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Main Boards => Dangerous Game => Topic started by: Don Thomas on January 15, 2006, 11:37:00 PM
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Well, the Melville Island hunt went even better than expected last year. Eleven bowhunters took eleven good bulls. This remarkable statistic doesn't mean these animals are easy... far from it. There are just lot so opportunities, all in an unspoiled wilderness setting too vast to be believed. We are now organizing for 2006, and anyone interested in a truly memorable dangerous game bowhunt should feel free to contact me. I will be meeting Bill Baker in New Zealand this coming week to put some final touches on plans for this season, and while several slots are booked already there is still plenty of room for prime time. The story from last year's Melville hunt will be appearing soon in Outdoor Life. For fishing fanatics, check out the last issues of Saltwater Fly-Fishing, which will give you an idea of what's there to do once you've killed your bull. Cheers, Don
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What's the time frame lookin' like, Dr. Thomas ?
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Aaron, the place I go can hunt from April to November, but it will be VERY hot at either end. The most popular months are May-August.
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I have been trying to avoid asking about this thread but I feel weak.
RicMic, how much are the hunts you do now? With Don's recent TBM article I know the one he goes on is $6k from Darwin.
This year will not work for me, unfortunately, but I might need a "biggie" to look forward to for '07.
Are the bulls smaller from the area Don goes to? They don't appear to have quite the body mass as the bulls from the "RicMic spot" although pictures can be decieving.
Don, what is the hunt duration of "your" spot and is their other game too? Pigs, etc?
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As the Oz spider slowly reels in another victim. :help:
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Actually Mark, I was originally planning on going over with RicMic back in about '98 or '99? and the bloke that was suppose to guide us for buffalo fell off the face of the earth.
Since then I have become a resident of Alaska and RicMic a resident of Australia!
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if it is proper to discuss on this forum,(if not, please e-mail) i would like someone to give me an estimate cost for a 2 or 3 week hunt. buff, hogs..etc. i am trying to arrange the funds for 2007. thank you
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Stevo, send me an email so I can reply to it, I haven't be able to get one to go through.
I can really speak of the size of the island buff, I haven't had any experience with them. I do know for a fact that most of the buffalo going into the record book in recent years have come from the station that I go to, including Monty's #1. Brunners bull that he took last season will be very close to making the top 10, depending on how much it shrinks, I don't know if he ever got it measured. I have seen at least three buff that were in the same ball park as Monty's, but two of them were later killed by rifle hunters. One is still there unless he died of old age. I had one very big bull last year that could have been taken by a bowhunter ,but wasn't, it was later taken by a gun hunter and would be about #5 in the archery records. We also saw another bull that looked to be exactly the same size as that one on the last day we hunted and it is still there. Other than Monty's they have few more bulls in the archery top ten and also in the muzzleloader top ten, including I think #'s1,2 and 3. I was there when the number one was taken. Young bulls are very easy to hunt, its like hunting yearling bucks. Old mature herd bulls or dugga boys are a totally different situation. The biggest problem USUALLY is talking bowhunters out of shooting the numerous immature bulls that they see standing around.
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LOL, had to chuckle when you mentioned Brunner and Shrinkage in the same sentence RicMic...
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Kevin, the wordage of that sentence did take a bit of thought!
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how would you look into a bowhunt in Oz, i can't never find much on the net. is it more than an african hunt? i would like to do buff, banteng, and scrub bull. even though i really don't know anything about banteng or scrub bull like where they come from or how big they are. and what else is there in Oz to shoot besides goats and pigs with a bow, can you shoot crocs?
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Great White, I sent you a PM. OZ is more difficult to research than Africa. It is a lot better than when I started researching it, ten or so years ago. It just isn't as commercialized, which I personally like. Bantang are the ancesters of all domestic cattle and are an endangered species everywhere EXCEPT Australia, which is the only place in the world that they can be hunted. The mature bulls are somewhere around a 1000#'s and get to be nearly black with light colored legs. The scrub bulls can vary endlessly with size, color and size and shape of horns. The biggest one I ever saw taken was probably close to 1800#'s and lilkely would be #1 with bow. Very few scub bulls or bantang ever get taken by bowhunters. They are very wary and have no curiosity. The buffalo and bantang are only found in areas of the Northern territory, scrub bulls are in lots of areas of OZ. The places I hunt in the NT also have pigs, feral donkeys and dingos and some good barramundi fishing. There are lots of other species that can be hunted in other areas, red, rusa, sambar, axis and hog deer, feral goats, feral rams etc.. The "Green" movement in OZ recently decided to not allow sport hunting of crocs for no good reason, they simply stated that they didn't think it was a proper message to send. So instead of sport hunters killing a few big crocs and adding hundreds of thousands of $$$$ to the economy, problem crocs will be shot and left to rot.
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Agree with what Ric said. Banteng are very narrowly distributed and expensive to hunt. Crocs are not legal game despite the fact that there are plenty of them. Hogs are widely distributed (although not n Melville Island, which may be one reason there are so many buff), and it's usually easy to arrange a sidetrip for other species like axis deer. I have no basis for making any comparisons regarding the size of the buff in Ric's area vs. Melville so I'll leave that one blank. Melville waters offer some of the best saltwater fly/light tackle fishing i've found anywhere (and I do as much of that as I do bowhunting!) Anyone with questions is welcome to drop me a PM or an e-mail. Best, Don
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ric,
i have been in the northern part of iraq for several weeks. i was unable to respond due to no service. wanted to thank you for the hunt information, sorry to use this forum in this manner, but, i am unable to get through to your personal address. thanks again.
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Bill, no problem, keep your head down and let me know if I can help you in any way!
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Just for the info of those on here. One of the main instigators in stopping the croc hunting going ahead was none other than Steve Irwin. I know a lot of Americans like him but I can tell you there are many people in Oz who don't. A lot of things he does are, to put it simply, stupid!!!
His left wing green views don't sit well with a lot of folks either.
Jeff
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Jeff, I think a lot of Americans just watch him on the chance that a big croc will put the bite on Steve Irwin, I know I would like to see that. It is a shame really, it is just one more example of why politicians should NOT have control of wildlife management, anywhere!
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Exactly right about politicians Rick!!!
Jeff
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thats really a shame. hunting them would be the best way to preserve them. the American alligator has made a hell of a come back, hunting had a lot to do with it. I'm friends with the trapper for this area, he covers 2 counties in Florida. he kills between 80 and 100 gators a summer because their a nuisances. that still doesn't count the ones that are poached or the ones killed in the public waters hunts. And after all of that there is still more and more gators to be found every year.
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RicMic, help me out here. Just got done reading a story by Nathon Andersohn about shooting a buff with a 60# longbow and a 700 grain arrow. The story was in the latest bowhunter magazine in the stickbow section. Something about not being able to shoot a heavy bow accurately. I've got 65-70# longbows that I can handle, and also some 900 grain carbons that fly well. Do I still have to get a heavier bow?
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Hi Mark, was it a bison or a waterbuff ?
Jacob
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It was a water buff and he was with us when he shot it, but there were some circumstances involved that really don't make it a good example. If I remember right the bow was over 60#, by a few pounds. Nathan knew he was underbowed, so decided that he would only take a shot if it was perfect circumstances. VERY close, standing still , broadside. He got his opportunity, but it wasn't a big bodied buffalo and he made a perfect shot. Getting a perfect shot on buffalo is NOT easy. I have seen a LOT of arrows shot into water buffalo, with up to 90# bows. There is a very good reason that African countries require a VERY HIGH K.E. for cape buffalo and water buffalo can be 20% heavier. Accuracy is the most important thing, but if you don't have enough penetration, the best accuracy isn't going to be much help.
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And vice versa. With a fair amount of water buff experience under my own belt, I would observe the following. Every bull I've seen hit in the right place -- perfect loccation and shot angle -- has gone down with no problem, no matter what weight bow. Every one hit anywhere else has been a bit of a drama, again, no matter what weight bow. I hate to offer a firm number on bow weight because circumstances vary so much, but everyone needs a starting point. I would regard #70 tackle as minimum and if you can handle 10# more, do it. Beyond that, it's probably overkill. Of course, this assumes heavy arrows, perfect broadheads etc. Accuracy inevitably suffers somewhat as poundage increases -- that's why tournament target archers shoot light bows. How much loss of accuracy is acceptable? That's for you to decide. But if you can't shoot #70 with reasonable accuracy, you shouldn't be hunting buff, IMHO. Above all, don't fall into the trap of thinking that if you're shooting #85, the buff is going to die. The arrow HAS to be delivered perfectly. Cheers, Don