"First, Thank you to Ricky for teaching me to shoot. I had the confidence needed to get the job done. Thanks to Mike Rintoul for making me special bullets. We looked for bison on Thursday afternoon, and on and off on Friday. It seemed we saw almost everything on the ranch, well except Aoudad and hogs that we rarely ever see even though there is a bunch of them. Where could a couple thousand pounds of animals be that we can't even see them in two days of looking? Saturday morning, Joe wakes me up at 7:00 and tells me the buffalo are in the West pasture. We leave our friends to watch the boys since they're still sleeping. Joe leads me and my friend Vicky who has the camera and video, and her step daughter Chelsea (10 years old and already shot a hog and a deer). After about an hour we are close to the bison and they all stand up. I choose the big, dark colored one of three that are together. I feel a little guilty at first, but I remember how good they taste and that is what they are here for. I aimed at the shoulder like Ricky told me and squeeze. I can see dust fly off the bison but he is just standing there like nothing happened. Did I hit him? I ask. Everyone says YES in unison. The buffalo start to walk away. We followed them for 100 yards or so through the brush. When they turn and walk sideways, I start shooting like Ricky told me to. Bang, Bang, Bang, it seems nothing is happening and the buffalo just keep walking. Now I am afraid I don't know which one to shoot but Joe reassures me that he knows the one, even though I doubt him for the time being. When the buffalo cross a little clearing, I swing the gun up and shoot as the one Joe says is hit is in the opening (even though I think he's wrong about the one we've been shooting at). At the shot the bison drops like someone yanked the legs out from under it. We walk up near it and shoot it one more time in the heart and blood comes out its nose and mouth. I still think I shot two and now Chelsea agrees with me, but Vicky says it's the same one on the video the whole time. Of course, the camera battery died before we took a photo. Joe went to get the truck and came back with new batteries. We stood about 50 yards away and watched the other bison do the buffalo dance. When bison and other buffalo type animals smell blood on one of their own they circle the downed animal, lick it and wipe their nose on it. They also let out bellows and stomp their feet. That lasted about 15 minutes before they walked off. Neither one looked hit with a bullet, so I felt better that I had only shot one. I am going to get a skull mount and I am looking forward to the tasty hamburgers and steaks!" BTW - the next day we saw the other two bison on the opposite end of the ranch and they were fine, no extra holes in them!
JOE's COMMENTS: Don't shoot bison with a 45 Colt. Mike loaded 300 grain hardcast bullets with .330 metplats to 1600 fps. The first shot from 35 yards hit the front shoulder and punched a triangle chunk of scapular 1 1/2 inches across off with the bullet going about 16 inches into one lung. The next hit at 50 yards went into the front of the hips and went 20 inches under the intestines, hitting absolutely nothing vital. The third hit at 45 yards hit the top of the on-side lung, travelled forward through 4 vertebrea, exited the off-side high and clipped the base of the ear. That was the only bullet that exited. More bullet weigh is what I recommend. At least a 350 gr jacketed bullet at rifle velocity of 1800 fps + or a 400 gr - 550 gr bullet going at least 1250 fps (more if the range is longer than 50 yards). Between Richard and I, we have shot around 150 large bovinc with customers and what happened here is typical. Only a handful out of 150 dropped straight down and less than half were killed in a reasonable time with only one shot.
HAHA