Aussie_Hunter
AH elite
After 3 years of cancelled hunts because of Covid, I finally managed to get out into buffalo country and do some hunting last week. The goal was a trophy buffalo and a big scrub bull to turn into a flat skin, all though there was no shortage of scrubbers it ended up being a hard and frustrating hunt for the scrub bull. Several days and several failed stalks because of fickle winds and other animals spooking the bulls we were stalking I ended up forgetting about the scrub bull as I came across a second 100 point buffalo bull at last light on the second last day and just could not pass up the opportunity, as we all know when out hunting quite often we are presented with unexpected opportunities like this and for me that's one of the best parts of hunting. For the week I ended up with 2 buffalo bulls both scoring 100 points. the first bull scoring exactly 100 and the second bull a quarter of an inch over 100. Alot of hunters never even get a chance at bulls of this quality but I was lucky enough to get 2 in one hunt.
I took the first bull on the afternoon of the first day, the big 100 point bulls really do stand out and as soon as I saw him I knew I had a chance at a ripper bull and I am also a big believer in the good old saying, don't pass up a bull on the first day that you would shoot on the last. We saw this bull wandering out into a big muddy lagoon at around 3pm for a drink and a wallow, distance was around 70 meters, using my Rigby SSB big game rifle chambered in 450 Rigby the first shot was a very sharp quartering away shot, probably not a shot I would normally take but I had plenty of time for back up shots with the bull being out in the middle of the lagoon, after the first shot the bull ran directly away, second shot was in the hip, the bull then turned broadside and the third shot hit the neck dropping him. After a few minutes we walked over to the bull and he actually tried getting up so I smacked a couple of quick shots into his shoulder, unbelievable he was still going after being hit in the neck with a 550 grain Woodleigh out of a 450 Rigby. Not only did he have 100 inches of horn but he was also a massive bodied bull, as you can see in the photos below he has one of the biggest necks I have ever seen on a water buffalo.
As mentioned above I took the second bull at last light on the second last day of the hunt, as soon as I saw him through my bino's I knew he was another awesome bull, we stalked into around 30 metres or so and I hit him broadside behind the shoulder with a 550 grain Woodleigh out of the Rigby, unbelievable how he took off running, it was like he wasn't even hit, we immediately started throwing backup shots at him, I missed but the guide I was hunting with managed to get a 400 grain Hornady DGX into him from his 416 Ruger, unfortunately the round landed between the hip bone and the spine and because of the angle only really penetrated along its back under the skin and didn't do any real damage but the bull only went around 50 metres or so and pulled up and fell over, he was pretty much done from the first shot but I put a finisher in the spine anyway just to be sure as it was almost dark at this point.
I'm thinking I'll put both sets of horns on the wall in my reloading room.
First bull
Massive neck on the first bull and a really thick covering of dried up mud
Second bull
I took the first bull on the afternoon of the first day, the big 100 point bulls really do stand out and as soon as I saw him I knew I had a chance at a ripper bull and I am also a big believer in the good old saying, don't pass up a bull on the first day that you would shoot on the last. We saw this bull wandering out into a big muddy lagoon at around 3pm for a drink and a wallow, distance was around 70 meters, using my Rigby SSB big game rifle chambered in 450 Rigby the first shot was a very sharp quartering away shot, probably not a shot I would normally take but I had plenty of time for back up shots with the bull being out in the middle of the lagoon, after the first shot the bull ran directly away, second shot was in the hip, the bull then turned broadside and the third shot hit the neck dropping him. After a few minutes we walked over to the bull and he actually tried getting up so I smacked a couple of quick shots into his shoulder, unbelievable he was still going after being hit in the neck with a 550 grain Woodleigh out of a 450 Rigby. Not only did he have 100 inches of horn but he was also a massive bodied bull, as you can see in the photos below he has one of the biggest necks I have ever seen on a water buffalo.
As mentioned above I took the second bull at last light on the second last day of the hunt, as soon as I saw him through my bino's I knew he was another awesome bull, we stalked into around 30 metres or so and I hit him broadside behind the shoulder with a 550 grain Woodleigh out of the Rigby, unbelievable how he took off running, it was like he wasn't even hit, we immediately started throwing backup shots at him, I missed but the guide I was hunting with managed to get a 400 grain Hornady DGX into him from his 416 Ruger, unfortunately the round landed between the hip bone and the spine and because of the angle only really penetrated along its back under the skin and didn't do any real damage but the bull only went around 50 metres or so and pulled up and fell over, he was pretty much done from the first shot but I put a finisher in the spine anyway just to be sure as it was almost dark at this point.
I'm thinking I'll put both sets of horns on the wall in my reloading room.
First bull
Massive neck on the first bull and a really thick covering of dried up mud
Second bull
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