View Full Version : Bison, reaction to the shot!?

April 24, 2007, 05:04 PM
was searching the web for hunting videos and stumbled across some bison hunt videos. From watching about a dozen of them, i can now see why they were almost hunted to exticntion.....they dont care if they get killed!

This is what i gathered from the video

-you can get very close to them

-when you shoot a gun, the noise, dosent seem to bother them much at all.

-after the shot the others stand around or barely move.

-when they do get hit they seem to not have much if any reaction. some go down and then stand back up and just walk around slowly until they collapse.

whats the deal w/ these animals? is there any reason they just seemingly dont care when gun shots go off, dont react to being shot, dont care if you get real close ect?

from what i can see they appeared to be wild. I'm sure sometimes they might charge or whatever but for the most part the hunt seems like shooting fish in a barrel.

April 24, 2007, 05:10 PM
I wouldn't count on that. My father worked for a man who raised them for a while when I was a kid. I have personally seen them run for miles through countless fences when injured and/or provoked. That's not to say they don't just stand there sometimes, but they have incredible stamina when the adrenaline is flowing. They also can be provoked for no apparent reason. If you do go on a hunt, be wary of them at all times. I think the reason they stand there is that they don't fear very many things.

April 24, 2007, 06:58 PM

Well, for one, they haven't been hunted regularly and they get fed hay regularly, so they have no reason to be afraid of people. For another, they weigh 1,200-1,800 lbs, and they are not afraid of you anyway. Go ahead, try getting close to one. If they think you are trying to hurt them, they will let you get close enough to them that you can't get away. If you need details, ask any farmer what a Holstein bull does when it charges someone.

April 24, 2007, 07:13 PM
Far more people are killed & injured in Yellowstone park from bison than from bears, mountain lions, & wolves. They are dangerous, to be sure.

No fear is simply a direct result of having not been hunted in a few generations. Same reason bears in national parks & preserves have little or no fear of humans. I would bet that if let hunters have a few tags a year for each herd, then after a few years, ALL of them will run from humans at the first sight or scent. They learn quickly. It's not so much about the size as it is about who wins when man has a gun. A whitetail deer can kick a man's butt easily, injuring or killing him, and some have. Yet they run because they learn fast, after a few hunting seasons, that it ain't a fair fight. Grizzly bears have no innate fear of humans, but when they're hunted, such as in Alaska, they learn to avoid man like the plague - at least that is my understanding. I could be wrong though - bison may be different - they may be far stupider, but I doubt it.

As for gunshot noise, most noise doesn't scare many animals at all. I've heard stories, as well as seen myself, deer come into an area right after a gunshot went off. And seen deer on video not run at the sound of a gunshot. It's the scent or sight of a HUMAN which makes them bolt. You would think that they WOULD learn to fear the gunshot, but they don't. They do learn to fear man himself.

Jack O'Conner
April 24, 2007, 07:15 PM
Killing a big buffalo with a chest shot takes a sturdy bullet to plow through the thick hide and heavy ribs. Why bother? Any accurate rifleman will shoot into the skull and drop 'em where they stand everytime. Doesn't take as much gun either. I did just fine with my .308 and steady rest. I'm certain 25-06 would perform equally well.

Bison are big and dumb. They're not difficult to approach from a side angle while they're feeding which is nearly all the time. Just low crawl and watch for cactus and snakes.


April 24, 2007, 07:24 PM
Where could one hunt a bison with a bow, and how much? I mean on a large many-thousand-acre ranch, not a pen/canned hunt.