What Have We Been Up To? PART 2! FINISHED!!!

[Lance]

Well here is goes. House Rock Buffalo Part 2. I will try to relay this story the best I can, but know that there is no way to cover every incredible detail, emotion and experience. We have hundreds of pictures and I cant help but post so many of them because this hunt, like the last one is not about the kill, but about the journey! And like the others, what a journey it was from start to finish! I hope you can enjoy it even a small bit of what we did!

 

 

Like all of our hunts it starts with planning and countless hours of scouting. After Richard took his B&C class bull on the first part of the hunt Dennis had a renewed excitement about the rest of his hunt!

 

Let me start out by telling you a little about the tag holder Dennis.

Dennis, from the start insisted that he would rather take a cow buffalo than anything.

I told him in the nicest way I could that we all thought he was CRAZY! And reminded him of the um-teen+ years that it took him to draw this tag and what kind of opportunity he had at hand! He told us that he had taken three cow buffalo on a ranch in Colorado and loved the meat and that he would just love to take another cow. I told him "We on the other hand of course, would love to take a big bull". So he agreed to take the first buffalo that he could take and would be happy no matter what he took! Ahhh, the words of every guides dream!

 

Dennis is also a trooper with a strong heart that you cant keep down and always put forth all he could do, even to complete exhaustion ! Dennis has Fibromyalgia (or how ever you spell it?) And has been in 3 vehicle accidents with neck injuries from each! His spine condition effects allot in his body including being able to always lift his feet when he wants to and how high he lifts them. This sometimes effects him walking through the woods but like I said, he is a trooper and you cant keep the man down!

 

After the first hunt we made plans for the next and I made some more scouting trips on my own to keep track of the movement of the buffalo. It was the time of year that the buff like to wander for miles every time a crow looks at them wrong!

While on these scouting trips I decided that we had them nailed down and found many buffalo in the lower elevations of the unit! I let everyone know the plans, set out some trail cameras and headed back home to get everything and everyone ready. We actuall need to be there right then cus the buff were there and they don't hang around forever! But it just couldn't work that way and we all had to come back a couple days latter.

 

These next couple dozen pictures are from some of that scouting. The weather was HOT and DRY and water was a big draw for the buff! Plans were made for a hot and dry hunt! Lots of sun screen and water! haha!

Lots of buff had mooved down and sign and buffalo were everywhere!

Camera #1 hiding in the brush. With a hope and a preyer that no one would mess with it!

An old Buff carcas from years past.

A big old Bull track as big as my head!

My boys and girls would go crazy with all the tame rabits around the area!

This old camp with the chimney/fire place some of may have seen before if you have done any wandering in this area.

Found a great and fresh 170 class shed!

I almost stepped on this Whip Snake. It's 4 feet long and as big around as your finger! It shot out from right under me and zipped up this tree 15 feet away in the blink of an eye! Of course, since I was there by myself, I didn't jump and squeel before grabbing my camera. Nope just grabbed the camera and took some pictures.

Above is a big bobcat track I found over the top of my Quad tracks from earler that day!

 

And I have to throw in some flower pictures because its springtime and there are beutifull flowers everywhere! Cant forget to stop and smell the roses! I hope you enjoyed my scouting pictures. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of buff during that time. But I had two trail cameras out and we would be back with the crew in a short few days! And of course we would bring some extra rifles just in case Dennis got a wild hair again!

 

To be continued.

[Lance]

So we packed up camp and loaded up with sun screen and extra water and headed out to meet Dennis in the Bab! On the last Buff thread I signed off on my way out the door with a comment of a beautiful rain falling on my house! We were excited to know that the buffalo tracks would be freshened and we would be able to tell the old dusty tracks apart! Haha lol! Little did we know just how much the rain would effect our hunt!

 

Russ, Jake, Jon and myself met Dennis in the Bab for what was planned to be another 3 day hunt. Dennis wanted to break the hunts up into three day periods as to try to avoid extreme fatigue from the Fibromy-. This was fine with us and is something we sometimes do on this hunt for other reasons as well.

We hooked up with Dennis Wed afternoon, Russ would be in Latter that night so Jon and I grabbed Dennis and headed out to check tracks and trail cameras to see if the buff were still around and what they were doing. Jake took one of the quads and headed out to a far glassing point to see if he could find anything during the last part of the evening.

 

As we drove the roads we could tell that many groups of hunters had come to hunt and had gone in the short time that I had been gone. It was apparent that the buff had gotten allot of pressure and a couple of easy buff had even been taken in the open meadows. On our trail cameras we had many pictures of buffalo and then many pictures of all kinds of people and then no buffalo.... well except for one. As we checked the rest of the area we new we had missed the easy hunt and all but a scattered hand full of buffalo had left the area! Well, no problem we thought, we are here and there is still a hand full of buff around somewhere and we just need one. So we settled into camp with Cheddar Cheese Elk Brats over the fire and made plans for the next days hunt. There was still another camp in the area and another showed up that night. For some reason both camped right on the main buffalo route so we knew things were stired up and the hunt in that area wouldn't last much longer.

 

Below are some of the pictures from that night and from the two trail cameras.

 

 

Below is an old Cicle horned cow. We told Dennis if he had to shoot a cow we hoped it would be this old nontypical buff!

Below is a nice bull still in the area! This bull gave us a couple of pictures after all the people had been around and chased off all but a couple of the buff.

[cmc]

Killing me Lance.... your killing me!!!!

 

:D

 

cmc

[Gr8 White Jr]

This is just not right! You guys sure get a kick out of driving us flippin crazy by leaving us hanging.

 

-Tracy

[Lance]

Sorry for the delay. I can only sit in front of the PC for so long. The Kids got home from school so we took them out for a family cookout up on the mountain!

 

Any way, here are some more trail cam photos from that week! There were loads of deer, mostly at night but mostly bucks!

 

Note! That all Buffalo Pictures are during shooting hours during the hunting season with hunters in the field! Too bad we wern't there at the time

 

[Lance]

The next morning came with great anticipation and soon everyone was off to there designated spots to glass for buff and I took Dennis to check some lower country for an easy buff while waiting for someone to call on the radio. After a while I took Dennis to set by some water while I continued to look around.

It continued to sprinkle lightly off and on that day with lots of light clouds, which made for great hunting weather!

 

Not 2 min after I dropped Dennis off, Jake's voice came on the radio! "I've got what your looking for" he says! Yee haw, The whole teams activities come to a screeching halt as they stop to listen to the conversation between Jake and I.....

 

Jake tels me he's got at least one big bull spotted and lets me know about where he is. I get on the radio with Dennis and tell him to gather his stuff and meet me at the road cause I'm coming to pick him up! On the way to Dennis Jake comes back on the radio and says he's got at least two bulls in the spot feeding together! Meanwhile Russ hikes to another vantage point to get a better look at the area Jake is talking about. Jon is a long way off and says he cant see them from his point so I tell him to bring his quad around to such and such road and wait for further instruction. As I drive up to where Dennis is I see him hurrying toward the truck with pieces of all his gear sticking out of a big bundle in his arms that he snatched up in his haste to get to the truck!....

 

He hops in and we drive a few miles up the road to a high point where Jake can see us. Jake gives us further instruction as to where the bulls are at and we take off on foot to approach the area from down wind. The bulls are in a thick cedar jungle with light rolling slopes. One of the slopes faces Jake and that is why he can see them so well. But they are feeding their way over the slope and will be out of sight of Jake before we can get to them. My hope is to come in on their back trail and slowly track them down!

 

As we get into the area it is hard for Jake to get an exact distance for us because of the flat angle and the fact that he is glassing from 2 miles away. But through his instruction about where he last saw the bulls I can figure the spot and slope he is talking about and Dennis and I make our final approach into the spot we expect to find their back trail....

 

Sneaking along as quietly as Dennis can be, (I know he'll get a kick out of that when he reads this) We come over the slope and cut a fresh track going the other way. "That is from earlier this morning" I tell Dennis and we sneak forward looking for a set of tracks going the other way. We then came across wandering tracks going every direction. I hit the breaks and give a good long look around and then try to decipher as many tracks as I can see from that point before moving on. We do that a couple of more times and then I notice a track going the way Jake said the bulls were headed. I fallow the track with my eyes as far as I can and notice that it just turns around and comes right back the other way.... That is when I have one of those moments that I realize that for the last 3 steps I could have seen the buffalo to my right had I not been looking at tracks to the left....

 

But at the same time I realize that these buffalo Only 40 Yards Away, hadn't seen me yet either!!! "Right there! Right THERE Dennis" I point and wave him to step around the tree to see the Tank of a bull that stands before us! The huge bull stood in the wide open except for his head that was behind a big bush. I could see enough through the bush to see the other bull bedded down right in front of the first! My tripod is down for a rest as Dennis steps around the tree and lays his rifle on it while pulling the bolt back in one smooth move!

But then he saw the tank of a bull that stood right directly before us and in his excitement he slammed the bolt forward with a loud "chlack!" . I saw a shiver run through the leanth of the big bull as he jumped like a Coues deer that just got zipped by an arrow and disappeared just as fast! The bedded bull elevated himself just as fast and in one fluid motion they were both gone in a cloud of dust, leaving me saying "Shoot Shoot Shoot!" So not to be descuraged, I gave them the old TLO 1,2 and they came screaching to a halt just down the hill.... Jake was on the radio saying "They stopped They Stopped! Just 80 yards down the hill!" We put the gun back on safety and begain sneaking toward them but Dennis got tangled in an old dead cedar limb on the ground and it cracked in two with that loud noise only a dry cedar branch can make. Thundering hooves and they were off again! Once more I threw a loop in there plan and they slammed on the breaks again! "They stopped They Stopped again just down to the left! " Jakes voice came over the radio. Now easier this time we made our way down the hill toward them....

 

After a ways I crossed a gap in the trees and thought "No Way!" I stepped back and there through a three foot circle through the thick cedars, about 50 yards away, filling the entire 3' hole was the chest of a buffalo! I through my binoes up and could see the rest of the big bull that was facing to the right watching his back trail! "Right There Right There Dennis Shoot Him!" Dennis, looking for another entire Tank sized Buffalo said "where Where?" "Right through the hole in the trees right there, see him" I said pointing and reaching for the barrel of the gun! "That dark spot?"Asked Dennis. "Yes YES" I whispered as I pulled the fore stock of the gun onto my shoulder and squatted down a little so it would point right at the bull. "Right there! Thats him! He's facing right and that is his chest right there shoot him Shoot him!

 

Dennis looked through the scope and the safety came off! "I see Him!" "OK" I said "Take Him, Shoot em, shoot em!"

 

Dang.... look at the time. It's almost midnight! I'll have to continue this sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

 

Lance

[tjhunt2]

Lance, your pictures and stories are great. I can't get enough! Thanks for sharing.

 

TJ

[Gr8 White Jr]

Man I'm loving this story but you're really KILLING ME! You had to end it right there???

 

 

-Tracy

[loco4coues]

its been "tomorrow" for almost 5 hours! lets hear it!

[Red Rabbit]

Dang.... look at the time. It's almost midnight!

Lance

 

Gee Cinderella, you're not afraid of turning into a PUMPKIN are ya?

 

You guys have been all over the place up there.

[cmc]

Riding quads all over the place..??? sitting water holes....??? whens the hard part of the hunt start? :D

 

Awesome tale thus far Lance.... keep it coming!

 

cmc

 

 

[Lance]

Whew, it was a late night. Took a while to wipe the pumpkin seeds out of my eyes

 

So where were we.... Jake had done lots of climbing to get to his vantage point and Russ had hiked several miles to get to his spot. Jon was still 5+ miles away with his quad ready to back us up but had stopped to lesten to the excitement on the radio. Dennis and I were about 3/4 of a mile from the truck in the depths of a cedar jungle looking down the barrel at a huge hairy ribcage just 50 yards away!

 

"Shoot Him, right through the middle, Shoot, .... The bull had had enough and began to turn to leave but as he did he stepped forward keeping the center of his chest in the center of our shooting lane. "Shoot him!" Quartered away now, "Shoot! Quartered hard, "SHOOT"! ...BOOM! The bull spun and bolted along with the other that we could now see running through the trees! "They bolted, Did you shoot?" came Jakes voice on the radio "We shot We shot" I called back! "Where are They headed? Are they still together? They went Left, and then up the draw out of site. Did either of them look hit? Couldn't tell, they were just gettin out fast and they were still together! About this time, miles away Jon hears the shot. booooooooosshh....

 

 

Sorry guys I have to go, I'll write some more later today....Sorry

[Gr8 White Jr]

Sorry guys I have to go, I'll write some more later today....Sorry

 

 

Sorry??? Thats evil man...just plain evil!

[CouesWhitetail]

I am loving this story!! Thanks so much Lance. Love all the details and extra pics!!

 

Amanda

 

[Lance]

Thanks for the comments!

 

OK where were we....About this time, miles away Jon hears the shot. booooooooosshh....

 

Now I have had at least 60+ animals shot off of my shoulder From point blank out to 500 yards so I know the drill and only a handfull of them have ever rang my ears. Well, this was one of them! With the gun over my right shoulder I had turned my head somewhat into the gun and back toward Dennis in my angst of trying to tell him to SHOOT and bringeeeeeeeeeeee... My left ear took a hit! So for me there was no telling if I could hear a meat shot or not. We positioned ourselves on the slope where we could see over to the next slope just in case they went up the other side. Then we waited.... Jake tore apart the surrounding area with the Swaro 15's, Jon was on his way to the road where we left our truck and Russ was on the radio Saying that he was at a vantage point at the top of the draw the buff had gone up! I turned to Dennis, "Where were the cross hairs when the gun when off?" I figured even if we hit him bad it would be a short tracking job to get another round in him. But how can you miss a three foot circle at 50 yards. Dennis said it was in the bull, then thought twice about it and finished with "It may have been a little high." High? Now that is not what I wanted to hear, Low would have been fine but a buff especially a big bull has allot of back strap and buffalo hump up high that won't mean a thing if you poke a bullet through it.

 

So all we could do was wait.

 

Below is a picture of one of the views from where Jake was glassing.

 

While I was waiting I looked over the shot and point of impact area trying to find any blood or a bullet path through a tree or hair or anything. But, nothing.

 

Dennis showed some discouragement "This doesn't look good" he said. I told him "This ain't over yet" We still had them surrounded and out numbered and we were gonna either find a dead bull or find out what happened!"

After a bit Russ's voice on the radio breaks the intense silence "I've got Buff!" "I got a really big bull walking out of the draw one finger to the north headed toward Jake! Its thick and all I see is one." "Is he limping or have any sign of a hit? "No, nothing, and he doesn't seem spooked, but it's got to be one of those bulls he came right out of there at about the right time." The bull walked slowly over the hill and out of site of Russ. My thoughts were, one bull is better than two, and hoped the other was down somewhere. So we began our tracking job. Both bulls pretty much stayed together the entire time with no sign of a hit and we soon found ourselves walking up the same hill Russ had seen the single bull on.

 

"Thats the spot right there" Russ told us. "Thats his tracks". "OK I said, "The other bulls tracks are right here with him just behind this tree" we had tracked for a good 3/4 of a mile or more and I was now convinced that we didn't have a hit. But the tracks had slowed down so we kept on. After we got way off over the hill I pointed out to Dennis that by the tracks you can see the buff were dragging along at a slow pace and would soon be looking for a place to rest! We slowed down and kept on. the tracks were still in a strait line and not wandering so I didn't expect them to stop right away. I got on the radio to Jake to let him know where they were headed.... Stop! I put my hand out to stop Dennis! I could see up ahead the tracks stood for a bit then made a 90 turn to the right! Dennis stopped just in time behind me to hear the thundering hooves as the two bulls ran out of a cedar thicket taking half the trees with them. They were about 70 yards away and it was so thick we never even got a glimpse of them. They weren't even down wind of us! I tell you what, some times Buff seem a little slow in the head and other times they can rival a Coues deer!

 

The bulls didn't run as far this time before slowing to a walk. They were beginning to tire of these sudden sprints. so all we could do for now was stay on the tracks. After a bit Jake comes on the radio, "I got em!" "About 200 yards in front of you lined out walking fast". Dennis was giving all he had and we had already gone 3 miles! Another mile and Jake had lost sight of them again. The Buff made another change of direction so we got Jon on the radio and had him come around to meet us on another road. When we got to the road Dennis and myself were ready for a break! So Jon pulled up on his quad and sat down to go over the story, maps and a little brunch with us.

The lucky tag holder Dennis

Jon coming on the quad with extra water for our pit stop!

 

During our little break Russ went for a quick 2 mile run from his spot to get to a glassing point in front of the bulls! Jake stayed put and when we were done Jon went around to climb to another vantage point. Again we had them surrounded! Dennis and I continued on the tracking job and right away noticed they were looking for a place to stop and rest. After slowly sneaking through even thicker cover for another mile we finally came across their empty beds. It was clear they had just gotten up and walked off without us spooking them and long before we got there. I relayed to the guys where we were and that I thought from this point the bulls would be circling and headed back the other way soon.

Sure enough the tracks started to circle and head towards Jake. Jake switched his vantage point to better see a natural buffalo rout through the area and shortly thereafter Jake's whispered voice came on the radio "I've got them" "Both Bulls! They are passing right here below me!" I quickly grabbed Dennis's pack and rifle to lighten his load and we took off as fast as Dennis could go! We headed for the rise behind Jake! I figured the buffalo would continue to circle Jake and would pass by this vantage point giving us an easy shot.

 

Russ came running back his two miles and Jon ran down his point to bring the quad around and meet us on the road. Jake's whispers grew intense as the bulls made their way around him . "Hurry, HHUURY!" Now, our main man Dennis was working on his 6th mile by then and it was all uphill slope as fast as he could go! I'm telling you, he is a trooper! Jake could tell we weren't going to make it and jokingly asked if we wanted him to try to drop a big rock on one of them to slow one down? We all met on a little road just below the vantage point that we were wanting to be on, but to the dismay of poor Jakes nerves, the two bulls had already passed by. Dennis was done and I think a little over done so Russ and Jon picked up there trail and Dennis and I headed on my quad all the way around the valley to set Dennis on a tank we thought the tired bulls might hit before dark.

 

By the time we got to the tank Jake had spotted the 2 bulls a couple of more times a long ways from any roads. Jon stayed on the trail and Russ climbed another mountain to see if he could see the bulls and take over the spotting for Jake. Jake said the two bulls had stopped in a back canyon and looked like they were going to hang there for a while. When Russ reached his point it was about 1 or 2 pm and he could not see into the spot where the two bulls had gone but both were sure they hadn't come out. When Jon's tracking job led him into the area we pulled Jon off the trail as not to bump them out. Then Russ comes on the radio and says "I've got another buffalo in a totally different area!" It was a half mile or so from the others and looked to be a cow. I relayed the message to Dennis that we had two spots with buffalo hanging out in them but it would be at least a 3+ mile hike to each. He declined the offer and I could already tell he would. So we decided to let everyone have a restful evening. We would leave Dennis by the tank and the boys would just stay on their points and keep watch for the evening while I covered some of the lower country. It was hard to know where buffalo were and not go after them, cause although we all hoped they would be there in the morning , We knew it was highly unlikely.

 

 

At dark Jake came down and met me on the canyon edge for some phone reception a little light rain and some pictures. Jon and Russ hiked out of the mountains and picked up Dennis on their way and met us back at camp. It was an end to an exciting day, and we knew we had a clean miss and no wounded bufflao! We had teamed up on two big bulls and even though the country is not very conducive to glassing compared to some areas, we were still able to give those bulls a run for their money and stay with them all day!

 

That night it begain to Rain....and Rain.....And RAIN!