Hunting wild cattle/bovines...

[Green Chile]

Kevin Robertson wrote a pretty good tale about hunting an old beef cow on his farm with a double rifle. I might be getting facts mixed up but I think that is correct.
Friend of mine killed a wood bison in Alaska which was not for the faint of heart. I think tags were hard to acquire
If you search for Gaur on YouTube there are some excellent videos on there, many involving tigers as well

Kevin is an entertaining writer and speaker. I remember that story. I will have to check out the YouTube videos on gaur. Any favs? This was the Rinella book I was trying to recall...good read!

 

[Ontario Hunter]

That reminds me...I've gotten curious about these wild cattle in Hawaii too. That could be a lot of fun with a double rifle in the thick cover.

The National Park there at one time allowed hunting to cull invasive livestock. Not sure if they still do but I have seen some fine trophy boars and rams from there. And as you indicate, the hunting is not easy. Very thick cover. Check it out. Let the wife and kids play on the beach while you go hunting. Yeah, that would work!

 

[Green Chile]

Any idea why they call the wild cattle in Hawaii the name "Vancouver bulls"? Some of the photos I have seen have been pretty awesome....rough looking, wild bulls. Beautiful really.

 

[bwanamrm]

This is awesome!
What is the trophy type you have chosen? Scull mounts or shoulder mounts?

I have four of my Cape buffalo and one of my western savannah buffalo shoulder mounted, the rest are euro mounts. Also have the banteng and muskox shoulder mounted but Oz buff are euros. You need lots of space for the bovine!

 

[chashardy]

I have taken 3 cape buffalo in South Africa, a water buffalo in the NT, Australia along with a scrub bull on that same trip.

 

[Green Chile]

I have four of my Cape buffalo and one of my western savannah buffalo shoulder mounted, the rest are euro mounts. Also have the banteng and muskox shoulder mounted but Oz buff are euros. You need lots of space for then bovine!

Do you mind sharing fav photos of your bovine mounts for inspiration? I haven't seen many banteng mounts.

 

[bwanamrm]

Do you mind sharing fav photos of your bovine mounts for inspiration? I haven't seen many banteng mounts.

I'll try and post some... some of the mounts are in the ranch house and some here in town.

 

[Green Chile]

I welcome that in this topic. Very appropriate. Thanks!

 

[Inline6]

Hmmm…I had to shoot one of my Hereford cows between the eyes with a .22 LR once. Does that count? LOL!!!

I had to shoot one of my beefmasters.

 

[TOBY458]

On the banteng, I have wondered why the costs are so much higher than a water buffalo. Is it supply/demand? Licensing costs? Remote logistics difficulties?

Buffalo are really considered a nuisance animal, and Banteng are more what I'd call a game animal. Plus, I believe there are way more Buffalo than Banteng.

 

[grand veneur]

One should not hope that there will be more opportunities to hunt different species of buffalo in the future, on the contrary.

Hunting in South and Southeast Asia is over and will no longer come, and with them the opportunities to hunt buffalo, among other things. We can be satisfied that we still have Africa where the buffalo hunting, among other things, is still guaranteed for a certain time.

Australia is there too, although I don't see this continent as a full replacement for the lost Asian hunting grounds. A lot is missing to have the same flair, among other things also the many game species that one encounters in South and Southeast Asia.

 

[TOBY458]

I've shot 4 Cape Buffalo and 4 Australian Water Buffalo. The hunting for Cape Buffalo has proven to be much more challenging. But, if you simply want to go shoot a lot of Buffalo for the experience, Australia is hard to beat. I took all 4 of mine on a 5 day hunt. Whereas it's taken me 4 trips to Africa to shoot 4 Cape Buffalo.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

One should not hope that there will be more opportunities to hunt different species of buffalo in the future, on the contrary.

Hunting in South and Southeast Asia is over and will no longer come, and with them the opportunities to hunt buffalo, among other things. We can be satisfied that we still have Africa where the buffalo hunting, among other things, is still guaranteed for a certain time.

Australia is there too, although I don't see this continent as a full replacement for the lost Asian hunting grounds. A lot is missing to have the same flair, among other things also the many game species that one encounters in South and Southeast Asia.

Do you remember what firearms you had available to you when you hunted in Indonesia ? And were you able to hunt anything there, at all ?

 

[grand veneur]

In Malaysia I hunted with rented rifles, a combined rifle caliber 12/70-9,3x74R or a bolt action rifle kaliber 375 H&H Magnum.

Hunting buffalo on Sulawesi was not possible because only shotguns were allowed, which was a bit limit for buffalo hunting, even if it was an Anoa.

 

[Firebird]

Longhorn my friend raised and had mounted. It hangs ina tack store but they display it on the side of a trailer at rodeos and such as advertising. Not hunted to my knowledge but it seemed to fit on the border of this conversation

 

[Green Chile]

I was visiting my taxidermist and he was finishing a longhorn pedestal mount, which was one of the famous longhorns from Ft Worth Stockyards that had been ridden for many years as a tourist attraction. The biz owners wanted to memorialize the longhorn after 20 + years of interacting with tourists. I thought it looked great.

I was also thinking of seeing a Watusi euro mount in one guy's garage...huge!

 

[pajarito]

we ranch in the big desert country far west TX and southeast nm.
feral cattle are a problem in the desert and there are quite a few shot regularly. I know a couple little bunches that are as wild as deer and MEAN. had one unprovoked attack and kill a saddle horse. another hooked of the fenders off a ranch truck. they are fairly easy to find but not real easy to kill. nowadays with big guns and long range capabilities its made it way easier. around our Texas country back in the 30s-40s all my neighbors went everywhere with a 30-30 equivalent just to keep the wild bulls from getting them.
I've shot several of these old bulls that come up out of the Delaware river and get with my cows. I've seen em take way more lead than the couple cape buffalo I've shot.

there was a huge guar bull on Wildlife Buyer in TX just a couple weeks ago. I imagine if bought you could shoot or do whatever you wanted with it here in TX?

here's one that showed up raising hell with my good bulls while we were deer hunting I let my 10 yr old nephew shoot it so he has a cool skull mount

most of these ferals are so inbred they aint very big and dont grow much horn

 

[Firebird]

I remember Andy Ross shot a wild fighting bull with his bow in Mexico or Texas. It was also pretty crazy.
I would be happy just to hunt Cape buffalo, no need for the rarer opportunities

 

[grand veneur]

The African buffalo has never been tamed, but this is not the case with some Asian species. In addition, many of these species were ancestors of our domestic cattle in Europe.

That's why I don't think it is ridiculous when someone reports about shooting a domestic cattle with a rifle. At the end of tracking a buffalo we also don't do anything else.

I have never had to shoot a tame cattle, but those who have done it always report how easy it was with the cartridges that we normally use to shoot the smaller game species of our country. I think that is the difference to the wild cattle, which cannot be killed so easily with such cartridges.

 

[bwanamrm]

A few wild species of the Bovid family.. except the muskox which is closer in family to a goat.