About two or three weeks ago I ran into one of the Juvenile Probation Officers in the hallway where I work. He told me that he was going on a buffalo hunt. My first response was, "Buffalo hunting in Nevada?" But it was actually true.
I immediately initiated efforts to figure out how I could get in on this gig too. It took two or three weeks of calling and leaving messages before I eventually got in touch with the people in the know.
About 40 miles west of Elko is a small community known as Beowawe, Nevada. Beowawe is a Paiute Native American word meaning "gate." Adjacent to that small community is a massive 55,000 acre ranch known as the Horseshoe Ranch. In July 2005 the Horseshoe Ranch was purchased by the Elko Land & Livestock Company, a subsidiary of the Newmont Mining Corporation. The original owners of the Horseshoe Ranch had apparently established a small herd of buffalo on the ranch. The buffalo had taken to roaming the ranch, and didn't much care for fences of any kind. Apparently ELLC got a little tired of dealing with this problem and decided to thin out the herd a bit. So the ELLC decided to allow some of the buffalo to "be purchased." They decided to allow people to purchase the buffalo at $400 a piece, and would allow the buffalo to be removed from the ranch "feet up or feet down." If you were unable to locate one of the buffalo then your check would not be cashed. Because buffalo are a non-game species in the state of Nevada...all of this business is technically not considered a hunt.
So I made arrangements for four buffalo permits. My friend from work lent me his 4x4 truck, and gave me some hints of where we might locate the buffalo. My uncle, Harold, my cousin, Scott, and two friends from my ward, Scott and Cody, decided to come along for the adventure.
We left on Saturday morning, April 12, 2008 at about 5:45 am from Elko. We arrived at the Beowawe exit at around 6:30 am. Our first stop was just off the freeway at a series of rolling hills to the west of the road where two buffalo had been killed just two weeks before. Our search of the area didn't turn up any buffalo or any signs of any buffalo.
We decided to move on to a burn area west of the town of Beowawe in an area known as the "Whirlwind Valley." The Tuscarora Mountains surround the valley, and a major wildfire had recently burnt much of the vegetation. We followed the Beowawe Power Plant road down into the valley, then along the power lines to the base of the rolling mountains.
We had brought along three 4-wheelers to help us cover the large area. Scott and Cody N. were on one, myself and my cousin, Scott S., on another, and my uncle, Harold S., on the third one. We split up to check out most of the mountains and hills to see if we could locate anything.
We went ballistic on the 4-wheelers traveling clear to the mountain peaks and looking down into the various little canyons and valleys to see if we could spot anything. This went on until nearly noon, at which point we had decided to make our way back towards the truck for lunch. At this point my uncle Harold was up a little bit ahead of us and we were following him down a trail on the mountain top. Just then we noticed that Harold had gotten off his 4-wheeler and was peering into a valley below. He turned around, looking excited, and motioned us to approach. We dismounted from the 4-wheeler and walked up to his position. He indicated that he had spotted a group of six buffalo grazing in the valley below.
At this point we put our heads together to come up with a plan. I volunteered to remain in position at the peak to watch the buffalo and remain on the radio. My uncle Harold would sneak down a ridge to the north of the herd, and Scott down a ridge to the south of the herd. Once both were in position about thirty or so minutes later, they would fire.
As they moved into position, the buffalo were at ease. Most of the time they were eating casually, and sometimes most of the group was laying down half asleep.
My uncle found a rock cropping about 50 yards above and to the north of the herd, and my cousin Scott found a rock cropping about 100 yards to the South and above the herd. When the shots rang out the big bull was the first to fall, tumbling five or six times down the hill. He was followed by the big female that was nearly as large as the bull.
Large Bull
Large Female Buffalo
I fully expected at this point that the remaining herd would take off full-speed out of the canyon. The remaining four younger buffalo stood there like deer in the headlights. Eventually, Harold shot one more of the younger females and then the rest of the herd went on their way up the canyon.
Yearling Female BuffaloAs you might imagine, the work was only beginning. We spent the next 8 hours gutting, skinning and quartering the buffalo and removing them from the canyon by 4-wheeler. The buffalo had fallen on a steep rocky hillside, making the work even more difficult.
Harold, Scott S. and Scott N. were the primary meat-cutters and earned their pay in gold.
We arrived at the residence of the local butcher at about 9:30 pm. We had a total of about 500 lbs. of meat that we are having processed into hamburger, steaks, roasts and a few specialty items (summer sausage, pepper sticks and jerky). It should all be finished in about a week or so.
Harold and Scott intend to head-mount the large bull, and Scott N. removed the capes from the two smaller buffalo.
There is a reason why they say that hunting buffalo is "once in a lifetime experience." That is because you are so exhausted afterwards that you only want to do it once.
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