When we returned, 86er took my brother and I out for a look at some game and after a while, we spotted a couple of bison that he was interested in. I will let him tell his story. We were trying to locate the larger bison on the ranch after several hours, we got a glimpse of it and my juices were flowing to get going. It was a very hot, arid day in Hondo, the ground dusty and parched though there was plenty of green in the flora. My brother made a nice shot on his bison before dinner and I was happy for success of his first game animal ever!!! His 1886, and Randy Garrett 45-70 +P ammo provided a quick and humane kill on his Bison and his success was a precurser to what I hoped would be mine. His initial shot was a double lung shot and the bison went down in less than 5 yards. Through dinner I was wishing the heat of the day away and looking forward to trying to locate my buff again. There was thoughts we might try in the am in the cool of the day.
Once back at the ranch, the word came that the Buff had been seen out on the back portion of the ranch. We got into the area and short stalk through the dust and low brush, put me close to my desired trophy. I was carrying my Shiloh Sharps in 45-70, a Heavy Hartford 30" barrel. I was shooting 500 grain round nose bullets at 1400 fps. I took a knee behind a bush and waited for the bison to offer itself to me. The gaze of the buff was looking for movement at the strange bushes 40 some yards away but seeing no movement, turned her head to the right and 1874's set trigger was pulled, and my trigger finger moved to the forward trigger, the open blade front, and buckhorn rear, aligned on a spot about 6 inches behind the bison's horn. I didn't like the angle of that shot so I followed the imprinted image of the anatomy of the bison that was burned into the synapses of my brain from months of studying. I moved to the spine shot futher aft and at the shot, the buff collapsed with a pass through of the spine, no steps taken. A dream animal and rifle combo that had resided on my top 100 things to do list, for some three and a half decades. As I offered the bison a handful of grass and gave up a prayer of thanks to my God, and to the direction of the four winds that this creatures ancestors felt, I realized how truly blessed I was to be in this place, and how honored I was to have such a trophy.
