Some friends of my wife have recently moved to Australia. She informed me that some time over the next 20 months that we are to going to vist them. I informed her that if I'm going to fly all the way to down under that I would do some water buffalo hunting while I was there. To my astonishment she said OK. So now some questions arise. I hunted buffalo in ZIM in Sept 07. Will hunting buff in the Northern Territory be alot like buff in Africa? From what I have researched it is said that you must be in better shape for the outback. Also, I was thinking of utilizing a booking agent. Your comments are appreciated.

Why not do some donkey culling while your there?

Matt Graham has a set up in NT and has a good reputation, I have in fact worked with one of his guides and he was bloody good value.

Another vote for Matt.

Thank you for your responses. I was hoping to get more imput such as conditions and best time of year for buffalo. Any further information would be greatly appreciated.

I hunted over there with Greg Pennicott and Jamie Bell. Both great guys with LOTS of buffalo. Nothing like a Cape Buff hunt though, much easier in my opinion. Can't wait to do it again.

As far as I understand, the seasons are similar to the Zim / Mozambique conditions with heavy foliage and plenty of surface water early on in the season up to about late August with warmer temperatures during September and October burning of most of the foliage and water providing better visibility to spot game concentrated around the few remaining waterholes.
Barry Jones of www.buffalosafaris.com is an option.

The terrain is pretty flat and easy going really. What stuffs you is the heat and humidity. June, July and August are the cool months. September October and November are the build up months where the humidity goes through the roof. Bring light weight long pants to stop your legs iching like buggery if you walk through long grass. Or if you hunt in shorts bring sock covers (gaiters) to stop spear grass seeds getting in your socks.
If you can handle the heat, I'd come around sept/oct. The ground water has all but dried, a lot of the grass has been burnt off.

Thanks for the replies. I'm no stranger to heat and humidity. I live on the Texas coast and it easily reaches 100 degress with 100% humidity from May to September. It should be alot like hunting here tempature wise.

Paul Truccolo - Southern Safaris www.southernsafaris.com.au

Paul will give you a genuine wilderness hunt.

Expanded hunting concession ( 2008 ) will extend to some 5000km’s2 of this wilderness country, most of it previously unhunted for at least 25 years.The Northern Lands Council estimates between 8000 – 12,000 buffalo roam the concession.

Be careful some outfitters are buying buffalo bulls. They are mustered from the wilderness to stock yards, most get their heads cut off for meat while the bulls are sold to hunting outfitters and let go on their properties, not a genuine hunt!

quote:

Originally posted by ethical-freeranger:
Be careful some outfitters are buying buffalo bulls. They are mustered from the wilderness to stock yards, most get their heads cut off for meat while the bulls are sold to hunting outfitters and let go on their properties, not a genuine hunt!

I think we need some names mentioned for this sort of comment to pass.

I concur.

Throw those names out there...

Seems to me that it could be that a wild bull that had been captured, and then released on another large property, might be extremely wary and harder to hunt than a "normal" wild bull?

quote:

Originally posted by CARLOSTHEJACKAL:
Some friends of my wife have recently moved to Australia. She informed me that some time over the next 20 months that we are to going to vist them. I informed her that if I'm going to fly all the way to down under that I would do some water buffalo hunting while I was there. To my astonishment she said OK. So now some questions arise. I hunted buffalo in ZIM in Sept 07. Will hunting buff in the Northern Territory be alot like buff in Africa? From what I have researched it is said that you must be in better shape for the outback. Also, I was thinking of utilizing a booking agent. Your comments are appreciated.

What rifle/s will you be using? Most here recommend .375H&H or bigger.

steve

My thoughts zackery Steve. If its wild on one property and released to run wild on another its still wild. What is unethical is keeping it locked away from water for a few days then letting it loose near a water hole for the unsuspecting hunter to shoot.

Ditto to what Steve and Bakes said. Besides - who cares what other people do...??

Thanks for the votes wirehunt and Sambar 9.3!!

Carlos - the best buffalo hunting IMHO is from Mid June till end of September. The best hunting is in Arnhem Land and the best concession areas are in the North East. Obviously my concession is in that area but I would be happy to recommend either Simon Kyle Little (Australian Big Game Safaris) and Brenton Hurt (Territory Buffalo Safaris) as the two other outfitters in that region - who I KNOW will give you very high quality hunts.

If you want to find out about our buffalo hunting from an agent in the USA, who has hunted at our concession area, then you should talk to Greg Rodriguez (Global Adventure Outfitters - www.mbogo.net - based down in Sugarland, Houston) Greg and James are good agents. Greg hunted with us in 2007 and I think James is putting a group together for 2009. Both are active members here at Accurate Reloading.

Cheers for now
Matt Graham

quote:

Originally posted by sjm:

quote:

Originally posted by CARLOSTHEJACKAL:
Some friends of my wife have recently moved to Australia. She informed me that some time over the next 20 months that we are to going to vist them. I informed her that if I'm going to fly all the way to down under that I would do some water buffalo hunting while I was there. To my astonishment she said OK. So now some questions arise. I hunted buffalo in ZIM in Sept 07. Will hunting buff in the Northern Territory be alot like buff in Africa? From what I have researched it is said that you must be in better shape for the outback. Also, I was thinking of utilizing a booking agent. Your comments are appreciated.

What rifle/s will you be using? Most here recommend .375H&H or bigger.

steve

If my .416 Rem is done by then I"ll use that. If not, then I have a .458 Lott

Thanks for all the replies!

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:
The best hunting is in Arnhem Land and the best concession areas are in the North East. Obviously my concession is in that area but I would be happy to recommend either Simon Kyle Little (Australian Big Game Safaris) and Brenton Hurt (Territory Buffalo Safaris) as the two other outfitters in that region - who I KNOW will give you very high quality hunts.

Matt

I am confused. Another outfitter, or at least his agents - secret ones or open ones - have said they have some of the same concession areas and usually that the areas have never been hunted. I once asked where these concessions were and was answered - 'Eastern Arnhemland' . If these areas exist why are they so secret? I know they think they hunt around the Gove area as well if that is different from the "unhunted" areas.

Then another guy was trying to tell me about some other huge "unhunted" areas with huge 120 SCI bulls abounding. These "unhunted" areas were in the Western part of Arnhemland land. Seemingly lots of very large unhunted areas all of a sudden ....

So my question is how does a client find out whom actually has the rights to hunt a particular area or not?

NLC or ?

PS I have hunted with Matt Graham a couple of times as a client and am happy to recommend him as well on my experiences.

I am in no way an agent, secret internet one or otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:
The best hunting is in Arnhem Land and the best concession areas are in the North East. Obviously my concession is in that area but I would be happy to recommend either Simon Kyle Little (Australian Big Game Safaris) and Brenton Hurt (Territory Buffalo Safaris) as the two other outfitters in that region - who I KNOW will give you very high quality hunts.

Matt

I am confused. Another outfitter, or at least his agents - secret ones or open ones - have said they have some of the same concession areas and usually that the areas have never been hunted. I once asked where these concessions were and was answered - 'Eastern Arnhemland' . If these areas exist why are they so secret? I know they think they hunt around the Gove area as well if that is different from the "unhunted" areas.

Then another guy was trying to tell me about some other huge "unhunted" areas with huge 120 SCI bulls abounding. These "unhunted" areas were in the Western part of Arnhemland land. Seemingly lots of very large unhunted areas all of a sudden ....

So my question is how does a client find out whom actually has the rights to hunt a particular area or not?

NLC or ?

Yes there is quite a lot of bullshit as well as bulls in Arnhem Land.

Yes if one wanted to check on outfitters in Arnhem they could contact the NLC and/or the NT Police Licencing dept.... I'm not sure if you would get any results though. I think I have published a list of NT outfitters here, whome I consider to be reputable and I am always happy to do this in the future. Personally I would rather loose a client to another outfitter than hear a horror story from a hunt gone wrong. That might make me a bad business person (salesman) but I dont like hearing about fellow hunters getting a bum deal.

Thanks for the vote of confidence JH - I appreciate that.

Matt Graham's recommendation of two of his competitors only displays his professionalism. I have hunted with Hunt Australia and Matt Graham 6 times over the years. That in itself should indicate that I'm a happy and satisfied return client.

Matt does not provide the best dining or lodging facilities that I have experienced on a hunt. However, he does, indeed, provide an excellent hunting experience and satisfaction to his clients. And, that's what really counts.

Geoff

Aww shucks Geoff...

BTW - we built the new 'lodge' at the Boar Camp.... it's even got a fireplace inside.

Will post some pics of the new accommodation when I can.

Cheers
Matt

Any truth to these "unhunted areas" that are being promoted?

Or is it really nothing new at all?

I know outfitters such as Graham Williams have mobile camps and from time to time move their camp to a new area so the area is not as hard hunted as where the camp used to be. Quite amazing the difference in the alertness of the animals.

But these huge untouched tracts of wildnerness, "never hunted before", do they actually exist?

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
Any truth to these "unhunted areas" that are being promoted?

Or is it really nothing new at all?

I know outfitters such as Graham Williams have mobile camps and from time to time move their camp to a new area so the area is not as hard hunted as where the camp used to be. Quite amazing the difference in the alertness of the animals.

But these huge untouched tracts of wildnerness, "never hunted before", do they actually exist?

No not really JH. There may certainly be some small areas that have not had much pressure, commercial or otherwise and when a commercial operator moves in they tend to pull out some really big bulls but in the space of a couple of seasons the area cant stand the pressure and the quality drops. This is very common.

In an area like ours we never seen to get any of those XXOS bull (ie 115+) although we generally get one bull per year 110-115, but we do consistently AVERAGE 103-104 inches for our trophy bulls and that is just incredible when compared to other areas. Of course not every hunter is going to take a bull over 100 but it is those huge number of bull 103-110 that pick the average up. You can only get those results by having a very large herd of animals, good conditions and some management.

but to answer your question directly - no there are NO unhunted areas...