I'm afraid all he has is spread. Weak bosses, slight drop and incomplete hooks which rise too high, IMO.

I would have emptied my rifle. Nobody in Kalispell, Montana is going to believe I would be better off shooting a 34 in bull with a hard "boss" than shooting a 45 inch bull with sharp tips and a soft "boss". Including me.


Ski+3

Hey Bill,

Thats a pretty nice buff, but he has very small bosses. I'm a boss man, I would take a buff with a few inches less in the spread if it had great bosses. In general, I've noticed the wider the horns the smaller the bosses. I like the guy behind him more! I took a buff in Zim a few years ago, only a thirty-eight inch spread, but he had 16 inch bosses. Massive bosses. I'll see if I can post a photo on here for you.

Always, Good Hunting!

Widowmaker416

NO.

That bull has soft tops. See the soft little fuzzy baby hair growing on the bosses?

I also passed a buff just like that one this summer in Zim.

I'd guess that bull is around 7-8 years old. In a few more years he'll be a taker.

I'd rather take a grizzled old warrior 15 year old dugga boy with 34" horns than a baby like that. Give him a chance to mature and spread his genetics for as long as possible.

Then shoot him. In about 3 or 4 more years.

We watched these guys for a while, about 7-minutes when I played it back on the camcorder (Sarge, Peter's learner PH, was doing the filming). The wide buff looked up once, but not in our direction. Then again for no apparent reason, but this time he slowly turned our way, caught our outline, and focused in (reflected in the last picture). He studied us for some time, until we began to backtrack as we weren't going to shoot, at which point he nonchalantly galloped away. His buddy, never did turn around. The other buff was not wide, about a 34" bull, but with a nice boss. Now if I could have taken that boss, and put it on the other guy...



Here's a shot from behind the sticks, I'd say we were maybe 40-yards away, standing in the open. But the wind was perfect.

Bill,

He looks soft to me and the tips are still sharp and turned in. I passed up his twin in Zim two years ago. My guess is 44".

Here's an easy one. We spotted these guys feeding from the truck, and stalked to within 50-yards. From behind he looked like just the kind of buffalo I was looking for. When he finally turned around and Peter glassed him, he said not to shoot. Check out the boss (this pict's were clipped from the digital camera which Sarge was using, so quality is not that great).



If the ears are ~34 inches - how wide is this guy? Field guesstimate was around 43 inches, but maybe Peter didn't want to make me feel worse



















Added: Peter Chipman's direct email address is: kwalatapeter@yahoo.com

My guess he is wider than 43"! I would say around 46"-47"...
Now the one behind, he is a shooter despite not being quite as wide...
How close were you when the pic was taken? Did he turn to look at you as a result of the camera clicking?

NICE, how bout the one behind him?
I assume this is an immature bull, can anyone guess how long it takes to reach this stage?
Which country was this picture taken in?
I know a lot of people would have shot that buff anyway, it must have taken a lot of control not to put one in the base of its neck!