My wife and I had the great pleasure and great fun this past Aug (2018) of booking a 7-day (5-hunting days) Asiatic Water Buffalo cull hunt with Berry Seabrook.

We spend about 10-days before the hunt split between, Brisbane and Cairns before the hunt, highlighted by a day of diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We had jet service from Cairns to Gove where Barry picked us up and the 5 hour drive to "camp".

This was my wife's first time really "tent camping" and Barry and the concession holder Joe and his camp manger Merv really went out of their way to make her stay terrific. So much so, she (and I) are already planning to go back and do it again in two years.

They had positioned our 6-man tent facing to the east and overlooking an escarpment so we could watch the sun rise. Tent was set up with individual cots with mattresses and sheets and very comfortable. Hot shower and portable toilet. Joe, the concession holder and the one doing the meat recovery the first couple of days, and his camp manager Merv really went out of their way to make our stay very memorable.

Enjoyed, Joe recounting the croc attack that crippled his right hand and nearly took his life. Loved Merv and his stories and he really did a good job with the cooking. He even showed up one afternoon with a cooler full of mud crabs and boiled them up for "starters" before dinner.

A couple of days in, Joe had to drive back to Darwin and he was replaced by his son, Arthur. Arthur is one of the finest young men we have met in a very long time. When I told him he looked like a young Mel Gibson, he said, "who is that"!!

The culling was great. Because we were doing additional sightseeing before and after the hunt, we opted to just rent rifles and buy ammo from Berry. Loaners were a Sako Kodiak with a Khales 3-9x40 and Win 70 with a 4x fixed Leupold, both in 375 H&H. Ammo was Federal with 300gr A-frames.

If we saw single animals, my wife and I took turns. Because Joe wanted us to try to NOT get any bone fragments in the recovered meet, we tried to do nothing but head shots. We sorted out quickly from Berry that if there were two or more in a group, my wife would target the biggest bodied one and drop it with a head shot and that would kind of "hold" the rest in the group around for a little bit allowing us to take a few more down before any remaining would run off. I was able to anchor a couple with hip shots and then finish them. I think the largest group we took out at one time was seven - five adult, one just bigger than yearling and one calf.

In total, between the two of us we killed either 30 or 32 adults and 4-5 calves. Recovered the meat from 30 adults - two were too deep in the bush to get the meat truck into. Only 2 1/2 hind quarters had bone fragments that Joe couldn't risk running through the grinder. Most shots were head/neck shots, a couple of frontal chest and maybe 2-3 side chest shots. One reason we got so many is because I helped with skinning nearly every animal. The quicker we could get the meat recovery done with the ones we had on the ground, the quicker we could go after some more.

Several times we took a few of the inside and outside fillets and cooked them right on the fire for lunch in the bush. We took some of the calf outside fillets too - some of the most outstanding meat on the grill I think I've ever had!

Saw a couple of saltwater crocs, shot a dingo, and saw a few wallabies and lots of cool birds. No snakes and only one small scorpion.

Our last hunting day was also our anniversary. I had asked Berry to see if he could get a little champagne and come up with a little something special. We hunted that morning a took a couple of buffalo and then started a pretty long drive. Ended up on a remote/secluded white sand beach on the Pacific ocean that he said only a few "whites" have probably ever been allowed to see. We swam a bit while Berry cook up a little open fire shore lunch of buffalo veal fillets and sausages and a very good sparkling Tasmanian white wine. ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC - THANKS BERRY!

After the hunt, Berry drove us back to Darwin. Long (12-13 hr) drive and nice to see the territory, once - but, next time we go, I think we'll opt to fly out.

Spent a few days in Darwin sightseeing and then on to Sydney for a few days of the same and then home.

We both loved the entire trip and will be going back again.

Thanks again Berry, we had a great time. Please pass our sincere thanks on to Joe and Arthur a be sure to give Merv a special thanks from us too.

Sorry for no pics as I don't post pictures of any kind on the web. PM me and I'll email you a few.

Sounds like a fine trip for you and the Mrs.!

I just got back from Australia a couple of weeks ago. Had a great time. Sounds like you did better!

Sounds like you had fun. I hunted with Barry a few years ago, and it was memorable.

quote:

We swam a bit

No salt water crocs?

Salt water crocs. Did see a couple inland in the feeder streams but the water on the beach was absolutely crystal clear. We did stand up on the cliff for a bit scanning for crocs and sharks before we swam and kept a very watchful eye out.

Easy to see how they could ambush in the smaller feeder streams and rivers as the the water in them was a bit muddy/murky. Hell, we swim in the Gulf of Mexico a couple of times a week with sharks and some of the rivers here with alligators! Will admit that the two "salties" we did see in the floodplain feeders were HUGE and we gave the stream banks a pretty wide birth.

When I lived at Bulman there was an old story of a white man whose arm was damaged by a kinga (salty) near Emu Springs outstation a long time ago, near the Goyder River.

Congratulations on a fine adventure in magnificent country!

Ben:

Don't remember exactly where Joe and the croc had their "encounter" but, Joe said it was about 20 years ago. He and a friend, first named Colin were hunting/camping along some stream/river. Colin was asleep and a Joe went down to the river bank to get a bucket of water for coffee/tea or whatever. Croc got mostly the bucket but enough of his had that Joe described that if it hadn't been for some tree for him to brace his feet against to pull back, he'd a been a gonner. Said it took them nearly 20 hours to get out and to medical attention. Doctors couldn't believe he didn't bleed out.

He still has most function of his right thumb and forefinger and some function of his middle finger but, the last two are permanently fused. He has some specially adapted knife handles and he can still go through a buffalo like a beaver through a willow tree.

That’s very interesting because although I can’t say whether the bush story I was hearing is about your friend, the circumstances you described are pretty-much identical.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. The banteng next time!

Joes attack is listed in worldwide croc attack database I looked it up. Can't wait to go back myself me and the boy had a great time with Joe and Arthur although I ribbed him a few times as we sparred over the limited Victoria Bitters beer he liked. The camping trip in the cruiser after the hunt was great too

Good report.
I think you'll find it was the Arafura Sea that you were swimming in. There are some pretty good reasons why not many sober whites swim there. If you come back in a couple of years I'd suggest you not be lulled into a false sense of security by your experience there. Alligators and saltwater crocs are very different animals. Crocs are much more aggressive. A few seem to learn just how aggressive the hard way every year in Northern Australia.
Remember seeing crocs and alligators in the same pen in the Broome crocodile park many years ago. Two alligators sat there and calmly watched us standing a few feet away whilst the saltwater croc next to them attacked the chain mesh fence in an effort to make us his lunch.

For those that are inclined to underestimate the dangers of swimming or fishing in Northern Australia. This in the news today:-

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...t-community/10370614

Great report, Michael. If you could, please PM me some pictures of your buffs.

My father met a bloke who lived in the Northern Territory many years ago [like 50 yrs ago] he said, he and his mate had to climb a tree once to escape from some crocodiles ,the crocs were making every effort to to get up the tree to get ''at them ''

Heard they were considering open up hunting on Croc's. This would be great as I saw some wild ones pretty close.....

quote:

Originally posted by gunslinger55:
Heard they were considering open up hunting on Croc's. This would be great as I saw some wild ones pretty close.....

Long overdue, but keeps on getting help up by the greenies.

quote:

Originally posted by Bushchook:
For those that are inclined to underestimate the dangers of swimming or fishing in Northern Australia. This in the news today:-

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...t-community/10370614

I missed this earlier, that Croc (Conrad was his name) lived in the Billabong next to our camp at Gan Gan, he was sort of my mate (He would have killed & eaten me I'm sure) I was at that camp for months & in between Hunters I would have a chat to Conrad when the Cook & other PH were in town or not deployed yet !

We had not been there for a couple of years since Matt pasted away, I will miss him (the Croc & Matt)!

Oh he had already survived a Gun Shot to the head & lost a eye from a stupid Blow in PH (Conrad that is)!