Dec 26, 2010 By Rod Schoener 5 min read

Charles M. Dean, of Lemont Furnace, carried his love for primitive firearms to another level when he journeyed to North Dakota in November for a buffalo hunt. “I’ve been planning the hunt for over a year, and it all came together on Nov. 5 when we left for North Dakota,” Dean said.

Dean builds his own rifles. He started his first rifle in 1973 and has been building custom flintlock and caplock rifles ever since.

He is currently building rifles for the National Rifle Association, which he will donate for the Association to raffle at its 2011 national convention in Pittsburgh.

“This is the first time I ever hunted buffalo with a muzzleloader,” Dean said. “I’ve been to Colorado a couple of times for elk. I use a muzzleloader all the time.

“Last year I got an 8-point buck with an 18-inch spread on the last day of deer season while hunting in Greene County. The last four years I’ve gotten nice big bucks in Greene County with my muzzleloader.

“My flintlock is hanging on the wall with a charge in it. I’ll take it down after Christmas and go out again. After Christmas, with a flintlock, I’ve mostly shot does.”

Dean said that he used a caplock rifle on the buffalo hunt.

Dean and a friend, George Justus, both killed buffalo.

Friends Denny Gamgeni and Ken Parmer accompanied them on the trip.

“George and I signed up and bought permits to hunt buffalo. The other two guys just went along and didn’t hunt,” Dean said.

In describing the North Dakota landscape, Dean said. “It is all rolling hills and open prairie. It is not really flat, and there are no trees for the most part. There are some patches of woods, but it is mostly open prairie with sagebrush.”

He explained that you have to sign up to hunt buffalo. You must have a buffalo permit and a guide. They were hunting out of bisonranch.com, which is owned by Oren Krapp, who also serves as the guide.

Buffalo permits are $1,650. They are purchased from the landowners.

The permits they purchased allowed them to shoot two-year-old buffalo in the 1,000 -pound range.

“We didn’t want to go too big,” Dean said. “Some of the bulls go 2,500 pounds or more.

“The medium size ones are better eating.”

Upon heading out for buffalo, they located a herd of about 250.

“They were almost 100 yards away,” Dean said. The guide picked out the ones we had permits for. You have to go along with him, as he tells you which ones will qualify. He points them out to you.”

Dean went on to say, “Buffalo are not like whitetail deer. They are not scared. They do not run away from you. That is whey they got slaughtered so badly in the past.”

After they located the herd, the hunters had to move several times to keep ahead of the buffalo.

“The buffalo I shot was 86 yards away,” Dean said. “They do not want you to shoot one if there is another one standing behind it for the bullet can pass through it and hit a second one.

“I shot and the buffalo ran a short distance. When it stopped, the other buffalo circled around it and walked around. There were so many that you couldn’t see it. After milling around the downed bull for about 10 minutes they dispersed. The guide said that it is a normal behavior. We were told not to go over to them for they might charge us.”

As the herd was dispersing, Justus killed his bull.

Dean killed his bull with a 300-grain Hornaday copper-jacketed bullet propelled by 80 grains of type FF blackpowder.

“I was surprised at the power it had. I use 60 grains of FFF for deer, and shoot them at 100 yards.”

Dean’s friends are from the Harrisburg area. The group drove to North Dakota, pulling a travel trailer.

It took three days for them to drive out and two days to get back.

In all, they stayed in North Dakota five days.

Their buffalo hunt only took one day. The rest of the time they went pheasant hunting and did some sightseeing.

One of their stops was the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown, N.D.

Dean said the pheasant hunting was “pretty good.”

He explained that they didn’t get a pheasant license until they arrived in North Dakota, as the weather can turn bad in a hurry. “It was starting to get rough and snowy,” he said.

All their hunting was done on private land. The landowner has about 20,000 acres.

Dean said, “George and I plan to go to Utah next year for elk hunting. I’ve been to Colorado twice in the past, but that didn’t pan out too well.”

Dean’s trophy buffalo head is currently at the taxidermist being mounted.

He plans to keep his powder dry and head for the woods again real soon.

Dean is the proprietor of the Kentucky Rifle Shoppe in Lemont Furnace, where he specializes in custom built Kentucky rifles and accessories.

For more information about his rifles, give him a call at 724-437-3020.

Herald-Standard Outdoors Editor Rod Schoener can be reached online at rschoener@heraldstandard.com.