Where to go Buffler hunting

[Regret Chancy]

I am hoping that some one here can help steer me in the right direction finding a place to leagally hunt buffalo. I am not interested in going to one of these buffalo hunt farms where you go into a big pasture and shoot a tame buffalo. I would like to hunt free range or somewhere that they have plenty of ground to wander basically wild even if its a fenced enclosure of at least 2000 plus acres. I may be wasting my time but I figure if what I am looking for is out there this would be the place to look. I should also mention that I would be hunting with my Navy Arms Springfield Trapdoor in 45/70 or my Marlin 1895 Cowboy also in 45/70. Is there anybody out there who can point me in the right direction? I appreciate yall takin the time to read this and if you can help me out I really appreciate that too,
                                                      Regret Chancy

[Tascosa Joe]

Try the Hawes Ranch in Southwestern Kansas.  From what I have seen they put on a primative 1870's style hunt.  Horse drawn wagon and white canvas tents.

[Deadeye Don]

Save up your $$.  I am guessing it isn't inexpensive.

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Deadeye
You know you have to eat the raw liver of your first kill .
Enjoy your Hunt .

[dangerranger]

 I was looking at the same thing only for a 2011 hunt. I did a Google search and found several that offered free roaming hunts on large acre ranches. they ranged in price from 2 to 4 thousand$. if you can find a ranch thats having a cull hunt, the price goes down. but they will be smaller animals. that is Ok with me as the small ones are still 900 to 1200 lbs. the skin [hair] will be its best looking from Nov to Jan. if that matters to you. DR

[Deadeye Don]

Deadeye
You know you have to eat the raw liver of your first kill .
Enjoy your Hunt .

And here I thought that was the tongue you had to eat raw.  Well,  at least that is what they did in Dances with Wolves.     

[Regret Chancy]

I have looked at a number of places on the net and prices have run from 1000 to 3500 for meat or trophy hunt depending. I like the idea of the primitive type hunt. I see alotof the photos posted on those sites with people really hamming it up with their fancy bolt action beanfield rifles with scopes that look like at least  4x12 with 300 winmags and up. I guess if thats what they like thats up to them I just figure if I cant do it the way they did it in the old days then I must be a poor hunter. I am still looking though and shooting for a winter of 2011 hunt.
                                                               RC

[Devil Anse Hatfield]

I looked into it one time as well and all I came up with were small pen hunts 100 ac.
One company told they were fair chase. I got more intrested then I asked enclosed or open  oh we turn em out into a fence 100 ac area. I  . In a 100 ac. field you could go blindfolded and smell one out in less than 4 hours. I never got my buff hunt.

[litl rooster]

I have looked at a number of places on the net and prices have run from 1000 to 3500 for meat or trophy hunt depending. I like the idea of the primitive type hunt. I see alotof the photos posted on those sites with people really hamming it up with their fancy bolt action beanfield rifles with scopes that look like at least  4x12 with 300 winmags and up. I guess if thats what they like thats up to them I just figure if I cant do it the way they did it in the old days then I must be a poor hunter. I am still looking though and shooting for a winter of 2011 hunt.
                                                               RC

It's a shame they would use something that primative when the best way is to chase them over a cliff

[Regret Chancy]

I wake up in the morning feeling prettymean most of the time but on my worst morning I doubt that I could cut one out of a herd and chase it off a cliff. I just want to hunt a buffalo not massacre a whole herd by chasing them off a cliff. According to my tribal elders that was when we fought with sticks and rocks and all the historical accounts seem to back that up. My thoughts were more like the hunting when the buffalo was nearly driven to extinction with the result being one me and one buffalo.
                                                                                                                    Regret Chancy

[dangerranger]

I saw several that were on 4 to 6000 acres. thats big enough to call free roaming. like you I dont think Id want to shoot a pened animal. DR

[Regret Chancy]

That is more like it. To shoot one in a pasture is about the same as making a big hunt out of shooting a cow. I would want it to be relatively sporting as least as sporting as it can be anyway. A friend of mine booked a brown bear hunt and paid around 10,000 dollars for a book bear hunt. They put him in a treestand in a fenced enclosure, he said it was about 10 acres, they backed a box truck up to the main gate and somehow ran the bear into the enclosure out of the box truck for his guaranteed opportunity so they could keep his money. He shot the bear but has since quit hunting because as he says his participating in that fiasco just made him sick and he hasnt the heart left to do it anymore. That outfitter has a show on the sportsmans channel every week. That was why Iasked here, I figgered if anybody knew a fair hunt this would be where to find them.
                                                                                                                                 Regret Chancy

[hhughh]

Chancy,
  I feel the same as you.  I'm sorry I can't help more.  I was doing some research on this myself a few years back, and the $$ were just out of the question for me at the time.  I do, though, remember reading that Canada has a "woods bison" that is a very close "cousin" and allows some type of free range hunting.  Don't recall all the details, but I do know I was leaning toward that if the time ever came.
Good luck with this, and if you locate anything, please post back, as I know there are many of us who would be interested.

Hugh

[Maj.Bull S. Hitter]

I read a book by Steve Rinella called,American Buffalo:In Search Of A Lost Icon.The book came out in 2009 and is full of history and the adventures of Steve on a wild Buff hunt in the foothills of the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska.
I have also heard good things about the Hawes Ranch.

[Maj.Bull S. Hitter]

State of Arizona also has a Buffalo hunt

[Ranch 13]

Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska and I think maybe Oklahoma have a "bison hunt" but the odds of getting a license is slim, and the cost for nonresidents if fairly high but cheaper I believe than going into a pasture and shooting someones olcow....

[Tascosa Joe]

We found something on the Crow Reservation a few weeks ago that looked promising.

[Rafe Covington]

I hunted the Hawes Ranch for buffalo in Kansas a few years back, was a good hunt and I enjoyed myself.

Rafe