Up the next morning to go look at the Aboriginal Art on some rocks down a creek. Along the way a nice bull and some cows are spotted at the water. Aaron sizes the bull up as a good management bull and the stalk is on! I’m up to bat and the whole group follows up the hill out of the river bottom. The herd moved up ahead of us as we slowly moved through a open rock outcropping with bush between us and the buff. Aaron had kicked off his shoes at the river and was barefoot, I knew my feet wouldn’t like the rocks and was happy to have my Courtney boots. We got to the edge of the bush line and we were looking for the bull when I looked over to my left and a dingo was about 35 yards away! Now I’m the kind of guy that will blow an opportunity on a 6x6 bull elk to smoke a coyote and I started to get excited about the dingo, I wasn’t the only one because Bob had that look in his eyes that he was about to give that dog a hunk of 375 lead but he realized what we were and hauled off into the brush. Attention back to buffalo now. I moved up a little to get a clear shot at about 125 yards. The bull was quartering away a bit and I shot a bit to far back on him for the cheapo Federal blue box 270 grain bullets to push deep enough. I racked another round and shot him in the left rear hip trying to break bone before he disappeared into the bush. Didn’t phase him! We looked for blood and found none. Aaron said the first shot was good and the second was on the hip. He decided it best to let him set a while and come back with the dogs. We moved out of the area and walked back down to the river and to the cruisers.
Of course I replayed the shots in my head the whole way back to the truck, feeling sick that there was a wounded bull left on the hill. I had faith that the dogs would pick up the track.
As we were going down the track Aaron and Bob spot another bull in a marsh area and they are pointing to the bull. I bail out and run down into the marsh, as I come around a tree and mire myself over the top of my boots in the mud the bull is 20 yards from me. I threw the BRNO up and gave him 3 as hard as I could go with the bull dropping at the third shot. I topped off the gun and made my way up closer, he was done! My first success on Water buffalo was in front of me and it was awesome!
Several of the bulls that we took were piebald.
We took care of the bull and went to look at the aboriginal art. The canyon that we walked down was gorgeous. The lava flow was evident and the rocks were had a copper hue to them that made them look surreal. Pictures did not capture the amazing beauty of this place.
The art work was also amazing, telling a story that we can only guess the meaning. I will post better pics of this area and the drawings when I download my camera.
On the way out of the canyon Aaron had us sample a little green ant that tasted like lime! I much prefer little green ants to hummus or vegamite.
We went back to camp, got the dogs and headed back to the last place we had seen the bull that I had shot. In short order they had found a little bit of blood. We spread out and walked through the bush but the dogs were not on a track. We walked patterns and found nothing. I was getting worried that we would not find the bull. Red decided to walk toward the river west and Bob and I started walking toward a thick patch of bush about the time the dogs started sounding. We decided to head toward the dogs after a bit of confusion determining if it was Red trying to get our attention or a bird, turns out it was a bird that sounded quite like Red’s voice.
We closed in on the dogs and they had the bull at bay. He was very much alive and we were trying to make sure it was the same bull. Bob finally saw blood on his rear quarter and I shot breaking his neck. We placed one more in him for good measure. I was so relieved to get him, the idea of an animal left wounded in the bush due to my actions makes me ill. Unfortunately I have lost a couple animals over my time hunting, it has felt the same each time.
Aaron and Red working over the bull.
The conclusion to this particular bull ended perfectly and will be a memory I will never forget. Once again Thanks Bob for help sorting this guy out!
