Bison!

[Jamie.270]

Already pressure cooked. :D It will be sliced thin for sandwiches.

 Paul

Got any horseradish?

[Paul Hoskins]

Excellent shooting and excellent bullet placement under any circumstances, Paul. I would think the meat would be excellent canned. It could possibly be canned with seasonings too. Saves on freezer space. Canning would cut down on cooking time. That alone makes preparing dinner faster. .......I love canned goat meat & planning on canning some venison this fall if I can come up with one. One of my 'girlfriends' was visiting yesterday & asked if I wanted a deer if she killed more than she can use.  My next door neighbor asked the same question. I'm thinking it would be great after canning.        ......Paul H

[gitano]

All meat eaten so far has been excellent. In fact, I would say it's second only to wild sheep, and equal to elk.

Paul

[Jamie.270]

All meat eaten so far has been excellent. In fact, I would say it's second only to wild sheep, and equal to elk.

 Paul

And just think, there's a 3-5 year supply of it!
LOL

[gitano]

I can assure you that it won't last that long. I have already had several requests from children and grandchildren for various pieces! BUT... I suspect it will last for the year at least. I'm going to take Paul Hoskins' advice and can a mess of it. Much will be jerked.

Paul

[Hunterbug]

and equal to elk.

Paul

Don't get carried away now!

[Jamie.270]

I can assure you that it won't last that long. I have already had several requests from children and grandchildren for various pieces! BUT... I suspect it will last for the year at least. I'm going to take Paul Hoskins' advice and can a mess of it. Much will be jerked.

 Paul

I'm curious to hear what your best estimate (or documented) of weight of boned out meat is from this critter.
We should have started a pool and had members guess!


Guess the weight of vittles from Paul's beastie bison!


I would think it has to be somewhere near, and maybe even north of 600lbs.


Do you plan to keep at least a couple of shank bone sections for soups too?

[gitano]

When you have to do things by yourself. Put hindquarter on plastic sheet. Drug ~50yd to deck. Drilled holes in deck for hanging rope. Attached block and tackle and hung HQ like I knew what I was doing.



The head and hide are in a big plastic container. There is NO DOUBT they weigh AT LEAST 200 lb. I can't even budge the plastic container to slide it. Hooked come-along to front of rack on PU, backed truck up to container, put a jerry-rigged ramp on bumper and pulled it into the bed like I knew what I was doing. (No pictures of that.)

As for "total meat weight", I can't promise anything. This thing is a real beast to deal with. I've been runnin' and gunnin' for the past three days trying to stay ahead of pouring rain and "the beast". Like being between a rock and a hard place. I've already eaten the tail and some "hump". The heart's cooked, but I got a weight on that before I cooked it. As for the rest, I'll do the best I can to record it, but as I said, no promises. I think something near 600 might be close.

Paul

[branxhunter]

Terrific story Paul. Fantastic to see it all come together after the months of cipherin' and testing.

Fantastic shooting too when the pressure was on - must be very satisfying to have made those shots with a single shot.

That is a whole lot of meat - the photo of the skinned and hung carcass certainly shows just how big that beastie is.

Marcus

[Jamie.270]

How long do you expect to hang those HQ?
And are you expecting any visitation of the ursa variety because of it?

[Paul Hoskins]

Paul, I've been around a bit of skunt out beef hides & beef heads & I can assure you the bison hide & head are considerably  north of 200 pounds. .......Usually after the hunt & kill the real WORK begins with large animals. Few people realize just how much work is involved. The average deer hung up by the head, I can skin in 10 minutes. Lower legs removed with the head tied to a post & laid on a  tarp on the ground, I can skin one in around 6-7 minutes by pulling the hide off  with a 4 wheeler or tractor. It's nothing like skinning a big beast. That's WORK from start to finish. .......Paul H

[sakorick]

Terrific story Paul. Fantastic to see it all come together after the months of cipherin' and testing.

Fantastic shooting too when the pressure was on - must be very satisfying to have made those shots with a single shot.

That is a whole lot of meat - the photo of the skinned and hung carcass certainly shows just how big that beastie is.

Marcus

It was the "perfect storm". The wind, darkness, snow and most importantly the Beastie was a loner. I was impressed with Paul and his concentration, not sure I would have held up under the pressure, shooting off hand, at the trophy of a lifetime!

[gitano]

The front quarters weigh about 80 each, the hinds, about 100 each. With caribou quarters, I prefer to hang for 10 days at these temps - high 30s. With these, and as the temps lower, I'll go at least that long. I'll be checking them every day. While I did have a big brown bear cruising through here at one point, I have neither seen nor heard of one in at least 10 years. I'm not concerned about bears.

Paul

[gitano]

I got the hide to a tannery today. Here are some pictures of the skull without the lower jaw, and some measurements.

Widest spread: 24.5"
Tip-to-tip Spread: 20.25"
Right Horn Length: 16.5"
Left Horn Length: 16.375"
Right Horn Base circumference: 13.5"
Left Horn Base circumference: 13.375"

The whole head from the front. I didn't notice the eye. :o





Just the horns from the front.

 




Just the horns from the rear.

 



Various pictures of the horns.

 









Minimum Boone & Crockett score is 115. This bison scores, (unofficially of course), 105 and 5/8ths. Sounds about right to me. Boone & Crockett doesn't accept bison from Alaska. Go figure. We have four WILD, FREE RANGING herds. I never did like B&C.

Paul

[sakorick]

Gosh, What a trophy!!