I shot a bison.
Custer State Park (South Dakota) has lots of them. Every fall they round up some and auction them off to thin out the heard.
My plan was to buy one, haul it home, turn it loose for a while and hunt it.
What's that they say, "best laid plans".
So I bought one, they loaded it up in the trailer. Now these are wild critters, not farm animals like on most ranches. Which means they aren't happy riding in a trailer. Let me tell you they can rock a trailer. Wild ride going home.
He calmed down a bit but when I pulled over the cattle guard into the yard my wife and granddaughter comes out to see it. Then decided it was hungry and started poking hay into the trailer. He went ballistic. Thought he was gonna tear my trailer apart.
I then gave up the idea turning him loose, if I did that, I'd be fixing fences for a while.
So to be on the safe side I pulled the trailer in my roping arena, figured it would hold better if he did get out of the trailer.
I have a neighbor who is a taxidermist so I call him to find out the best place to shoot this sucker so I don't mess up a mount. He comes over and sees me with my Buffalo Rifle, a Remington Rolling block in 44-90 Sharps Bottle Neck. He laughs and tells me not to use a rifle, just use a pistol and shoot him in the head while he was in the trailer.
I figured that was OK, he knew more about it then I did, plus I've shot a lot of moose with my Model 28 service revolver in my cop days in Alaska. Buffalo can't be much different.
So I stick the barrel of my Model 28 inside the trailer and aim at the head. The 150 gr LSWC (my moose round) 357 at 1300+ fps bounced off his head.
If you want to see a mad buffalo, bounce a 357 round off his head. My trailer is bouncing and rolling and I look over at my neighbor who is doing the same thing, laughing his butt off.
Screw this I says, I'm getting the rifle. Neighbor says no, (still laughing) tells me to draw an imaginary line from the base of one horn to the opposite eye, then an imaginary line from the other horn to the other eye, shoot the center of the X. I did that and he went down like he was suppose to.
OK I can't tell my grandkids about this, so I get the tractor and haul the buffalo to the field, lay the rifle across it and take the picture of Grandpa's Buffalo. (pictured below).
You're right about being lean, they are lean to the point if they aren't blood rare they are too tough to eat. The hamburger wasn't bad, but still too lean for my taste.
For eating I'll stick to elk, deer and antelope is good, moose is better but nothing beats a good young cow elk. Even still, I like to mix up some beef talo when making elk burgers.
Getting an buffalo from the Custer State Park is cheaper then you can get them from some buffalo ranch.
Best have lots of kids and relatives, it takes a while to eat one of those things.