Elijah Smith Elementary School students embarked on a successful bison hunt last month.

Grade 7 students spent five days following horse trails through the Champagne-Aishihik First Nation's traditional territory looking for the beasts.

Three and a half days went by without a kill.

'But there was no sense of frustration,' Whitehorse RCMP Sgt. Al Lane said in an interview. 'The kids were too busy having fun with the other activities.'

The Grade 7 students got to ride in a skimmer a sled pulled by a snow machine.

While some students found the ride relaxing and fell asleep in the sled, others had a rougher experience, falling out of the sled.

'It was fun,' said student Hayley Wells. 'The skimmers hurt really bad. You could feel every little bump.'

She recalled how one of her classmates threw up in his helmet from motion sickness.

On the trip, the youth got to catch fish with a net an activity that turned wild when one student was dared to eat a fish eye, which he did. Three other people on the trip also wanted to get in on the action and ate eyes too.

The biggest highlight for the students was using .22-calibre rifle.

'It was target practice with a gun,' said Wells.

'It was cool,' said Wells' classmate, Myron Etzel. 'I was scared because I had never shot a gun before.'

'I had only ever shot a pellet gun,' said 12-year-old Jason Zrum.

The weather on the hunt was unusually warm, although the youth still kept a fire going in their tents throughout the night.

Etzel melted one of his boots when placing his feet near the fire to thaw out his toes.

A down sleeping bag was also destroyed by fire, sending feathers everywhere.

A strong wind sent an outhouse door into the head of a parent chaperone.

'It looked like he had an ostrich egg taped to his head,' student Kayla Fitzsimmons said about the injury.

On the second-last night of the trip, a small team of adults finally tracked down a bison.

The large mammal was killed by Const. Karen Olito with a long rifle.

Students weren't present during the kill because it would have been difficult to get them to a bison area that is only accessible by snow machine.

The bison was brought into camp cut up on a skimmer.

The youth were later shown how to prepare the meat properly by conservation officer Trevor Castagner and first nation guide Harry Smith.

Fitzsimmons said seeing the dead bison was not too disturbing. The 12-year-old said it was gross to see 'guts' hanging out of the bison's head.

'They lifted the eyelid and this huge eye was staring at me,' said Fitzsimmons.

Since the hunt, the students have been busy cutting the meat into steaks, hamburgers and sausage.

This month, Elijah Smith Elementary School will be hosting a feast in the Kwanlin Dun village.

Before the hunt, the students had to complete the Hunters Education, Ethics and Development (HEED) course.

The students also had to fundraise money for the hunt, hosting a few school suppers and sleepovers. The students also worked a concession at the Polar Games.

Lane said the bison hunt helps build community. He also said it's an opportunity for the RCMP to teach wilderness survival to youth like not being out alone in the bush.

Bisons are the largest animals in North America. They can weigh more than 900 kilograms and can be three metres long.