Zama Time!

[dave99]

I’m feeling pretty excited and fortunate.... leaving in the wee hours of the morning to make the long drive North for bison. Our plan is to focus on the lake with snowmobiles. Another fella in the group will drive the backroads to look for sign.

Wondering whether anyone who has been up there in the past few days has seen bison. PM would be appreciated.

Thanks all! I’ll post pics if we get lucky.




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[Sooner]

Good luck, a hunt I would like to try one day.

[greywolf]

Originally Posted by dave99

I’m feeling pretty excited and fortunate.... leaving in the wee hours of the morning to make the long drive North for bison. Our plan is to focus on the lake with snowmobiles. Another fella in the group will drive the backroads to look for sign.

Wondering whether anyone who has been up there in the past few days has seen bison. PM would be appreciated.

Thanks all! I’ll post pics if we get lucky.




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PM sent

[Rather Be Hunting]

Have a terrific time!!
RBH

[58thecat]

Post pics too....good luck.

[paillight]

Originally Posted by dave99

I’m feeling pretty excited and fortunate.... leaving in the wee hours of the morning to make the long drive North for bison. Our plan is to focus on the lake with snowmobiles. Another fella in the group will drive the backroads to look for sign.

Wondering whether anyone who has been up there in the past few days has seen bison. PM would be appreciated.

Thanks all! I’ll post pics if we get lucky.




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Hello Dave tried to send you pm not sure if it worked. We're up here too send me a text or call 780 906 2531. Name is Donn

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[paillight]

Originally Posted by dave99

I’m feeling pretty excited and fortunate.... leaving in the wee hours of the morning to make the long drive North for bison. Our plan is to focus on the lake with snowmobiles. Another fella in the group will drive the backroads to look for sign.

Wondering whether anyone who has been up there in the past few days has seen bison. PM would be appreciated.

Thanks all! I’ll post pics if we get lucky.




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Hello we're up here too would like to meet up. Name is Donn 780 906 2531

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[dave99]

Made it up to Zama today. Tough driving conditions until Valleyview, then the skies cleared and the temps dropped.
Going to go hard after ‘em tomorrow. Thanks for the pointers to all who contributed.






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[mightybuck]

Good luck love it when the sun shines

[Cole_]

Originally Posted by dave99

I’m feeling pretty excited and fortunate.... leaving in the wee hours of the morning to make the long drive North for bison. Our plan is to focus on the lake with snowmobiles. Another fella in the group will drive the backroads to look for sign.

Wondering whether anyone who has been up there in the past few days has seen bison. PM would be appreciated.

Thanks all! I’ll post pics if we get lucky.




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Heading up that way on The 7th, how are you making out?

[gitrdun]

Good luck to all you guys. Stay warm.

[charps]

First Bison hunt! Heading up on the 9th and the weather looks promising! We are preparing to put the miles on to find the herds but any intel or tips is always greatly appreciated!

[Cole_]

Any information on where the herds are being spotted would be appreciated, planning on focusing on the lake area.

[dave99]

Got back home from the hunt yesterday. Wanted to give a hunt recap. Those that are planning to hunt in the next few weeks may find this useful. Stay tuned...


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[dave99]

DAY 1:

Plan was to access the NW side of the lake via oilfield roads. Pushed the truck about 1km into an unplowed road before the decision was made to back out before we got hopelessly stuck in deep snow. We considered sledding in to the NW side from there, but instead elected to back out and access the NE side of the lake instead. Parked near Habay.

Headed W and SW along the lake, then eventually turned N. Had a good look at the entire E half of the lake. Found an old gut pile that the wolves had been feeding on, but no signs of buffalo except some 1-2 week old tracks and pushes to get to grass.

Ended up with 70km on the sleds thru very deep snow. Temp was around -28 before wind chill. Good day to get our bearings and see what was around (nothing, lol).



Being a greenhorn sledder, my buds got a kick out of me rolling the sled within 8 seconds of sitting on it for the first time!


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[dave99]

DAY 2:

Another early morning. The plan this time was to sled to the S and E of the Apache plant. Since about half of the oilfield roads were impassable by trucks due to deep snow, we planned to work the lease sites, cut lines, and any terrain feature that would allow.

Ended up parking the truck a few miles SE of Apache, and headed S along a power line and lease sites. Saw some very old sign and evidence that a herd had used the area, but at least a week prior. Found another old kill site nearby as we worked our way S. Eventually came out on the Hay River, and had some beautiful sledding along the curves of the Hay, to near the “No Bison Hunting” zone. Turned S along cutlines and roads before making the trek back to the truck.

Put 92km on the sleds at about -30 temp. Great day to be out in the sunshine but no fresh sign of buffalo. Oilfield operators that we spoke with at Noralta in Zama report no buffalo sightings in the last 2 months.

A native trapper says that he saw a herd of 58 SE of Habay cross the road 2 weeks ago. Checked out the area and found very old trails.

Saw 2 moose, a bunch of other fresh moose tracks, and a handful of great grey owls.








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[dave99]

DAY 3:

Frustrated by the lack of sign in the areas considered to be best for buffalo, we decided to think outside the box. The cold snap and very deep snow has the animals hunkered down, likely in thick bush and out of the wind. We also reasoned that the depth of snow was keeping them from traveling far. So we decided to have a look at the Chinchaga river. Satellite imagery showed lots of oxbows and forestry cuts that might hold grass and cover nearby. So we gave it a try.

Drove to where Hwy 58 crosses the river, and accessed it from the NE. There’s a summertime boat launch there that was perfect for getting us onto the river.

Made some miles N and stopped several times to hike into and check out likely looking oxbows and cuts. Nothing but moose sign and ubiquitous wolf sign. Don’t know how such a high wolf density can be sustained with so few ungulates! Guess they get good at chasing down hare.

Turned around when we hit the S edge of the no hunting zone, having yet to turn up any buffalo sign.

Ended with about 50km on sleds after another side trip, but to no avail. Enjoyed a nice campfire to roast bologna and jerkey. Much better than the 3 frozen hard boiled eggs that I ate for lunch on day 1!



Did some target practice at 250yds to check zero. The cardboard target sustained heavy injuries, but still no buffalo blood on the ground.

Remember my idea of thinking outside the box? After a fruitless day 3, we decided that we’d get back inside that box for our final day of hunting..

By the time we loaded our sleds, we had just enough time to scope out an access point on the SW side of the lake for tomorrow’s hunt. All looked good for a plan to tackle the W half of the lake tomorrow.




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[dave99]

DAY 4:

Early wake up and pack up the truck. Plan to make the 1:45 drive to the SW lake access that we had scoped out the day prior.

Driving in the dark past Apache, I spotted a set of fresh tracks on the shoulder. My heart nearly stopped when a close look showed them to be a fresh set of buffalo tracks. A lone bull had traveled this road at night!



So the plan quickly changed to track the bull down until we found him. We followed his tracks for about 1km until he crossed onto an unplowed lease road. We quickly unpacked our gear and set off after him on foot, since we figured the sleds would be too noisy.

After a few hundred yards of easy tracking (and very hard walking through thigh deep snow) the bull’s track turned left toward a series of slough bottoms and clearings. At the edge of the clearing was his bed from the previous night.

We knew we were close. Looking very carefully into the meadow ahead of us, we saw it was tracked out with snow pushed aside in many spots as the buffalo had pushed snow to get to grass.

Still no sign of the buff so we took time to scan the adjacent forest to see if anything large and brown showed up. Nothing. So we jacked rounds into chambers and worked our way slowly across the meadow.

Once back into the forest on the far side of the meadow, I made out a bed from this morning, complete with buff-sized sh*t that was still steaming in the -36 temps.

We pushed slowly onward. As we placed steps carefully in the snow, my FIL heard a branch break. Still we crept on.

Another 100yd later, the buff tracks suddenly began running, and my heart sank as it became obvious that he had us made.

We tracked for another hour and eventually beelined back to the truck to regroup. The buff was no longer in feed/rest mode, and appeared to be intent on putting some serious miles between him and us.







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[dave99]

We took time at the truck to get some food and fluids into us since we knew that it was going to be a marathon if I was hoping to track the bull down again on foot. Calories down the hatch we got back on the trail and instructed Mike to stay with the truck.

After another 2hrs of tracking the buff tracks got onto the road and began heading N. So we pile back into the truck to follow.

After a few shenanigans and loops the buff turned onto a cut line heading NE. By now it was 3pm and we knew we would soon run out of daylight.

We tried our best to get back on him, but to no avail. 2 more hours of sweat drenched hiking and we finally had to admit defeat. We trudged back to the truck as darkness fell, knowing that we may never get another chance at Alberta buffalo.

The drive to High Level was pretty quiet with 3 tired hunters. Later that night, while trying over beers to get the taste of skunk off our collective tongues at the High Level watering hole, we reflected on our hunt. We felt tired and frustrated, but also vindicated by the fact that Day 4 had actually turned up a buffalo, and despite no blood being spilled, we had thrown everything we had at the buff.

Better hunters may have made different choices, and may have been successful under our same set of circumstances. But we put everything we had into those 4 days of freedom in the North.

Good luck to all those that are or will be hunting these incredible animals in the wild. And congratulations to those that have and will succeed.





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[heybert]

Great story. Thanks for sharing

[Smokinyotes]

Great story and nice pics Dave.

[nube]

thanks for posting

[alder]

Originally Posted by dave99

We took time at the truck to get some food and fluids into us since we knew that it was going to be a marathon if I was hoping to track the bull down again on foot. Calories down the hatch we got back on the trail and instructed Mike to stay with the truck.

After another 2hrs of tracking the buff tracks got onto the road and began heading N. So we pile back into the truck to follow.

After a few shenanigans and loops the buff turned onto a cut line heading NE. By now it was 3pm and we knew we would soon run out of daylight.

We tried our best to get back on him, but to no avail. 2 more hours of sweat drenched hiking and we finally had to admit defeat. We trudged back to the truck as darkness fell, knowing that we may never get another chance at Alberta buffalo.

The drive to High Level was pretty quiet with 3 tired hunters. Later that night, while trying over beers to get the taste of skunk off our collective tongues at the High Level watering hole, we reflected on our hunt. We felt tired and frustrated, but also vindicated by the fact that Day 4 had actually turned up a buffalo, and despite no blood being spilled, we had thrown everything we had at the buff.

Better hunters may have made different choices, and may have been successful under our same set of circumstances. But we put everything we had into those 4 days of freedom in the North.

Good luck to all those that are or will be hunting these incredible animals in the wild. And congratulations to those that have and will succeed.

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I like the attitude and think your hunt stands for success no matter. You gave it your best and got to live it. That's what counts. You'll remember the experience and the company you kept. I'm sure it was as special as I imagine it to

[Bub]

Those are awesome posts! Thank you for sharing! Felt as if I have been on the hunt with you
Really, great posts!

[greywolf]

Thanks for the story!!

[Dick284]

Great read.

[dave99]

Thanks for the positive feedback fellas. Special thanks to Nube, mcreg, atepanuk and greywolf for the PM and info prior to the hunt. Much appreciated.


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[2 Tollers]

Originally Posted by dave99

Thanks for the positive feedback fellas. Special thanks to Nube, mcreg, atepanuk and greywolf for the PM and info prior to the hunt. Much appreciated. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dave great write up and thanks for taking the time to put it up. Has a fellow that has been hopeful on this draw. looking back what would you have done different. Very oblivious the effort was there.

[zhunter11]

Great Read! I hope to luck out and pull a tag one of these years Sounds like you had a blast

Zack

[dave99]

Originally Posted by 2 Tollers

Dave great write up and thanks for taking the time to put it up. Has a fellow that has been hopeful on this draw. looking back what would you have done different. Very oblivious the effort was there.

I have been asked a couple of times what I would have done differently, now that the hunt is over. Not a whole lot comes to mind, but here are a few things that I thought of. Not all things that I would change. Some are just reflections after the fact:

- Plan on spending a minimum of 5 days hunting. Allow one day to travel to and from, depending on your departure point. It took us 4 days of hunting and tons of miles to finally locate a buffalo, so we just ran out of time. Another day or two could have made the difference.

- Choose your accommodation wisely. Canvas tent and wood stove is an awesome adventure, but the daily chores of survival while camping at -35 will cut into hunting time. We stayed at Noralta in Zama and had all meals taken care of for us, and always felt recovered and ready to go in the mornings. If you choose the camping option, allow for more days hunting.

- The ideal group size is 4 hunters. That way, you have two groups of two out scouting and looking for sign. Communicate to each other throughout the day, and work as a team. Our group had just three of us, and we did not feel comfortable putting on dozens of miles solo on skidoos in the intense cold by splitting up 2+1. So our group stayed together most of the time, rather than splitting up and covering more territory. Honestly, in the frigid cold, when wind and deep snow is factored in, the margin between safety and danger is a razors edge. It really is dangerous out there. We each carried survival gear including down sleeping bags, tarps, extra clothes, fire starting equipment, etc. Basically the stuff that you need to survive the night.

- Set reasonable goals, and temper expectations. Nobody on the forum (or very few) writes a story about an unsuccessful hunt. Expect to hunt hard for a buffalo. It is important to realize that the total herd size in Zama is about 600 buff. In any given year, 125 draw tags are issued, and an ADDITIONAL 250 First Nations tags are given. So a total of 375 tags for a population of 600 buff. In other words, these animals get hunted hard. FN hunters have the added benefit of starting their hunt in September, rather than December like the rest of us. Until now, I have never seen a population of animals sustain (and this is me extrapolating) a hunter kill rate of 35% in a given year, assuming a hunter success rate of just above 50%. I am no biologist, but I think the norm for most game species is 5-15%. The bios make no apologies for the fact that this buff herd needs to be controlled -and hunters are doing a great job to control it - but I can’t help but think that the quality of this hunt has deteriorated a bit as a result. That being said, if I ever have another chance to head up North for a second kick at the can, I’d be up there in a heartbeat!

- Date. I would say that on the average year mid December and to mid January. That gives you good freeze up to skidoo the rivers, lakes and muskeg, but hopefully snow conditions that aren’t horribly deep.

Hope this helps!
Dave




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