Delta bison

[Alaska Gray]

Did a search on bison here and Good friend father has the tag and just looking for hunters updates. Called delta F&G office today.


Living the Alaska Dream

[VernAK]

The harvest has been very good this year with about 60% of tags filled already. Snow conditions are great for hunting as you can drive most areas. The weather has been great but days are getting very short. Most years I would advise to wait until spring when days are longer and snow has settled. Fencing has changed bison movement patterns.

Good luck!

[Alaska Gray]

Thanks !!!!! Would you suggest to focus on private or public land to hunt


Living the Alaska Dream

[martentrapper]

We hunted the whole season last year. Private land was usually good, but it was difficult to get in a shooting position. If your friends are hunting Dec/Jan. stay at the Silver Fox and they will be right in between the private and public.

[Daveintheburbs]

Great thread by MT helped us a lot getting my partner’s bull this last week end:http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/...ighlight=bison
Lots of other good advice buried in previous years as well.
Stayed at the Silver Fox and would recommend it highly. Mike had done a scouting trip talking to ADF&G and some of the farmers before hand and had a good game plan ready. We hunted private land exclusively and were on Bison every day of the three day hunt. While everyone’s experiences may vary here are some of the things we figured out:
They were definitely vehicle shy. Sight or sound of truck put them on the run, especially a vehicle that stops or shuts down. You have to fool every single animal in the whole herd. It only take one suspicious one to get them all moving. We typically spotted them at 1-2 miles in the fields and walked from there. We also found a herd way back in the woods where we did not expect to see them. They seemed to rely more on sight/ sound then scent. Good camo seemed much more important than when hunting moose. Once you do get in positon it can be challenging to get a clear shot at just one bison, be patient. At one point we put a couple hours into a stalk and had the herd at 100-150 yrds for 20 minutes waiting for our selected bison to get clear of his buddies. Wind was perfect and we were buried in the wood line when a squirrel lit off behind us. Big bull stated stareing in our direction and then the next thing we saw was 100+ bison butts. Conversely, when we scored the wind was blowing directly towards the heard, but we were directly in the rising sun from then and they just kept coming. We got best results by treating them like Caribou: figure out where they want to go, get in front and wait.
While normally I am a brown-down, fill the freezer kind of guy, my partner with the tag had lots of time and was looking for a nice one. We actually could have shot one from 100 yrds or less every day, but waited for the right opportunity and at the about the last huntable moment (for this trip) got lucky and scored.
The either sex opportunity this year was a great thing. 100% sure sex ID would have been very challenging.
Happy to share more information, just shot me a PM. That goes for any future thread miners as well.

Dave

[collier]

Does anyone have a copy of the landowners info sheet? My sister drew DI 403 and it wasn't in with her other materials the F&G sent

[VernAK]

A copy can be picked up at F&G Delta.......

My suggestion only.......find the herds prior to calling all sorts of land owners as most get tired of answering bison questions when the herds are nowhere near or their land is fenced. Fencing seems to have affected the herd dispersal and most are hanging out in the eastern area of the Ag Project. I hunt birds daily in the western areas and I have not seen a track yet this fall.