treetop's buffalo hunt

[treetop]

Hi everyone. we're back. finally shot a buff. turned out to be a young cow and not the monster bull I had dreamed about for years. She's nothing to look at But I'm still happy with it.
It's 1:23 am and I have been up for 44 of the last 48 hours. Story and a pix to follow, when I get back in the swing of things. later treetop

[a_bow_nut]

COOL!

I sure wish that I could have stayed down there to hunt with you this week. I hate it when life gets in the way of having fun. Though I bet you don't think that the last couple of days were much fun if you were up that much.

[treetop]

I was able toget a couple of pictures uploaded to my photo bucket account so I'll try and post them so that if all you want is to see a pix you won;t have to read the rest of the story. Hope this works. later Mark

[treetop]

Here's one more picture showing my son Jim and his friend Kole. They are my buff packers.
Good boys both!

[AGCHAWK]

VERY COOL!!!! Man, you'll have a freezer full for some time to come! CONGRATS

[a_bow_nut]

Here are a few pictures of some of the areas that we were looking for Marks bison.

We started out setting up on where we thought that the bison would come out if they were pushed out of these canyons by other hunters.







We also had a good view of a bunch of the chained off areas just incase the bison decided to wander out to eat.




After a couple of days of that game plan not working out we started expanding our search area. We headed out to some of the huge mesa's on the northeast side of the unit to look for sign.




Looking around down into the low lands that they call the blue hills.




Don't know if you can see them or not but there are some black dots way down in the bottom or not but as soon as I saw those I thought that it was time to rock and roll but it turned out that they were just cattle.




Thought that this rock formation was pretty neat looking.







When we got back to camp a storm was rolling in so we pulled camp and got the heck out of Dodge and just in the nick of time. By the time we made it out to the main road the entire mountain was socked in completely.


It sure was fun to be back down hunting again and I sure wish that I could have stayed until Mark had harvested his fine animal and helped pack it out but sometime that's how thing go out here in the west.

[MuleyMadness]

Nice pics! See many deer while looking for the Buffalo?

[a_bow_nut]

Yeah the rut was still going on and there were bucks everywhere. Only saw a couple that were really nice though. One was a 5x5 that had a nice symetrical rack with good mass and the other one that we saw was way off but you could see his rack even before we put the bino's on him. He had it all wide, at least four of five inches past his ears on each side, tall, I would say his antlers were around twenty four inches high, and MASSIVE before we put the glass to him you would have thought that he still had his velvet on but he was cleaned off. The only flaw that I coud find was that his forks weren't the deepest that I had seen but still a shooter buck if I have ever seen one.

I just wish that I had got some pictures of them but was otherwise occupied at the time. It would be interesting to see if the big ol buck would still be hanging out in the same place next summer? It wouldn't surprise if he was he was down in some steep counrty that is just chocked with cedar and oakbrush. If there is water in the head of one of those draws then he would have it made.

I may have a new hobby for the summer months now. Even if I never get to hunt those deer again it is still fun to go look at them.

[treetop]

Here are a few pictures of some of the bucks that were close enough to the road for a picture.
Looking at the deer was as fun as hunting buffs,




It's worth the trip down there the first week of November just to see the bucks out on the prowl.

[treetop]

Here is a copy of the email I sent out to family and friends when we got back from my hunt.
Thanks to all those who helped with the hunt, also those who shared info.
If any of you draw this tag I'd be more than happy to share the info I have. Hope you enjoy the story.

Hi Everyone, We finally made it back from the Henry Mountains. We started the hunt on Nov. 6th and hunted on the west side of Mt Ellen for the first three days. We'd heard that there was a nice bull on South ridge, so we were trying to find him.
In the afternoon of the first day we talked to some guys who said that the shooting we had heard that morning was Doyle Moss's dude shooting the bull we were after, so after looking for two more days we decided that the snow storm that was moving in was a good reason to get off the mountain.
We came home for a few days and attended to a few family things, and then on Saturday Jim and his friend Kole and I went back down.
We went around past the Star Spring Campground and up Pennell Creek and found a good place to camp by the Pennell Creek Reservoir.
Jim and Kole set up camp and told me to go look around, I saw a few buffs that night from a long ways away and the next day we walked up on about 6 head at a water hole but they were 487 yards away and moving away through the trees. No real shot opportunity.
The next two day were duds. on one we rode the 4 wheelers out around the south side of the range and tried to ride up Bullfrog creek. Got back late and put 70 miles on the wheelers, the next day we went north to hunt the Horseshoe basin and on the way there my handle bars on the old four wheeler broke loose.
After looking into the basin as best as we could and seeing nothing we decided to try and limp the bike 20 miles into Hanksville and find some one to weld it back together. Just after we came out of the mouth of Bull creek canyon I saw a ranch on the east side of the road and there was some farm and construction machinery around and I thought anyone who has a farm HAS to have a welder so we went and found the guy and he got me fixed back up, a really nice guy!
From his place we rode north, way out into the desert and found the road to take us to the west side of table mountain where we had seen some buff sign while scouting this summer. But they were gone. So back to camp and then a little more scouting in the place where I had seen them on Sat. Total for the day was 163 miles on the 4 wheeler. My all time record for miles in one day on a wheeler. And I hope it stays a record for a long time.
On Wednesday I was planning on being on the road by 11:00 AM so that I would be home to get ready for my meetings up in SLC. The plan that morning was to go look at the waterhole where we had seen them earlier and if they were there to shoot one and if not to go break camp and head out.
Jim said there was no reason for all of us to look at the same place so he and Kole went to look towards where I had seen them on Saturday.
There wasn't anything on the waterhole I was at ,so I turned to hike back to the bike and head home. Just then Jim called on the radio and said "Dad there are 15 buffalo up here on the hillside". So up the hill I go, and sure enough there are some buffs bedded on a hill about a half mile west of where Jim was.
We moved in closer and saw them still bedded down so Jim and I moved one hill closer and Kole stayed back to watch them while we were out of sight.
We got to the top of the closer hill and we ranged them at 353 yards. I got Jim's pack to rest on because I had left my pack and bino's with Kole and took a prone shot at the biggest one that I could see.
I thought he'd just roll over dead in his bed, but I missed, and they all jumped up and took off. I tried another shot as they left but I didn't have the gun's butt on my shoulder like I should have, and the scope came back and cut my eyebrow.
All that shooting and the only blood I could find was my own.
The buffs moved off about a hundred yards and stopped and just stood there and I thought I must have hit him and he's down and the others don't want to leave. We watched for a long time but couldn't see one down . This whole time there was a monster bull just standing broadside in the open but I didn't know if I had one down or not so I didn't dare shoot.
While we waited Kole moved over to the ridge we were on.
Nothing was happening so finally I dropped down through the canyon between us and them, and after looking for blood or a dead buff I slowly climbed up on some ledges where I could see the pass where they were still standing. I could see bits of hide and once in a while a horn or a face but still didn't have a clear shot.
I called Jim and told him to hike up around the hill they were on and try and drive them out of the trees to where I could see them. He did so and as he walked up on them they just stood up and looked at him from 30 yards. He finally pushed then out onto my hill but they were still in the thick trees and I had still no shot. After a few minutes a few of the buffs started moving out onto an open hillside about 100 yards from me and I thought "This is going to work, they'll all file past and I can pick the one I want."
Just then the whole herd spooked and started to run. Most of them stayed in a tight bunch and in the thick trees and I could see some big bulls in the group but I'd have got 3 or 4 with one shot if I tried, so I picked out one that was going down across the open hillside and shot. It staggered and kept going and so I shot two more times but by then the buck fever was in control of my body and I was jerking the trigger so hard that I had just as well of been throwing the bullets by hand for all the good they did.
The buff went down and as we walked up it jumped back up so I put one through the neck. and it was all over but the screaming.
As Jim and I walked up to the buff we could hear the rest of the herd going down through the canyon and up on the hill where we shot from first.
Kole was still there with the camcorder and was filming them as they came up the hill. He finally had to turn the camera off and run to get out of the way.
As he ran he left my pack and bino's sitting on the ground and all 35 or 40 animals ran right over the top of them but none of them hit my stuff so I had been lucky twice in the same day.
This was all about noon so we took a few pictures and started the butchering. By the time we were done we were all thankful that I had shot a 6 or 7 hundred pound cow and not a 2000 pound bull.
I had dreamed about a big bull for the 14 years it took me to get a tag, but I took what I could ,and I'm happy with it.
After a long HARD trek we got back to camp about 2 hours after dark and I left the boys there to go back for the rest of the meet in the morning. And I headed for home.
Got home about 12:30 and to sleep at 2:00 and back up at 5:30 and drove to SLC to my meeting which lasted until 2:00 PM.
I then drove out through Price and GreenRiver, down to Hanksville and over Stanton Pass and down to camp. arriving about an hour after dark
Jim and Kole had everything ready to go so we loaded up and headed home. Got here a little after midnight.
Long hard hunt but we had a good time and it was great to spend time with my kids, brothers and friends.
It would have never have happened if it wasn't for Jim and Kole and all their help.
And now I am going to sleep for a week straight. later Mark