We were very surprised at the wildness of these animals. It sure isn't anything like hunting them on a ranch here in the US. We hunted six days before I shot my animal. It was also the only buffalo that I had seen up to then. Hume had the same luck, seeing only one other animal, and it was one that a resident had wounded. They eventually caught up with it. These were the only buffalo killed during the six days we were there with five hunters in camp.
One problem we had was very little snow. This meant the buffalo were not forced down into the valleys where we could get to them. They were scattered high in the mountains, and were staying in thick timber during the day, coming out to graze in the meadows only at night. This, coupled with the fact that these buffalo are very wild, made for difficult and challenging hunting. These buffalo are acting just like elk. This is only the fourth year they have been open to hunting, but it is truly amazing how much they have changed their behavior during this time. Mike Hammett said hunting them now is nothing like the first one or two years.
Some other changes that have come about is that British Columbia's Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks now believes there are only about 1,500 buffalo in this free-ranging herd. This is about half of what was previously thought. Up to this year, Hammett was the only outfitter with allocations for buffalo in British Columbia. He had a quota of 16 animals. This year they reduced the outfitter quota to 10 animals, and they split them, with five........(continued)
