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.
Topic: First Buff (Read 1619 times)
