hi folks I'm glad you can join me today I'm over here in Jackson Hole on the
National Elk Refuge I drew one of those coveted Buffalo tags over here on the
refuge
now this Elk Refuge is probably the crown jewel of the refuge system in the
United States they will feed over six thousand head of elk here and these elk
come from 70 miles up and Yellowstone down here to winter and it's quite a
treat that we're able to hunt down here and and see all these elk that have come
in here for the for the winter I grew up here I used to come out when I was in
high school and help them feed elk out here and the guys would stop the feeding
sleigh and I'd be able to take photos gosh that was back into the 60s and it's
just a great thing to come here and hunt 50 years later and be able to see that
all these bull elk that are out here
you know these Buffalo were kind of introduced back in the 60s back then
they had a compound out here by the fish hatchery where they put some elk in so
the tourists could look at him in this in the summertime and one time they got
two great big old bulls in there and when the rut cut come in September
those two bulls fought until one killed the other so I thought well maybe we
can't do that so then what they did is they went over to the State Park and
Thermopolis and got 15 or so Buffalo and put them in that compound and the
tourists would come in to Jackson Hole and drive up there and then they could
look at these Buffalo one night some guys went out and cut the fence and let
all the Buffalo out and they kind of migrated up into Teton park and they
stayed up there for I bet you 20 years and of course they propagated and then
one time few of them came down here on the elk refused in the wintertime saw
that was free groceries and so they told every every other Buffalo and so then
they have these free running Buffalo hunts down here to kind of manage them
and I was lucky enough to get a cow buffalo permit so tomorrow we'll go on a
buffalo hunt I'm looking really looking forward to it
well folks we've been looking out here and we found a really good group of
Buffalo out here they've got quite a few cows in it and there's a couple really
good ones so we're gonna load the horses up get on them and they're about oh a
mile and a half out here towards the canyon and we're gonna get as close as
we can with the horses and then we're gonna get off and we're gonna walk in
stock so Tim let's let's get the other horse and get my gun and here we go
folks we're going on a spot in stock or a buffalo it's fair chase out here in
Jackson Hole Wyoming the clouds are moving in fast now and Mike and his good
friend Tim treffen jr. are as well now let's see if Mike's quest put a load of
wild game meat in the freezer for the winter pays off
get up to this hump right here never give us a good shot at a cow
ready hitter again
I did not tell you that these buffle even a cow like this are tough I'm
surprised how much they can take it was great Tim's Heffron here kind of guided
me and never been on one of these it's always been a dream of mine to take a
fair chase Buffalo go over there and take a look at her and now the real work
begins on it so let's see what we have here
Wow folks looks like a nice mature cow I'll bet you she's going to be good
eating I got some horn here
nice looking at here folks look at this that's gonna make a beautiful rug she's
about Tim told me about four years old gonna be good eating and I'm gonna have
a skull European and put it on the wall and my wife wants this rug up there and
in the den so we'll get the horses and drag to suck her out Mike and Tim are
planning to use a little horse power to their advantage hunters are required to
use one of the two certified Outfitters to retrieve a bison on the National Elk
Refuge and Tim is one of those Outfitters
well well fellas it looks like you might need a little bigger horse or a lighter
Buffalo mm-hmm that was close easy way to do this Mike just get on the side of him
this hunt just goes to show us all that the hunt is not always about the trophy
on the wall at the end of the day loading a freezer full of good healthy
wild game meat is about as important a task as there is and the Eastman family
is no exception
Well folks we had a great hunt out here we showed up and the Buffalo are kind of
moving around and we had to make quite a stock how far did you think we went
there Tim oh we probably went three-quarters of a mile to a mile yeah
slugging through this crusted snow and and we got right pretty close within 150
yards of the herd the herd opened up and this beautiful cow will stand there all
by herself that was it once you tell the folks kind of how
these hunts out here go generally the yeah the buffalo hunt
doesn't normally get good until after Christmas time and the hunt the hunt
goes from August 15th and tell the middle of January and so you've got
about a three to four week window there where the hunt really gets good you know
unfortunately it's snowing his snowy and cold but but that's part of the
adventure yeah I notice that I came late the seasons almost over very few people
out here they have already tagged out and we had the whole country to
ourselves basically these Buffalo really really got the wool on them at this time
of year don't they Tim yeah they do you know when you're hunting Buffalo the
height is definitely part of the trophy for me it's a once in a lifetime tag
even a cow tag free running Buffalo free ranging out here most of time they're up
there and the wilderness and the National Forest and then this time of
year they come down in the valleys to winter and and that's one the best time
to hunt them isn't it yeah it is well I guess we're going to have to skin this
thing out get it to the locker and I'm glad you joined us today on this hunt
and remember fair chase is the only way to hunt and take trophy big game we'll
well see you next week on the Eastman's hunting TV show