When all of the 2018 tag results were out, luck was on my side as I drew one of my most coveted hunts in the West – a bison tag! I think bison is arguably one of the most majestic animals created and their meat is in the top three that I’ve tasted. I’ll be honest, the main motivation behind me wanting to draw a bison tag was for the meat alone.
I had the privilege of drawing the Fort Peck Indian Reservation tag. My husband, Robert, first learned about the hunting opportunities on the Fort Peck Reservation while doing research for the “Reservation Hunting Opportunities” article in the Huntin’ Fool magazine. After drawing the tag, the planning began. They have a long bison season, and after some thought, we decided to go in the middle of November. I was excited to be guided by the bison biologist who has been working there for over 20 years.
The middle of November finally came, and we headed toward eastern Montana in a typical Montana blizzard. With a good amount of snow on the ground, winter had settled itself in nicely on the Fort Peck Reservation. The hunt itself was not a difficult one, but it was frigid cold and there were so many bison that we spent some time searching for a group of bulls to make a stalk on.
Around midday, we spotted a herd of about nine bulls and decided to make a stalk on them. My tag was for a 5 to 6-yearold bull, and the reason I applied for this tag was that the bull would be a nice trophy but young enough that the meat would be delicious! The terrain we were hunting was more like rolling hills and the country was very open, which made stalking in a bit of a challenge. We ended up having to crawl in about 300 yards so as not to alarm the bison. We made our way in to about 250 yards when the bison started to take notice of our presence. As I set my gun up to shoot, I had trouble with the prairie grass obscuring the view in my scope and had to readjust several times to get a clear shot of the bull I wanted to shoot. All of the bulls looked big and incredible to me. The biologist told me to pick one that I liked. Robert had made his observation and encouraged me to shoot a bull that was particularly nice. I have learned over the years to trust Robert’s judgment when it comes to choosing which trophy to shoot, and I set my sight on the bull Robert had chosen.
The hump on the bison can be rather deceptive, and its spine makes a reverse S curving down to protect its vital organs and then curving back up. The hump itself is made up of muscle that allows the bison to clear out snow by swaying its head like a large snow shovel. When I lined up for the shot, I had to remind myself to aim lower than what would normally feel comfortable on such a large animal to account for the curvature of the spine.
Once my bison was down, we made our way over to the enormous beast. I am not normally an overly emotional person, but as I approached this amazing animal, I was overcome with a sense of awe of what it must have been like for the Native Americans when they would harvest these animals with spears or bow and arrow. The bison is such an American icon, and having the privilege to harvest one was very humbling and incredibly meaningful to me.
As we cut up the bison, the biologist gave us a lesson on each of the chambers of the stomach and each one’s purpose in the digestive process. He explained food dishes that were made out of the intestines, heart, and liver. We learned that the Native Americans would take the sinew from the buffalo hump and use it to make bow string and that the cartilage from the hump would be boiled and used as a baby pacifier/teething apparatus. It was astonishing to me that literally every piece of the bison had a useful purpose. Again, I was humbled at the resourcefulness of the Native Americans and how closely the bison is tied to their culture. I have so much respect and admiration for this great creature, and I felt almost connected somehow to the past.
This is a hunt that will always be close to my heart, mainly because of the animal that I was hunting, but also because my family was able to share in this incredible experience. I think we all learned a lot and each one of us was changed in some way by the greatness of the animal that was harvested.
Montana Bison Hunting
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