I just got out of the Outback and into a hotel in Mackay Australia. Mark and I had a great hunt.
We had a six day Water Buffalo hunt with Trophy Bowhunts Australia. We arrived in Darwin a day early and held the first Buff & Chunky Darwin golf classic. He beat me by three strokes.
The next morning we flew to a mining camp called MacArthur River and were picked up by the outfitter Mick Baker and his trusty side kick Andy.
After about a 150K drive down a dirt trail we arrived at our camp on the Lemon Bite River.
We were set up above a water fall and the view was stunning. We were about as far from civilization as you can get and never even saw a plane the entire week.
The first day started out great with Mark and me both taking good Buffalos.
The hunt mostly consisted of walking the edge of the flood plain looking for a good Buff, then crawling out to him to try to get a shot.
I blew three or four stalks early on but in the early afternoon we lucked out. Mick and I had been following a good Buff for a couple of miles when he jumped out in the river to cool down. Every time he dunked his head I would run like a banshee for fifty or so yards and we made up the two hundred yards quickly. I followed him down the river keeping pace with him for a while before he finally gave me a sweet quartering away shot that buried in his chest up to the wrap. As he blew up the opposite bank I put another in his rear that cut a artery.
Day three was a great day for me. I crawled up to a feeding Buffalo in the morning and smacked him from eight yards away. He never knew I was in the world. Later that same day I crawled up into the middle of four sleeping Bulls. I mean really sleeping, eyes closed heads down. I crawled within six yards of one to get a ten yard shot on the one I wanted.
The last full day was a Buff and Chunky classic. Mark had pretty much killed all he wanted so he tracked along with us on the camera. I still wanted a Monster to go on the wall. We found the Bull right where we left him the night before and fell in behind him. We cold trailed him for two and a half hours. He just would never get in a spot where we could close in on him. Luck was on our side and after cooking in the sun for thirty minutes, he decides to go back to the flood plain.
I don’t have the words to describe the emotions, lying on your belly in knee deep grass as he walked towards us. He crossed up wind of us at forty yards. I was trying to decide if it was too far and looked over my shoulder at my best buddy and whispered “Forty or Fifty”??????
He thought I was asking if he was on him with the camera and gave me the thumbs up.
In one motion, I rose up and smacked the great bull with a nine hundred grain arrow. The location was perfect but it looked like I only got half an arrows worth of penetration.
When the bull stopped at a hundred yards to look back I called to Mick “Whack Him one”.
The .416 barked twice as the bull left for safer country. It turned out, when we opened the Buffalo up the arrow had broke a rib going in and penetrated both lungs, Better safe than sorry.
I can’t say enough good things about the job Mick and Andy did. It was one of the greatest adventures I have ever been involved with. If anybody has a urge to hunt dangerous game with a bow, Mick can fix you up. Hunting with a great friend only made it sweeter.
Mark has his own stories to add. He almost got ran down by a Scrub Bull but I will let him tell his own
Topic: Buff & Chunky do Australia (Read 5146 times)
