AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory Cull Hunting With BIG COUNTRY SAFARIS AUSTRALIA - May 2025

[UpNorthMI]

I've been looking at planning an Australian cull hunt for several years now, I've talked to a number of outfitters at the SCI & DSC Expos and through this forum. My goal was to be able to hunt a reasonable number of animals of several different types to fill a long enough trip to make the trek to Australia worthwhile.

I was planning the trip to hint with my son who is in his early 20's and as a way to celebrate my early retirement. We finally decided to plan a hunt with Alex Jagers of @BIG COUNTRY SAFARIS AUSTRALIA in the Australian Northern Territory. We planned to hunt water buffalo cull cows, trophy water buffalo, feral donkeys, feral camel, feral pigs / hogs and whatever other legal sport Australia had to offer. A conversation about a days barramundi fishing was also had!

We worked out dates for May 2025 that would give us 2 weeks of hunting / fishing time. My son finished his last collage exams and classes on May 12 and our plan was to start travel on the evening of Tuesday May 13 with Delta, starting in Detroit, MI, onto LA, then LA to Sydney and eventually from Sydney to Darwin, getting us there in the early hours of Friday morning.

Our journey was challenging and long, a delayed flight departure caused a nearly impossible connection time in LA but we made it work, guns and baggage made our Australia flight too. After arrival in Sydney we had a 14 hour layover before flying onto Darwin. The owner of Safari Firearms, a large outdoor and hunting store agreed to store our rifles and baggage for the day allowing us to spend most of our layover playing tourist in Sydney and Bondi.

Alex met us at Darwin at 1:30am and took us back to his home / guest house for us to get a real nights sleep before preparing rifle export paperwork and travel out to our hunting ground during the day on Friday May 16.

 

[Franco]

A group of us did this same hunt in November. I hope you had as enjoyable an experience as we did.

Looking forward to more pictures and the rest of your story.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Friday May 16 - The Journey

After a good breakfast, completion of gun export paperwork, it was time to load our gear up into the ute and head off for a days travel into the "Outback" of the Northern Territory, Alex had a family celebration for the weekend that he let us know about at the time we booked our trip so his team mate Dylan was going to be in charge of getting us out to camp and our first couple of days hunting. Our journey to camp involved a number of hours heading South past Katherine on the tarmac and then a left turn heading East towards Arnham Land on road that quickly turned into dirt road. Some hours later we arrived at our first location, a cattle station (ranch) where Alex had the exclusive hunting rights, this initial property was approximately 400,000 acres. Even though we had made good time it was quickly going dark by 6:30pm, we were treated to an amazing sunset out in this very remote area. We used the last light to unpack the vehicle and get settled into our accommodation at the ranger station which was going to be home for the next few days.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Saturday - May 18 - Day 1 Hunting - The Morning

My son was suffering with jet lag, passed on the early morning outing, so it was just our guide Dylan and myself who set off after a leisurely coffee on the porch of our accommodation. We transferred to a buggy for the hunt (Polaris Ranger 1000 with 2 rows of seating), after leaving camp it was not long until we started seeing groups of water buffalo, we eventually picked a group, left the buggy and walked to make our way into cover downwind to see if we could get close enough for a shot with my .500/416NE Kreighoff double rifle.

We eventually managed to get in fairly close on a small group that included a cull cow, Dylan guided us in and we had several buffalo at a shootable range , unfortunately we just could not get the buffalo to turn side on and they eventually turned and ran after getting to about 30 yards from us! It was a close first encounter.

Dylan remained very cool and we set off on foot deeper away from the track we had left the buggy on, it was not even 10 minutes before we got into another group of buffalo. Dylan pointed out several cull cows and we slowly made our way to close the distance a little in the tall grass and thick cover. A good shot was offered by a buffalo cow at 47 yards. Dylan had the sticks out and I quickly settled and took the shot at the nearly broadside angle. The cow took the first shot in the front shoulder and then started to run, I took the double rifle off the sticks and followed up quickly with a second shot to the quartering running buffalo. The cow fell heavily shortly after my second shot, my first Australian water buffalo was down.

Sorry but it's time for sleep right now. Our day was action packed with a total of 7 animals, I will write more and post photos after getting some sleep.

 

[EPIC SAFARIS]

Good stuff. Look foreword to hearing more.

 

[Sideshow]

You will love the sunsets up there. They throw quite the display. Looking forward to the rest of the report

 

[UpNorthMI]

Saturday - May 18 - Day 1 Hunting - The Morning Continued

In my .500/.416 NE double I am shooting reloads using the Hornady DGX bonded 400 gr bullets, we were able to recover the first round from just under the skin on this bufffalo on a slightly angled shot through the front shoulder, I will post a photo in the next 24 hours of the bullet, it's performance was impressive. We cut the backstraps out to make buffalo stew back in camp for everyone. I had definitely worked up an appetite it was time to get back to camp for bacon and egg sandwiches and to pick up my son to join the action.

Posting without photo - Starlink is a little off today! More to come

 

[Sideshow]

Looking forward to some pics when you can

 

[UpNorthMI]

Saturday - May 18 - Day 1 Hunting - The Morning Continued

This was my first water buffalo.

My .500/.416 NE Hornady DGX Bonded bullet 400 gr on the left, .375 Barnes 300 gr TSX bullets fired by my son in center and on right, all recovered just under the skin on quartering shots on buffalo.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Saturday - May 18 - Day 1 Hunting - The Afternoon

We set out with my son in the afternoon and quickly bumped into a donkey, I think this was an armor plated donkey as it took 4 rounds of Barnes TSX 300 gr .375!

Shortly after the donkey we started seeing a great number of buffalo, some very impressive animals.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Saturday - May 18 - Day 1 Hunting - The Afternoon

It did not take long for my son to get into a group of buffalo with our guide for a fast flurry of action, 4 shot later and 2 buffalo cull cows were down. Shortly afterwards we made our way back to one of the private trails of the cattle station where we took a break for a drink and food, during our break we spotted 2 dingos making their way down the track towards us. My son took an excellent shot at a dingo at about 150 yards with his .375 H&H.

As we were making our way back to camp in the late afternoon, we ran into a group of donkeys, it was my turn with my .500/.416 NE double rifle to take a shot, my shot struck a large donkey on the front shoulder at about 50 yards, the donkey instantly dropped to the ground and then rolled to its side, totally dead. My son managed to get a shot off with his .375 to claim another donkey for the day.

It was time to focus on getting back to camp and stop shooting, what a great first day we had with our guide, 3 buffalo, 3 donkey & 1 dingo.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Sunday - May 18 - Day 2 Hunting - The Morning

After our first day we were ready to get out again in the wilds of the Northern Territories. We had a relaxing coffee and then loaded the buggy with rifles and all the things we would need during the day, temperature was running from about 70C in the morning to 90C during the afternoon, our hunting clothing was very light. It was important to restock our ammunition culling belts, it was easy to use ammunition quickly on this type of hunt.

We spent some time walking in on many buffalo and other game, it did not take long until we spotted a big trophy buffalo.

We planned on taking one trophy buffalo each on this trip, my son was up first for his trophey and our guide Dylan had found an amazing animal early in the morning hunt. My son made short work of taking this magnificent animal with 3 quick shots from his .375 H&H Blaser R8.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Sunday - May 18 - Day 2 Hunting - The Afternoon

After lunch we loaded up again, my son claiming it was time for him to shoot my double rifle!

To be continued - we shot another 4 buffalo and a wild pig in the afternoon, photos and amazing recovered bullet photos on the way. It's not easy to find the time to post every day due to the fact that time back in camp is limited, but the shooting is fast and its hard to recap number of animals shot during the day! Photo log and voice notes are helping remember what went on.

It's an amazing hunt so far, lots to come over the next 10 days or so.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I've been looking at planning an Australian cull hunt for several years now, I've talked to a number of outfitters at the SCI & DSC Expos and through this forum. My goal was to be able to hunt a reasonable number of animals of several different types to fill a long enough trip to make the trek to Australia worthwhile.

I was planning the trip to hint with my son who is in his early 20's and as a way to celebrate my early retirement. We finally decided to plan a hunt with Alex Jagers of Big Country Safaris in the Australian Northern Territory. We planned to hunt water buffalo cull cows, trophy water buffalo, feral donkeys, feral camel, feral pigs / hogs and whatever other legal sport Australia had to offer. A conversation about a days barramundi fishing was also had!

We worked out dates for May 2025 that would give us 2 weeks of hunting / fishing time. My son finished his last collage exams and classes on May 12 and our plan was to start travel on the evening of Tuesday May 13 with Delta, starting in Detroit, MI, onto LA, then LA to Sydney and eventually from Sydney to Darwin, getting us there in the early hours of Friday morning.

Our journey was challenging and long, a delayed flight departure caused a nearly impossible connection time in LA but we made it work, guns and baggage made our Australia flight too. After arrival in Sydney we had a 14 hour layover before flying onto Darwin. The owner of Safari Firearms, a large outdoor and hunting store agreed to store our rifles and baggage for the day allowing us to spend most of our layover playing tourist in Sydney and Bondi.

Alex met us at Darwin at 1:30am and took us back to his home / guest house for us to get a real nights sleep before preparing rifle export paperwork and travel out to our hunting ground during the day on Friday May 16.

View attachment 685451
View attachment 685452
View attachment 685453

@UpNorthMI
The photo of Bondi beach is disappointing .
There's a distinct lack of pink tipped double breasted mattress thrashers ( top less ladies) on the beach. May is getting a bit cold for these beautiful creatures, summer is their preferred time and prime mating season for them.
You may have to bring your son back in summer to appreciate these fine birds.
Bob

 

[UpNorthMI]

We are home now but it's time to finish my write up, there was just not enough time and internet connection on the hunt to report on a daily basis. We are in seriously remote country in the Northern Territory, it's a 4 hour drive to the nearest town or shop!

Sunday - May 18 - Day 2 Hunting - The Afternoon

We shot another 4 buffalo and a wild pig in the afternoon, it started with my son wanting to try my 500/416 double rifle.

We were seeing lots of good buffalo bulls

Some of the buffalo cows had large, non regular horns

it did not take long for him to get a chance on a buffalo cow. He was shooting free hand with the double at about 50 yards, the first shot went high as he was just not used to the heavy trigger pull of a double rifle, the second shot found it's mark and knocked the cow down with one shot.

It was my turn next on the double rifle, we came across a number of animals on a fairly open patch of ground, a 60 yard shot, another cull cow down.

My son shot another with the double

We moved to an area by a small river and caught sight of a wild pig in thick cover, it was time to swap to my .308 Blaser R8, it was a matter of being patient for the pig to cross a small open gap in the cover so I could get a shot. A running shot with a 150 grain Barnes TSX hit the pig in the center of the chest.

We had managed to recover a number of bullets from buffalo over the last 2 days, it was interesting to see the 400 grain .416 Hornady DGS Bonded bullet and the Barnes TSX 300 grain .375 bullets. In general the .416 bullets were exiting on cross body shots, the 300 grain .375 bullets often did not exit, it all depends on shot placement.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Sunday - May 18 - Day 2 Hunting - The Late Afternoon - My Trophy Buffalo

We were wrapping things up for the afternoon when we came across a good bull buffalo, my son had already shot his trophy, I decided after consulting with our guide Dylan that this would be my trophy animal.

Our guide called the bull and he turned and came towards us out of the cover, I mounted my double rifle and waited as the bull closed on us, I could now see it clearly at about 25 yards, I put the red dot of my sight on the front of it's right shoulder, boom the bull reacted turning, one shot may have been enough but I then immediately got another shot off into it's left shoulder, it immediately fell and thrashed it's back leg a few times. It was a huge animal with a nice set of horns. Our guide explained how they were measured and scored, later stating that my bull would score a 99.

We took a few photos and posed the animal, light was going fast, our guide worked quickly to cape the animal and take the head, I planned to have it mounted and shipped home. My son took an excellent video of me shooting this trophy bull, we will have to get those videos posted as we work out how later in this chain.

After 2 days of our cull hunt we had shot a total of 13 animals and had seen hundreds of animals.

The 13 animals taken to date included:

2 Trophy Buffalo
6 Cull Buffalo Cows
3 Feral Donkey
1 Dingo
1 Feral Pig

 

[UpNorthMI]

Sunday - May 18 - Day 2 Hunting - Dusk

It had been a warm day, we were hunting in light shirts, temp range was 70-87C for the day. It was late by the time our guide was done caping the buffalo, we left our off road position in the dark for a short journey onto a track. The evening sky was spectacular, we were all hungry, it was going to be buffalo stew for dinner, we were ready for food and a beer.

The accommodation was very comfortable after a day out in the warm heat followed by good food and a range of drinks our guide had stocked for us, sleeping was no problem.

 

[Andreas -458]

Did you take the big Cow in the back? nice head

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

Looks like you both had a great time, be good to see your trophy mounts when you get them back home. That country up there is beautiful but also deadly.
Gumpy

 

[TOBY458]

Great stuff so far! Makes me want to go back there myself.