2017 Buffalo House Rock Ranch

[520HUNT]

Once you leave your salt and blind on public land it is considered abandoned...

[Flatlander]

Once you leave your salt and blind on public land it is considered abandoned...

So is a treestand and a trailcam. Doesn't mean I am entitled to everything I see in the woods.

[trphyhntr]

 

Once you leave your salt and blind on public land it is considered abandoned...

So is a treestand and a trailcam. Doesn't mean I am entitled to everything I see in the woods.

but if I leave the stuff out then I'm entitled to that land?

[Lucafu1]

wow, some of the responses (or excuses) in this thread amazes me.

[Coues79]

Here's another angle on this Who keeps the salt blocks up , hauling 50 lbers ( lots of them) into the established sights, all year long , not just during the hunts? Russ and company. Who invested all the money on ground blinds that he will let non paying hunters sit in? Russ and company. Of course he is going to do his best to help his paying clients kill a bison, but he also wants everyone who is lucky enough to draw a tag to fill their tag. Russ is a good guy who does have a vested interest in the hunt. Does he think he owns the forest? I don't believe so, in fact he joked about another guide having that attitude when I hunted with him in 2014. I was lucky in that I hunted in January and we did not sit salt, we still hunted and were the only hunters in the area do to the amount of snow restricting access. The summer hunts are another thing entirely, and one person can have a negative impact for all the other hunters by running around and spooking the buffs back into the Park. Considering all the moving parts of coordinating people and positions, I think he does a pretty good job and treats people fairly. Why wouldn't he put a paying client on a hot lick first over someone who isn't paying? Running the operation takes a ton of time and money, I can't imagine how many runs from Flagstaff to the south end of the plateau he makes a year.

I'm gonna go up and pour a salt line right along the border the entire length, keep it going all year. It's gonna be the "hot line" and I'll take the highest bidder. My expectation is that no one can hunt anywhere by that salt because I kept it up..... on public land. Everyone else can find another place to hunt and can K.M.A.

[Flatlander]

 

 

Once you leave your salt and blind on public land it is considered abandoned...

So is a treestand and a trailcam. Doesn't mean I am entitled to everything I see in the woods.

but if I leave the stuff out then I'm entitled to that land?

Nope, but if the only reason those Buffalo leave the park is for the salt, and one person builds, maintains and documents the salt licks and then provides that information to the public, well, then they deserve first right of refusal.

 

If you show up for your hunt, provide nothing to those who've been before or after you and want to ride the coat tails of someone else's work to fill your tag, then I guess you can call yourself a 'True Hunter', but in my book your just a mooch.

 

Here's some good life advise, bring more than you take away.

[elkhutnaz]

time to cash my 30 points in and just go get some meat, this thread doesn't make me feel like I want to waste my time and effort for the North rim hunt.....thanks

[Rag Horn]

Very interesting economic/hunting/political/legal/ethical/historical dynamics surrounding that hunt I never knew existed. Regardless of which "perspective" you have on the OP's experience. I learned a lot and was educated on the myriad of intricacies involved in this particular tag.

[Flatlander]

This thread and or dozens like it should be mandatory reading prior to applying. Lots of folks have no idea what they are getting into when they apply for these hunts.

[DesertBull]

The feds should take the money they are using to raise and protect the wolf/dog hybrids, use it to repair the park fence, then drive the entire herd of BEEFALO off the park.

[Couzer]

Question: If I sit salt where this outfitter has been placing salt for the last 20 years, am I obligated to leave if asked by the outfitter if I was at this location first?

 

HeII no!!!

 

 

Question: Would you be pissed if you have been sitting salt and this outfitter told his client to go sit that same salt just on the other side and to shoot over you if something came in?

 

HeII yes

[520HUNT]

 

Question: Would you be pissed if you have been sitting salt and this outfitter told his client to go sit that same salt just on the other side and to shoot over you if something came in?

 

HeII yes

I would suddenly get the urge to begin target shooting if some guy came in and was going to shoot over my shoulder. This outfitter obviously has no ethics if this is how he runs his camps!

[520HUNT]

This thread and or dozens like it should be mandatory reading prior to applying. Lots of folks have no idea what they are getting into when they apply for these hunts.

You are correct, I had no idea that outfitters thought it was ok to block roads, or run other hunters who got their first off.

 

I wasn't raised that way and assumed that most other hunters had ethics.

[tomharveyb]

Here's some info all you guys who have never done this hunt but seem to jump to your own conclusions should know. THEY DON'T BLOCK THE ROADS!!! They stop and talk to anyone driving into the roads near the salts, tell them what's going on, and ask them to please not drive there for obvious reasons. I was interviewed in my blind by a Wall Street Journal reporter , of all things, who drove up within 200 yards, got out, slammed their door, and walked on over. Probably wouldn't have been able to do that if the road was blocked. Some people need to get their facts straight before they go off half-cocked. I for one , enjoyed the whole process of cooperation, and will try again, if drawn. At least you are hunting a free range bison. If you didn't get a bison on this hunt, move on. No whiners please!!!

[DCS]

It's amazing how many people know all about this hunt,but haven't actually been there.I was up there with a friend of mine on the last hunt.I sat with him the first day in a blind 15 hrs.It ends up being a endurance test like you can't believe.The second day we took a break,and looked at some other country,plus the buffalo that were in the park 1/2 mile from the fence.The 3rd day he sat another 15 hrs.The 4th day he started setting in the blind that he was in on the 3rd day,and the buffalo came to another blind,and the hunter shot a nice bull,stayed in the blind,and Russ called my buddy,got him over there,and with the help of Russes wife,and son,he killed a nice bull.Both of these hunters were non paying,as far as I know.I was setting in Russes truck,when my buddy shot his bull,and Russ was as excited,as if he had shot it.I personally asked Russ why he did what he does to help the non paying,and paying hunters.He told me that he just likes to help harvest the buffalo.This guy,along with his family helped all of us get the buffalo loaded in the trucks whole,and hauled back to camp.Another buffalo was killed that morning because of Russ,and his family.I don't know if it is true,but I heard 11 out of 12 killed their buffalo on this hunt.It's not a hunt that I would want to do until the park service let's the hunters access the park.The only reason that I am writing this is because Russ,Brian,and their family worked their tails off,for the hunters to be successful.They would stay up late to make sure the hunters were in at night,charge the batteries on the radios,and be up at 4 to do it all again.I was give out after 4 days,I can't imagine how Russ feels after months of this.From what I have seen,Russ and company are stand up people trying to do the best that they can whether they get paid or not.