Is there any place that Wild Longhorn Cattle can be hunted fair chase.

Vancouver bulls in Hawaii?

Saw a hunting show about a year ago, dont remember which one. They were hunting feral cattle in New Zealand. These cattle had never seen a human before, the guy was trying to shoot one with a bow. Can't remember if he scored a hit or not.

Phil Shoemaker wrote an article a few years back about the possibilities of hunting feral bulls on some of the islands in the Aleutian chain in Alaska. don't know whatever became of that. Hunting Banteng in Austrailia (did I spell it write this time??????) would be similar and there are the feral cattle on the Hawaiian Islands.

About 12 years ago I hunted 'scrub bulls' with Bob Penfold of Hunt Australia. I found the hunt very sporting and impressed with how tough and crafty feral cattle bulls can be.

Bob has retired but Hunt Australia is alive and well with Matt Graham running the show. He posts on AR quite often.

A few years back there was some talk of huntng feral bulls alng the Rio Grande in Texas.

465H&H

There are essentially no wild Longhorn cattle in the US. There might be a few scattered around in N. Mexico.

Now if you want to hunt one in my pasture, that could be arranged. I've cut back to a couple or hundred or so and I'm going to sell most of them before long down to 50 or less. Sell 'em, shoot 'em, all the same to me.

They make excellent hamburger, have much less cholesterol than normal beef cattle, along the lines of venison. Depending on what you want to shoot, it would likely be some cheap beef. Priced according to size, age, sex, and how much I like the looks of an individual animal. Probably start at around $400 for a full size cow and could go up or down from there.

BTW Brangus hunts available also, but they cost considerably more.

Just in case anyone is seriously thinking about this, I want to point out that it is illegal in Texas for slaughterhouses to process dead cattle. If you shoot them, you would have to skin, cut up, ice down, and eventually process the beef yourself. I can provide a tractor with front end loader to help hang animal. It is not a 15 minute job. If you know what you're doing it will probably take a couple of hours minimum from hanging until the meat is on ice. If you just want the beef, I can have them roped for you and you can take them to a slaugherhouse in your trailer. Roping extra.

Assuming an 800 pound cow, you'll likely wind up with about 350 plus pounds of meat. I wouldn't count on any eating quality steaks.

The Vancouver bulls in Hawaii are essentially mixed descendants of the original English short horn. There are many wild cattle on the Big Island of Hawaii. However, finding them in the thick forests are a challenge.

Parker Ranch has a paddock of about 10,000 acres that contain around 400 wild cattle that they have no use for. These are probably the white faced variety.

Niihau Island has a good sized herd of wild cattle. Bulls may be taken for $1,000 fee. However, a one day hunt must be arranged inclusive of a helicopter charter for about $1,850. You will also be able to take a trophy feral sheep and pig.

Geoff

There are 4 pockets of wild cattle in New Zeaalnd that I know of. The Motu & Stratford herds are well known and every now & then someone writes and article in the local magazine about them. The chattam Island herd is also well nown but not hunted as often AFAIK. There is also a small herd in the South island that I have read about.

The Australian scrub bulls can be very agressive and tough from what I have read. They are known to charge.

Here's something on the cattle in Alaska

Sitkinak Island, located 115 miles from the town of Kodiak Alaska, is home to the wild ungulates we raise also known as "cattle". Our cattle live wild and free, thriving in the coastal island environment they have adapted to. Introduced in 1937, the cattle breeds range from Black Angus to Galloway. There are also red angus, hereford, charolais, santa gertrudis, scottish highlander, and short horn. The Galloway breed has proven to be a very well adapted breed type for Sitkinak Island. These cattle have a frame size average of 2.5 to 3, weighing 1000 to 1200 lbs.

To the relief of the free-range cattle on Sitkinak, there are no resident brown bears (or predators) that reside on the island, allowing the cattle to be the largest and dominant animal roaming the hills. They co-exist well with the foxes and other wildlife on the island. The galloway cattle (also known as "Oreo Cows") all have a while "belt" around their midsection which makes them easy to recognize.

From stories of hunters who have successfully bagged a Wild Bull, and the experiences of cowboys for generations past of rounding up these feral animals, a Wild Bull Hunt will remind you of either mean buffalo on the plains or perhaps even cape buffalo in Africa.

Here's where i found the info.
http://www.alaskameat.com/Guided_Activities.php

This is somewhat along the lines of the story Phil Shoemaker wrote. If I remember correctly, in one of the pictures, what appeared to be a hereflord bull was chargibng at the helicopter as it hovered overhead.

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Charolais in Alaska? that's amazing!

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Originally posted by 465H&H:
A few years back there was some talk of huntng feral bulls alng the Rio Grande in Texas.

465H&H

I remember reading about those also. Seems like there was an article in Peterson's Hunting about 20 years ago. Maybe longer. In fact, I think I read that article when I was in college back in the early 80's.

quote:

Originally posted by lshopper:
Is there any place that Wild Longhorn Cattle can be hunted fair chase.

Well in Montana we used to call them slow elk ...

A friend of mine did this back then. I do not know the story today, but I would imagine that the drug situation has made it more problematic. As I recall, he said those feral cattle were mean and dangerous.

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Originally posted by Todd Williams:

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
A few years back there was some talk of huntng feral bulls alng the Rio Grande in Texas.

465H&H

I remember reading about those also. Seems like there was an article in Peterson's Hunting about 20 years ago. Maybe longer. In fact, I think I read that article when I was in college back in the early 80's.