Saw this guy on BLM land in San Benito County today. No thundering herds though, just this one.

Weird. I've never heard of BLM allowing bison grazing on its land.

looks kinda thin.

There used to be (maybe still are) a few on a ranch on the right of highway 50 near the top of the hill the just east of the El Dorado Hills exit.

Doesn't Murder Burger in Davis serve a buffalo burger?

I never understood why an image-hosting website would want to advertise that way -- as if I would be enticed to host my photo on a site that shows its advertisement instead of my photo.

In other words your pic ain't workin V.

I've never heard of BLM allowing bison grazing on its land.

They do in Utah:

http://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/biggam ... son_15.pdf

Not sure about California.

Anyway, nice photo Bob.

Gary Schenk wrote:Plenty of bison on Catalina.

Should be about 200 of them by now. I think they left a dozen or so there after they were used for the filming of a movie back in the 20's or 30's. They just did well I guess.

The full story is kinda sad.
Right next to the BLM land is a place called Laguna Ranch, a private hunting club.
They have roads marked with green circles, blue squares, etc like a ski area.



A bit surreal.



Luckily no one was around while I was there. I think the bull I saw was an escapee, or perhaps just a wanderer, as the fencing isn't very tight. For about $5K you can have the privilege of shooting it, not that it would take much skill. Sort of like stock fish - it let me get within about 40yds of it no problem.

Bob Burd wrote:For about $5K you can have the privilege of shooting it, not that it would take much skill. Sort of like stock fish - it let me get within about 40yds of it no problem.

That's because regardless of what they will say, hunters are NOT doing it primarily for the challenge. They primarily just want to kill something. It's more inferiority-complex small-penis compensation, most likely.

If hunters were truly interested in the challenge and not in the actual kill, they could achieve this same challenge (and probably more) by trying to shoot a good photo of the same animals instead. So the hunters' "It's about the hunt, not the kill" argument just doesn't fly. And with these tame bison, that fact is even more apparent.

Day Hiker wrote:If hunters were truly interested in the challenge and not in the actual kill, they could achieve this same challenge (and probably more) by trying to shoot a good photo of the same animals instead. So the hunters' "It's about the hunt, not the kill" argument just doesn't fly. And with these tame bison, that fact is even more apparent.

Funny, that's exactly the direction some hunting competitions seem to be moving toward. See here.

WAS THAT GUY OUT BY PANOCHE? MERCY HOT SPRINGS AREA? THERE IS A RANCH OUT THERE THAT HAD A FEW HEAD OF BISON. I LOVE THAT AREA SO REMOTE FOR BEING SO CLOSE TO URBAN SPRAWL/DECAY

Gary Schenk wrote:

Day Hiker wrote:That's because regardless of what they will say, hunters are NOT doing it primarily for the challenge.

True, most don't want a challenge. Most want to put some food on the table.

Haha, you're hilarious; I wasn't talking about subsistence hunting. But you already knew that.

butitsadryheat wrote:They can be quite testy sometimes. You're lucky he was in a good mood, Bob. He could have made your life miserable.

I wouldn't have even seen it if it hadn't moved away as I was moseying down the dirt road. I followed it over a small rise to get a picture, but I kept near some large rocks in case it decided to charge. I had no illusion that it was a tame animal.

It was in the Laguna Mtn area southeast of Pinnacles National Monument, not near Mercy Hot Springs / Panoche.

I never realized until recently how much BLM land there is in San Benito County. Primarily it is used for hunting and off-road recreation, but it makes for some great remote hiking opportunities. Especially since the OHV areas are closed for asbestos hazard.