July 28, 2025 • 58 mins
A bison, two determined hunters, and a nine-hour battle to pack out pounds of wild meat from the Yukon wilderness. This is hunting stripped down to its essence.
Kaleb Graham shares his late-season bison hunt with hunting partner McGinnis – a story filled with strategy, perseverance, and the raw challenges that make hunting in remote territories so rewarding. After spotting a herd of 54 bison on a distant ridge, the pair abandoned their snowmobiles and embarked on a four-kilometer stalk through deep snow and difficult terrain. With careful planning and perfect wind direction, they crawled to within 82 yards of their quarry before Kaleb made a clean shot with his .45-70 lever action.
What followed was the true test – a grueling nine-hour ordeal to butcher and transport quarters weighing over 100 pounds each back to their snowmobile. Working until nightfall, they meticulously harvested every usable part of the animal, honoring it through complete utilization. The meat care was impeccable, hanging for a week at perfect temperatures to develop its rich flavor.
This episode captures what authentic hunting is about – not trophy animals or easy victories, but challenging yourself in wild places, connecting with nature, and bringing home clean, sustainable protein earned through sweat and determination. If you appreciate real hunting stories told with honesty and respect for the animals pursued, this conversation will resonate deeply. Have you experienced your own epic pack-out? Share your story and subscribe for more authentic hunting adventures.
Check us out on Facebook and instagram Hunts On Outfitting, and also our YouTube page Hunts On Outfitting Podcast. Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken marr.
I love everything hunting theoutdoors and all things
associated with it, from storiesto howos.
You'll find it here.
Welcome to the podcast.
All right, thanks for joiningus on this week's podcast.
(00:33):
We've got a great one for you.
You know a lot of people thinkthat I've talked to that.
They need a big animal to be onthe podcast.
They need a big trophy animal.
They don't.
I just, I like, I love thestories, stories, and it's not
the size of the animal, it's thestory that goes with it.
Uh, now, obviously it'sinteresting to hear some stories
(00:53):
about some true monsters, but Imean, this week on the podcast,
we're talking to caleb graham.
Uh, he's in the yukon.
He's been on here before.
Uh, he's on over the wintertalking about a caribou hunt.
So if you want to listen tothat, if you haven't listened to
the podcast before, it's uh,it's back a few months he talks.
You know there's a picture ofhim with his caribou great chat
(01:14):
on that.
But this time, though, he'stalking about a bison hunt, and
they didn't get the biggest onethere, but they had a great
experience on this hunt.
He tells us all about it, fromfinding them, stalking up on
them, getting the shot, and thenyou know something that us
hunters, maybe we do.
Other people might not realizethe amount of work afterwards,
(01:36):
especially when you shoot ananimal of that caliber just the
sheer size of it getting allthat out, packing it all out and
making sure you get it out and,you know, being able to have
some great meat to feed yourfamily with in the winter.
So if you guys like thispodcast, it'd be great to share
it out, and if you can leave usa rating and or review on Apple
(01:57):
or Spotify, we're going to getright to it and have a chat with
Caleb.
Caleb Graham, thanks for comingout to the podcast.
You've been on before.
You're living up in whitehorse,but for those uh that haven't
listened to your, your sweetvoice before, uh, telling a
story last time was the caribouhunt why don't you tell us a bit
who you are?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
yeah, thanks for having me on.
Uh, caleb graham, born andraised and against ridge new
brunswick.
Uh, the last nine years I'vebeen in White Horse, yukon.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Right, yeah, it's been that long and the hunting
opportunities there areplentiful.
Amazing, your game populationsare all up Like you hear about
these different places like well, you know this herd's in
jeopardy or that, but in WhiteHorse it's all on the up and up,
is it?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, conservation's pretty good there.
They, yeah, conservation'spretty good there.
They're on things up there forsure.
There's not a lot of peoplethere, that's true.
Does that help?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You guys have a lot of outfitting, but still, it's
not that much people hunting.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, whenever you see species not doing so great,
they always shut down the zonesand whatnot or have lesser
permits out that year.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Do you find that they have a lot more boots on the
ground, like with biologists andstuff like that, monitoring
things and keeping track of it?
Because I find I know here inNew Brunswick you never hear
about it.
I know there's some places outWest that seem to do a really
good job, or in the States insome spots, but here you never
hear about them putting trackingcollars on or things like that.
Did they do that up there?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I've run into a lot of different species with
collars on.
I haven't run into manyconservation officers while I've
been hunting, but always seethem on the highways, see their
choppers a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, yeah, that's good.
Yeah, stuff like that, yeah, no, it's nice to hear that they're
monitoring that.
Yeah, you know it's a naturalresource that should be looked
after and said here I don't know, I never source that you know
should be looked after and saidhere, I don't, I don't know, I
never hear of anything.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, me personally, I've never been checked while
I've been hunting, but a lot ofmy friends have been out there
and checked yeah like moosehunting in the chopper lands
right next to the river reallychecks their stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's pretty cool, pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
But yeah, I'm not gonna see any moose for a while.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Um, like I said, I know they're understaffed, you
know, in a lot of areas and allthat, but it's nice to see more
areas, putting the biologistsand stuff out there and keeping
an eye on things.
For sure.
Yeah, so that's good, so thepopulation's doing well, so
you've done a lot of hunting outthere.
You've been on.
How many bison hunts have youbeen on out?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
there, geez, I don't know if I could count how many
I've been on.
Okay been on it there.
Jeez, I don't know if I couldcount how many I've been on.
Okay, um, I've probably been onmaybe six or seven, like five
day, five dayers okay yeah, andthen countless day trips.
Yeah, because where I'm livingnow I can hop on a skidoo and
within an hour I'll be in bisoncountry.
(04:41):
Yeah, I couldn't tell you howmany day trips I've been on, but
so a lot and you've got a.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
You got a nice one this year this winter, yeah.
And then, uh, I think I'dmessaged you.
I'm like, oh nice, it lookslike a little podcast there when
you get home and you're likeand then you were like, wow,
that's a lot coming from youbecause you've been on, you know
, the moose hunts, caribou hunts, the bison hunts, all that.
And for this one to stick outthat much, I was like I'm really
(05:09):
excited to hear it.
Yeah.
So before we get into that, canyou tell us a little bit about
the bison herd up there inWhitehorse?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, so I've heard that there's upwards of 24 to
26,600 now in the herd, which isreally good.
Our season opens up September1st.
There's like a three kilometercorridor that they open up.
Okay.
And then they shut that.
How's that go?
(05:38):
September 1st they open up athree kilometer corridor and
then November 1st till March31st it's all open.
So, um, there's certain zones,but like the bison herds in one
big circular area, huge area,but uh, so that's all opened up.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
You can shoot cow, bull, calf if you want, they
both have horns right, the cowsand the bulls.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Pretty easy to tell them apart.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Bulls are so much bigger.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Just bigger head.
It's kind of like bears, is it?
Like the cows have like more ofa narrow face and stuff and the
bulls have wider.
Yeah, kind of like you knowboars and sows with the bear.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Exactly that sort of it.
Yeah, and the horns on a bullwill be much wider and like will
come up a lot higher, whereasthe cows will kind of V out a
little bit, but then we'll alsocurl very tight and uh, but yeah
, so much smaller.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I mean, if you're looking at a younger bull and a
and an older cow, sometimes itcan be a little harder to tell.
Yeah, in an older cow sometimesit can be a little harder to
tell.
But every year since I've beenthere, um, I think there's one
year where they were sayingplease don't shoot a cow If you,
if you can, but there wasn'tgoing to be any penalization if
you did.
But they were thinking numberswere a little low so they were
(06:58):
asking to shoot bulls.
Um, this year actually, comingup, they shortened the season a
week because they were figuredum.
Numbers are a little bit down,yeah, from what they'd like them
to be.
So now we've got till march24th, which is the day I
actually shot mine, so we'restill in the clear.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, for next year, yeah, so yeah, uh were the bison
.
They must have been introducedthere yes, in the 80s, I believe
.
Yeah, from alberta oh yeah,they've had them that long, you
know, uh, I think it's most ofthe herds in the world.
Uh, well, north america, mostof them were have some uh
(07:39):
bloodlines, whatever, fromalberta, I think, like all over,
like the canada and the us too.
They've got when other you know, when it's wiped out in certain
spots and all that.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Uh, a lot of them were from alberta I'm just
trying to think of that herd too.
Uh, it's near fort saskatchewanokay in alberta and that's like
the herd that has likereplenished north america's yeah
, north america's grasslands andwoods and everything.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, but it's from alberta.
It's pretty neat.
Um, it is, it's really neat, soI didn't know.
They had them there since the80s, so the herd's done.
Well, do you have any yearsthey've had a hunting season?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
uh, so I I'm pretty sure it was in the 80s and then
they gave them a couple years tokind of get going.
I want to say they dropped offlike 150 or 200 or something
like that, gave them a coupleyears, okay, and then they
opened it up up yeah and I don'tknow whether it was like an
open season on them or if theyhad numbers, but all I know is
from the locals.
(08:34):
People were telling me like thefirst few years it was like you
drove your skidoo up to them,you shot them, you brought them
home they weren't used to.
And now, man, it's just likethey're getting harder and
harder to hunt every year, likewe're learning every year.
You know about them and they'relearning about us every year
too.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's I think it's going to be like that here in
new brunswick with uh themintroducing the wild turkeys,
yeah because this is like Ithink this is the fourth year
and you hear people saying likeyou know, they're getting a
little smarter, they're gettinga little more, you know, leery
of people and stuff like that,and it kind of the same thing.
I'm guessing, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, crazy story a coworker of mine um, he was, uh,
he's huge bison hunter, likegets him and his family.
They get two or three everyyear, that's basically all they
eat all year round.
And uh, they were going out oneyear chasing a herd of like 50
and it was the last week ofhunting season.
(09:28):
They just kept pushing thisherd further and further into
the mountains, couldn't get ashot.
Uh, ended up getting one on thesecond last day had to go all
the way up the mountain, bringit back down to camp.
So then it was April 1st, sothe first day of non-hunting
season.
They're coming down themountain with their bison and
(09:50):
bison are walking right out inthe trail right in front of them
.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Knowing that they weren't huntable.
Like how do they know already?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, you know like it's.
Like you know, around here youalways see deer and stuff in the
fields that are posted.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, right, exactly.
Or coming into town the day ofhunting season, stuff like that,
like they just know.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That's what I've heard in Banff too.
I think it is where the elkhang around the tourists and
stuff, because they know thatthey're safe there and the
wolves aren't going to comethere.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And yeah, they just yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Out by my place there's an elk corridor,
corridor and you very rarely seethem outside of that corridor.
Oh yeah, yeah, they just theyfigured it out, they're smart,
they are smart.
Um, so the bison?
Uh, so they've been huntingthem for a little while the
population's doing well.
Do they have much for predators?
I mean, it's a grizzly beargonna take on one or no, the
bulls are gonna deal with themfrom what I know, there's only
been like one confirmed wolfkill on the bison herd in the.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yukon yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Like I could be wrong on that but like, that's what
I've heard.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But even the cats cause they stay in a herd, right
?
Yeah, so the wolves are goingto go after a calf and the
herd's going to, yeah, and ifit's anything like the herd I
witnessed with my own two eyesthis year like.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I was scared going in there.
So yeah, there, so yeah, so uh,so no predators really I don't
think so.
No, uh, I think environment isis, uh, their biggest downfall,
and you know hunting as well.
But uh, there was a few yearsago they had found like 15
carcasses that had fallen off acliff somehow, whether some of
(11:21):
it washed out, or something likethat but it was all over the
news and the Yukon was reallysad.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
They found like 15 old Indian style Kind of yeah,
they'd run them off the cliff,exactly, yeah, and then and then
collect the remains.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, but there was like a bit of a washout and
whether they got in an area thatthey couldn't get back up.
But, yeah, they had found like15, 15, which is quite a loss.
Yeah, you know especially innon-hunting season right.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, huh.
What a way to uh, to go.
You imagine just strollingalong and 15 bison are falling
from the sky.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Oh, that'd be.
Yeah, quite the sight.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah.
You'd want to run.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, for sure Um yeah.
So, uh, all right, caleb, uhyeah, try to get out uh for at
least one five to seven day huntfor bison every year with me
and the boys.
And, um, this year, me and mybuddy McGinnis he's like my
(12:15):
number one hunting partner.
Uh, we live uh like 12kilometers away from each other
and we're like right in themiddle of like bison territory.
Like I said, we can hop on thesled and within half an hour to
an hour we can be hunting bisonfrom our house, which is pretty
awesome.
Yeah.
And uh.
So we actually did that quite abit, starting, uh, I think our
(12:40):
first couple of day trips we didwere in January, just kind of
going out and, uh, checking outnew territory that we'd never
been.
And on some day trips we werefinding some somewhat fresh
tracks no fresh scat or anythinglike that, but some fresh
tracks.
And then we had just got tothink of the date.
(13:02):
I think it was end of Februaryor early March.
We had a five day hunt plannedwith another buddy of ours and
the night before I had to bailbecause we had a family
emergency on my wife's side.
So I had to shoot them amessage being like oh boys, this
is what's going on, I'm sorryto bail.
(13:24):
They ended up going out andthey were out there for five
days and we dealt with what wehad to deal with.
But then there was a littlewindow that I had where I was
able to go out for the day withthem, and good thing I did,
because McGinnis was having sledtroubles with his he's got a
Skidoo Tundra and I think it wasthe fuel pump in the end.
(13:46):
But they weren't sure what wasgoing on at the time and it was
running good for an hour andthen three hours it wasn't
running at all, and then itwould run good for an hour and
not you know.
So, long story short, I wentout, uh left my place at like
six in the morning.
Probably took me three and ahalf hours to find them, got to
their camp, hung out with them,had a coffee and whatnot.
(14:07):
And uh, it took you how long tofind them?
About three and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And I left, yeah, by skidoo Right from my house.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I left at five 30 in the morning and, uh, I had to
cross six or seven differentlakes on my own and I was like
oh this is territory I've onlybeen in once, yeah, and, like
McGinnis, he's really good withuh navigation, where that's not
my strong suit, like you know.
I'll go a few kilometers andthen I'm pulling out my Garmin
(14:37):
and looking where he just hejust kind of knows.
But like he's like.
But like he's like, oh, he's inreaching me.
He's like, oh, you've been outhere before.
I'm like, yeah, one time in theday it's dark and I'm alone now
.
Yeah, and there's no trail,there's trails, but like people
are going every which way rightLike chasing herds and whatnot,
and uh, you know when, when cansweep off the lake?
(14:58):
And your skidoo tracks are gone, just like that.
So, anyways, I I finally gothim.
I'm like, turn your fricking,uh, what was it?
Your location on your garment,and I can at least track you.
And that's what he did.
And then I was able to justkind of follow his bubble all
the way to camp.
Okay.
So, uh, anyways, they were outthere for five days and they
(15:19):
were seeing some fresh sign, butthey didn't actually see any
bison, and I seeing some freshsign, but they didn't actually
see any bison, and I don't thinkthey saw any fresh scat.
I can't remember, but anyways,what?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
what are they eating this time of year?
Uh, that's no the high grassand whatnot oh, there is, and
they and they paw, oh yeah, alot and dig with their, with
their faces and whatnot, getright down in there, and that's
how you find them is.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
You can glass the hills and you can kind of see
like, oh, bison have been upthere pawing around oh, okay,
yeah, you know okay hike upthere and hopefully find when
you find some steaming shit.
That's when you yeah if you'renot walking already.
That's when you get off thesnowmobiles and you go for a
walk.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, yeah okay, yeah , if you're seeing cold, if it's
steaming on them.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Anything you can smush with your hand.
Get off and walk.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Okay, go for a walk.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's what I've learned, yeah, so uh, on my way
in, I was probably twokilometers away from their camp
and I saw tracks and I'm likeman, those tracks are like 10
minutes old.
I got out and like I could feelthe pressure on there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I was like, and they didn't know.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
No, I messaged him.
I'm like boys.
I'm on bison right now.
I'm like I don't see them, butlike there's.
There's fresh tracks right nowand they're like oh yeah, I'm
sure.
I was of figured I was going tohave to pull McGinnis' sled out
(16:48):
, but he was fine the whole wayout.
I just took his skimmer and hiscamp load which was probably
that much easier on the skidoo.
Yeah, and anyway, so it was nicegetting out for the day.
So that was early March andthen, yeah, so that was our one
big trip planned for the year.
Um, went out on a few day tripsbefore that, nothing serious
(17:12):
Like we didn't, didn't even seea bison and.
Mcginnis had been out.
I don't know how many timeshe's been out for bison, but
he's been out at least three orfour times on on longer hunts
and he's never even seen a bisonduring hunting season.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, so like never seen one.
Yeah.
So, uh, one day we were at worktogether and we said, oh you
know, we kind of got like just acouple of days left to hunting
season, we should get out for agood day hunt.
So, uh, we planned on thisMarch 24th, we'd get up six,
eight, well, we'd be on thesleds for 6am and we found an
(17:47):
area that we had heard peoplehave been seeing like big herds
Like me personally, I've onlyseen four.
That was the biggest herd I'veever seen where I've had friends
have seen like 80 and 90 andlike oh yeah, I've only seen.
I've only seen like bachelorgroups of like four or just the
tail end of like a small herdand they're gone.
(18:08):
You know what I mean.
So I've been on four successfulbison hunts but I've never seen
a big herd.
Yeah.
And uh anyway, so yeah, me andMcGinnis, we get up and we go
leave from, leave from home, andwe're on the trail by 6 AM and
it's pitch black and we getgoing.
And uh, I told McGinnis I waslike man, I just like to, I just
(18:30):
like to see some like for you,I want to be with you when you
see your first bison man Causeit's, it's quite something.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I was like they're huge, but they're they're hard
to pick up.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
But once you pick up one you're like oh, like, I know
exactly what to look for now.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And yeah.
So we found an area that wewanted to go.
We heard people were seeinglike a herd of like 50 and 60
and whatnot.
It was good you know few hadbeen taken in that area.
So we're like, ah, we'll giveher a try.
He's been in there before butI'd never been.
And yeah, so we go in, weskidoo for about three hours I
(19:05):
forget the kilometer amount, butit was three hours and I was,
you know, going 35, 40kilometers an hour across a few
different lakes, and we were theonly ones in there that we
could tell, because there was notrucks at the pullout, no fresh
skidoo tracks.
We were on the trail prettyearly.
We didn't see any camps.
You know feeling pretty good,yeah, um, so we get to this one
(19:29):
spot and it was getting prettyclose to the idea of the area
that we wanted to be in, andthen the overflow started
getting pretty bad on the lakeokay yeah, so, uh, as I said,
mcginnis was sled trouble, so wewere just doubled up on mine.
And then we had the one skimmerwith just like we brought some
emergency gear, but we didn'thave that much stuff with us had
(19:52):
my gun, he had his gun, we hada day pack and an emergency what
do you call it?
Emergency sleeping bag?
Oh yeah, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So a skimmer.
Those wondering, I think I knowwhat it is.
Is it the like the wooden sledthing that you hook onto your
skidoo?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
It's like a toboggan.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Mine's like a big PVC plastic.
Oh okay, yeah, like toughplastic and mine.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I just got a new one.
It's I forget the dimensions,but it's quite long.
I can haul a lot of gear in it.
(20:42):
Okay, cause I used to just havelike a Canadian tire special and
I still have it, oh yeah.
And so McGinnis kind of got offand walked a little bit and
he's like, ah, it's, it'sgetting pretty bad, and we were
on this one lake but we wantedto get onto the end of the next
lake.
So we were quite a little waysof where we wanted to be yet and
, uh, so I was like, okay, well,I'm going to ditch the sled
(21:03):
here.
And he's like, okay, I'll go intowards the tree line on the
right, uh, to see if I can finda trail on the tree line that
can get us to the next lake.
Yeah, I was like, yeah, soundsgood, I'll, I'll go straight
ahead into these willows and seeif I can bash a trail through
there somehow on foot.
Yeah, so that's what I did.
He went right, I went straightand as I'm going, um, I have got
(21:24):
a good view of, like, themountains in front of me,
mountains in front of me, um,but the willows are kind of in
my way.
So I'm kind of working my waythrough and I get to the, the
bottom or the end of this lake.
I didn't walk too too far fromthe sled maybe 10, 15 minutes,
and I just happened to look upand I see like 40 bison on on
this hill with the naked eye.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I didn't even grab my binos, I didn't even take the
time, I literally just looked atthem and I was like bison and I
started sprinting back toMcGinnis and then as I'm
sprinting I'm like should I havegot the binos out?
And like looked, I was like no,those were bison, like I know
they were.
So I'm running back and foundMcGinnis' trail.
He was all the way down thislittle creek and I'm like man
(22:09):
man bison everywhere.
He's like really, I was likeyeah, I was like they're far,
but there's like I saw likethere were definitely bison and
I was like it's a huge herd andhe's like, okay, right on, so,
as we're walking back, to.
We were going to get our killkits.
We were going to get our daypack and our guns and our tags
and whatnot and we I was likeit's far, but we're going to
(22:31):
hike.
We're going to leave the sledbecause we don't want them to
hear us.
We're just going to go and he'slike, yeah, I'm in.
Like McGinnis is an animal,he'll go anywhere.
I was like, even if it's 15kilometers, we're walking.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Especially knowing that you saw bison.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
He's like, yeah, it going, they'll swim across the
lake, exactly.
So, uh, we get back, grab ourguns, grab our day packs, um,
our kill kits and everything,and I bring them to where, uh,
where I first saw them.
And this is where we actuallylike get our binos out in glass,
and not at the time, but after.
So I took a photo through the,through the binos, like you know
how you put your phone up tothe bino.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Oh, yeah, yeah, so I did that trick.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
After the hunt I counted 54.
Really yeah through that photo.
So it was a good-sized herd,good-sized herd, and there was
even more like tucked down intothe trees that you couldn't see.
So huge herd, biggest herd thatI've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And the first bison McGinnis has seen in hunting
season, so he was really he wasstoked.
Yeah, and when we're looking athim he's like man.
How have we not like been ableto pick these guys up before?
But they do look like justtrees.
If you don't know what you'relooking for.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
They're not, unless I've been around them in Alberta
, I mean, unless you knowthey're running or something.
They don't move fast, so like,if you're looking from a ways
away sometimes it hardly lookslike they're moving, cause
they're not, they're not realquick, they're just like you
know, like a cow Right, say,just kind of grazing.
But when they move, yeah, whenthey move, they can move,
they're fast.
When they want to move, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And when they don't want to be seen, they won't be
seen.
Yeah.
They're sneaky, sneaky guys,just as we're kind of taking the
time to glass and like, pick upa trail, because they're quite
high up on this ridge, and we'relike, okay, is it doable?
You know, do we have to cross acreek?
Is the creek open?
(24:18):
Do we take the sled a littlebit further?
We're kind of coming up with aplan and as we're doing this, we
hear sleds behind us coming andwe're like, no, and one of them
was a two-stroke and and one ofthem was a two stroke and and
the bison were here in that twostroke and we're already making
their way up the Ridge and we'relike five kilometers away from
them at this point and I'm like,oh, no, please.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You know, this is.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
This is just too good .
Please don't ruin it.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Uh, few minutes later we hear them turn around and
they they just go.
Oh yeah, the sleds Really.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
They're gone, so come to find out.
At the end of the day we raninto another hunting group and
they saw that group get stuck inthe overflow and buggered off.
Oh yeah, which is great Likewhere we were kind of like
getting sketched out on theoverflow.
Yeah.
They.
They found the same overflowand got scared and went away.
So we're like, oh, oh, okay, sothat was good for us, because I
(25:09):
was thinking like, oh, maybewe're gonna have to meet up with
these guys and kind of come upwith a plan, like either tell
them like hey, we found themfirst, like take a hike, or, if
you want, you can come with usand make a plan and you can hunt
with us just take a shot atthem from a ways way to scare
them.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
That's kind of what they're doing with their loud
sled.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
But here I am.
I'm a kind of a four strokejerk now.
Like I had, like I had a twostroke forever but I would never
go back.
Man, like we.
We were five kilometers awayfrom these things and they heard
the two stroke and they werealready like their tails weren't
up or anything, but they weremaking their way up over the
Ridge already.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Like they were going.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I hate to be that guy , but like if somebody asks like
, hey, can I come bison up, I'mlike what kind of sled do you
got?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, I well, no, it's fair enough, it's true
Cause if you want to see him.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You're probably like there's going to be other people
with two strokes and get bison.
Yes, gonna hear them, they'regonna hear them, yeah yeah yeah,
so you're just gonna have tocome up with a different way of
finding them.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, and I haven't figured that out yet so do you
guys use much, uh, four wheelerswith tracks on them?
Uh, there, or I've seen acouple guys- yeah, um, but never
hunting.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I've always seen them logging with them like oh, yeah
, yeah, hauling out logs out ofthe bush and whatnot.
Mainly a few side by sides, butyeahides, but yeah mainly the
slides Cause even like whereyou're going on these trails
like they're not marked trails.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Like you're bushwhacking, you're going into
deep snow, yeah.
And the tracks on quads andside-by-sides they don't do as
well.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And you're not going as exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, and you're not going as fast and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I've never.
I've never seen one hunting,but I have seen them you know up
on the trap line and whatnot.
I've seen that stuff.
But yeah, really cool idea.
I've seen them a lot on plowstoo, which is pretty neat.
So, uh, yeah, uh, we grab ourday packs and we start hiking in
and, just kind of what, wethought we ran into an open
(27:14):
Creek that we could not find away to pass over.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Um, but we did there was like with you and him on it.
Oh no, you guys were walking.
Yeah, that's right, cause I wasgoing to say hit it wide open.
But yeah, you guys walking Iknow you don't want to be all
just roll up your pants andexactly, it's still cold, right
um, yeah, this creek was likesix feet wide yeah, and pretty
deep.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I was like I ain't getting wet at the beginning of
the hunt.
I can tell you that at the endsure not at the beginning, right
now.
Yeah, so, uh, we did find a spotto cross.
It kind of frozen over a littlebit and uh.
So what we wanted to do was wekind of wanted to come up in
behind the ridge and kind ofsneak up behind them if we could
.
So, uh, we figured we werethree, four kilometers away from
(28:01):
them.
It turns out we were just underfour kilometers, so we hike in
four.
Um, it was 10 o'clock in themorning when we spotted them
through the binos, and then ittook us an hour and 45 minutes
to get there on foot which ispretty good.
Yeah, that is yeah.
So we get up there and we don'tsee anything.
(28:23):
We go right to where we hadglassed and there's tracks and
fresh shit everywhere and well,like I said, we knew they were
there.
Right it was just a matter ofwhere they were going now, yeah,
so, um, we followed theirtracks right in and, uh, I had
my 4570 and uh, lever ActionTrapper Edition.
(28:45):
Yeah, yeah Cool, and my buddyhad his 300 win mag and with a
scope on it, and, um, we werehiking in there for quite a
little while and weren't seeinganything, and it was thick brush
up there.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
They must leave that many bison, though in the snow
they must leave.
Oh, it's like a highway, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It was hard getting up to them.
But, then, once we got to wherethey were, it was like, oh,
this is awesome.
It was like waist high, you knowlike a trail waist high.
So it was super easy to go inafter that and, uh, we just
wanted to be as quiet as wecould.
So we got up there and we werequiet a little while and then
McGinnis actually spotted them.
First they were bedded down inthis like little gully off the
(29:28):
ridge and uh, so we got on ourhands and knees at that point
and kind of figured out what wewanted to do.
We were like 300 yards fromthem at that point put the binos
on them and we could just see afew of them.
Um, and then we started crawlingon our stomachs and, uh, we got
up to 82 yards.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
That's close 82 yards .
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, and I said to McGinnisnis, I was like, uh, do
you want to take the shot?
I said I don't care who does.
And uh, he looked through hisscope and his scope got all
messed up from being in the backof the skimmer oh, okay, so
lesson learned there.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Don't put your gun in the skimmer, I guess because
yeah, was it like fogged up andstuff not really fogged up?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
but his crosshairs were upside down and he couldn't
figure it out.
And he's like man like Iwouldn't even take a shot 15
feet away.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So you don't know where it'd be hitting.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
No and I was like do you want to use my 45 70s?
I was like open sight.
He's like I've never shot one.
He's like you have just.
Uh, by by that I mean a 45 70.
He's never shot before.
And he's like just you'recomfortable with it.
You do it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
And I was like, okay, so I opened sites at 82 yards
with that big of an animals,with with the 45, 70, I know
it's a big gun, but it's stillleave your action with the round
bullet.
That's kind of a fair shot,right.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, I, I'm comfortable with the 45, 70, no
further than 150 yards, that'sme.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I've heard of people putting a scope on them and
shoot like upwards of 250 thebullet that size and how many
grains it's going to drop.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Oh yeah, right, yeah, I was using 400 grain yeah, I
was using 400 grain and 350grain okay, yeah yeah, and I
switched every other yeah, yeah,um.
So yeah, we're at 82 yards andthey're all bedded down.
At this point, wind was in ourfavor the entire time.
That's another thing too, right, like they get any kind of
(31:18):
scent of human and they're gone.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
That's the thing, too about hunting herds, right Is
that?
You're not.
It's not one animal, it's thewhole group.
You know, whether it's elk orbison or what have you, it's
yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And from the moment we get up there we're looking
for soldiers too, because bisonare like a soldier group they'll
have like their main herd andthen they'll have like four or
five soldiers in the hills likeliterally roaming around keeping
a lookout, really oh yeah, wow,so we're looking for that.
That's pretty neat, yeah so wedidn't see any of that wind was
at our face the entire time.
So it it couldn't have beenmore perfect.
(31:52):
So we get up to them at like Ithink it was 1250.
And I know these times becauseI'm in reaching my wife and my,
my buddies, I'm like we're onbison, like you know, I'm
looking at 30 right now andthey're all like oh you know,
keep me updated and all this.
So, uh, yeah, it's like 1235,1250 at this point and, uh,
(32:13):
we're 82 yards away and I'msitting there and we, we sat on
them for quite a long while andMcInnes had to console me a few
times Cause I was like, allright, I'm just going to get up
and I'm going to, you know, I'mgoing to pick one.
And he's like, well, they'reall bedded down right now.
Like you don't want to hit oneand wound another, I was like no
, no, like I'll obviously waitand make sure I only get one.
And then he, but he had to talkme down like a few times
(32:37):
because, because I was like man,like you know, it's almost one
o'clock, uh, it's going to be ahell of a pack out.
And you know we both had to workthe next day.
We're in the middle of nowherewe're, you know, we're four
hours from home at this point.
Plus we got to clean this thing.
So I was like you know time'sticking, and so we're sitting
there for quite a while, and notthat I was impatient, I was
(32:58):
just being realistic.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I was like.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
McGinnis, we got to make a move here.
And he's like no, you're right,we do.
And I was like what?
Okay, crazy I was like, yeah, Iwas like I'm going to go up to
the right, you stay here, I'mgoing to go up to the right and
see if I can find one that's onits own, like you know, even 10
feet away from the group.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Because I mean, you guys weren't after a trophy
right, you're after some meat?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
No, I don't care what it is.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, you guys, you're after meat, yeah exactly.
Antlers horns size.
We're grocery shoppingRegardless.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Grocery shopping.
The two that I was staring atfrom 82 yards away and they were
looking right at me.
They could see me and theycould see me moving, but they
couldn't smell me, so theydidn't know what I was at.
They were big bulls and I waslike, ah, like I know you're a
bull, I'd like to shoot you, butI'd probably hit three and four
behind you too.
Like you know, I don't want todo that.
(33:55):
So, uh, tell McGinnis.
I was like I'm going to go upand I'm going to try and get
closer to the right and see if Ican pick one that it's on its
own.
So I get 50 yards away fromthem.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And I just looked back and again as I give them
the thumbs up.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I was like I found one, I'm going to pick one.
And sure enough, there therewas a cow and I kind of figured
she was a cow, but she didn'thave a calf with her, she didn't
look pregnant and she wasprobably 10, 15 feet away from
the rest of the herd, beddeddown by herself, and she was
asking for it.
Really I was like that's theone.
(34:29):
I'm sorry, sweetheart but, thisis it.
So, uh, I watched her for alittle bit and I really wanted
to make sure that she didn'thave a calf.
Yeah.
I would feel horrible about that.
Yeah, um, it's legal, but Iwould have.
I would have felt horrible andanyways, cause there was a lot
of calves in this herd and Ijust wanted to make sure that
she didn't have one, and uh, soI watched her for probably 10,
(34:52):
15 minutes and you know shewasn't watching any of the
calves.
None of the calves were lookingat her.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
So I was like, okay, she didn't seem too concerned.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So I was like, okay, sweetheart, you're coming home
with me tonight.
So, uh, I stand up, and therest of the herd took off and
she stood up and I just put one.
And she stood up and I just putone, and she staggered.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And then I just put another and she dropped like a
sack of potatoes oh yeah and Ijust looked back at mcginnis and
he saw the whole thing and, man, you wouldn't believe how fast
that herd took off and justdisappeared and how quiet they
were yeah, like, but you'relucky they didn't come at you,
because I know sometimes thebuff like well, like their
cousins that are buffalo butbison, it can be the fight or
(35:31):
flight.
Oh, yeah, like.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Sometimes they'll be like all right, that's it,
you're getting it the the yukonherds have killed quite a few
hunters really yeah, quite a fewwow there was one death for
sure since I've been there, itwas 2018, yeah one guy got
killed after shooting one.
He thought it was dead and itwasn't and it mauled him to
death.
Yeah, and then the year beforethat the a guy I knew from the
(35:56):
gym got mauled but he lived.
But it like ripped half of hisear off, ripped his, ripped
something else off his body andthen actually a co-worker.
An ex coworker of mine's brotherlost his pinky from one Cause.
His his horn got caught in hisring and ripped his pinky right
(36:18):
off.
Got mauled bad but he lived.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Wow, yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
And then one another guy I know, his wife got like
full on, charged and hit andlike flown like cartoon style,
Jeez yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, they're dangerous yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
But yeah they, they heard the two shots and they
were gone.
Yeah, Not, nobody stuck around.
And you know, towards the endof the season too, I figured
they hear something like that.
They know what's going on, sothey kind of get out of there.
Yeah, I think, and maybe towardsthe beginning of the season too
, where they're kind of thinkingof its mating season still too,
they might be a little moreprotective too.
(36:55):
That's just my personal thoughtyeah, that makes sense they
took off on this one, but me andMcGinnis we yeah.
So we dropped her.
It was a good, clean kill.
We waited 30 minutes before wewent up to her, just in case for
stories like that.
We waited 30 minutes and and wedid have to put another one in
her just to, just to be sure,and we did, um, yeah, so we, we
(37:18):
had a big moment.
We, you know, said thank you,cause it's a big sacrifice for
the animal.
You know, we don't take any ofthat for granted.
We're really appreciative, youknow.
And, uh, we took every ounce ofmeat off that.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah Well, like before we started, you showed me
the picture of the carcass andyou guys, you did.
There's nothing for the wolves.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Nothing left, you guys got everything.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah, so how long did it take you to and cut it up?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
yeah, so, like I said , we waited the 30 minutes and
then, um, uh, went up to her and, uh, that's kind of when the
realization took in.
We're like, oh man, we got alot of work ahead of us.
I've cleaned three bisons, sothis would have been the fourth,
and mcginnis has done countlessmoose, countless caribou, it's
(38:04):
all kind of the same thing right, you know yeah and uh.
We had her cleaned, skinned,quartered on the tarp in just
over two hours.
That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We were pretty happy with that and it was a beautiful
day.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
It was like plus I think it was like plus two or
plus three sunny day, beautifulspot.
Man, I'll show you a photo.
We're like on the top of thisridge and like huge mountains
and a lake behind us, like itwas just the most beautiful
butchering spot.
We were able to flip her overon her back and we had like a
little bit of a slant that itwas super easy to work with.
(38:39):
So all the guts just kind offell out naturally, it was real,
real good.
Uh, shout out to Morkiniv,morkiniv, morkiniv.
I don't know if I'm saying thatright.
It's a.
It's either Finnish or Swedishblade.
Okay, yeah, $17.
Yeah For this knife at a gasstation and both of us were
(39:01):
using it and we didn't have towe didn't have to sharpen our
knives one time.
I've had that knife for probablyeight years and I've used it on
a lot of animals and there youcan buy a higher end too, Like
you can buy like $200 one, butany gas station in Whitehorse
you can buy them for $17.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Really, and they are the best.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yeah, yeah, they're just a fixed blade with a little
rubber handle on them they're.
They usually come in yellow,green or orange or blue, like
something that really stands out.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
And they're in a.
They're in a plastic sheath.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, yeah, they are the best.
Yeah.
And they didn't lose their edgeonce Like we.
We both used one and like.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I got nothing but good to say about it.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So you don't need those high end knives?
No, we did use a bone saw aswell.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
But other than that, the Morkin of man, that's pretty
good, I think my brotherintroduced me to them actually.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Because I think he was using them up north and yeah
, they're $17.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
And it works that well.
Well, good, shout out.
But I also love my Groman fromNova Scotia.
Oh, of scotia.
Oh yeah, yeah, I do, I have oneof those from there as well,
but I didn't use the groman onthis one.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I used the morcative and it was just unreal, it was
great.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Well, like I said, the picture you showed me, you
guys, you got everything.
Yeah, you know you did quite ajob on that yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
So we had a couple different ideas of how we were
going to do it.
Obviously we, we quartered itand uh, but it was kind of my
stupid idea and I didn't thinkit was stupid at the time.
So, anyways, we quarter it, putit on the tarps and, like I
said, it was like plus two plusthree, so perfect.
We didn't have to worry about,you know, covering it.
It's the perfect temperature.
(40:37):
It's obviously going to staycool.
It's on top of a tarp in thesnow, like we're not worried
about it.
Then we're like, you know,we're high five and we're like,
woo, you know, did that twohours?
Woo, look at us.
And then we're like, oh, we'vegot to hike four kilometers back
to the sled.
And you know, maybe maybe one ofus should have gone to do that
(40:59):
while the other was butchering,I don't know.
But I also kind of don't likesplitting up in those kinds of
situations.
That's just me.
Do you have to worry aboutwolves?
I don't.
I don't think you have to worryabout them.
I mean, there's going to be a,a wolf on it that night, for
sure, but like I don't know,Like we had our guns close.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, for sure yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah for sure we were thinking actually.
So this was March 24th and andMcGinnis said to me a couple of
times he's like you know therecould be a couple of grizzlies
awake this time of year with howwacky our weather's been too, I
was like yeah, good point.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
And they do see people as game.
Oh yeah.
And like just shot this bisontoo right, the gut pile and
everything, so they wouldn'tthink anything of coming out and
going at you guys to get it.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, he planted a seed in my brain there I was
like, oh yeah, you're right, andlike, uh, a grizzly waking up
early at that would be crankyyeah.
So we kept the guns super closefor that, um, but yeah, we, we
got her all quartered up andthen we're like, oh man, we've
got a, we've got a fourkilometer hike back to the sled,
let's.
(42:02):
So we did, uh, it took us a lotlonger than we thought, for
some reason, I don't know why,but it did.
Um, so we get back.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
We, we carried a I see you guys, we're heading back
to the sleds and, um, you know,in the back of your mind, think
about the grizzlies and allthat and everything.
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
So we, we keep in the guns tight.
Um, yeah, so on our.
So, on our way back to uh thesled, we we said, uh, there's no
way we're going to get the sledup to the kill site, there's no
way.
The ridge was way too steep, uh, the woods that we walked
through way too thick Creek,yeah, creek.
Um, after, after dropping herand walking out, we did find a
(42:47):
spot where we could bypass thecreek, which was nice for the
pack out.
But if we had had a third guyon this hunt, we would have
dedicated them for being likeokay, you go get the sled and
you figure out how to get it uphere.
That would have been perfect.
So what we had to do is, whenwe were on our way back to the
sled, we each carried out uh,did we do a front or a hind
(43:10):
quarter?
I think we did the front first.
Four kilometers.
No, just as far out as we could,to where we figured we could
get the sled to.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, and itwas about a kilometer still
that's heavy, yeah, yeah.
And also we did the frontsfirst and I wish we did the rear
.
And also we did the frontsfirst and I wish we did the rear
.
Get it over with.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
mean.
So we did the fronts.
The rears weighed over ahundred pounds each.
The fronts were probably like75, 80.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Well, how do you?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
have a rough idea of how much meat you got off.
Yeah, we got 375 pounds.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Okay, yeah, so what do you figure?
She was live weight live weightpushing a thousand, I would say
oh yes, I was gonna guess 1200.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, yeah, like being at least being
conservative pushing a thousandyeah yeah, because moving her
over, like flipping her overonto her back and everything
like we were working, like shewas heavy and that skeleton that
I showed you at the end of it,like even that was very heavy,
yeah, and the guts, guts were soheavy but yeah like definitely.
(44:17):
You know, pushing a thousand,yeah, I would say probably a
little more.
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You find a difference in eating like the cows from
the bowls or not really, I find,in my experience, the cow more
tender.
Okay, yeah, that's what Ifigured, but I wasn't sure for
sure, but meat care is numberone.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I was super happy with uh
with this one.
Yeah, uh, I'll get to that, um,but yeah, so we carry a front
each out and it was not an easytrail going through through the
alders, yeah exactly Up down, updown and deep snow, yeah, um,
and heavy, and we're tired, yeah.
(44:55):
So anyways, yeah so we, uh, it'sabout a kilometer that we, we
ditch these quarters and then wehike out, get the sled, get a
little bit of water in us, alittle snack, and then we skidoo
back and uh ran into a coupleguys that actually saw us go in
after the herd.
So they they did the respectfulthing and didn't follow us in
(45:16):
there, which was nice but, uh,yeah, anyways, um, so uh get up
to the kill site and, long storyshort, it took us nine hours to
do all of the pack out.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Really nine hours so are you guys?
Are you in spot where it'sdaylight for 24?
Speaker 2 (45:39):
yes, but this time of year it was it was about pitch
black at 10 30 at night okay,yeah, so we dropped her at 1 30.
Yeah, yeah, so we had that likenine hours of daylight and you
guys needed every.
We took every minute like wedidn't use the headlamps one
time actually like we were justkind of getting ready to bring
(45:59):
it out and then we're like, oh,like I'm firing up the sled and
we're going anyways, yeah, soyeah, it took us nine hours from
the minute like we dropped herto get the sled bring it back.
Yeah, nine hours to get herinto the skimmer, that's how
long it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
I mean, that's the thing people like even you know
here and stuff during mooseseason, like there's moose can
shoot it, but you know that'sthe easy part.
Yeah, it's the afterwardsgetting it all out and such a
big animal, you know, like it's.
It's a lot of people sometimes.
They underestimate it severely.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
So I remember, a few minutes ago, I said I had this
stupid idea.
So my stupid idea was um, we,we quartered her all up, dealt
with the quarters and then youhave this huge torso right With
(46:46):
all of your steaks, all likethat big cape, which is all good
meat up in there too, and likeyour tenderloins, your backstrap
, your rib meat, all that stuffRight, and you're thinking, like
you know, with the quarters offand whatnot and the guts out.
You know that torso can't weighthat much, you know?
And, uh, me and my buddy andanother buddy, uh, he shot a
really big black bear in 2018.
(47:07):
I shot a little tiny one and heshot a big one, and what we did
was we gutted it and put a pullthrough the rear end, out
through the neck, and carried itout that way.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
What do you call it?
Indian style?
Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
And it was extremely heavy.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Like.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
I I don't want to throw a number out there, but it
was a big bear and I'll showyou photos and you can tell me
what you think but, um, and wewere able to do it.
Like it was hard but we did itand we carried it for two
kilometers that way.
So I was like, oh my goodnessyou know I've done this before
let's put a pole through thistorso and carry it that way.
(47:45):
And and right away he's like no, we're not going to be able to
do that.
I was like man, me and my buddy, cooper, we did that with a big
, big bear Like.
I was like there's no way thatthat full, intact bear, minus
the guts, weighs less than thisbison torso.
That's, you know, picked prettyclean.
And he's like, oh well, maybe,but he's like I don't think.
So I was like, oh well, I'll gofind a log that's big enough to
(48:09):
, you know, take this torso load.
And we kind of like before wedid that like we kind of picked
it up a little bit and we'relike oh yeah yeah, we can do it.
So we I find this log like athick log, probably like five,
six inch in diameter shove itthrough and go to pick her up
and it snaps right in half and Iwas like, oh okay, well, I've
(48:30):
got to get a bigger log, I guess.
So I find a bigger one, put itthrough, we go to lift this
thing up Like we didn't even getit an inch off the ground and
you got to think like now it'slike nine, 15 at night, the
sun's kind of going down.
We're like oh no, what are wegoing to do now?
Like cause this is now that,like this, torso is fully intact
, like if we're going to finishcleaning all of the rib meat and
(48:54):
the steaks and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
That's like another hour worth of butchering, at
least Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
So we're like, oh man , what are we going to do?
So then McGinnis was like, okay, let's tarp it.
Let's tarp it, wrap it inrepelling rope and see if we can
drag it out on a tarp.
And I was like, oh, that mightwork.
So we we flip it over on a tarpand like, see if we can slide
it with the tarp.
And again we're like, oh, yeah,yeah that's pretty.
(49:19):
Yeah, we got it.
So we spend, you know, 10, 15minutes wrapping it in a tarp,
wrapping this repelling rope allover it and build two harnesses
so it's around our shoulders.
Go to take a step.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
I basically fall backwards Like I'm not moving
this thing, the bones on thisstuff.
It's just so heavy, so heavy.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
So then we start to freak out a little bit, like we,
we turn around and we're likeheaving it like sailors and
we're like moving a hundredyards in like 10 minutes and
we're like, oh man, this is notgood.
We, we got to finish butcheringthis thing.
Yeah, so we get the game bagsout and we cleaned it up in
about 45 minutes, which waspretty good.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, that's really good.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
And, and I showed you the skeleton like there was
nothing left.
We left nothing behind, so youever see the movie 300?
.
Yes um, so you ever see themovie 300?
Yes, you know um how the queenspeaks to king leonidas, where
she says come back on yourshield or come back with your
shield or on it.
Yes, that's yeah, basically howmy wife speaks to me with bison
(50:21):
hide, like she wants the hide,so bad like she's basically like
yeah, like come back with it oron it what?
Speaker 1 (50:27):
did she do with it?
Well, the thing is I was goingto ask about that if you guys
kept the hide, because I didn'tget it out.
Oh, okay Again.
So she didn't do anything so.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I've never been able to get one out, except for one
time.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Just because they're so heavy, yeah, dropped when
it's, like you know, just areally hard area, yeah and uh.
So I'm trying absolutelyeverything I can do to get this
hideout.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
Uh, I tried stuffing it in my huge uh uh backpack.
Not fitting at all.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Uh, I tried like tarping it and dragging it out,
not happening, like I tried fora long time and then I was like
I can't get it out.
So she was pretty upset, butbut it didn't happen.
Hopefully next time.
Yeah.
So, anyways, yeah, we, we, uh,we finished cleaning it up and
we got back to the sled,basically right at like 10
(51:23):
o'clock at night, as the sun wasgoing down, and, uh, we did a
change of clothes cause we weresoaked sweat you know wet snow
and whatnot too.
And uh yeah, it was an insanepack out man Like uh McGinnis
carried this huge load in hisbackpack with like all of the
meat in the game bags and thenthe head on top of his backpack,
(51:45):
like anytime he had to sit down.
I had to help him sit down.
I had to help him up.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Push him up, yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Man, we, we were hurting for days after this one.
And yeah, like I said, the hindquarters were over a hundred
pounds.
Like it, it was a pack.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
It made the crawl in there and shot.
Look like such a cakewalk.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
And even that was hard but like, nowhere near as
as hard as the packout.
And, like I, I told a few of mybuddies the area and showed
them photos of like where wewent and they were like, yeah,
no, I wouldn't have done that.
No, not a chance.
But it makes the meat taketaste that much better yeah, it
makes a better story, right,yeah?
so, uh, yeah, we get back to thesled and then we had like three
hours back to the, back to thetruck.
(52:30):
So we're back to the truck atlike 2 AM, load it all up and
then we get to my place.
It was only like a 15 minutedrive in the truck and then uh
hang it all up in my shop.
Uh got to bed at like three, 30in the morning and then I had
to be up for five.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
You never called in sick, nope.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
And neither did McGinnis.
We both had to be up for fivebe at work for 6.30.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
I would have been tempted to use a sick day.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Yeah, we both really wanted to, but, oh man, that was
probably the crankiest I hadever been.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
And you work at a prison.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, and I was like cranky and I was you were not
putting up with the inmate shit.
That day I wasn't putting upwith like co-worker, which I
feel bad about.
But like over the radio, I wasbeing like.
I felt like people were givingme attitude over the radio and I
was like you know so cranky,you're irritable and
(53:27):
understandable for sure.
yeah, yeah, I'd be like, can yourepeat that with a little less
attitude, please, over the rain,and then I'd apologize after,
like I was just so tired, spent12 hours getting damn bison out
of the woods exactly yeah, um,but yeah, man, we hung the meat
in my shop for a week and keptthe shop at one to three degrees
(53:53):
.
It was perfect Like I've got awood stove in there and whatnot,
but the weather was justperfect and the shop like I,
didn't have to start a wood fireor anything but like just the
balance of the weather in theshop kept the perfect
temperature the entire week.
And.
I put two fans up there, justkind of yeah, that's the thing.
I keep the air, keep theairflow and and it barked over
(54:16):
perfect, and the meat was likepurple.
Like it was just it wasbeautiful, like even dropping it
off at the butcher the guy thatthat does it for us he was like
, wow, these look awesome andwe're super happy with it.
But yeah, we got 375 pounds ofmeat back.
Yeah, yeah so we split that 50,50 and she and uh, yeah, so uh,
(54:37):
the skull I got done today.
I don't know if I sent you aphoto of the skull.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
I'll have to show you a photo, but uh, she had a
really good curl horn on oneside, and then the other one was
broken right in half.
Oh yeah, and I was reading inthe regulations that cows will
lose one horn if they're overseven years old, so she was most
likely over seven years old,lose it yeah, it'll break off at
seven years old if they'reolder than seven, chances are
they'll just one of their hornswill break off, really Probably
from pawing or messing aroundLike they lose their integrity
(55:12):
and their bone structure.
I would think that is what thatwould mean.
Yeah, but yeah it's interesting, so we figured if she was an
old girl.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
She tastes divine man .
Yeah.
Like it's.
We've been eating bison prettymuch every day that's uh.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
So I mean, did you guys sayokay?
So for next year, this is whatwe're going to do.
We're going to bring differentgear to get the mode, or
anything like that.
Did you guys come up with thedifferent game plan for next
year?
Speaker 2 (55:41):
yeah, definitely, uh, having the one sled wasn't
ideal.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Right, you knew that going into it.
We knew that going in, yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
But it was doable.
We want to hunt somewhat of thesame area.
We kind of have an area pickedout but we have an idea for
hiking out the quarters.
If we do kind of hunt in thesame area that you can't get the
sleds close to the kill siteCrazy carpets Okay, putting the
quarter site crazy carpets, Okay.
(56:08):
Putting the quarter on a crazycarpet.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
And tying up the front around it.
Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
And then harnessing it to you.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
We figured that would work pretty good, and we've
heard of people doing that.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
Yeah, yeah.
What about, like I mean, yousee, like those big game sleds,
this somewhere's new brunt thatmakes him and stuff's kind of a
version of that.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
yeah, work too, depending something that you can
pack inside your skimmer,that's yeah, that's right.
Yeah, much room, yeah I do havelike a pole behind skimmer that
I use at home for carryingfirewood just from the woodshed
to the house, and maybe evensomething like that the crazy
caribou.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
It's good, they pack right yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
So we're thinking that A tough one, not like the
dollar store special, but yeah,yeah.
Yeah Something like that.
Speaker 1 (56:52):
That's a good idea, yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Because, carrying those quarters out, man like my
shoulders and my knees were justshot for days, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
What other gear were you guys thinking Like, oh,
we've got to bring this nextyear, do?
Speaker 2 (57:05):
you have a plan on getting the hide?
That was the biggest one, andthen, yeah, the hide maybe just
comes down to if we're everlucky enough to shoot one in a
better area.
Because you know some peopleshoot them right on the edge of
a lake and they can drive theirskidoo right up to it and pop
them in.
And I've been fortunate enoughto be on one of those hunts
where it's like, oh sweet,awesome spot, Throw it in the
(57:27):
sled and let's go.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
Yeah, but that was not the case.
Have you heard of the bisongoing through the lake, falling
through, breaking through?
Speaker 2 (57:33):
the ice.
Yeah, yes, one of my buddieswas on a fishing trip and they
were fishing on the Ajak Riverand they found like two or three
carcasses in the river Becauseyou think about if there's ice,
you know, and the bison aregoing across.
Speaker 1 (57:47):
but you get a herd of 50 or 60, that's a lot of
weight and you think it wouldbreak.
Speaker 2 (57:52):
Definitely yeah, so I'm assuming that's what
happened to these two or threecarcasses he had seen in the
river.
Yeah, they probably fellthrough.
Speaker 1 (57:59):
I was kind of curious about that.
Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (58:09):
That.
So you guys had a good, you hada good season yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, it was a.
It was a good hunting season,because we've had a lot of bad
hunting seasons, so it was niceto nice to have a good one.
The animals are.
They're definitely earned.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:15):
Yeah, definitely, but it was, it was a hunt I'll
never forget and I'm just sohappy that I had someone like
McGinnis't want someone like, ohit's screwed now.
Speaker 1 (58:23):
You want someone very optimistic, I guess you could
say on hunts like that,definitely In general, but
especially stuff like that,someone that doesn't get down
easy, because they make it somuch harder.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
Or panic, or panic, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:43):
No, that sounds like you guys definitely have a lot
of fun out there Hard work, butit's fun.
Oh yeah, that's a.
Sounds like you guys definitelyhave a lot of fun out there
Hard, hard work, but it's fun.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, oh yeah, we have a blast.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah, so, uh, that's good.
Well, Caleb, thanks for comingon.
I know you got more stories andyou will.
Uh, you'll be back on again.
Speaker 2 (58:55):
Absolutely Thanks for having me.
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken marr.
I love everything hunting theoutdoors and all things
associated with it, from storiesto howos.
You'll find it here.
Welcome to the podcast.
All right, thanks for joiningus on this week's podcast.
(00:33):
We've got a great one for you.
You know a lot of people thinkthat I've talked to that.
They need a big animal to be onthe podcast.
They need a big trophy animal.
They don't.
I just, I like, I love thestories, stories, and it's not
the size of the animal, it's thestory that goes with it.
Uh, now, obviously it'sinteresting to hear some stories
(00:53):
about some true monsters, but Imean, this week on the podcast,
we're talking to caleb graham.
Uh, he's in the yukon.
He's been on here before.
Uh, he's on over the wintertalking about a caribou hunt.
So if you want to listen tothat, if you haven't listened to
the podcast before, it's uh,it's back a few months he talks.
You know there's a picture ofhim with his caribou great chat
(01:14):
on that.
But this time, though, he'stalking about a bison hunt, and
they didn't get the biggest onethere, but they had a great
experience on this hunt.
He tells us all about it, fromfinding them, stalking up on
them, getting the shot, and thenyou know something that us
hunters, maybe we do.
Other people might not realizethe amount of work afterwards,
(01:36):
especially when you shoot ananimal of that caliber just the
sheer size of it getting allthat out, packing it all out and
making sure you get it out and,you know, being able to have
some great meat to feed yourfamily with in the winter.
So if you guys like thispodcast, it'd be great to share
it out, and if you can leave usa rating and or review on Apple
(01:57):
or Spotify, we're going to getright to it and have a chat with
Caleb.
Caleb Graham, thanks for comingout to the podcast.
You've been on before.
You're living up in whitehorse,but for those uh that haven't
listened to your, your sweetvoice before, uh, telling a
story last time was the caribouhunt why don't you tell us a bit
who you are?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
yeah, thanks for having me on.
Uh, caleb graham, born andraised and against ridge new
brunswick.
Uh, the last nine years I'vebeen in White Horse, yukon.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Right, yeah, it's been that long and the hunting
opportunities there areplentiful.
Amazing, your game populationsare all up Like you hear about
these different places like well, you know this herd's in
jeopardy or that, but in WhiteHorse it's all on the up and up,
is it?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, conservation's pretty good there.
They, yeah, conservation'spretty good there.
They're on things up there forsure.
There's not a lot of peoplethere, that's true.
Does that help?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You guys have a lot of outfitting, but still, it's
not that much people hunting.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, whenever you see species not doing so great,
they always shut down the zonesand whatnot or have lesser
permits out that year.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Do you find that they have a lot more boots on the
ground, like with biologists andstuff like that, monitoring
things and keeping track of it?
Because I find I know here inNew Brunswick you never hear
about it.
I know there's some places outWest that seem to do a really
good job, or in the States insome spots, but here you never
hear about them putting trackingcollars on or things like that.
Did they do that up there?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I've run into a lot of different species with
collars on.
I haven't run into manyconservation officers while I've
been hunting, but always seethem on the highways, see their
choppers a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, yeah, that's good.
Yeah, stuff like that, yeah, no, it's nice to hear that they're
monitoring that.
Yeah, you know it's a naturalresource that should be looked
after and said here I don't know, I never source that you know
should be looked after and saidhere, I don't, I don't know, I
never hear of anything.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, me personally, I've never been checked while
I've been hunting, but a lot ofmy friends have been out there
and checked yeah like moosehunting in the chopper lands
right next to the river reallychecks their stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's pretty cool, pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
But yeah, I'm not gonna see any moose for a while.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Um, like I said, I know they're understaffed, you
know, in a lot of areas and allthat, but it's nice to see more
areas, putting the biologistsand stuff out there and keeping
an eye on things.
For sure.
Yeah, so that's good, so thepopulation's doing well, so
you've done a lot of hunting outthere.
You've been on.
How many bison hunts have youbeen on out?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
there, geez, I don't know if I could count how many
I've been on.
Okay been on it there.
Jeez, I don't know if I couldcount how many I've been on.
Okay, um, I've probably been onmaybe six or seven, like five
day, five dayers okay yeah, andthen countless day trips.
Yeah, because where I'm livingnow I can hop on a skidoo and
within an hour I'll be in bisoncountry.
(04:41):
Yeah, I couldn't tell you howmany day trips I've been on, but
so a lot and you've got a.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
You got a nice one this year this winter, yeah.
And then, uh, I think I'dmessaged you.
I'm like, oh nice, it lookslike a little podcast there when
you get home and you're likeand then you were like, wow,
that's a lot coming from youbecause you've been on, you know
, the moose hunts, caribou hunts, the bison hunts, all that.
And for this one to stick outthat much, I was like I'm really
(05:09):
excited to hear it.
Yeah.
So before we get into that, canyou tell us a little bit about
the bison herd up there inWhitehorse?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, so I've heard that there's upwards of 24 to
26,600 now in the herd, which isreally good.
Our season opens up September1st.
There's like a three kilometercorridor that they open up.
Okay.
And then they shut that.
How's that go?
(05:38):
September 1st they open up athree kilometer corridor and
then November 1st till March31st it's all open.
So, um, there's certain zones,but like the bison herds in one
big circular area, huge area,but uh, so that's all opened up.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
You can shoot cow, bull, calf if you want, they
both have horns right, the cowsand the bulls.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Pretty easy to tell them apart.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Bulls are so much bigger.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Just bigger head.
It's kind of like bears, is it?
Like the cows have like more ofa narrow face and stuff and the
bulls have wider.
Yeah, kind of like you knowboars and sows with the bear.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Exactly that sort of it.
Yeah, and the horns on a bullwill be much wider and like will
come up a lot higher, whereasthe cows will kind of V out a
little bit, but then we'll alsocurl very tight and uh, but yeah
, so much smaller.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I mean, if you're looking at a younger bull and a
and an older cow, sometimes itcan be a little harder to tell.
Yeah, in an older cow sometimesit can be a little harder to
tell.
But every year since I've beenthere, um, I think there's one
year where they were sayingplease don't shoot a cow If you,
if you can, but there wasn'tgoing to be any penalization if
you did.
But they were thinking numberswere a little low so they were
(06:58):
asking to shoot bulls.
Um, this year actually, comingup, they shortened the season a
week because they were figuredum.
Numbers are a little bit down,yeah, from what they'd like them
to be.
So now we've got till march24th, which is the day I
actually shot mine, so we'restill in the clear.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, for next year, yeah, so yeah, uh were the bison
.
They must have been introducedthere yes, in the 80s, I believe
.
Yeah, from alberta oh yeah,they've had them that long, you
know, uh, I think it's most ofthe herds in the world.
Uh, well, north america, mostof them were have some uh
(07:39):
bloodlines, whatever, fromalberta, I think, like all over,
like the canada and the us too.
They've got when other you know, when it's wiped out in certain
spots and all that.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Uh, a lot of them were from alberta I'm just
trying to think of that herd too.
Uh, it's near fort saskatchewanokay in alberta and that's like
the herd that has likereplenished north america's yeah
, north america's grasslands andwoods and everything.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, but it's from alberta.
It's pretty neat.
Um, it is, it's really neat, soI didn't know.
They had them there since the80s, so the herd's done.
Well, do you have any yearsthey've had a hunting season?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
uh, so I I'm pretty sure it was in the 80s and then
they gave them a couple years tokind of get going.
I want to say they dropped offlike 150 or 200 or something
like that, gave them a coupleyears, okay, and then they
opened it up up yeah and I don'tknow whether it was like an
open season on them or if theyhad numbers, but all I know is
from the locals.
(08:34):
People were telling me like thefirst few years it was like you
drove your skidoo up to them,you shot them, you brought them
home they weren't used to.
And now, man, it's just likethey're getting harder and
harder to hunt every year, likewe're learning every year.
You know about them and they'relearning about us every year
too.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's I think it's going to be like that here in
new brunswick with uh themintroducing the wild turkeys,
yeah because this is like Ithink this is the fourth year
and you hear people saying likeyou know, they're getting a
little smarter, they're gettinga little more, you know, leery
of people and stuff like that,and it kind of the same thing.
I'm guessing, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, crazy story a coworker of mine um, he was, uh,
he's huge bison hunter, likegets him and his family.
They get two or three everyyear, that's basically all they
eat all year round.
And uh, they were going out oneyear chasing a herd of like 50
and it was the last week ofhunting season.
(09:28):
They just kept pushing thisherd further and further into
the mountains, couldn't get ashot.
Uh, ended up getting one on thesecond last day had to go all
the way up the mountain, bringit back down to camp.
So then it was April 1st, sothe first day of non-hunting
season.
They're coming down themountain with their bison and
(09:50):
bison are walking right out inthe trail right in front of them
.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Knowing that they weren't huntable.
Like how do they know already?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, you know like it's.
Like you know, around here youalways see deer and stuff in the
fields that are posted.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, right, exactly.
Or coming into town the day ofhunting season, stuff like that,
like they just know.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That's what I've heard in Banff too.
I think it is where the elkhang around the tourists and
stuff, because they know thatthey're safe there and the
wolves aren't going to comethere.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And yeah, they just yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Out by my place there's an elk corridor,
corridor and you very rarely seethem outside of that corridor.
Oh yeah, yeah, they just theyfigured it out, they're smart,
they are smart.
Um, so the bison?
Uh, so they've been huntingthem for a little while the
population's doing well.
Do they have much for predators?
I mean, it's a grizzly beargonna take on one or no, the
bulls are gonna deal with themfrom what I know, there's only
been like one confirmed wolfkill on the bison herd in the.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yukon yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Like I could be wrong on that but like, that's what
I've heard.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But even the cats cause they stay in a herd, right
?
Yeah, so the wolves are goingto go after a calf and the
herd's going to, yeah, and ifit's anything like the herd I
witnessed with my own two eyesthis year like.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I was scared going in there.
So yeah, there, so yeah, so uh,so no predators really I don't
think so.
No, uh, I think environment isis, uh, their biggest downfall,
and you know hunting as well.
But uh, there was a few yearsago they had found like 15
carcasses that had fallen off acliff somehow, whether some of
(11:21):
it washed out, or something likethat but it was all over the
news and the Yukon was reallysad.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
They found like 15 old Indian style Kind of yeah,
they'd run them off the cliff,exactly, yeah, and then and then
collect the remains.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, but there was like a bit of a washout and
whether they got in an area thatthey couldn't get back up.
But, yeah, they had found like15, 15, which is quite a loss.
Yeah, you know especially innon-hunting season right.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, huh.
What a way to uh, to go.
You imagine just strollingalong and 15 bison are falling
from the sky.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Oh, that'd be.
Yeah, quite the sight.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah.
You'd want to run.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, for sure Um yeah.
So, uh, all right, caleb, uhyeah, try to get out uh for at
least one five to seven day huntfor bison every year with me
and the boys.
And, um, this year, me and mybuddy McGinnis he's like my
(12:15):
number one hunting partner.
Uh, we live uh like 12kilometers away from each other
and we're like right in themiddle of like bison territory.
Like I said, we can hop on thesled and within half an hour to
an hour we can be hunting bisonfrom our house, which is pretty
awesome.
Yeah.
And uh.
So we actually did that quite abit, starting, uh, I think our
(12:40):
first couple of day trips we didwere in January, just kind of
going out and, uh, checking outnew territory that we'd never
been.
And on some day trips we werefinding some somewhat fresh
tracks no fresh scat or anythinglike that, but some fresh
tracks.
And then we had just got tothink of the date.
(13:02):
I think it was end of Februaryor early March.
We had a five day hunt plannedwith another buddy of ours and
the night before I had to bailbecause we had a family
emergency on my wife's side.
So I had to shoot them amessage being like oh boys, this
is what's going on, I'm sorryto bail.
(13:24):
They ended up going out andthey were out there for five
days and we dealt with what wehad to deal with.
But then there was a littlewindow that I had where I was
able to go out for the day withthem, and good thing I did,
because McGinnis was having sledtroubles with his he's got a
Skidoo Tundra and I think it wasthe fuel pump in the end.
(13:46):
But they weren't sure what wasgoing on at the time and it was
running good for an hour andthen three hours it wasn't
running at all, and then itwould run good for an hour and
not you know.
So, long story short, I wentout, uh left my place at like
six in the morning.
Probably took me three and ahalf hours to find them, got to
their camp, hung out with them,had a coffee and whatnot.
(14:07):
And uh, it took you how long tofind them?
About three and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And I left, yeah, by skidoo Right from my house.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I left at five 30 in the morning and, uh, I had to
cross six or seven differentlakes on my own and I was like
oh this is territory I've onlybeen in once, yeah, and, like
McGinnis, he's really good withuh navigation, where that's not
my strong suit, like you know.
I'll go a few kilometers andthen I'm pulling out my Garmin
(14:37):
and looking where he just hejust kind of knows.
But like he's like.
But like he's like, oh, he's inreaching me.
He's like, oh, you've been outhere before.
I'm like, yeah, one time in theday it's dark and I'm alone now
.
Yeah, and there's no trail,there's trails, but like people
are going every which way rightLike chasing herds and whatnot,
and uh, you know when, when cansweep off the lake?
(14:58):
And your skidoo tracks are gone, just like that.
So, anyways, I I finally gothim.
I'm like, turn your fricking,uh, what was it?
Your location on your garment,and I can at least track you.
And that's what he did.
And then I was able to justkind of follow his bubble all
the way to camp.
Okay.
So, uh, anyways, they were outthere for five days and they
(15:19):
were seeing some fresh sign, butthey didn't actually see any
bison, and I seeing some freshsign, but they didn't actually
see any bison, and I don't thinkthey saw any fresh scat.
I can't remember, but anyways,what?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
what are they eating this time of year?
Uh, that's no the high grassand whatnot oh, there is, and
they and they paw, oh yeah, alot and dig with their, with
their faces and whatnot, getright down in there, and that's
how you find them is.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
You can glass the hills and you can kind of see
like, oh, bison have been upthere pawing around oh, okay,
yeah, you know okay hike upthere and hopefully find when
you find some steaming shit.
That's when you yeah if you'renot walking already.
That's when you get off thesnowmobiles and you go for a
walk.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, yeah okay, yeah , if you're seeing cold, if it's
steaming on them.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Anything you can smush with your hand.
Get off and walk.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Okay, go for a walk.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's what I've learned, yeah, so uh, on my way
in, I was probably twokilometers away from their camp
and I saw tracks and I'm likeman, those tracks are like 10
minutes old.
I got out and like I could feelthe pressure on there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I was like, and they didn't know.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
No, I messaged him.
I'm like boys.
I'm on bison right now.
I'm like I don't see them, butlike there's.
There's fresh tracks right nowand they're like oh yeah, I'm
sure.
I was of figured I was going tohave to pull McGinnis' sled out
(16:48):
, but he was fine the whole wayout.
I just took his skimmer and hiscamp load which was probably
that much easier on the skidoo.
Yeah, and anyway, so it was nicegetting out for the day.
So that was early March andthen, yeah, so that was our one
big trip planned for the year.
Um, went out on a few day tripsbefore that, nothing serious
(17:12):
Like we didn't, didn't even seea bison and.
Mcginnis had been out.
I don't know how many timeshe's been out for bison, but
he's been out at least three orfour times on on longer hunts
and he's never even seen a bisonduring hunting season.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, so like never seen one.
Yeah.
So, uh, one day we were at worktogether and we said, oh you
know, we kind of got like just acouple of days left to hunting
season, we should get out for agood day hunt.
So, uh, we planned on thisMarch 24th, we'd get up six,
eight, well, we'd be on thesleds for 6am and we found an
(17:47):
area that we had heard peoplehave been seeing like big herds
Like me personally, I've onlyseen four.
That was the biggest herd I'veever seen where I've had friends
have seen like 80 and 90 andlike oh yeah, I've only seen.
I've only seen like bachelorgroups of like four or just the
tail end of like a small herdand they're gone.
(18:08):
You know what I mean.
So I've been on four successfulbison hunts but I've never seen
a big herd.
Yeah.
And uh anyway, so yeah, me andMcGinnis, we get up and we go
leave from, leave from home, andwe're on the trail by 6 AM and
it's pitch black and we getgoing.
And uh, I told McGinnis I waslike man, I just like to, I just
(18:30):
like to see some like for you,I want to be with you when you
see your first bison man Causeit's, it's quite something.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I was like they're huge, but they're they're hard
to pick up.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
But once you pick up one you're like oh, like, I know
exactly what to look for now.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And yeah.
So we found an area that wewanted to go.
We heard people were seeinglike a herd of like 50 and 60
and whatnot.
It was good you know few hadbeen taken in that area.
So we're like, ah, we'll giveher a try.
He's been in there before butI'd never been.
And yeah, so we go in, weskidoo for about three hours I
(19:05):
forget the kilometer amount, butit was three hours and I was,
you know, going 35, 40kilometers an hour across a few
different lakes, and we were theonly ones in there that we
could tell, because there was notrucks at the pullout, no fresh
skidoo tracks.
We were on the trail prettyearly.
We didn't see any camps.
You know feeling pretty good,yeah, um, so we get to this one
(19:29):
spot and it was getting prettyclose to the idea of the area
that we wanted to be in, andthen the overflow started
getting pretty bad on the lakeokay yeah, so, uh, as I said,
mcginnis was sled trouble, so wewere just doubled up on mine.
And then we had the one skimmerwith just like we brought some
emergency gear, but we didn'thave that much stuff with us had
(19:52):
my gun, he had his gun, we hada day pack and an emergency what
do you call it?
Emergency sleeping bag?
Oh yeah, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So a skimmer.
Those wondering, I think I knowwhat it is.
Is it the like the wooden sledthing that you hook onto your
skidoo?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
It's like a toboggan.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Mine's like a big PVC plastic.
Oh okay, yeah, like toughplastic and mine.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I just got a new one.
It's I forget the dimensions,but it's quite long.
I can haul a lot of gear in it.
(20:42):
Okay, cause I used to just havelike a Canadian tire special and
I still have it, oh yeah.
And so McGinnis kind of got offand walked a little bit and
he's like, ah, it's, it'sgetting pretty bad, and we were
on this one lake but we wantedto get onto the end of the next
lake.
So we were quite a little waysof where we wanted to be yet and
, uh, so I was like, okay, well,I'm going to ditch the sled
(21:03):
here.
And he's like, okay, I'll go intowards the tree line on the
right, uh, to see if I can finda trail on the tree line that
can get us to the next lake.
Yeah, I was like, yeah, soundsgood, I'll, I'll go straight
ahead into these willows and seeif I can bash a trail through
there somehow on foot.
Yeah, so that's what I did.
He went right, I went straightand as I'm going, um, I have got
(21:24):
a good view of, like, themountains in front of me,
mountains in front of me, um,but the willows are kind of in
my way.
So I'm kind of working my waythrough and I get to the, the
bottom or the end of this lake.
I didn't walk too too far fromthe sled maybe 10, 15 minutes,
and I just happened to look upand I see like 40 bison on on
this hill with the naked eye.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I didn't even grab my binos, I didn't even take the
time, I literally just looked atthem and I was like bison and I
started sprinting back toMcGinnis and then as I'm
sprinting I'm like should I havegot the binos out?
And like looked, I was like no,those were bison, like I know
they were.
So I'm running back and foundMcGinnis' trail.
He was all the way down thislittle creek and I'm like man
(22:09):
man bison everywhere.
He's like really, I was likeyeah, I was like they're far,
but there's like I saw likethere were definitely bison and
I was like it's a huge herd andhe's like, okay, right on, so,
as we're walking back, to.
We were going to get our killkits.
We were going to get our daypack and our guns and our tags
and whatnot and we I was likeit's far, but we're going to
(22:31):
hike.
We're going to leave the sledbecause we don't want them to
hear us.
We're just going to go and he'slike, yeah, I'm in.
Like McGinnis is an animal,he'll go anywhere.
I was like, even if it's 15kilometers, we're walking.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Especially knowing that you saw bison.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
He's like, yeah, it going, they'll swim across the
lake, exactly.
So, uh, we get back, grab ourguns, grab our day packs, um,
our kill kits and everything,and I bring them to where, uh,
where I first saw them.
And this is where we actuallylike get our binos out in glass,
and not at the time, but after.
So I took a photo through the,through the binos, like you know
how you put your phone up tothe bino.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Oh, yeah, yeah, so I did that trick.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
After the hunt I counted 54.
Really yeah through that photo.
So it was a good-sized herd,good-sized herd, and there was
even more like tucked down intothe trees that you couldn't see.
So huge herd, biggest herd thatI've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And the first bison McGinnis has seen in hunting
season, so he was really he wasstoked.
Yeah, and when we're looking athim he's like man.
How have we not like been ableto pick these guys up before?
But they do look like justtrees.
If you don't know what you'relooking for.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
They're not, unless I've been around them in Alberta
, I mean, unless you knowthey're running or something.
They don't move fast, so like,if you're looking from a ways
away sometimes it hardly lookslike they're moving, cause
they're not, they're not realquick, they're just like you
know, like a cow Right, say,just kind of grazing.
But when they move, yeah, whenthey move, they can move,
they're fast.
When they want to move, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And when they don't want to be seen, they won't be
seen.
Yeah.
They're sneaky, sneaky guys,just as we're kind of taking the
time to glass and like, pick upa trail, because they're quite
high up on this ridge, and we'relike, okay, is it doable?
You know, do we have to cross acreek?
Is the creek open?
(24:18):
Do we take the sled a littlebit further?
We're kind of coming up with aplan and as we're doing this, we
hear sleds behind us coming andwe're like, no, and one of them
was a two-stroke and and one ofthem was a two stroke and and
the bison were here in that twostroke and we're already making
their way up the Ridge and we'relike five kilometers away from
them at this point and I'm like,oh, no, please.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
You know, this is.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
This is just too good .
Please don't ruin it.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Uh, few minutes later we hear them turn around and
they they just go.
Oh yeah, the sleds Really.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
They're gone, so come to find out.
At the end of the day we raninto another hunting group and
they saw that group get stuck inthe overflow and buggered off.
Oh yeah, which is great Likewhere we were kind of like
getting sketched out on theoverflow.
Yeah.
They.
They found the same overflowand got scared and went away.
So we're like, oh, oh, okay, sothat was good for us, because I
(25:09):
was thinking like, oh, maybewe're gonna have to meet up with
these guys and kind of come upwith a plan, like either tell
them like hey, we found themfirst, like take a hike, or, if
you want, you can come with usand make a plan and you can hunt
with us just take a shot atthem from a ways way to scare
them.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
That's kind of what they're doing with their loud
sled.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
But here I am.
I'm a kind of a four strokejerk now.
Like I had, like I had a twostroke forever but I would never
go back.
Man, like we.
We were five kilometers awayfrom these things and they heard
the two stroke and they werealready like their tails weren't
up or anything, but they weremaking their way up over the
Ridge already.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Like they were going.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I hate to be that guy , but like if somebody asks like
, hey, can I come bison up, I'mlike what kind of sled do you
got?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, I well, no, it's fair enough, it's true
Cause if you want to see him.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You're probably like there's going to be other people
with two strokes and get bison.
Yes, gonna hear them, they'regonna hear them, yeah yeah yeah,
so you're just gonna have tocome up with a different way of
finding them.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, and I haven't figured that out yet so do you
guys use much, uh, four wheelerswith tracks on them?
Uh, there, or I've seen acouple guys- yeah, um, but never
hunting.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I've always seen them logging with them like oh, yeah
, yeah, hauling out logs out ofthe bush and whatnot.
Mainly a few side by sides, butyeahides, but yeah mainly the
slides Cause even like whereyou're going on these trails
like they're not marked trails.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Like you're bushwhacking, you're going into
deep snow, yeah.
And the tracks on quads andside-by-sides they don't do as
well.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And you're not going as exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, and you're not going as fast and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I've never.
I've never seen one hunting,but I have seen them you know up
on the trap line and whatnot.
I've seen that stuff.
But yeah, really cool idea.
I've seen them a lot on plowstoo, which is pretty neat.
So, uh, yeah, uh, we grab ourday packs and we start hiking in
and, just kind of what, wethought we ran into an open
(27:14):
Creek that we could not find away to pass over.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Um, but we did there was like with you and him on it.
Oh no, you guys were walking.
Yeah, that's right, cause I wasgoing to say hit it wide open.
But yeah, you guys walking Iknow you don't want to be all
just roll up your pants andexactly, it's still cold, right
um, yeah, this creek was likesix feet wide yeah, and pretty
deep.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I was like I ain't getting wet at the beginning of
the hunt.
I can tell you that at the endsure not at the beginning, right
now.
Yeah, so, uh, we did find a spotto cross.
It kind of frozen over a littlebit and uh.
So what we wanted to do was wekind of wanted to come up in
behind the ridge and kind ofsneak up behind them if we could
.
So, uh, we figured we werethree, four kilometers away from
(28:01):
them.
It turns out we were just underfour kilometers, so we hike in
four.
Um, it was 10 o'clock in themorning when we spotted them
through the binos, and then ittook us an hour and 45 minutes
to get there on foot which ispretty good.
Yeah, that is yeah.
So we get up there and we don'tsee anything.
(28:23):
We go right to where we hadglassed and there's tracks and
fresh shit everywhere and well,like I said, we knew they were
there.
Right it was just a matter ofwhere they were going now, yeah,
so, um, we followed theirtracks right in and, uh, I had
my 4570 and uh, lever ActionTrapper Edition.
(28:45):
Yeah, yeah Cool, and my buddyhad his 300 win mag and with a
scope on it, and, um, we werehiking in there for quite a
little while and weren't seeinganything, and it was thick brush
up there.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
They must leave that many bison, though in the snow
they must leave.
Oh, it's like a highway, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It was hard getting up to them.
But, then, once we got to wherethey were, it was like, oh,
this is awesome.
It was like waist high, you knowlike a trail waist high.
So it was super easy to go inafter that and, uh, we just
wanted to be as quiet as wecould.
So we got up there and we werequiet a little while and then
McGinnis actually spotted them.
First they were bedded down inthis like little gully off the
(29:28):
ridge and uh, so we got on ourhands and knees at that point
and kind of figured out what wewanted to do.
We were like 300 yards fromthem at that point put the binos
on them and we could just see afew of them.
Um, and then we started crawlingon our stomachs and, uh, we got
up to 82 yards.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
That's close 82 yards .
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, and I said to McGinnisnis, I was like, uh, do
you want to take the shot?
I said I don't care who does.
And uh, he looked through hisscope and his scope got all
messed up from being in the backof the skimmer oh, okay, so
lesson learned there.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Don't put your gun in the skimmer, I guess because
yeah, was it like fogged up andstuff not really fogged up?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
but his crosshairs were upside down and he couldn't
figure it out.
And he's like man like Iwouldn't even take a shot 15
feet away.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So you don't know where it'd be hitting.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
No and I was like do you want to use my 45 70s?
I was like open sight.
He's like I've never shot one.
He's like you have just.
Uh, by by that I mean a 45 70.
He's never shot before.
And he's like just you'recomfortable with it.
You do it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
And I was like, okay, so I opened sites at 82 yards
with that big of an animals,with with the 45, 70, I know
it's a big gun, but it's stillleave your action with the round
bullet.
That's kind of a fair shot,right.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, I, I'm comfortable with the 45, 70, no
further than 150 yards, that'sme.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I've heard of people putting a scope on them and
shoot like upwards of 250 thebullet that size and how many
grains it's going to drop.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Oh yeah, right, yeah, I was using 400 grain yeah, I
was using 400 grain and 350grain okay, yeah yeah, and I
switched every other yeah, yeah,um.
So yeah, we're at 82 yards andthey're all bedded down.
At this point, wind was in ourfavor the entire time.
That's another thing too, right, like they get any kind of
(31:18):
scent of human and they're gone.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
That's the thing, too about hunting herds, right Is
that?
You're not.
It's not one animal, it's thewhole group.
You know, whether it's elk orbison or what have you, it's
yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And from the moment we get up there we're looking
for soldiers too, because bisonare like a soldier group they'll
have like their main herd andthen they'll have like four or
five soldiers in the hills likeliterally roaming around keeping
a lookout, really oh yeah, wow,so we're looking for that.
That's pretty neat, yeah so wedidn't see any of that wind was
at our face the entire time.
So it it couldn't have beenmore perfect.
(31:52):
So we get up to them at like Ithink it was 1250.
And I know these times becauseI'm in reaching my wife and my,
my buddies, I'm like we're onbison, like you know, I'm
looking at 30 right now andthey're all like oh you know,
keep me updated and all this.
So, uh, yeah, it's like 1235,1250 at this point and, uh,
(32:13):
we're 82 yards away and I'msitting there and we, we sat on
them for quite a long while andMcInnes had to console me a few
times Cause I was like, allright, I'm just going to get up
and I'm going to, you know, I'mgoing to pick one.
And he's like, well, they'reall bedded down right now.
Like you don't want to hit oneand wound another, I was like no
, no, like I'll obviously waitand make sure I only get one.
And then he, but he had to talkme down like a few times
(32:37):
because, because I was like man,like you know, it's almost one
o'clock, uh, it's going to be ahell of a pack out.
And you know we both had to workthe next day.
We're in the middle of nowherewe're, you know, we're four
hours from home at this point.
Plus we got to clean this thing.
So I was like you know time'sticking, and so we're sitting
there for quite a while, and notthat I was impatient, I was
(32:58):
just being realistic.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I was like.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
McGinnis, we got to make a move here.
And he's like no, you're right,we do.
And I was like what?
Okay, crazy I was like, yeah, Iwas like I'm going to go up to
the right, you stay here, I'mgoing to go up to the right and
see if I can find one that's onits own, like you know, even 10
feet away from the group.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Because I mean, you guys weren't after a trophy
right, you're after some meat?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
No, I don't care what it is.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, you guys, you're after meat, yeah exactly.
Antlers horns size.
We're grocery shoppingRegardless.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Grocery shopping.
The two that I was staring atfrom 82 yards away and they were
looking right at me.
They could see me and theycould see me moving, but they
couldn't smell me, so theydidn't know what I was at.
They were big bulls and I waslike, ah, like I know you're a
bull, I'd like to shoot you, butI'd probably hit three and four
behind you too.
Like you know, I don't want todo that.
(33:55):
So, uh, tell McGinnis.
I was like I'm going to go upand I'm going to try and get
closer to the right and see if Ican pick one that it's on its
own.
So I get 50 yards away fromthem.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And I just looked back and again as I give them
the thumbs up.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I was like I found one, I'm going to pick one.
And sure enough, there therewas a cow and I kind of figured
she was a cow, but she didn'thave a calf with her, she didn't
look pregnant and she wasprobably 10, 15 feet away from
the rest of the herd, beddeddown by herself, and she was
asking for it.
Really I was like that's theone.
(34:29):
I'm sorry, sweetheart but, thisis it.
So, uh, I watched her for alittle bit and I really wanted
to make sure that she didn'thave a calf.
Yeah.
I would feel horrible about that.
Yeah, um, it's legal, but Iwould have.
I would have felt horrible andanyways, cause there was a lot
of calves in this herd and Ijust wanted to make sure that
she didn't have one, and uh, soI watched her for probably 10,
(34:52):
15 minutes and you know shewasn't watching any of the
calves.
None of the calves were lookingat her.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
So I was like, okay, she didn't seem too concerned.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So I was like, okay, sweetheart, you're coming home
with me tonight.
So, uh, I stand up, and therest of the herd took off and
she stood up and I just put one.
And she stood up and I just putone, and she staggered.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
And then I just put another and she dropped like a
sack of potatoes oh yeah and Ijust looked back at mcginnis and
he saw the whole thing and, man, you wouldn't believe how fast
that herd took off and justdisappeared and how quiet they
were yeah, like, but you'relucky they didn't come at you,
because I know sometimes thebuff like well, like their
cousins that are buffalo butbison, it can be the fight or
(35:31):
flight.
Oh, yeah, like.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Sometimes they'll be like all right, that's it,
you're getting it the the yukonherds have killed quite a few
hunters really yeah, quite a fewwow there was one death for
sure since I've been there, itwas 2018, yeah one guy got
killed after shooting one.
He thought it was dead and itwasn't and it mauled him to
death.
Yeah, and then the year beforethat the a guy I knew from the
(35:56):
gym got mauled but he lived.
But it like ripped half of hisear off, ripped his, ripped
something else off his body andthen actually a co-worker.
An ex coworker of mine's brotherlost his pinky from one Cause.
His his horn got caught in hisring and ripped his pinky right
(36:18):
off.
Got mauled bad but he lived.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Wow, yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
And then one another guy I know, his wife got like
full on, charged and hit andlike flown like cartoon style,
Jeez yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, they're dangerous yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
But yeah they, they heard the two shots and they
were gone.
Yeah, Not, nobody stuck around.
And you know, towards the endof the season too, I figured
they hear something like that.
They know what's going on, sothey kind of get out of there.
Yeah, I think, and maybe towardsthe beginning of the season too
, where they're kind of thinkingof its mating season still too,
they might be a little moreprotective too.
(36:55):
That's just my personal thoughtyeah, that makes sense they
took off on this one, but me andMcGinnis we yeah.
So we dropped her.
It was a good, clean kill.
We waited 30 minutes before wewent up to her, just in case for
stories like that.
We waited 30 minutes and and wedid have to put another one in
her just to, just to be sure,and we did, um, yeah, so we, we
(37:18):
had a big moment.
We, you know, said thank you,cause it's a big sacrifice for
the animal.
You know, we don't take any ofthat for granted.
We're really appreciative, youknow.
And, uh, we took every ounce ofmeat off that.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah Well, like before we started, you showed me
the picture of the carcass andyou guys, you did.
There's nothing for the wolves.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Nothing left, you guys got everything.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah, so how long did it take you to and cut it up?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
yeah, so, like I said , we waited the 30 minutes and
then, um, uh, went up to her and, uh, that's kind of when the
realization took in.
We're like, oh man, we got alot of work ahead of us.
I've cleaned three bisons, sothis would have been the fourth,
and mcginnis has done countlessmoose, countless caribou, it's
(38:04):
all kind of the same thing right, you know yeah and uh.
We had her cleaned, skinned,quartered on the tarp in just
over two hours.
That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We were pretty happy with that and it was a beautiful
day.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
It was like plus I think it was like plus two or
plus three sunny day, beautifulspot.
Man, I'll show you a photo.
We're like on the top of thisridge and like huge mountains
and a lake behind us, like itwas just the most beautiful
butchering spot.
We were able to flip her overon her back and we had like a
little bit of a slant that itwas super easy to work with.
(38:39):
So all the guts just kind offell out naturally, it was real,
real good.
Uh, shout out to Morkiniv,morkiniv, morkiniv.
I don't know if I'm saying thatright.
It's a.
It's either Finnish or Swedishblade.
Okay, yeah, $17.
Yeah For this knife at a gasstation and both of us were
(39:01):
using it and we didn't have towe didn't have to sharpen our
knives one time.
I've had that knife for probablyeight years and I've used it on
a lot of animals and there youcan buy a higher end too, Like
you can buy like $200 one, butany gas station in Whitehorse
you can buy them for $17.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Really, and they are the best.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yeah, yeah, they're just a fixed blade with a little
rubber handle on them they're.
They usually come in yellow,green or orange or blue, like
something that really stands out.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
And they're in a.
They're in a plastic sheath.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, yeah, they are the best.
Yeah.
And they didn't lose their edgeonce Like we.
We both used one and like.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I got nothing but good to say about it.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So you don't need those high end knives?
No, we did use a bone saw aswell.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
But other than that, the Morkin of man, that's pretty
good, I think my brotherintroduced me to them actually.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Because I think he was using them up north and yeah
, they're $17.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
And it works that well.
Well, good, shout out.
But I also love my Groman fromNova Scotia.
Oh, of scotia.
Oh yeah, yeah, I do, I have oneof those from there as well,
but I didn't use the groman onthis one.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I used the morcative and it was just unreal, it was
great.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Well, like I said, the picture you showed me, you
guys, you got everything.
Yeah, you know you did quite ajob on that yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
So we had a couple different ideas of how we were
going to do it.
Obviously we, we quartered itand uh, but it was kind of my
stupid idea and I didn't thinkit was stupid at the time.
So, anyways, we quarter it, putit on the tarps and, like I
said, it was like plus two plusthree, so perfect.
We didn't have to worry about,you know, covering it.
It's the perfect temperature.
(40:37):
It's obviously going to staycool.
It's on top of a tarp in thesnow, like we're not worried
about it.
Then we're like, you know,we're high five and we're like,
woo, you know, did that twohours?
Woo, look at us.
And then we're like, oh, we'vegot to hike four kilometers back
to the sled.
And you know, maybe maybe one ofus should have gone to do that
(40:59):
while the other was butchering,I don't know.
But I also kind of don't likesplitting up in those kinds of
situations.
That's just me.
Do you have to worry aboutwolves?
I don't.
I don't think you have to worryabout them.
I mean, there's going to be a,a wolf on it that night, for
sure, but like I don't know,Like we had our guns close.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, for sure yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah for sure we were thinking actually.
So this was March 24th and andMcGinnis said to me a couple of
times he's like you know therecould be a couple of grizzlies
awake this time of year with howwacky our weather's been too, I
was like yeah, good point.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
And they do see people as game.
Oh yeah.
And like just shot this bisontoo right, the gut pile and
everything, so they wouldn'tthink anything of coming out and
going at you guys to get it.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, he planted a seed in my brain there I was
like, oh yeah, you're right, andlike, uh, a grizzly waking up
early at that would be crankyyeah.
So we kept the guns super closefor that, um, but yeah, we, we
got her all quartered up andthen we're like, oh man, we've
got a, we've got a fourkilometer hike back to the sled,
let's.
(42:02):
So we did, uh, it took us a lotlonger than we thought, for
some reason, I don't know why,but it did.
Um, so we get back.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
We, we carried a I see you guys, we're heading back
to the sleds and, um, you know,in the back of your mind, think
about the grizzlies and allthat and everything.
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
So we, we keep in the guns tight.
Um, yeah, so on our.
So, on our way back to uh thesled, we we said, uh, there's no
way we're going to get the sledup to the kill site, there's no
way.
The ridge was way too steep, uh, the woods that we walked
through way too thick Creek,yeah, creek.
Um, after, after dropping herand walking out, we did find a
(42:47):
spot where we could bypass thecreek, which was nice for the
pack out.
But if we had had a third guyon this hunt, we would have
dedicated them for being likeokay, you go get the sled and
you figure out how to get it uphere.
That would have been perfect.
So what we had to do is, whenwe were on our way back to the
sled, we each carried out uh,did we do a front or a hind
(43:10):
quarter?
I think we did the front first.
Four kilometers.
No, just as far out as we could,to where we figured we could
get the sled to.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, and itwas about a kilometer still
that's heavy, yeah, yeah.
And also we did the frontsfirst and I wish we did the rear
.
And also we did the frontsfirst and I wish we did the rear
.
Get it over with.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
mean.
So we did the fronts.
The rears weighed over ahundred pounds each.
The fronts were probably like75, 80.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Well, how do you?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
have a rough idea of how much meat you got off.
Yeah, we got 375 pounds.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Okay, yeah, so what do you figure?
She was live weight live weightpushing a thousand, I would say
oh yes, I was gonna guess 1200.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, yeah, like being at least being
conservative pushing a thousandyeah yeah, because moving her
over, like flipping her overonto her back and everything
like we were working, like shewas heavy and that skeleton that
I showed you at the end of it,like even that was very heavy,
yeah, and the guts, guts were soheavy but yeah like definitely.
(44:17):
You know, pushing a thousand,yeah, I would say probably a
little more.
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You find a difference in eating like the cows from
the bowls or not really, I find,in my experience, the cow more
tender.
Okay, yeah, that's what Ifigured, but I wasn't sure for
sure, but meat care is numberone.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I was super happy with uh
with this one.
Yeah, uh, I'll get to that, um,but yeah, so we carry a front
each out and it was not an easytrail going through through the
alders, yeah exactly Up down, updown and deep snow, yeah, um,
and heavy, and we're tired, yeah.
(44:55):
So anyways, yeah so we, uh, it'sabout a kilometer that we, we
ditch these quarters and then wehike out, get the sled, get a
little bit of water in us, alittle snack, and then we skidoo
back and uh ran into a coupleguys that actually saw us go in
after the herd.
So they they did the respectfulthing and didn't follow us in
(45:16):
there, which was nice but, uh,yeah, anyways, um, so uh get up
to the kill site and, long storyshort, it took us nine hours to
do all of the pack out.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Really nine hours so are you guys?
Are you in spot where it'sdaylight for 24?
Speaker 2 (45:39):
yes, but this time of year it was it was about pitch
black at 10 30 at night okay,yeah, so we dropped her at 1 30.
Yeah, yeah, so we had that likenine hours of daylight and you
guys needed every.
We took every minute like wedidn't use the headlamps one
time actually like we were justkind of getting ready to bring
(45:59):
it out and then we're like, oh,like I'm firing up the sled and
we're going anyways, yeah, soyeah, it took us nine hours from
the minute like we dropped herto get the sled bring it back.
Yeah, nine hours to get herinto the skimmer, that's how
long it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
I mean, that's the thing people like even you know
here and stuff during mooseseason, like there's moose can
shoot it, but you know that'sthe easy part.
Yeah, it's the afterwardsgetting it all out and such a
big animal, you know, like it's.
It's a lot of people sometimes.
They underestimate it severely.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
So I remember, a few minutes ago, I said I had this
stupid idea.
So my stupid idea was um, we,we quartered her all up, dealt
with the quarters and then youhave this huge torso right With
(46:46):
all of your steaks, all likethat big cape, which is all good
meat up in there too, and likeyour tenderloins, your backstrap
, your rib meat, all that stuffRight, and you're thinking, like
you know, with the quarters offand whatnot and the guts out.
You know that torso can't weighthat much, you know?
And, uh, me and my buddy andanother buddy, uh, he shot a
really big black bear in 2018.
(47:07):
I shot a little tiny one and heshot a big one, and what we did
was we gutted it and put a pullthrough the rear end, out
through the neck, and carried itout that way.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
What do you call it?
Indian style?
Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
And it was extremely heavy.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Like.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
I I don't want to throw a number out there, but it
was a big bear and I'll showyou photos and you can tell me
what you think but, um, and wewere able to do it.
Like it was hard but we did itand we carried it for two
kilometers that way.
So I was like, oh my goodnessyou know I've done this before
let's put a pole through thistorso and carry it that way.
(47:45):
And and right away he's like no, we're not going to be able to
do that.
I was like man, me and my buddy, cooper, we did that with a big
, big bear Like.
I was like there's no way thatthat full, intact bear, minus
the guts, weighs less than thisbison torso.
That's, you know, picked prettyclean.
And he's like, oh well, maybe,but he's like I don't think.
So I was like, oh well, I'll gofind a log that's big enough to
(48:09):
, you know, take this torso load.
And we kind of like before wedid that like we kind of picked
it up a little bit and we'relike oh yeah yeah, we can do it.
So we I find this log like athick log, probably like five,
six inch in diameter shove itthrough and go to pick her up
and it snaps right in half and Iwas like, oh okay, well, I've
(48:30):
got to get a bigger log, I guess.
So I find a bigger one, put itthrough, we go to lift this
thing up Like we didn't even getit an inch off the ground and
you got to think like now it'slike nine, 15 at night, the
sun's kind of going down.
We're like oh no, what are wegoing to do now?
Like cause this is now that,like this, torso is fully intact
, like if we're going to finishcleaning all of the rib meat and
(48:54):
the steaks and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
That's like another hour worth of butchering, at
least Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
So we're like, oh man , what are we going to do?
So then McGinnis was like, okay, let's tarp it.
Let's tarp it, wrap it inrepelling rope and see if we can
drag it out on a tarp.
And I was like, oh, that mightwork.
So we we flip it over on a tarpand like, see if we can slide
it with the tarp.
And again we're like, oh, yeah,yeah that's pretty.
(49:19):
Yeah, we got it.
So we spend, you know, 10, 15minutes wrapping it in a tarp,
wrapping this repelling rope allover it and build two harnesses
so it's around our shoulders.
Go to take a step.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
I basically fall backwards Like I'm not moving
this thing, the bones on thisstuff.
It's just so heavy, so heavy.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
So then we start to freak out a little bit, like we,
we turn around and we're likeheaving it like sailors and
we're like moving a hundredyards in like 10 minutes and
we're like, oh man, this is notgood.
We, we got to finish butcheringthis thing.
Yeah, so we get the game bagsout and we cleaned it up in
about 45 minutes, which waspretty good.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, that's really good.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
And, and I showed you the skeleton like there was
nothing left.
We left nothing behind, so youever see the movie 300?
.
Yes um, so you ever see themovie 300?
Yes, you know um how the queenspeaks to king leonidas, where
she says come back on yourshield or come back with your
shield or on it.
Yes, that's yeah, basically howmy wife speaks to me with bison
(50:21):
hide, like she wants the hide,so bad like she's basically like
yeah, like come back with it oron it what?
Speaker 1 (50:27):
did she do with it?
Well, the thing is I was goingto ask about that if you guys
kept the hide, because I didn'tget it out.
Oh, okay Again.
So she didn't do anything so.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I've never been able to get one out, except for one
time.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Oh really.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Just because they're so heavy, yeah, dropped when
it's, like you know, just areally hard area, yeah and uh.
So I'm trying absolutelyeverything I can do to get this
hideout.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
Uh, I tried stuffing it in my huge uh uh backpack.
Not fitting at all.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Uh, I tried like tarping it and dragging it out,
not happening, like I tried fora long time and then I was like
I can't get it out.
So she was pretty upset, butbut it didn't happen.
Hopefully next time.
Yeah.
So, anyways, yeah, we, we, uh,we finished cleaning it up and
we got back to the sled,basically right at like 10
(51:23):
o'clock at night, as the sun wasgoing down, and, uh, we did a
change of clothes cause we weresoaked sweat you know wet snow
and whatnot too.
And uh yeah, it was an insanepack out man Like uh McGinnis
carried this huge load in hisbackpack with like all of the
meat in the game bags and thenthe head on top of his backpack,
(51:45):
like anytime he had to sit down.
I had to help him sit down.
I had to help him up.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Push him up, yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Man, we, we were hurting for days after this one.
And yeah, like I said, the hindquarters were over a hundred
pounds.
Like it, it was a pack.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
It made the crawl in there and shot.
Look like such a cakewalk.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
And even that was hard but like, nowhere near as
as hard as the packout.
And, like I, I told a few of mybuddies the area and showed
them photos of like where wewent and they were like, yeah,
no, I wouldn't have done that.
No, not a chance.
But it makes the meat taketaste that much better yeah, it
makes a better story, right,yeah?
so, uh, yeah, we get back to thesled and then we had like three
hours back to the, back to thetruck.
(52:30):
So we're back to the truck atlike 2 AM, load it all up and
then we get to my place.
It was only like a 15 minutedrive in the truck and then uh
hang it all up in my shop.
Uh got to bed at like three, 30in the morning and then I had
to be up for five.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
You never called in sick, nope.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
And neither did McGinnis.
We both had to be up for fivebe at work for 6.30.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
I would have been tempted to use a sick day.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Yeah, we both really wanted to, but, oh man, that was
probably the crankiest I hadever been.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
And you work at a prison.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, and I was like cranky and I was you were not
putting up with the inmate shit.
That day I wasn't putting upwith like co-worker, which I
feel bad about.
But like over the radio, I wasbeing like.
I felt like people were givingme attitude over the radio and I
was like you know so cranky,you're irritable and
(53:27):
understandable for sure.
yeah, yeah, I'd be like, can yourepeat that with a little less
attitude, please, over the rain,and then I'd apologize after,
like I was just so tired, spent12 hours getting damn bison out
of the woods exactly yeah, um,but yeah, man, we hung the meat
in my shop for a week and keptthe shop at one to three degrees
(53:53):
.
It was perfect Like I've got awood stove in there and whatnot,
but the weather was justperfect and the shop like I,
didn't have to start a wood fireor anything but like just the
balance of the weather in theshop kept the perfect
temperature the entire week.
And.
I put two fans up there, justkind of yeah, that's the thing.
I keep the air, keep theairflow and and it barked over
(54:16):
perfect, and the meat was likepurple.
Like it was just it wasbeautiful, like even dropping it
off at the butcher the guy thatthat does it for us he was like
, wow, these look awesome andwe're super happy with it.
But yeah, we got 375 pounds ofmeat back.
Yeah, yeah so we split that 50,50 and she and uh, yeah, so uh,
(54:37):
the skull I got done today.
I don't know if I sent you aphoto of the skull.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
I'll have to show you a photo, but uh, she had a
really good curl horn on oneside, and then the other one was
broken right in half.
Oh yeah, and I was reading inthe regulations that cows will
lose one horn if they're overseven years old, so she was most
likely over seven years old,lose it yeah, it'll break off at
seven years old if they'reolder than seven, chances are
they'll just one of their hornswill break off, really Probably
from pawing or messing aroundLike they lose their integrity
(55:12):
and their bone structure.
I would think that is what thatwould mean.
Yeah, but yeah it's interesting, so we figured if she was an
old girl.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
She tastes divine man .
Yeah.
Like it's.
We've been eating bison prettymuch every day that's uh.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
So I mean, did you guys sayokay?
So for next year, this is whatwe're going to do.
We're going to bring differentgear to get the mode, or
anything like that.
Did you guys come up with thedifferent game plan for next
year?
Speaker 2 (55:41):
yeah, definitely, uh, having the one sled wasn't
ideal.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Right, you knew that going into it.
We knew that going in, yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
But it was doable.
We want to hunt somewhat of thesame area.
We kind of have an area pickedout but we have an idea for
hiking out the quarters.
If we do kind of hunt in thesame area that you can't get the
sleds close to the kill siteCrazy carpets Okay, putting the
quarter site crazy carpets, Okay.
(56:08):
Putting the quarter on a crazycarpet.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
And tying up the front around it.
Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
And then harnessing it to you.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
We figured that would work pretty good, and we've
heard of people doing that.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
Yeah, yeah.
What about, like I mean, yousee, like those big game sleds,
this somewhere's new brunt thatmakes him and stuff's kind of a
version of that.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
yeah, work too, depending something that you can
pack inside your skimmer,that's yeah, that's right.
Yeah, much room, yeah I do havelike a pole behind skimmer that
I use at home for carryingfirewood just from the woodshed
to the house, and maybe evensomething like that the crazy
caribou.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
It's good, they pack right yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
So we're thinking that A tough one, not like the
dollar store special, but yeah,yeah.
Yeah Something like that.
Speaker 1 (56:52):
That's a good idea, yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Because, carrying those quarters out, man like my
shoulders and my knees were justshot for days, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
What other gear were you guys thinking Like, oh,
we've got to bring this nextyear, do?
Speaker 2 (57:05):
you have a plan on getting the hide?
That was the biggest one, andthen, yeah, the hide maybe just
comes down to if we're everlucky enough to shoot one in a
better area.
Because you know some peopleshoot them right on the edge of
a lake and they can drive theirskidoo right up to it and pop
them in.
And I've been fortunate enoughto be on one of those hunts
where it's like, oh sweet,awesome spot, Throw it in the
(57:27):
sled and let's go.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
Yeah, but that was not the case.
Have you heard of the bisongoing through the lake, falling
through, breaking through?
Speaker 2 (57:33):
the ice.
Yeah, yes, one of my buddieswas on a fishing trip and they
were fishing on the Ajak Riverand they found like two or three
carcasses in the river Becauseyou think about if there's ice,
you know, and the bison aregoing across.
Speaker 1 (57:47):
but you get a herd of 50 or 60, that's a lot of
weight and you think it wouldbreak.
Speaker 2 (57:52):
Definitely yeah, so I'm assuming that's what
happened to these two or threecarcasses he had seen in the
river.
Yeah, they probably fellthrough.
Speaker 1 (57:59):
I was kind of curious about that.
Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (58:09):
That.
So you guys had a good, you hada good season yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, it was a.
It was a good hunting season,because we've had a lot of bad
hunting seasons, so it was niceto nice to have a good one.
The animals are.
They're definitely earned.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:15):
Yeah, definitely, but it was, it was a hunt I'll
never forget and I'm just sohappy that I had someone like
McGinnis't want someone like, ohit's screwed now.
Speaker 1 (58:23):
You want someone very optimistic, I guess you could
say on hunts like that,definitely In general, but
especially stuff like that,someone that doesn't get down
easy, because they make it somuch harder.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
Or panic, or panic, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:43):
No, that sounds like you guys definitely have a lot
of fun out there Hard work, butit's fun.
Oh yeah, that's a.
Sounds like you guys definitelyhave a lot of fun out there
Hard, hard work, but it's fun.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, oh yeah, we have a blast.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah, so, uh, that's good.
Well, Caleb, thanks for comingon.
I know you got more stories andyou will.
Uh, you'll be back on again.
Speaker 2 (58:55):
Absolutely Thanks for having me.
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