Bucket list item: no ducks or boats.

Yukon Mike

Yukon Mike

Well-known member
I was out hunting grouse two days ago with this new .22 I got and spotted a bison up on a little hill. I swapped the .22 for my 30.06 and decided to get a little closer. After about 1/2 hour I was within 60 yards of what looked like a real trophy bull. I've never killed a bison before, and although my main purpose for hunting anything is the meat, I've secretly wanted a really big bull just because they are so huge. I figured I could field dress it and get a team to help me pack it out, so I shot him. Bison are the biggest land mammal we have in NA and this guy was among the biggest of them. I gutted him out as best I could and then found 4 other people to pack him out.

We had to cut into chunks we could move, get it down the hill to the trees, then shuttle it abut 1/2 mile to the truck on mostly flat ground. The snow helped a lot as I brought a toboggan and one of Mac's ski team friends dragged all the meat back to the truck. I bet she hauled 1000 lbs of meat yesterday, maybe more. We guessed that the hinds were about 200 lbs each, front legs maybe 250, and then 120 lbs of ribs, and lots of bags of burger meat too. The charts say a mature (6+ years) bull is in the 1500 lb range on the hoof and will yield about 700 lbs of meat. To keep the meat cleaner we left the hide on the legs which meant we hauled waste, but decided it was worth the compromise of cleaner meat.

For my part, I just helped with the knife work and the other guys did all the grunt work. We had it back to the truck in about 4 hours. Everyone took a share of the meat so that's just a great day for 3 families.

Being such and old bull, I decided before I shot him we'd use it for burger and sausage, so that's what's happening in my garage today.

Some pictures.


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Getting at it.

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To me, a bison's frame is way more like a mountain goat than a bovine. That hump is so big.

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Anna the work horse.

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My buddy Rich packing out the skull. I sure couldn't lift it!

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I am so grateful to be getting stronger and be able to do stuff. I only tell you guys about the good days, but they seem to be happening with more regularity in the last year.

Mike
 
Mike,
Grouse hunting huh? So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, how many Grouse does it take to equal one Bison?
Thanks for sharing your story and glad you are getting better.
 
Awesome, what a beast!
It's nice to see a real wild bison being shot. There aren't a lot of places you can do that.

Congratulations. It is great seeing that you are getting out.

Tim
 
Congratulations on the monster of the Yukon Territories. That is a grand trophy, Mike. I was happy that you found such a good team to help you get it out.
Al
 
Wow Mike that is one heckuva grouse you got there :)

Congratulations on such a nice bull. Are you going to clean the skull up to display it? Do you have to do anything special with the horns?
 
Wait, grouse with a .22? Reminds me of my first deer hunt in Vermont. I was new to deer hunting and hunted with a couple neighbors. We drove to the mountian we would hunt and they put me in a tree near the bottom. They would head up higher and we would meet at the truck for lunch. I was to stay put until I saw them enter the field below me in case they pushed anthing down when they came out. About 20 minutes before lunch time I noticed some movement and when I glassed it with the binos I saw 2 ruffed grouse messing about... maybe 40 yards away. When the other guys made the field, I sat a few more minutes, hoping for a deer. Finally when I was about to climb down, I looked at the grouse again, and figured what the heck! Squeezed of the first round and poof! The other just tucked down it's head...so, I settled the crosshairs on the spot, and waited a few seconds for it to raise it's head and shot it also. I climbed down and collected my grouse.... the guys were hot footing it across the field figuring I shot a deer... with the follow up shot. As I meet them in the field, and they asked did you get one? I replied one, I shot 2! They freaked as the limit is one deer in VT! Then I pulled the grouse from behind my back.... they busted my butt for awhile, but I had dinner, they did not!
 
I would have loved to have had the hide tanned, but we just couldn't have managed to get the meat out clean under the circumstances. Mac has a tag too so if we get one in later in the winter, like February, maybe we'll get it done. Its $1000 plus shipping to and from Edmonton to get one done, so that's a big consideration too. Its the same price to buy one already tanned from Halford's, so they really have no market value to sell either.

Dani, I'll clean up the skull and either take it to Clint the Bug who is the guy with the beetles, or pop the horns off myself and boil it like that elk I did a couple of weeks ago. I'll still have to clean it, degrease it, and bleach it before I put the horns back on, but its not that big of a deal. Getting the horns off is the part I struggle with. Clint won't tell me his secret.

I fried up a nice looking piece as a test steak. Holy tough! The grinder it is then.

Thanks for all the congrats guys, I'm feeling like a pretty big deal with all the high fives!

Mike
 
That is awesome. I have always been fascinated by bison since i was a kid.

Looks like a big freezer full of sausages, roasts, burger. That much meat would allow me to try so many recipies. Keep us posted to what is the best bison recipe.
 
"Should I harvest that buffalo or not?" I'll add that to my list of decisions I'll never have to make in NJ. Awesome that you have those types of opportunities!
 
Dani, I'll clean up the skull and either take it to Clint the Bug who is the guy with the beetles, or pop the horns off myself and boil it like that elk I did a couple of weeks ago. I'll still have to clean it, degrease it, and bleach it before I put the horns back on, but its not that big of a deal. Getting the horns off is the part I struggle with. Clint won't tell me his secret.

Mike
Click to expand...


Guys that do European skull mounts for dall sheep allow the skull to sit in a garbage bag for a month or so before they pop off the horns. Here is a link to a DIY dall skull mount blog post.
http://www.provingtrailadventures.com/articles/proving-trail-blog/45-european-mount-diy.html

Based on all the cow horns I found in the desert of Nevada as a kid I would think a bison horn would come off the same way. Rot it off then clean the skull. A local taxidermy guy I have used tells me for full dall mounts he drills really tiny holes through the lip of the horn and into the horn core so that the horn can be put back on the skull exactly as it was using long pins. These small holes are covered by the fur or sealed with a dab of filler.
 
Mike, congratulation. Huge bull. Interesting about how tough the meat is. I've always heard people talk about how good bison meat is, but every piece I've tried, burger, steak, whatever has been tough. But it was always cooked by folks who've never dealt with wild meat before so seemed overcooked. But deffinately a bucketlist hunt. Would you tell us a little about how tags are dispensed, or is it over the counter for residents? Are bison widely distributed? Thanks for the write up and keep getting stronger. I may be in your shape soon as back surg. is looking to be a good option, better every week.
 
Mike , that is awesome. Great bull. That skull would look great Euro style as you,are thinking. Question? Why would you have to remove the horn before boiling? Does the process bleach the color,off the horns? With whitetail I cook but only fill the kettle to just below the bases. I am guessing the shear size of the skull+ horns is the issue .
 
Mike I am jealous! I imagine living in AK comes with some hardships but man I tell you the things you get to experience must definitely outweigh them! Your son is a lucky young man. Thanks for sharing!

Brad
 
Good stuff guys. Jode, you are right about the size. A big bison skull like this won't fit in a 45 gal drum, so that's an issue to find a container. The other thing is its bad to boil things with horns as opposed to antlers as they discolor and swell in the water. When I boil a sheep skull just clean enough for export for the guided hunters, I have to take care to not even let the steam contact the horns because Dall sheep are so pale. The other problem I've found is the connective tissue between the horn sheath and the core will cook and eventually rot, and will be impossible to take off later to clean up. Like Ray said, letting the horns compost on the cores will make it possible to slip them off, but the downside then is that the inside of the horn really smells, and needs to be cleaned up and sealed. With the horn sheath removed its possible to immerse the whole thing for boiling and for degreasing and whitening. I've only done 2 bison and a few sheep, but getting the sheaths back on the core in the original location was not an issue as there are grooves that line up like a key in a tumbler, especially on the bison. The best method I've personally used was to give a fresh, unrotten skull to the bug guy, he knocked the horns off with his top secret method (which I think may involve compressed air) the beetles strip it in 24 hours so its still not rotten, then I finish cleaning it by immersing it in a horse trough of rainwater water for a month or so. Nothing will clean bone as well as bacteria, it just takes time. Then it gets painted in peroxide hair bleach, sprayed in all the crevasses with 30% peroxide, rinsed, dried in the sun, then put the cleaned and painted on the inside horns back on with Gorilla glue or bondo, pin with a flooring nail at the back. If it had any brain material left in the sinus area, or fat in the skull you'll know in a couple of months when it starts to look greasy. I know when I've cleaned a skull of anything properly after one full winter of being near the wood stove.

As far as opportunities for hunting, our bison herd carrying capacity limit was set by the govt biologists at 1000 animals. The last census showed that we have at least 1500 and they are expanding their range into unpredictable landscapes, including Kulane National Park. The last few years have been a general open season, $10 tag over the counter, and the season lasts for 7 months starting in Sept. Last year hunters only killed about 130, so the Game Branch is really encouraging people to go out and get one. They publish maps online of historical herd locations in different times during the winter, and if you go in to the office, will gladly tell you where folks have been lucky harvesting. Its not a secretive thing at all, unlike a lot of hunting.

Starting with one elementary school many years ago, the popularity of a class bison hunt is strong in the Yukon. Grade 7 kids go out with their teacher, some parent volunteers, usually a conservation officer and sometimes an elder and camp out for a week in March. If they get a bison the kids get in there and do the work and then have a big feast back at the school and any extra meat is distributed among their families. Its really great.

Wild bison are really good at evading hunters by using the terrain to their advantage. Apparently most bison are harvested in the last coupled of weeks of the season in March, when snow accumulation in the valleys focuses them into certain mountainous areas that get windswept. Seeing a bison and being able to get to it are two different things. I got lucky.
 
The BEST prime rib I have ever eaten was Bison, at a place called Quinns Hot Springs, in Montana. Coincidentally, the best burger I have ever had was just a few weeks ago here in Spokane. It was also Bison.

Friend of mine got a buffalo calf through a road kill program in Wyoming, he said it was great.

Congratulations. Getting a Bison is definitely a bucket list sort of thing here.
 
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