Friend Shot 1900 Lb Buffalo - Good Meat??

Hmmmmm...

I've eaten buffalo before, and will again, someday...

But, if I were going to dish out some good money for processing, I'd want to know a heckuva lot of particulars... mainly was the animal running before it was shot... how hot was it when it was shot? It's been in the high 80s here in E Texas already... and how soon was it gutted and cooled down after shot... how long it took to get the hide off and in the cooler. I'd also want it to hang for at least a week, maybe more.

It'd be rough, paying out a couple hundred bucks for processing, and the meat be 'off'... because of killing it in the wrong time of the year.

Of course, if it were a little chewie, you could always make some nice jerky....

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Buffalo is lower in cholesterol and fat. Don't cook it as long as beef. We love it.

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Chinese Proverb:
'When someone shares
Something of value with you, and you benefit from it, you have a moral
Obligation to share it with others.'

Some of the best eating there is. A real treat when I have it around here. Last time I got about 50 pounds if various cuts and burger from a fellow who raises them. The grill got a work out.

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Respect The Cactus!

"Buffalo does not taste like chicken." That was a joke sheesh.

Meat was taken super good care of. Will hang for 2-3 weeks and be custom processed. I may get offered half a side. I think I will take all that he offers. Thanx.

You better get another freezer....

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Was it shot in Texas? A canned hunt? Just never heard of wild buffalo in Texas.

I hope this helps answer your question.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

It had to have been canned.
There's nowhere in the continental US that allows wild buffalo hunts, is there?

Though I will say "canned" is a relative term. The ranch we were on offered canned hunts. They'd basically go out in the buffalo pasture, 23 sections, and chase down their buffalo...

ETA: oops, I missed it too.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Sorry but I know this is a big business in Texas as I live in Texas. I just cannot understand the sport of shooting an animal that is raised and feed by humans to be shot on a so called "hunt".

I have always felt like this we had a very good friend who hunted this way and I always told him the same thing about basically shooting a caged animal. Oh yes I know it was on caged per say.

Sorry did not want to take the joy out of your free meat!

raised and fed is relative, too.
Ours, for example, were "fed" in that they got hay periodically. (I know a lot of people who feed wild deer, too) But mostly they were on their own. And in our case, 23 sections is a pretty good sized cage.

And if you stop and thing about it, how is this any more inhumane than the producer just sending them to the packer? There are only two ways to get buffalo meat in the continental US: Ranch raised, or canned hunt.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I have no time whatsoever in any way shape or form for canned hunting. In fact there is an initiated measure in ND to ban canned hunting for captive cervids, although that does not cover elk.

That being said there is nothing so tasty as grass fed buffalo slaughtered via rifle in there beds. The tribe I work with does it every week.

There are in fact a couple of places you can hunt wild buffalo. The classic one is in the Wasatch (I think, or maybe Wasita? I could do research but instead will just spread misinformation) mountains of Utah which has a long standing highly coveted buffalo hunt. Last I knew they were strictly archery tags, and it is an extremely difficult hunt. Weeks to accomplish.

I think there are also units in Arizona and Alaska. SD lets lisenses in Custer State Park, but it seems like a canned hunt to me. Although to me since it is priced as a public hunt, the impetus that drives canned hunting is not present.

Sorry for ranting.

Tasty!!!!

Tom

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Lord, let me be half the man my dogs and my kids think I am, or a quarter of the man my wife wishes I was....

Well, I was all for getting it until you said it was gonna hang for 2-3 weeks. I'd throw it out after that. YUCK!

23 sections is nearly 15,000 acres for those who think in smaller terms. Not exactly like just going out to the cow lot and pick one out.

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Personally, I agree. I would always secretly shake my head at the trophy hunters who'd come out all full of themselves to bag an old herd bull. And I had thought of Custer (though I tend to think of that as pretty canned, too). But I didn't know there were any others.

But considering how difficult it is to get a slot to hunt "wild" buffalo, I won't hold it against someone who wants one in their freezer and has to either buy ranch animals, or a canned hunt.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Wild buffalo are still shot in WY and MT, when they wander out of Yellowstone NP. Most of the killing is done by govt. shooters, but the state does have some hunts. Yellowstone is in my regular googlenews feed, and I get quite a few bison stories... google bison under 'news'... ex. http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t...nW5RTuE2Yf0EKQ

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Arizona has wild buffalo hunts, with a certain flavor of "wild" -- it's a lottery draw to get a tag, with extremely low odds of ever getting picked. From what I understand, if you do get drawn (and pay the four-figure $$$$ for a tag) Fish and Game basically tells you where the buffalo are and may even escort you to the hunt.

So not much different than a canned hunt.

My .02 is that if you're going to do a canned hunt, it'd be cheaper and less work just to buy a buffalo and shoot it in your back yard. They're not much more expensive than a well bred cow to buy. And you could make sure it was in top shape, with a prime pelt, before shooting.

-- Leva

Scrounger,

Longer the meat hangs, the more tender the meat.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

There are hunts of the wild bison in the Delta Junction, Alaska area. Don't know what it costs, but probably plenty. I think there's a drawing for tags, at least there used to be. But IMO it probably wouldn't be any more 'sport' than the so-called 'canned' hunts. They really aren't all that wild, and are too big to hide very well, especially since they run in herds, and the areas they frequent are well-known to the local people. When we were living in Tok in the late 1980's we were buying grain for our goats and poultry from a Delta farmer, and he said if we could get a tag, and would shoot one of the bison that roamed his fields (unwanted, breaking down fences and eating his hay and barley), he would bring his tractor out and use the front-end loader to lift the carcass so we could dress it. We didn't get a tag, so weren't able to take him up on the offer.

Again, just my opinion, but if you are after meat for your family, I personally don't care about whether there was a lot of energy and money expended on some prolonged 'sporting' hunt. That's why I raise as much of our meat as possible, because in spite of having to feed them and care for them, I think it's more economical and efficient than expensive and time-consuming hunting trips. Now, if you are hunting for the fun of it, rather than for the meat, then that's one thing. Sure, spending thousands of dollars and a couple of weeks on a guided hunt for Dall sheep in a remote part of Alaska could be a really neat vacation. But it's no way to feed your family. (I'm not dissing guided hunts for Dall sheep in remote parts of Alaska, by the way -- a couple of my cousins used to guide these hunts. I just think it needs to be recognized that it's more for fun than for food.)

Kathleen

Also heard that there is less than 5 thousand purebred buffalo. The rest are crossed with cattle here and there....they still look like buffalo.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

Not always true. Also, the longer the meat hangs, the more the rotting process starts in. The "aged" taste people have been conditioned to like is actually rot. I'll eat mine fresh, thanks....