section with his truck to spook the herd towards him.
The group of about ten bison walked by at 20 yards. The Big Boy he was after was on the opposite side of the group and when the shot came, he had to kneel down a bit. This messed with his aim as he released and at 18 yards he made a gut shot.
It ran 20 yards and stopped, giving him time to nock another arrow and he drilled it in the boiler room. It ran 40 yards and stopped, “pouring blood out both sides, matting the fur on both front legs crimson”. To hear him tell it, he says it felt like ten minutes watching that big buff stand there and bleed. It took a shaky step and he managed to get closer for a third shot through the heart that finally dropped it.
This past November we stopped by the ranch on our way to our North Dakota deer hunt and picked up the skull.
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