World Record Rowland Ward No. 1 Cape buffalo



This historical picture shows the Rowland Ward No. 1 Cape buffalo. The professional hunter was C.W. "Clary" Palmer-Wilson, who guided M.H. Cabrera to this animal. This picture was taken from a 16mm movie camera after M.H. Cabrera shot the Cape buffalo. After it was shot it was positioned as seen above. As can be seen, there is virtually no boss, and, indeed, the animal is an old cow. There is some dispute as to the date it was shot. The last edition of Rowland Ward's Records of Big Game lists the year of the kill as 1946 while the information we received from Mike Branham (son of PH Palmer-Wilson) indicates that the animal was shot in 1949. Either way, it is an incredible head with a spread of 64 inches, longest horn of 50 1/8 inches, and a tip to tip measurement of 57 1/2 inches. This cow was shot in Tanzania, near Lake Manyara. The top three Cape buffalo heads listed in Rowland Ward all came from Tanzania, with the region around Lake Manyara being an especially good area for buffaloes with extreme spread. Please note that under the Rowland Ward measuring system, Cape buffaloes are ranked by widest spread only and not by any boss measurements.

I know very little about African species. As I am a complete noob, how can it be an old cow if it has horns? Please don't flame me too badly!

Cow buffalos have horns, they just don't grow together or have a boss. They are usually smaller in mass if not width also, as I understand it.

As far as that goes, a lot of domestic cows have horns also, it just depends on the breed.
Angus, polled Hereford and others have had the horns bred out of the bulls as well as the cows so they don't hurt each other, or wear the farmer as a hat!

That doesn't mean they won't kick you or head butt you if so inclined.

What is the chance that the record will stand forever, I think it is quite good. The chance of ever getting another buff with such a spread is very slim. Though I seem to remember seeing a photo of another female buff with a very wide spread, though I doubt it will reach this measurements

she is in picture only ranked the new #2
there are 4 buffs listed for Rowland

.500 posted this pic. sometime ago i thought it was a digital inhanced job. Wow what a Buff indeed. Charlie

Nice picture/article thanks for posting

This just goes to show that size isn't everything...

Yeah she's big, but...

What an ugly trophy to have on your wall.

I'd rather have an old well proportioned bull on my wall that would never see the inside of SCI & Rowland Wards exalted tomes, than that deformed monstrosity at #1.

Hi Bolt action,

Thanks. I found more information.
More informations from the book of Brian Herne « White Hunters ».

In Tanganyka in 1946 Clary created controversy in the professional hunting community because he has obtained the world record buffalo, a cow with a remarkable spread (greatest outside width of horns) of 64 inches. After a huge hullabaloo generated by several PHs, Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game withdrew his entry from their list, stating a cow buffalo should not be included in the records. Clary told me (me is Brian Herne) he thought much of the trouble was professionaal jealousy. Even though the outcry died down for a while, a number of Clary’s friends in the safari business considered Rowland Ward’s action so unjust they rose to Clary’s defense. Clary himself was above it and refused to get into the discussion. Rowland Ward recanted and reinstated Clary’s buffalo in their records of Big Game, where it remains to this day as the outright world record.

Clary Palmer-Wilson’s record buffalo was an unexpected trophy. A wealthy Mexican client, Manuel Manterola, had brought with him on safari an interpreter and photographer named Manuel Hernandez Cabrera. Manterola has not allowed this photographer to use a gun to hunt anything. At the end of the safari Cabrera asked Palmer-Wilson to take him out for a few days, event though he was not a rich man and could not pay the usual safari fees. Clary was sympathetic and agreed to take him out for a short hunt.
Cabrera was apparently an indifferent marksman. He wounded a bul buffalo out of a herd of six animals, and when a second shot was offered, he fired and hit the wrong buffalo, killing it instantly. Clary was understandably upset by this performance. He went after Cabrera’s first buffalo alone and finished it off. With the hunt over, Clary’s men were packing tents and equipment when Cabrera begged him for one last chance to film more buffalo. Clary took him into the forest where they came upon a herd of four hundred buffalo. Clary recounted what happened next :
“I said to Cabrera, “Stop the camera. That’s ther world record buffalo!†I grabbed my .375 and ran right into that herd of 400 buffalo, and dropped the world record with one shot. I ran back to Cabrera, handed him the rifle, and told him to fire a couple of shots well above the herd. When the dust settled, there sat the record buffalo with the herd disappearing into the forest. I took Cabrera up and he put the finishing shot into the buffalo. If I had allowed him even one shot into that herd, he would have wounded several animalsâ€.

After Cabrera left the country Clary was hounded by the press wanting a story about the record buffalo. The animal was a very old cow rather than a bull, and its incredible horn lenght seemed unbelievable. Clary was questioned closely by colleagues, and he told them exactly what happened. Later he said, “Several hunters (both Professional and amateur) had seen that big buffalo and tried to get it, but nobody has ever succeeded, including Prince Windisch-Graetz (a resident of Kenya) and grandson of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, who hunted that buffalo for three years without getting a shot at it. Every hunter would have given his eye-teeth to get that trophy!â€

Without autorisation, chapter 26, Clary’s world record from the magnificent and undispensable book “White Huntersâ€, Brian Herne, Ed Owl books.