Lance Report post Posted June 4, 2013 I was contacted by Brady who had drawn a Population Management buffalo tag for unit 5A and 5B through the hunter pool draw. Brady wasnt interested in a typical Ramond Ranch hunt where you are accompanied by the Ranch Game and Fish warden and told what animal to shoot. But Brady had learned that the buffalo they wanted taken out were bulls that roamed free off of the ranch and were seldom seen throughout miles of country. This interested Brady and this interested me as well! There were rumors of old bulls that had been roaming free and wild for many years and the chance of a trophy and more importantaly the chance of a real trophy adventure!!! When Brady contacted me it was 2 days before his hunt was to start. I got to work right away and started scouting and gathering every bit of information I could from the Game and Fish, local ranchers and past hunters. Soon I knew where to start and the type of targets we were after. There were for sure at least 8 bulls roaming as free and wild as they please. These bulls were last seen at least 15-20 miles from the ranch and one had been seen alone. We were very interested in the lone bull and wanted to see what kind of bull he was. There was also the main herd of 45 cows, calves and young bulls that were much easier to find. And although they spent most of their time on the ranch they too roamed free as they pleased and these pictures of the herd were taken a couple miles outside the ranch. I met with Brady the evening before the hunt and showed him the herd of cows to get his blood flowing! On day one we knew the area the herd of bulls were in but we decided to look for the loaner bull first. Another bull was taken from the group of bulls but wasn't a bull we were interested in. This spooked the group and they left the country. We knew where their tracks led but we wanted to continue to look for the mysterious loan bull just in case he was bigger, nothing else was found that day. As we continued to look the next day we found where the other bulls had gone. They had moved about 20 miles! We stalked in on them and looked them over carefully. We decided that the biggest bull in the group was a great bull and had bigger horns than the other bull that was taken. On the hunt before, a hunter had taken a bull out of the herd and said that there was a bull bigger than the one he shot still in the herd. We thought this might be the loan bull that was missing. We had a month to hunt and I told Brady we should pass on this bull and since we were the only hunters we had time to look for the other bull while keeping this good bull in our back pocket. So we left them and continued to to look. As we continued to look we were able to keep track of the herd of bulls movements. We talked to Steve, the warden, on the evening of the third day and he informed us of two things that made up our mind. Steve had gotten a close look at the bulls shortly after we did and he said that the bigger bull in the herd was bigger than the one the other hunter had taken on the hunt before. This meant that the bull we had passed up was probably the biggest bull left. But we were still going to keep him in our back pocket because we had a month to ourselves. But then Steve told us that they were likely going to issue another tag to start the next Friday..... so all of a sudden we didn't have time to keep this bull in our back pocket but it seemed that he was the bigger bull we were looking for anyway. So with that info Brady and I decided that he would be our target bull and the hunt was on! Day 4 started with covering ground and glassing and trying to cut tracks. Late in the morning we finally cut the tracks of the herd of six bulls. We grabbed our gear and began the tracking job. We had tracked them for about a mile and found where they had spent the night. We continued on their trail and after a while I discovered that they had looped downwind of us and had spooked and left the country without us even knowing. It was pretty awesome hunting these wild bulls that were not going to make it easy! I was familiar with the movement of buffalo in that country so we took a short cut and found their tracks again! We continued to circle and cut their tracks over and over throughout the day and several hours of tracking and about 9-10 miles later we finally caught up to them! At this point they were about 30 miles from where they had started the first day! It was truly turning into an awesome and epic free ranging and wild hunt!! I glassed them up out in front of us way out in the flat cedar pushes. There wasn't much cover so a careful stalk was made into about 230 yards. At this point most of the bulls were laying down resting. After a while they all got up to feed again and I looked them over carefully to find the one we wanted. The bull was located and the video was running while Brady placed 3 great shots in his chest from my 7MM RUM and his big once in a lifetime Arizona buffalo was down! We took lots of pictures and then we got to cutting! It took Brady and I two-hours and 20-min to cut the bull up and we were very blessed to be able to drive the truck right to him! This hunt turned out to be an awesome hunting adventure and everything we hoped a free range hunt would be! We hunted hard all day every day and tracked bulls over 30 miles of country and covered many many miles more! It was truly an epic hunt with highs and lows and everything in between! Thank you Brady for allowing TLO to be a part of your once in a lifetime adventure! Lance 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
resolute Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Great jobs, Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couzer Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Truly amazing! Nice job Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZLance Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Congrats! I too had this hunt almost 10 years ago and chased down a big bull that was living off the ranch. What did the Bull green score? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
huntjunkie Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Awesome! Got my adrenalin going! Great pictures too!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Elkhunter1 Report post Posted June 4, 2013 that has got to be one of the best stories and picture lines I've seen on cwt.com yet!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lucky2hunt Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Outstanding! Great write-up and pictures!!! Congratulations to all involved! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ForkHorn Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Wow great story and bull! Magazine worthy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adicted Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Great story. Congrats guys Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ready2hunt Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Great write up! thank you and congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Elkaddict Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Loved the story and pics, would truly like to see one in the wild. Impressive animal! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cosninocanines Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Fantastic Thank You for sharing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gr8 White Jr Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Great write up on a once in a lifetime hunt. Congrats on an amazing trophy! Lance, you are the Buffalo KING!!!! -Tracy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonecollector Report post Posted June 4, 2013 Awesome job Lance and Randy. Great write up and pictures. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
