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House Rock Buff Herd

Anyone draw this tag recently? How was your hunt? and out of curiosity, how many points did you have when you drew the tag?

I had a cow bison tag in 2016. I had minimal points, maybe two or three total when I drew. My hunt was two weeks long and started on July 15th if I recall or right around there. I killed mine on day 12. Used an old bolt action 06 with iron sights. Killed it at about 40 yards. We did pretty well as a group overall. I think there were 8 cow tags and two bull tags and 7 out of 8 got cows and 1 out of 2 got bulls. The only people that didn't kill a bison went home early. We hit em hard the day I got mine. There were 5 dead buffs on the ground when the dust settled.

Is the OP talking about the buffalo that mainly live in the park or the buffalo that now reside near house Rock ranch?

Good question Knothead. Most people probably aren't aware that they are two separate herds now, that are essentially being kept apart from each other. The ones on House Rock ranch only had one permit this past year, so I'm guessing he's talking about those on top of the plateau? My 2019 hunt absolutely sucked! Weather prevented them from coming out of the Park.

Thanks for the reply Heat. I drew a bull tag that runs end of June to end of July. Did you go DYI or with a guide?

StickFlicker - when was your tag for and what kind of weather did you have?

My tag was the first hunt, early April through the first few days of June. There were heavy snow storms throughout that time, and it continued to snow clear through the beginning of June. Hunters couldn't get to the hunting area for the first 3/4 of the season, and buffalo couldn't get out of the Park and to areas they could be hunted until the last three days of the hunt. Of 25 hunters, only two hunters finally took young bulls on the last couple of days as they barely crossed out of the Park. The rest of the hunters never even saw a buffalo. Your dates should be better. They have extended the dates on the first hunt, as well as making a longer hunt (yours) during the peak season dates, as a result of our disastrous hunt. Good luck.

I did the co-op thing. Was not "guided" per se but got a lot of assistance from Russ.

To expand on that, Russ will help anybody who will do the coop thing to keep people away from where his paid clients are at. They get first dibs at the hotspots. My bison was laying there dead next to the Governors tag bulls if that tells you anything.

I had the early hunt last year (19). I talked to at least 20 people who had the tag and made my decision not to join the group. I met a couple of different law enforcement guys when I was up there, one was helping his dad and the other had a tag. I am glad I went the route I did. I tried the status quo methods of sitting until your brain and butt was numb, but after 8-10 days I decided my best option was to explore knowing that most of the hunters were on mile or two stretch of road that I stayed away from. Long story short 27 days hunting, 3-5 minutes of excitement and 7 hours of pain to pack it out solo. My only regret was that on the last day I put my bow away and used a rifle.

I had the early hunt last year (19). I talked to at least 20 people who had the tag and made my decision not to join the group. I met a couple of different law enforcement guys when I was up there, one was helping his dad and the other had a tag. I am glad I went the route I did. I tried the status quo methods of sitting until your brain and butt was numb, but after 8-10 days I decided my best option was to explore knowing that most of the hunters were on mile or two stretch of road that I stayed away from. Long story short 27 days hunting, 3-5 minutes of excitement and 7 hours of pain to pack it out solo. My only regret was that on the last day I put my bow away and used a rifle.

Thanks for the reply fred. and congrats on your bull!

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