A friend of mine owns a private hunting preserve in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He has Russian boars, five different kinds of sheep/goats, and as of the last time I had been there, American Bison.

A friend of mine wanted to shoot a boar and did. But when I called to set up the hunt, David told me to bring something to "kill big stuff with." I brought my .44 Super Blackhawk with 310 gr. Garrett Hammerheads, my Marlin 1895 XLR with 540 Grain Garretts and my Forge bow.

After Kevin had shot his 300 pound boar, David asked if I was ready to hunt. I asked him what I was going to kill and he said, "Asian Water Buffalo." It turned out that he found a good deal on some Asian's from someplace in the Carolinas and bought eight of them to give his regular customers something different to hunt.

A guy had taken one two days earlier with a .300 Win Mag, the first ever taken in the U.P. So David asked me if I'd like to try it with a bow! I'm silly enough that I wanted to try it.

We spent about four or five hours stalking and got into position. One of the medium size animals stopped twenty yards away, broadside. With knees shaking, stomach churning, mouth dry and coppery tasting, I drew, found my spot and let the arrow fly.

It buried deep and thankfully, it ran in the direction it was pointed, and not towards me! I'm sure a p.o'd Asian Water Buffalo can run faster in crotch deep snow than I can.

It ran a laser ranged 139 yards and tipped over, dead!

Here's a picture of the first Water Buffalo killed with a bow in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

congrats on your trophy.

interesting story.

Thank you, so far, it is the biggest thing I've taken with a bow. I was impressed with how quickly it went down. That had me a "touch" worried....

Congratulations!!!!

Thats a special trophy

It was indeed a special trophy. What surprised me was the quantity and quality of the meat!

I gave to a friend both front shoulders and he wanted the ribs, so those went too. After I had the rest cut and vaccuum packed, I had 3/4's of an 18 cubic foot freezer filled!

I found that the meat is quite tasty, but does turn extremely tough if care isn't taken when cooking.

A steak grilled past medium rare might as well be used to re-sole your boots!

For the price charged, it's a very cost effective way to fill a freezer with a year's worth of meat. And getting one is much more enjoyable than pushing a shopping cart up and down the aisles at a grocery store....

I worked at David's for the past three seasons, it was a fun place to work. We shot alot of buffalo, but I left before he got the Asians. Congrats on a great hunt.

Hugh

Did you guide while there? I've hunted there three or four times now. I've met Digger and Fingers. LOL, now there's a pair! My face hurt from laughing every time I've been there, especially with Fingers.

That's the thing I like about going to David's. While I won't say it's like being on safari, it does give a person the opportunity to hunt different species of animals that a person might not normally be able to.

With a centerfire rifle, it's not a particularly challenging hunt, but that all changes when you pick up a bow. Either way, it is a LOT of fun!

Hugh,

I went to your website and took a look around. There's some nice work shown there, I'm impressed! But when I went to the links, I noticed that you have David's old web address.

You need to drop the 2000 from the web address to make it right.