Brenda Valentine with her buffalo taken near Hoedspruit, SA. So what were the circumstances surrounding the hunt? Pen hunt? TV show? Hard to imagine her sneaking within 30 yards and whacking something like that under wild conditions.

Why is it hard for you to imagine her snealing within bow range of a buffalo? She's a very accomplished bowhunter, and quite a few buffalo are shot every year by bowhunters, so why don't you think she coud do it?

Young bull, soft bosses.

Granted I don't know much about her but just about every bow hunt I've seen her do was for whitetail from a perched blind. Also, being taken in S.A. doesn't conjure up images of a truly wild hunt, but it may have been. Thats why I'm asking.

A bowhunter's blind can be set up just about anywhere. The vast majority of leopards are also taken from blinds, although with a rifle, but what's the difference?

Being fair to the RSA guys, one can truly hunt DG species down there.. and I dearly love to hunt PG in South Africa, especially with my daughter or a "new guy". You might have to look pretty carefully at what is billed as fair chase for DG, but you can do it. That said, however with no small amount of tongue-in-cheek:

This trophy must of been harvested from a free ranging herd. If the safari (Lord, help us!) occurred in a pen, a mature bull would have been selected for pictures and ox tail soup, or at least the bull she shot would have already had a haircut.

From what I know she is a serious hunter but that being said many in the US's Idea of a hunt is from a treestand so for here that may have been the way. I would vote that it was a canned hunt with a disease free herd. That all being said, he could still kill you. My real hangup with the photo is that it is an inmature buffalo both from the soft bosses and from the body size. He would have put on at least 30% more body size in a couple of more years.

I can't say as I was not there. However, what I can say is that a few years back, I killed a massive buff on a farm near Hoedspruit. I did this after tracking the buff all day. The distance was estimated to be 18 miles that we walked . Farm or not, that was the most difficult of any of the buffalo that I have taken.

I would give her the benefit of the doubt unless someone knows something different.