Ed,
I am back from my buff trip, managed a small buff and had a great time.
Brad Kane was my guide and Wolfgang Kimmel the other hunter in the team. Both top blokes and a pleasure to share the hunt with.
Several stalks had me very close to bulls but the oppurtunity for a clean shot eluded us for several days.
At one point a large bull we were stalking got it in his head to chase a subordinate bull, which decided to run our way,the bulls saw my bow and Brad's rifle lifting, and we had a staring match at 7 metres.
Asat camo and face masks are good gear, lol.
I have spoken to the man who does the ferrules for me, and he thinks it is doable to make steel ferrules with slots cut to fit the blades.
They will be slightly more expensive to produce due to slower machining of steel versus aluminum.
He is flat out for the next 5 weeks, but then his machine is free to play with broadhead ferrules again.
In time I will be able to do left and right wing bevels easily, but until I make a better surace grinding bevelling machine, its right wing only.
I cheated with the buff and used a 72lb compound, because I am not presently strong enough to draw a trad bow with the grunt required.
However your advice on arrow weight and broadhead worked well.
Arrow specs were 840 grain total weight, speed 182 feet/ sec, single bevel, 170grain, 3:1 broadhead. Shot distance was 20 metres.
If I hunt buff in the future I would go up to a 1000 grains for arrow weight next time.
Arrow placement very close to centre of front shoulder one third of height of chest. broadside.
The tip of the broadhead was almost through the far side hide, the last 8" of arrow broken by the action of the shoulder as the buff ran off.
He went down in 40 metres, a matter of seconds.I was very pleased to kill such a large animal so cleanly. Thanks for all the good advice.
Woody.