Archery Buffalo shot placement

Altitude sickness · Jul 17, 2023

Archery Buffalo shot placement

I’m throwing this discussion out there for bow hunting Buffalo.
I learned from a PH, Buffalo have a ships hull shape to the rib cage. The ribs are not a flat wall at the front shoulder and behind the front leg.

The front shoulder muscle and bone gives the appearance that the side of the chest is flat. But if you were to peel off the shoulder, the ribs are at an angle in the area you want your arrow to impact.

So a perfect broadside shot is actually a quartering away shot. If looking at the rib angle. Not the muscle of the shoulder.

You will get better arrow penetration by hitting the rib at 90° Not angling in and skipping off the rib, that waste energy.
So the only way to hit that rib perfectly is the (slightly quartering too shot angle).

Comment, opinions, suggestions

Altitude sickness · Jul 17, 2023

Here is a bull I killed with the quartering to angle.
We crawled in to a bedded group of bulls when at 25 yards, two bulls saw or heard us and stood up. My bull the smaller of the two gave me the better angle as he turned towards me slightly. Trying to see what was laying in the grass 25 yards away.
I was able to inch forward to a small tree and get to my knees and get the shot off. Slightly quartering to me.

Before the coaching from my PH all week long. I would have shot the larger bull slightly quartering away. And most likely only got one lung penetration because of the wasted energy hitting the rib at an angle. Then that bull would’ve had to been finished with the rifle as many arrow Buffalo hunts end.
Putting people in harms way.
I listened to my PH and my arrow hit a rib straight on. And drove through the opposite shoulder and was stopped by the opposite side ribs. The bull went approximately 150 yards and was bellowing very quickly.
We are convinced he wouldn’t have went that far, but he was being pummeled the other bulls in his group.