Does Glenn have an e mail address ?

Scruffy ,
Glenn's email is muckadilla@optusnet.com.au

WEll I have booked my ticket to Darwin. I get to Darwin at 20.15 on 20 Oct. I will send my guns to Katherine and pick them up from the gunshop. Can anyone give me the name and phone number of gunshops in Katherine. Is the one on the main street still there?

I've replied to your PM mate.

I've talked to Glenn on the phone. Muckadilla safaris. His tented management buffalo hunt is certainly affordable and he seems like quite a nice fellow .. 1x1 for five days at $2,200. Management buffalo bronze at $900 ... cows at $300. Boars are $200. A person could go on that and not have to mortgage the back 40 ...

I'm intersted too, but for next July. Scruffy, I sent you an email....

Sheldon

E mail sent back ! I think that we'll have a blast !!! I gotta figure out how to go from there to Namibia without going back to Canada first .. Gets tedious those long flights ..

quote:

Originally posted by Les Kosek:
Hi Nitrox,
When do you plan to go - Bwana Bob and myself we think about being there second part October, George is booked on 15th and 16th Oct. Will you drive or fly to NT ?
Les

I will be there for a couple of days next week. Flying. All up it will cost a packet but I aim to melt a couple of double rifles barrels.

Enjoy yourself, NitroX .. if I went next year with those guys the price is $6,500 U.S. for a seven day hunt for one bull... whack a boar for an extra $500 ... I'm going with Muckadilla if the references check out.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
[I will be there for a couple of days next week. Flying. All up it will cost a packet but I aim to melt a couple of double rifles barrels.

Take a lot of pictures and whack at least one buff with the 9.3!

Good hunting.

Scruffy ,
I've just hunted pigs and donkeys with Muckadilla and had a great time . Glenn worked from 5.30 AM until 11.00 PM to get us onto game . Most of the pigs were feeding at night and shot by moonlight .I don't think you'll be disappointed with him .
We hunted on a cattle station so can't comment on his tent camp .
He's no "smart dressed man" and his Landcruiser is a bit rough around the edges but don't let first impressions fool you .
Will be writing up the story for a local shooting magazine when I get the time .

Hello ,just got back from Conways today ! culling some buffalo etc ,had a good time ! Thanks Darwin Mauser for posting this hunt !!!got 10 buffalo some donkeys ,some pigs .just take note that GST has to be added to these prices okay!! but who cares !!!! its cheap big game hunting anyway you look at it !!!George says he wants to get rid of about 70 so there is still opportunities for others to get a look in, i think so far he has only 40 booked .There are plenty of buffalo ,and bulls at higher cost ,heaps of donkeys ,we had two pigs wander through the camp while we were sitting having a beer [so it probably a good idea to bring some beer with you ]as its alooooooong way from the nearest beer shop,best fun ive had in a while !!! get into it !!

BTW Georges family runs ''Leithen Valley Hunts'',in New Zealand ,for Thar, Chamois, Red Deer etc,George has also guided in the Yukon for moose ,his whole family is involved in hunting ,if anyone is planning a NZ hunt ,they can check the Leithen valley website as well

velodog

was talking to George yesterday. So you gave your .470 a run?

Yes Nitro X,gave it a bit of a test out ,still havent come up with a load iam happy with accuracy wise ,but is MOB, minute of buffalo !hit them with woodleigh softs and solids ,did the job on them ,but none were knocked off their feet by it ! will take something bigger next time,maybe PCs 585 .Shot one with my 8x68 at about 150 yards in the neck which seemed to drop it no problem and a scrub bull at the same range with 8x68 which dropped on the spot.George shot one donkey with my 8x68 which didnt phase it ,he then shot it with the 470 and it still didnt drop !only after a headshot did it expire ,maybe the donkeys are tougher than the buffs

Velodog,

How spooky are these buffalo ?? Are they hard to stalk ??? Since they are buffalo I reckon that they are tough to knock down..

Scruffy ,during the middle of the day they were pretty wary and hard to get close to ,by the end of the day around 5pm they did not feel like moving and were easy to get close to .Yes they are fairly hard to knock down ,so bring something BIG with you ,usually one shot with the 470 in the right place is enough and they dont go far before they drop, but i kept feeding them more woodleighs just to be sure

quote:

Originally posted by velodog:
Hello ,just got back from Conways today ! culling some buffalo etc ,had a good time ! Thanks Darwin Mauser for posting this hunt !!!got 10 buffalo some donkeys ,some pigs .just take note that GST has to be added to these prices okay!! but who cares !!!! its cheap big game hunting anyway you look at it !!!George says he wants to get rid of about 70 so there is still opportunities for others to get a look in, i think so far he has only 40 booked .There are plenty of buffalo ,and bulls at higher cost ,heaps of donkeys ,we had two pigs wander through the camp while we were sitting having a beer [so it probably a good idea to bring some beer with you ]as its alooooooong way from the nearest beer shop,best fun ive had in a while !!! get into it !!

Good onya mate, glad to see some of us get the benefit, I would have gone myself but moneys already spent (for about the next 30 years)
cheers
Pete

quote:

Originally posted by darwinmauser:

Good onya mate, glad to see some of us get the benefit, I would have gone myself but moneys already spent (for about the next 30 years)
cheers
Pete

Pete

Thanks for the tip. Had a great couple of days there on Thursday and Friday. Would have shot more too except the wallet becomes emptier after a while.

Did get a very nice scrub bull, plus 14 buffalo, 3 pigs, a donkey, 2 brumbies. Good fun.

Thanks again for the tip on the advert.

Good for you !!! I can't afford the $6,500 U.S. for a short hunt for a trophy bull. Is there any chance they would do the cow buffalo hunt again ? Next year ? Vacation time in 2005 long since burnt up ...(I'm still waiting for stuff to arrive via snail mail from Muckadilla.)

Scruffy ,
Shoot me a PM and I'll scan and e-mail it to you if you like .

scruffy

I think there is a good chance of cow buffalo hunts next year. Probably a different sort of deal though.

I need to email George and I forget to get his email address while there. So I will be phoning him and get hold of it and you can deal direct and see what you can organise.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
Did get a very nice scrub bull, plus 14 buffalo, 3 pigs, a donkey, 2 brumbies. Good fun.

Welcome back -- sounds like you had a good trip. If you can't give us a full report, at least tease us with some pictures! Did you break out the 9.3x74R?

Sorry for the constant harrassment.

Only used the 9.3x74R. Someone was on my back so thought I should give it a good run.

Report soon! I am away from the 'puter for a couple of days!

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:

quote:

Originally posted by darwinmauser:

Good onya mate, glad to see some of us get the benefit, I would have gone myself but moneys already spent (for about the next 30 years)
cheers
Pete

Pete

Thanks for the tip. Had a great couple of days there on Thursday and Friday. Would have shot more too except the wallet becomes emptier after a while.

Did get a very nice scrub bull, plus 14 buffalo, 3 pigs, a donkey, 2 brumbies. Good fun.

Thanks again for the tip on the advert.

Your welcome mate.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
Only used the 9.3x74R. Someone was on my back so thought I should give it a good run.

I'll look forward to the pictures and report.

Is any of you fine gentlemen going to post some pics, or what?

Frans

Well ,Im about to hop on the plane to get to Darwin today. Will be at Conway tomorrow (21st Oct) I will be taking the digital camera and video camera and see what sort of pictures I can get. Wish me luck.

quote:

Originally posted by cr500:
Wish me luck.

Good Luck!

Sounds like you had a good time Nitro. I'll give you a PM when I get back. I'm still at the gold coast and have been rained out for the day

quote:

Originally posted by cr500:
Well ,Im about to hop on the plane to get to Darwin today. Will be at Conway tomorrow (21st Oct) I will be taking the digital camera and video camera and see what sort of pictures I can get. Wish me luck.

cr500 is there right now. Probably shot a good number already and having a great time. You have to limit yourself there a bit. It was easy to shoot ten the first day (more could have been shot), the second day I said I wanted to find some donkeys and we went for a long drive to the "safari area". Shot the nice scrub bull there. It makes my previous one from August look puny!

Is the motivation for this cull just to improve the quality of breeding stock ?
I assume that you're only taking out mature animals that never grew big horns ?
Wish I'd known about this when I was in the NT about 5 weeks ago . Still , I haven't really got a big enough gun anyway .

The motivation for the cull is reduce water buffalo numbers to allow more cattle to be run. It is a working cattle station with new owners. Excess cows are being shot with small or average sized horns. Larger horned buff cows are not being shot so they can continue to breed. Bulls are being reserved for future trophy hunting next season. Also buffalo are being shot out of some areas as they are doing a lot of re-fencing/improvements and the buff in those areas damage the fences. The owner's son claims the supply from across the boundary is never ending (ie the boundary with Aboriginal land in Arnhemland) and bulls shot in those areas seem to replenish with new arrivals.

This year was a good, perhaps once off opportunity to shoot a dozen cow buffalo for a price cheaper than any normal single buffalo hunt I have seen in many years. Which is why I jumped at it to test out my 9.3mm.

Not having shot cows before I found the 9.3mm to be very adequate and they are quite a bit smaller than big bodied heavy trophy bulls. On the other hand any rifle bullet of adequate construction put properly in the 'boiler room' (heart - lungs) seems to kill well enough as my mate proved with his 6.5 mm M-S this year. (BTW I am not recommending a 6.5 mm as the ideal water buffalo rifle. Not at all.) The buff with these smaller rifles often doesn't even flinch when shot but it will die after a while.

I am happy that my 9.3mm has gone from being "bloodless" to having taken twenty-one big game and medium animals with just one hunt. A blast!

I,m back from the hunt and holidaying in Darwin for another week. I only got 7 buffalo but there were 4 in our group so we had to share the shooting around. As Nitro said ,could have got many more if we wanted. The 458 Lott went very well. 4 of the buff dropped quickly when the shoulders were broken and bullet went into the heart lung area. The other 2 went a short distance before dropping while I put more shots into them.We got onto a mob of donkeys and I got 6 with 6 shots at 150-250 yards. At the end I got a decent semi trophy bull for a bit extra price. He was very big in the body ,but nothing special in the horns ,maybe 85-90 points at most. I will post pics and a bit of a story in a few weeks when I get back. I will be going back next year for a trophy buff or two.

quote:

Originally posted by cr500:
... trophy bull for a bit extra price. ... maybe 85-90 points at most.

Sounds OK to me. Congratualtions. The really big ones in the station country can be there but take a lot of hunting to find.

I will have to measure mine from August and see what they score. I imagine they are in the 85 to 95 point range.

Well done on the donkeys. One shot kills. I think mine took I think 3 shots from the 9.3mm and if a buffalo it would have been properly dead. George finished off mine with a finishing shot from his .303 (saving 9.3mm ammo) as even though it lay there it still wasn't dead. Tough stubborn buggers. I like brain shots with my .30-06 for donks.

These cull hunts are fun little hunts aren't they.

quote:

Originally posted by cr500:
I,m back from the hunt and holidaying in Darwin for another week. I only got 7 buffalo but there were 4 in our group so we had to share the shooting around. As Nitro said ,could have got many more if we wanted. The 458 Lott went very well. 4 of the buff dropped quickly when the shoulders were broken and bullet went into the heart lung area. The other 2 went a short distance before dropping while I put more shots into them.We got onto a mob of donkeys and I got 6 with 6 shots at 150-250 yards. At the end I got a decent semi trophy bull for a bit extra price. He was very big in the body ,but nothing special in the horns ,maybe 85-90 points at most. I will post pics and a bit of a story in a few weeks when I get back. I will be going back next year for a trophy buff or two.

Good on ya.

Does anyone know how Kozek, BwanaBob and others went. They had bookings for the end of October.

I think they did pretty good. An excerpt from a message Les (Kosek) sent me (the name initializing is my doing, with all the aliases on this forum I don't know if people want their true name disclosed):

"Frans, Just got back home only yesterday from the buffalo cows cull in Northern Territory. There were four of us - RD with 458 Lett, RH with 375 H&H Mag, GG with Weatherby 378 Mag and my humble self with Lee Enfield 303 Mk III iron sights and a 12 g side by side coachgun with hammers. R, R and G each took 4-5 cows, I took one with 303 and one with 12 g slugs.The opeartion lasted 3 days, the temps had been C 40 + !!!!! The camp was a very basic and a rough spike camp with very basic bush shower and a long drop dunny !. R got a problem bull which was a bonus !"

Les has been fiddling with his video camera, so we may get to see some live action someday in the future.

Frans

Frans

Thanks for the report. Sounds like they got a few.

The heat is why I wanted to get up there as soon as possible in October.

quote:

Originally posted by Frans Diepstraten:
The camp was a very basic and a rough spike camp with very basic bush shower and a long drop dunny !

George's camp was just a couple of swags and a tarp over the kitchen table/food prep area. Plus the long drop.

This is what he told me when booking, as they haven't setup for proper paying customers yet (next year). It was always meant to be just a rough culling camp. No problem for a few days. The food was simple but good. Plus cold drinks picked up from the Station Manager's house.

BUT the poor guy has been living like this himself since February back at the station HQ. They have built a very nice house for the Manager and his wife, but George (the owner's son) and Kiwi builder mate live under mosquito nets next to a lean to shed. For nine months. They are concentrating on building the cattle business up instead, fencing etc.

quote:

Les has been fiddling with his video camera, so we may get to see some live action someday in the future.

I got some reasonable footage too, of the carnage only. George filmed some of the shooting for me with my camera.


Bonus bulls are always good too!

Posted additional photos on this thread:

"Off to hunt some mad cows"






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