Buckle up,  I’m taking you with me on this buffalo hunt with Jim River Guide Service. I wanted a respectable bull and great meat. It was travel on day 1, hunt on day 2, and fly home on day three. Honestly It seemed like a full week of hunting.

Just crazy to think we can accomplish this on short notice …but we did. 

Jim River Guide Service is owned and operated by world renowned hunting guide Willie Dvorak. 

Willie Dvorak

When Willie is not hunting buffalo, he is guiding for brown bear in Alaska. Willie has guided nearly 1000 buffalo hunts. Wow! World Class? Believe it!

Get your camo on and lets go stalk a nice bull buffalo for my freezer.

I had my Ruger M77 Hawkeye African in .375 Ruger with a Leupold VX-6 with a Boone and Crockett Reticle on it. A fabulous combination! 

I custom hand load all my ammo. Below left, is a Nosler 300g AccuBond that I used on this hunt, loaded with a heavy dose of RL 15 powder.

The Nosler chrono’d just over 2500 fps and 4200 ft-lbs of smackdown energy at the muzzle.

I planned for a 200 yards shot and still holding over 3000 ft-lbs. of energy at that distance.

Buffalo are not easy to kill, often absorbing 3 to 6 bullets in the lungs to bring them down. And the challenge to me was to bring down the animal with three shots or less and well placed in the heart and lungs.

You know Robert Ruark of Africa fame says, “Use Enough Gun”.

And honestly, I have Enough gun!

Travel to South Dakota

Leaving Boston on a Delta Airbus A320 from gate A16 I arrived in Aberdeen, South Dakota after a quick stop in Minneapolis. 

Flying Delta from Boston’s Logan Airport

Wing Tip at 35,000 feet. Cloudy below.

I rented a Chevy Silverado Pick up below and met Willie at his home/office.

Temp’s were in the 30’s …no snow.

I started the truck and noticed my drivers seat and steering wheel had heat. Nice!

Below, I pass by corn and giant silo’s, like protective centurions in the distance. Look at that hill of corn!  

We were in Prairie country now, very flat, no hills, just undulating prairie as far as you could see. 

We were hunting on a huge, yes huge tract of private open prairie land, not measured in acres, but in square miles. 

All the roads and even dirt roads are straight as arrows.

The Hunt

Now on dirt, the tires sounded of earthen pebbles and dust tickling the undercarriage of the truck as we drove slowly along, looking for buffalo in the far distance. The wind was amazingly absent, maybe 5 mph, as typical winds blow 15 to 20 miles per hour here.

It’s almost as if our hunt was planned by providence just for us. If you believe in that sort of thing.

We found a heard of buff numbering perhaps in groups of over 50, but we wanted to find smaller groups of 5 or 6 or even a single bull.

We spotted a lone bull, but we needed to get closer to make sure its what we wanted to hunt.

I saw deer tracks and ringneck pheasants everywhere including thousands of sand hill cranes. A cornucopia of wildlife.

You’ve got to see it. 

While driving, Willie says of bulls, “You see Ed, bulls fight each other every single day, always trying to beat each other and the dominant bull. And they don’t play fight for fun. It is to the death or getting the crap beat out of you. If the contesting bull can kill the rival, they would!”

I think loner bulls are loners because they try to heal their battle wounds and grow larger. 

We parked the truck and began a stalk on the lone bull. 

No bullet in the chamber but loaded and ready. Willie says, “buffalo have uncanny eyesight, always looking for danger.”

Willie was in the lead, me in the middle and Annie his daughter and hunt assistant was behind me.  Watch out for buffalo chips, no tripping or stepping on them (which I did)  they are everywhere.  

If the bull spots us as danger, he will be running for miles so we had to walk as a group in a line with that bull so it would see us as one person, not three.

Using the undulating terrain we stayed in low spots and drainage ditches to get close.

The property, at some time in the past, had beef cattle, thus there were simple fences of barbed wire. Observing the lone bull, amazingly he was walking and feeding in our direction. “Thank you Lord!” I thought.

If he was walking away, we could have stalked him for a mile or more and never had a good shot.. 

So with some luck, we huddled for the final plan and I set up near the barbed wire and sat low to the ground. I asked,  “Put a round in the chamber?”  “Yup” Willie said! 

The bull could not see us. 

Annie came forward with a short shooting stick for me to use.

We waited ten minutes, it was like waiting for honey to drip off a cold spoon. Willie expected the bull will cross in front of us at about 80 yards. 

Willie whispered, “Here he comes Ed.” I’m thinking, in retrospect, the bull may have detected us. He crested a rise at 80 yards and broadside, Willie whispered, “take him now.”

Crosshairs on him and steady, my rifle barked with authority. I didn’t feel the recoil.  The wide expanse consumed the crack of the big .375 rifle.

The Nosler 300g AccuBond was on its way. Hearing the bullet thud on the buff was confirming the hit yet surreal. “Shoot again as soon as you can whispered Willie. The bull stumbled to the left. I had already jacked another round in the chamber, tracking him in my Leupold VX-6.  The Boone and Crockett reticle crosshairs were beefy, making it easy to get on target.  I fired a second round. 

At the hit, the bull fell as if pole axed.

Loading another round again, I had the scope on him. “If he moves, shoot again”, said Willie

We watched. After 5 minutes he lay still.

We approached. Willie touched the eye with the muzzle of his rifle. Willie gave a “Thumbs Up!” He’s down for the count! “Good shooting Ed! Only 2 shots!”

I unloaded cleared the rifle, bolt open and announced “rifle is clear and empty.”  “Great”, Willie said. 

Time for pictures and smiles. 

I was thrilled. Willie and I were all smiles.

We got the bull loaded on a flat bed trailer and off to the butcher.

Meat will be vacuum packed, and shipped to New Hampshire. Should get around 300 pounds or so of great meat and burger.  

Good Hunting!

If you would like to arrange a hunt with Willie Dvorak you can reach him at. https://www.jimriverguideservice.com/

Honestly, I never thought I would be hunting American Plains Buffalo. Yet, in 12 days, I will come face to face with animals that include some giants of over 2000 lbs. 

courtesy Wikipedia

Aghast! These giants of the plains absorb powerful bullets in the chest and lungs and some bulls remain standing even after multiple hits from Magnum rifles.

My research shocked me that these mega beasts eat big bullets like a stack of wet newspaper. I am getting ready for a huge adrenaline rush!

 Video shots observed are often much less than 200 yards and closer to 100 yards.

I digress, watching a rare old video of Chef Andrew Zimmern get charged by a huge buffalo he killed and having to empty is rifle on it before Andrew became a piñata, Ole’. 

Alaska Fish and Game for example has a minimum requirement of bullets of 175 grains and have a muzzle energy of 2800 ft-lbs.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=deltabison.weaponslegalhunting

The 30-06 caliber is considered an Alaska minimum with a 220 grain bullet with a muzzle energy of 2836 ft-lbs. 

My new short Lever Action Marlin 45-70 SBL does not get in the picture as it can’t reach out with the longer range energy needed beyond 100 yards or more. 

Next is the .338 Winchester Magnum with say a 225 grain bullet with a muzzle energy of just over 4000 ft-lbs. I hunted African Plains game with it. Loved it.

Up from there is the .375 H&H and .375 Ruger with 300g bullets delivering 4200 ft-lbs at the muzzle. This is where my Ruger M77 Hawkeye African Rifle enters with the .375 Ruger and 300g Nosler AccuBonds. . Just shoot straight!

Soon!