Yo !

For many years I have wanted to hunt water buffalo in Australia .. and perhaps I would have gone a long time ago .. but my Mistress ... Africa had way too much of a hold on me .. and so I spent my plunder there .. But the years are free falling now .. I have a great dugga boy from the Zambezi Valley .. the greatest trophy of my entire hunting life .. a water buffalo from Uruguay that nearly won ...even a bison from here in Canada ... So I thought that I had better do the hunt ... Hell, I could always go to Namibia in August .. (I fly out on the 4th ... ) Now most buffalo hunts in Oz for non residents range from $4,500 to $6,500 U.S...but a while ago I found out about Muckadilla Safaris on AR ... his 5 day hunt was $2,200 ... only $1,700 2x1 ... I quickly signed up .. and a while later James (Top Predator) did the same ... My wife Margaret was going as a spectator for $200 a day .. and these were not American dollars .. although that ain't as painful as most of my safaris ...(Try multiplying a $7,000 U.S. jumbo trophy fee with 1.40 to come up with a heap of Canuck bucks ... (1994)

O.K. Time to get at it ....

Camp ... tent camp on the Gulf of Carpenteria .. nice cots .. shower was a bag in the air with the view of the wilderness mostly unimpeded .. Margaret finally got them to put up another wall .. the wind off the ocean was cool and when we got in at night .. too chilly to be wet ... I only had one shower ...

Toilet was a little 'stool' with a hole in the center over a long drop .. about a five foot burlap cloth was there on the north .. not good enough but the small hill separating it from camp was better ...

Food .. by far as the worst that I have ever had in a hunting camp ... i.e. lunch in the bush might be a small Granny Smith apple and a few cheese crackers .. Breakfast might be a single 5 inch pancake for each .. suppers were small and mostly tasteless ..Luckily I had brought some jelly beans and ju jubes ... something to munch on .. for a few days, at least ... I insisted on having some water buffalo so we took out a back strap of one .. and the cook prepared a small part of it ... that was all ...

Aborigines brought some golden snapper, a crab .. and even some highly protected (except for them) sea varmint .. which I sampled and enjoyed ...

The vehicle was an older model Toyota land cruiser station wagon which was just fine ..

The hunting was mostly about an hour and a half away .. although there were buffalo throughout ..

There was lots of water and green stuff from the long wet ... not good to concentrate them .. but it really didn't matter all that much ...

There was almost no small game or birds in this remote fenceless wilderness .. I got only a glimpse of a single dingo .. luckily I saw a few wallabies on the 13 hour drive out later ..

Trophy fees .. 300 for a management cow, 950 for a management bull ... 2,500 for a trophy bull .. 300 (I think ??) for a pig .. Top Predator got a couple of dandies ... the only two that we saw on that concession ...)900 for a wild oxen .. English shorthorns wild since the 1830's and 1840's .. and apparently .. the spookiest of all the game ..followed by the buffalo cows .. and much spookier than the arrogant bulls that occasionally would come over and check us out .. and at 30 yards ...

Margaret was going for a buffalo cow . I wanted a management bull ... I need the experiences in my life ... On my management bull we stalked it to within about 50 yards or so .. He never knew .. never did know that we were around .. I couldn't bring my 416 Sako LH because of the U.S. laws about aliens in transit .. so James lent me his Sako 375 .. I had bet the man $5.00 that I could take my buffalo in fewer shots than he .. I sat down and shot it right through the lungs .. then I leaped up and continued the barrage .. hell, I even whacked a tree on video !! My K mart pants were rather loose so as the shooting continued .. into the 5th shot and beyond .. I'd shoot .. eject the shell with my left hand .. grab a shell out of my pocket .. put the shell in .. hitch up my pants .. and drive another 300 grain Woodleigh into the beast .. I am so glad that my pants did not end up at my ankles ... Finally it crashed on #8 .. and I shot it for a final time .. it had made it only about 30 yards ???

I lost that bet badly ...



On Margaret's cow ... she shot it a bit too far back and it went into the bush where the herd was ... we waited quite a while and finally a bull came over to check us out .. at most .. 30 yards .. he took a very long time to decide that we were scum .. but finally he decided not to kill us and moved on .. we eventually spotted her down and finished it ...

I was going to shoot a cow ... and a final evening saw us spotting a big bull .. further down ... a monster bull ... finally near the boundary we stalked into the bush .. in a short time we had spooked a herd out .. then a couple of cows .. and after sundown ... we saw a third big trophy bull ... while admiring this bull my wife told me to shoot the damn thing !!! I've spent my entire life broke ... and this one wasn't budgetted .. It didn't matter .. To the PH's great joy I agreed ... He wanted to back me up on this bull as it was getting dark .. The man didn't know ... but I did .. that when I pulled the trigger of James' .375 at this bull about 40 yards away .. it was a done deal .. for all I cared he could have dropped the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Guy on it .. the outcome was not going to change in any way ... Shot through the shoulder/heart .. the bull lunged out of sight .. we ran over there with me saying something stupid like, ' Now the war begins !' Part way over we jumped a giant mud caked black boar .. it took off grunting .. Apparently Glenn wanted me to shoot it .. Now, as Lorenzo knows .. I really like shooting pigs .. and I would have loved this swine .. but not then .. imagine shooting a pig and having the buff charge out of the bush while I was working that nasty right handed bolt while trying to keep my pants on !!!??? No, I don't think so ... Anyways, James knocked it down .. startling the hell out of me .. he then yelled, ' Fire!' and shot it again .. and repeated, 'Fire !' and shot it a third time ...

The big bull was down ... facing us .. only few yards away .. Twice it tried to raise its head and I know it would have tried to kill us if it could .. It never heard the coup de grace .. By then it had lowered its great head and was gone ...

I am so grateful to the buffalo (rather one sided, I know) and my wife for making it happen ...

Later on we saw a few wallabies on the long long drive out .. and stopped at a station to shoot a few donkeys .. I shot the first one and it had a badly infected leg .. poor thing .. I know the owners hate feral animals .. (gov't had cullers take out 20,000 donkeys in 6 weeks some where else ... one time) but I'm not much of a donkey shooter ...

I hope to go back in 2007 ... and hunt a camel .. I know that would make me a rare guy !!!



Would I recommend a $1,700 hunt with Muckadilla Safaris .. yes I would .. It ain't for the person who needs a fancy South African rondavel, of course ... I would take a bunch of snacks ..and let Glenn know in advance that you expect lots of hot good food of whatever kind that you like .. He is a very fine man .. and I like him and Megan very much .. P.S. James is a very good shot !!!

That's a pretty short saga....make with the rest of the story will ya!!!!



Canuck

Hi Richard !!
Welcome back
Please post some pictures and tell me the stories behind them. What differences you find between hunting buff in Uruguay and in Australia ????

The wilderness of northern Australia sure is one but what more ??

L

Welcome back scruffy. I'm glad that you had a good trip and hope to see some photos soon.

Yo, Lorenzo !! The big bulls in East Arnhemland seemed to be not as spooky as the bulls that I saw and hunted in Northern Uruguay .. In fact, the water buffalo in Oz would walk towards you quite often and give you quite the look .. However I only had limited dealings in Uruguay with them as you know .. they sure do have fancy horns, however .. I was thrilled with my management bull .. but the other one was even fancier .. I'm going to have him stuffed and keep him around as long as I stay around ... I'll get some photos in as soon as I can .. the one photo of James with the big fancy pig and the buff .. that was my buffalo ...

quote:

P.S. James is a very good shot !!!

Agreed, You should see him whack goats with his 7mm Mag!

Scruffy,

a great real life story spiced with humour. It must have been interesting as a leftie working someone else's RH bolt under such circumstances !

Joe

Scruffy

Congratulations on your wife's and your hunt. Any photos of the buffalo that were hunted?

The toilets and showers sound about par for a mobile 'safari' camp, but reasonable quality and decent meals are not that hard to do properly.

Was the sea "varmint" a turtle?