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Hunting Wyoming's Wild Bison -- Part 1
Recently it was announced that Wyoming's Jackson Elk Refuge would be open to hunting for the upcoming bison hunting season (see our previous update), an act necessary to reduce the significantly overpopulated herd. This has rekindled the ongoing and often polarizing debate about bison hunting. Hunters revere the chance to hunt this iconic species of the American West; wildlife managers are hard-pressed to manage the numbers of these ponderous herd animals in limited available habitat; antihunters object to killing representatives of a species so historically over-hunted, and question the sporting nature of the hunt.
In this context, I wanted to share some of my experiences from my 2005 wild bison hunt near Jackson, Wyoming.
Typically, Wyoming Game and Fish offers 5 bull tags (and a larger number of cow tags) to non-resident hunters. The odds of drawing one of these tags are about 1 in 90. You do not apply for these tags as you do for other Wyoming hunting licenses. Instead, during the month of January, you submit an application and $17 to the Wild Bison Priority List (the form is in the regular non-resident hunting brochure.)
A few months later, you get a letter from WG&F notifying you of your ranking. One friday afternoon in May, I stood in my driveway after letting the dogs out and opened my annual ranking letter from WG&F. I was stunned to see that I had been ranked #2 out of 419 applicants. Still, I didn't know if I would get a tag. Maybe they only offered 1 tag to nonresidents? Maybe I was tragically close to drawing this tag of a lifetime, but still unsuccessful? At the time, I had no idea.
I bounced off the walls all weekend, then called the Jackson office of WG&F on monday morning. They confirmed that I would be going bison hunting. I was excited as I had ever been about a hunt.
A moment for some personal comments on the state of bison in North America.... As a hunter, a conservationist, and an omnivore, I believe the decimation of bison herds in North America is one of the greatest tragedies ever carried out by modern man. You can argue about the inevitable need for a growing human population to eradicate such large creatures — how could we have modern highways, modern agriculture, and modern towns with enormous herds of these huge, often dangerous animals thundering around? — but this is not an argument that I am sympathetic to. I believe we should have adapted our culture to coexist with the world around us, rather than destroying that world to make it more compatible with our short-term needs.
In today's world, if conflicts (such as potential brucellosis transmission) exist between the relatively few remaining wild bison and a tiny percentage of our vast herds of domestic cattle, the solution should be obvious — remove the cattle. I can't think of a case where I'm not likely to be on the side of defending our wild bison. If I were King, there'd be a lot more bison and a lot fewer cattle, fences, and trophy homes encroaching on good winter range.
Having said that, I also need to emphasize that we still need to respect bison for what they are. Herd animals, grazers, herbivores, bison have evolved as a prey species. For however many thousands of years, bison have been pursued, killed, and eaten by other species, chief among them, men. It is in the natural order of things for both humans and bisons that we hunt them. While we have collectively done a piss-poor job of managing our wild bison and need to better promote their numbers and habitat, I absolutely believe that it is OK to hunt them, and the opportunity to hunt these magnificent creatures was a dream come true. No other species so clearly represents the bounty, the wildness, and the promise of North America. To hunt wild bison is to celebrate the greatness of this land as it was a thousand years ago.
In the case of the bison herd around Jackson, Wyoming, the issue comes down to habitat. In the Jackson valley, there is limited winter range available. The local community and the state wildlife department have reached consensus on the size of the herd that can be sustained (400 animals), and hunting has been identified as by far the best tool to manage the herd of 1,200 animals towards that goal.
WG&F feels a sense of urgency about making the most of the limited bison hunting that is conducted. They want hunters to succeed, and send out a great information packet to help hunters. They also have some good, no-nonsense rules about the hunt. Archery equipment and black powder guns are not allowed. While these primitive types of equipment cleanly kill many thousands of deer, elk, and so forth every year, they are poorly suited to killing an animal as enormous as a bison. WG&F, intent on maximizing harvest in humane a way as possible, requires hunters to use a centerfire rifle to take their bison.
In addition to weapons restrictions, WG&F also encourages a head shot, about 6 inches behind the horn. Until you've been around mature bulls, it's really hard to appreciate how ridiculously enormous they are. Shooting a bison in the chest with a .30-06 will kill it, but it's kind of like using a thumb-tack to poke holes to deflate the Good Year blimp. A chest-shot bison may take a while to expire, and it may cover some country in this time, significantly complicating the meat recovery effort. Most hunters, using their deer or elk rifle, are well-advised to go for the head shot. If I were to shoot a bison in the chest, I'd want at very bare minimum a .375. A .416 would be better, and I don't think I'd really feel appropriately gunned until I had a .458.
The season is generous, running from September to December. I planned a later hunt, in November, when the hair on the bulls would be thickest (they can look downright mangy during warmer weather) and when meat would stay cooler.
The hunt is very much centered around the town of Jackson, so I booked a hotel there for my base camp. Jackson is an interesting, diverse place, bringing together the conservative and traditional ranching and cowboy culture, affluent and cosmopolitan ski enthusiasts, and Subaru-driving, nature-loving liberals. All of these groups bring positive things to the community, and the mix seems to work well. How many places are there where a guy wearing blaze orange and camo can blend in so well at a sushi place?
After I checked in to the hotel, I set about trying to find the bison.
(Continued in next installment.)
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