Medicineman7
New member
Four days of cat and mouse, and I finally achieved making a dream come true after months of preparation from training in the gym to looking over countless Buffalo pictures to tuning and retuning bows. I’ve dreamed of this hunt for many years and for it all to work out like it did just made it even better. I was 110% speechless at the moment this picture was taken and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit watery eyed sitting there looking at the animal in front of me I really never thought would be there except in my dreams. I heard someone say “smile” and another said “you sure are being quiet”, but every time I tried to talk or even smile, my body felt frozen in that moment in time. I truly felt like I was living in my dream, and deep down, I think my body felt that way too and didn’t want to wake up out of the dream it had dreamt so many times before. But, this time it was different and when I finally did wake up out of my fog, it was a reality an I sat there as the happiest person in the whole world knowing the buffalo laying in front of me was mine....
Enough rambling though, here’s a run down recap of events. I was hunting with my good buddy Lammie Potgieter, owner of Dare to Bowhunt. We'd been scheming about this hunt for the last 2 years and really ramped up preparations about a year ago. I began working out with a trainer 4 plus days a week, plus shooting every night to get used to comfortably shooting my heavier bows. I began making my transition about 9 months out from my normal target longbow setup of 47lbs@28" to my "warmup bow" which was 67lbs@28", then finally transitioning into my "buffalo bow" which came in at 76lbs@28". Having never shot heavy poundage from traditional archery gear before, this was an experience in and of itself.
For this hunt, we were in the upper northeast corner of South Africa, basically across the road from Kruger Park and about 30 minutes or so from the Mozambique border. We were hunting out of a raised blind at a water hole/feed spot about 7 foot or so off the ground. Spot and stalk was pretty much out of the picture due to super dry conditions and little to no cover other than dead, crunchy, knee high grass. Mornings were spent hanging out at camp relaxing, shooting bows, telling lies, and catching up since our last gathering. The buffalo herd we were hunting basically laid up all day moving very little, then would work their way into the area where the blind was anywhere between noon and 3 or so, then slowly come in to eat bananas. The first day when we drove through and spotted them, I thought this isn’t going to be a big deal at all as they held back in the brush a hundred yards or so watching as we passed on. That was my first wrong thought as it was just beginning of a 4 day ride they were fixing to drag us through.
For the first two days, they toyed with my heart and sole. They would come in, leave, come back and so on. One old cow in the herd basically ran the show and knew something was off and really hosed is on multiple occasions. The second day though was the worst. Between the old cow's bad attitude and so, so many close calls at getting a shot at our target bull, my mind and heart took about all it could handle. Over 6 hours of back and forth trying to get the bull in range an also getting a good shot angle just never came to fruition. At one point, he stood in the same spot for over 30 minutes facing us the entire time only to turn away without presenting a shot. On the third day, they broke all our hearts when the wind blew their way and they stampeded away (truly a stampede).
The 4th day (last scheduled day of the buffalo hunt) it all came together. We had one bull in the herd that was our main target, and another that was an old hard boss bull that was also a possibility if everything worked out that way. Last evening of the hunt, both bulls came into range right off the bat, but like all other nights they did so facing us. I stood on one side of the blind and Lammie stood on the other. I was keeping my eye on one bull and he was watching the other and our plan was to wait for the first one to screw up and turn broadside and that would decide which bull we would shoot at. About 10 minutes in, the bull on his side turned broadside and time felt like it stood still. Lammie gave me the thumbs up and from there I went into autopilot. All the shots I’d taken, and all the time I’d spent looking over buffalo pictures studying anatomy came down to this one moment I’d hoped, dreamed and prayed for. I did like I had forced myself to start doing when I began shooting my heavy bow and checked to make sure I was at full draw, then pulled down onto the Buffalo and focused on my spot right above the top of the crease behind the shoulder. I remember thinking “Lord let this arrow be true” and without another thought the arrow was in the air heading on its way 18 yards to its final destination right spot on to where I was looking. When the arrow hit the buff, it literally sounded like a 2 x 4 getting cracked in half over a brick wall, and instantly I knew I’d hit my mark. The buff whirled around and the herd stampeded away. I knew my shot was good, but was a bit worried about my penetration. We reviewed the video footage and decided I’d gotten enough to get into the top of the first lung for sure. We called in the troops and hung out for about an hour talking, shaking hands and waiting it out. I always thought waiting on going after a Whitetail seems like an eternity, but waiting to look after shooting a buffalo was absolutely longest feeling on waiting on time to pass that I can remember. We finally drove around to the area wed last seen the herd, and low an behold there stood my buffalo by himself. Visibly, we could tell he was hurt by his body language, but how bad he was hurt was uncertain. We slowly drove on and parked a ways out and waited a bit longer for the buffalo to expire. About 30 minutes later, we drove back into where the bull was last standing, but he’d moved on. We drove up a dry wash about 50 yards or so from where we had last seen him and spotted him laying down but still alive. We sat back and watched for a bit and knew that he was in bad shape, but with light fading fast, we had to make a decision on what to do. We decided it was best to try and finish him off versus leaving him overnight and risk the herd coming back to him. If that were to happen, we were afraid he would get up and move on until he couldn't go any longer and we may never be able to find him. So, we geared up and headed in. This is where I all of the stories of dead buffalo coming to life started playing in my head, but thankfully, my mind stayed clear enough to not dwell on that and to stalk into range. We were fortunate to able to get into position about 20 yards away and get another arrow into him and seal the deal. My buffalo was down for good.
