Hunted 13 days all with my back a complete wreck I attribute to driving most of the night to arrive, sleepimg 2 hours then hopping in a blind on a waterhole to sit in a crappy chair from dawn to dusk. still tryimg to get back straightened out 3+ weeks later.
Ended up getting to know
@NVDesertHunter during the hunt and we hunted together a few days which was fun and a highlight.
The two of us where the only hunters out of the 10 cow hunters to even “see” a cow bison during the season. Yes that sighting is in quotes, see 3 paragraphs down for the “sighting”. We also saw a group of 3 mature bulls and were only ones to see that as well. One couple that drew together got a broef glimpse of a yearling bull which was the only other sigting besides ours on a 2 week hunt. Kinda brutal for a $3,300 tag, and to me more imortantly, my bucket list free range archery bison hunt.
I put up 2 game cams in typically ‘good’ spots that produced zero bison sightings. Also had permission and access to check a pile of an outfitter’s cams which only produced a pic of a solo yearling bull bison.
The snow ended up a heavy 8-12 inches and my understanding is that historically puts the kibosh on bison movement out of the park into the forest where we could hunt them. That was vpcertainly our experience.
One evening after
@NVDesertHunter and I had sat a water and salt together in a spot that in fact had a herd of pcows/calves visit overnight a few days prior, and had the lone young bull visit midday the day prior we hunted till could not see to shoot and were walking out a 2 track about 300 from the blind and with headlamps on literally bumped a large cow/calf herd at 20 freaking yards! that was painful and I swear it seemed we could here the crashing hooves busting deadfall 3 miles away and minutes after they bolted.
Did a ton of walking/still hunting and also sitting water and salt to no avail. and almost no fresh sign. Most of the kaibab where expect to find bison near the North Rim Grand Canyon NP boundary is THICK timber choked with underbrush..Not ideal bowhunting or any type of hunting conditions, but gave it all I had till dark thirty the last night.
I think @Dinkshooter texted my inreach a day before the end to say”You are a stubborn one Mr. Wynn”. Uh , yeah I am that….
As you might imagine in a random group of hunters, in these conditions with almost no fresh bison sight or sighting, the last day effort consisted of just 3 hunters, me,
@Non-Lead Hunter and A really cool guy and awesome scuptor Tom White. A lot of attrition throughout the 2 weeks.
Met some great guys during the hunt and most of the tag holders coordinated and communicated regularly to increase the odds for ll of us to have success. Just did not pan out.
Posting some pics in next post…
