Hey Fellas,
Started a new job up in the Northern Territory, which is a long way from home and my Family, but luckily I've got a few mates up here and I've managed to get out for a couple of hunts.
They were keen to see me take a Buffalo with the trad gear so I ordered a new Toleke Whip #65 and tuned in some arrows for it.
We were looking for pigs but one of the wettest wet seasons in history has water everywhere and game spread out, so game has been thin on the ground thus far.
On this day the sun had already set, and we were on our way back, when my mates spotted a few Buff out on the plains.
So with the words "Try out the new bow" I wasted no time as dark was fast approaching. I bent down low and made a beeline towards the mob, hoping that the poor light would allow me to get close in the tall grass.
I closed the distance to about 50m before a few Buffalo cows got nervous and took off, leaving a young Bull standing his ground. I kept heading towards him at a slower pace, and got to about 30m, before his curiosity was piqued at the shuffling shape before him. With that typical look down their nose of an arrogant Buffalo, he started walking towards me, trying to figure out what I was. I stopped moving, but as he came in to 10m I started to think "What the hell am I doing here?" and started to back out before he decided to dance all over me.
As i Backed out to 20m, he stopped, so I slowly circled around anti clockwise to try and get a broadside shot. With that, he spun around following me, keeping front on. I went the other way, and he spun again, offering me only a frontal shot. I was not keen on shooting him front on with him looking at me, so I kept up the dance, and after what seemed like eternity, but was probably only a couple of minutes, he tired of the game and next thing I knew, he was broadside at 20m.
I thought to myself, I won't get a better chance than this, so I crouched down as low as I could and darted in to a tall clump of grass 15m from him. I already had an arrow nkocked, so I took a big breath and eased up at fulll draw and aimed halfway up just in front of his crease. Next thing I knew, he wheeled away and ran off with my arrow in his shoulder. I dropped down flat, hoping that if he decided to get cranky, he wouldn't see me. I snuck a peek after about 10 seconds and he was walking away coughing. I was uncertain of getting both lungs on such a big animal with a marginal poundage bow, so I snuck in to try to get one into his left side.
While this was happening, the commotion and smell of blood obviously stirred up the herd, and 4 big horned cows came trotting in towards me shoulder to shoulder. I wasn't keen on that, so stood up to full height and backed out keeping my eyes on them. They bobbed their heads a bit and made a bit of a fuss, but turned back towards the mob after 30 seconds. I quickly closed the gap on the bull, who only went 50m, and was standing there sounding crook. As I got closer, he laid down to my disbelief.
I quickly put another arrow into him and he rolled on to his side. My disbeleif went up another notch, and put one more insurance shot in. He let out a death bellow, and lay still.
I walked up to him and said 'Sorry Mate' as he breathed his last.
Then the adrenaline dump came, we took the pictures as a fog of mosquitoes descended upon us, and I couldn't care less.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v667/memo48/IMG_0250_zps62iye9dl.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/memo48/media/IMG_0250_zps62iye9dl.jpg.html)
Great job on an awesome hunt! I love reading these hunting stories.
Any idea how deep that first arrow ended up making it?
Kyle
That's awesome!!! Congratulations!!!
At one time that was a dream of mine. Now I don't shoot enough bow to get it done. Congratulations.
Great stuff congrats
Wow! Congratulations on a great animal and hunt! How exciting was that! I was breathing heavy and I wasn't even there.... Nice!
Thanks for sharing that. Well done!
Nice! Great job. I would live to be able to do that again.
That's awesome! Congrats! I'd love to try that some time.
What arrows were you using?
Great job. Awesome feat! And what an animal.... You can see the mosquitos in the picture. just curious,What was your arrow set up?
Congrats! Is that 65# at your draw, or at 28 inches? How was the penetration on the first arrow? What was your arrow and broadhead set up?
Good job , thanks for sharing .
YEAH BOY!!!
That's a big critter....... :thumbsup: :notworthy:
Awesome animal! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Great story! Congrats
Always love reading a good hunting story. Congrats on an exciting hunt.
Excellent!!! Thanks for sharing!
wow great story
Awesome!
Congrats!
Bisch
Outstanding Congratulations!!!!
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Very cool story, congratulations on a great hunt and animal :thumbsup:
Steve Jr
Nicely played! What a rush, hey!
most excellent!! :thumbsup:
your words conjured up memories of long ago hunts....
congrats on a fantastic experience. a true trophy for the trad bowhunter.
Congratulations! That is an amazing animal, great job with your hunt. Its really interesting to see and hear of hunting animals that I have never seen in the wild. Thank for sharing. would love to see any other photos you have. It is just such a different place than I hunt.
Now that is a cool trophy there. Congrats.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
AWESOME!!
Thanks fellas,
My arrows are Goldtip Traditional in the old 75/95 cut to 31 inches. I wanted to go heaviest % FoC so went with a 100gn insert and started with a 300gn head for the bareshaft tune and it flew straight. I also confirmed it with paper tuning.
This gave me a 770gn arrow at just under 25% FoC. I also run 4x4 inch feathers on my arrows.
As for the broadheads, I ordered some VPA's and 200gn Grizzly with 100gn inserts and was waiting on these to arrive when I went hunting. The original plan for this trip was to hunt pigs, so I borrowed some Aussie made Kayuga broadheads (130gn) from my mate and thought the arrows will be a bit stiff but at 600gn, they would handle pigs at close range easy enough.
As it turned out, they did the job on buffalo just fine. The first arrow managed to reach both lungs, as we came across the bulls bloodtrail on the way out and it was a constant stream the whole way. I never got to confirm penetration depth as he rolled onto that arrow when he died.
The second arrow went through a rib, and I guess got around half penetration. The final arrow slipped in between ribs and only had the nock showing.
I draw around 29 inches, so I'm guessing it's about #68 at my draw length.
Cheers,
Memo.
Well Done
Way to go
That's what I'm talkin about!! Congrats
Good story. Congratulations!
Wow! That's an exciting hunt! Congrats on a great animal! :thumbsup:
Top stuff,
A great moment for sure, and well told too.
Certainly an experience to remember.
Best
Lex
Congratulations on a fine hunt my friend. Thank you for taking us along thru your very well told hunting story.
I know how you can get caught up in the hunt, at any point did you stop and think about how truly dangerous this could be? I have to guess the answer would be yes, since you had the foresight to lay flat after the shot. Then the cows came towards you, wow I know that had to be a rush that most hunters will never truly know.
Wow, just wow, thanks again for sharing!!!
:archer2:
Nice, id love to visit there someday.
Cheers guys,
Caughtandhobble - I don't think I gave it too much thought, it all happened so quickly. From first sighting the Buffalo to him being down was less than 5 minutes.
The body language of the bull was never threatening, just curious. I suppose I know know the meaning of the saying "too close for comfort" as there was definitely a point where I wasn't comfortable. In hindsight there was definitely the possibility of it going bad, but I suppose I just handled it as it unfolded and got away with it unscathed.
Definitely won't be pulling the same stunt with a Scrub Bull though.
Congrats on a gutsy stalk. Way cool. You have some pretty fine memories there.
Man oh man what an adventure :campfire:
that is awesome, so cool....did I say....so cool.
Well done mate... well done!
What do you do with it now? Eat water buff for a year:) Guess you could send the horns to a bowyer and get a fancy bow made.
Great job!
Spectacular harvest...thank you for sharing
Congrats, Fine Bull
What's the buff population like now? I heard there was a big cull....
No big cull, mate. The usual cull of about 3000 animals per year around Maningrida. Overall population on the rise.
Congratulations!
Very nice! Congratulations!
Congrats, quite a trophy!
Congrats!
Great stalk and finish. Congrats and thanks for sharing. Share some details on the arrow weight,broad head and if you hit any ribs. Can you eat those big bastards?
Awesome!!!!!!
Well done sir!
Congrats!!! Great job thanks for sharing.