Best bullet for a bison

medvedqc said:
2800 ft/lbs at the muzzle with 180 grains and .30 cal
... even the factory 350 lever evolution dont meet that criteria with a 18,5" barrel in 45/70 or 450 marlin .... run the calculator if you want ...

all the best.
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thats kind of high my martini with the BP load is only putting out around 1950fpe but no dubt it will drop one out to 100 yards
 
Yes, and you have seen the huge woods bison bull that my wife shot, we put 1100 pounds of boneless meat in the freezer, with two shots into the lungs with her 30-06. Probably weighed close to 2300 pounds on the hoof, but 180 gr Kodiak Bonded Cores ahead of 56 gr of 4350 and a magnum primers shredded the lungs up pretty quick at -38C.

Ted
 
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Why not? said:
Yes, and you have seen the huge woods bison bull that my wife shot, we put 1100 pounds of boneless meat in the freezer, with two shots into the lungs with her 30-06. Probably weighed close to 2300 pounds on the hoof, but 180 gr Kodiak Bonded Cores ahead of 56 gr of 4350 and a magnum primers shredded the lungs up pretty quick at -38C.

Ted
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Yes, darn but that's a big mount!
 
Ted - It doesn't surprise me at all that your wife handily dealt with that Bison using a .30-06

John Barsness wrote an interesting article on Cape Buffalo, and noted:
Buffalo are tough but not really all that hard to kill. In fact I know more than one African PH who's killed many of them with a .30-06 or something similar, even big bulls, legal when doing "control" shooting, whether of animals damaging crops or just thinning herds in parks. My friend Kevin Thomas has killed quite a few with a .30-06 and 180-grain Nosler Partitions, a load that some American hunters think is on the light side for elk, and Kevin had no problems.
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The full article can be found here:
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/newsletters/April_2009.html
 
medvedqc said:
you need a lot of speed and a long barrel to meet the minimum energy required in Yukon.
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Garrett's 420gr Hard Cast +P load gets there, so I suspect with careful hand-loading a fellow could make it work. Casull, who unfortunately no longer posts here mentioned a very stout .45-70 load out of his Ruger No.1 - I have long since forgotten the details, but it certainly would have met the required criteria.
 
Redlich said:
Alberta and Yukon were both 180. I was considering trying for Bison in Alberta with a 180gr ttsx, so I'm curious which legislation had a 200 minimum.
Thanks!
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There is no regulation in Alberta regarding bullet grain weight for bison hunting.

In fact, wood bison are not classed as wildlife in Alberta the way deer, moose, etc. are, nor are they controlled animals under the Wildlife act except in the northwest portion of the province in WMU’s 536 and 539 where they have been offering that special licence draw for the last few years.

So, except for those bison that are located in WMU 536 and 539, they can be hunted year round without a licence on unoccupied crown lands.

You could go hunt them east of Highway 35 right now if you wanted to.
 
Norton said:
There is no regulation in Alberta regarding bullet grain weight for bison hunting.

In fact, wood bison are not classed as wildlife in Alberta the way deer, moose, etc. are, nor are they controlled animals under the Wildlife act except in the northwest portion of the province in WMU’s 536 and 539 where they have been offering that special licence draw for the last few years.

So, except for those bison that are located in WMU 536 and 539, they can be hunted year round without a licence on unoccupied crown lands.

You could go hunt them east of Highway 35 right now if you wanted to.
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does that apply for people out of province
 
Redlich said:
On double checking, you are right that it's not listed in the actual "regulations" as a law in Alberta, however I was referring to this document:

http://mywildalberta.com/Hunting/GameSpecies/documents/BisonHuntingEducationBooklet-Jul2012.pdf

where they make recommendations regarding caliber, saying a 30 cal with 2800 ft/lbs at the muzzle, (180gr 30-06) is the minimum, along with blackpowder minimums and recommending against any archery hunting at all. I was under the mistaken impression that this was a rule since the language says you "must" and does not say "recommended" anywhere, however I double checked the actual hunting regs and it doesn't mention any minimum caliber for Bison there.

And the area you mentioned is what I have in mind, but it likely won't happen next year... still one can hope :)
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no archery hmm seems odd ive seen vids of ele taken with both compound bows and crossbows
 
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Although I haven't actually shot one myself, I did cook up some ammo for a 300WM that my buddy bought when they were relatively new to the market and ammo was somewhat scarce. Best of all (all things considered) I got to see my loads in action as he asked me alond on the hunt as an "assistant".;)

I used 200gr Accubonds. The first shot he took hit the Bison straight through the heart at about 75yds. We didn't know it at the time, that beast didn't even flinch and kept on running! The second shot,taken as the Bison was just making the trees, hit it in the hip and knocked it down. By time we made our way through the waist high snow to the animal it was dead. We recovered the bullet that went through the heart just under the hide on the far side.....

accubond2.jpg
 
Dad raises buffalo so when it's time to butcher we put out oats and try to get a shot less than 25' away in the centre of the forehead in line with or an inch higher than the eyes. A 30-30 with 140gr mono flex bullets do the job consistently. I don't know that I would recommend that for an actual hunt unless you think you can get a similar shot off. A little closer than I'd like to be without somewhere to hide from an angry buffalo.
 
I shot a bison January 1st of this year; 375 H&H, 300gr nosler partition, bullet performance was perfect, animal only ran 20 yards. one round was all it took.

These are huge tough beasts, and the chance to hunt one is so rare, why use a marginal caliber? Even Guys using 300 win mag were having trouble. Several guys said they need to shoot their animals 6-8 times before they went down. I think 30-06 is not enough, I wouldn't hunt bison with anything less than 338 mag.

Having said that there is a big difference between hunting wild ones and shooting them on a farm... for a canned "hunt" 30-06 might do the job.

Just my two cents.
 
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Leonidas said:
I shot a bison January 1st of this year; 375 H&H, 300gr nosler partition, bullet performance was perfect, animal only ran 20 yards. one round was all it took.

These are huge tough beasts, and the chance to hunt one is so rare, why use a marginal caliber? Even Guys using 300 win mag were having trouble. Several guys said they need to shoot their animals 6-8 times before they went down. I think 30-06 is not enough, I wouldn't hunt bison with anything less than 338 mag.

Having said that there is a big difference between hunting wild ones and shooting them on a farm... for a canned "hunt" 30-06 might do the job.

Just my two cents.
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375 or 366 are a very good answer too.

they re not that rare here and they re thinking about non-resident able to hunt them under special guiding license very soon ....
 
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