Buffalo with crossbow

The one thing I can't wrap my head around is the scope on a backup rifle.... And it's set on 3x, moreover

You can stop a charging buff with a .375, no problem... But not if all you see is black.

Express sights, peep, ghost ring, red dot, whatever. But not a magnified scope, I'd cut it off with a hacksaw if I didn't have the Torx key to losen the screws.
Check again it looks like it’s set on 5 not that it would make a lot of difference that close up.Perhaps he was looking for a longer shot
 
the crossbow is in the background

Cool. Didn’t see that obviously.

The debate is all a bit predictable. All the usual hullabaloo about shooting an animal with anything other than a mega powerful firearm. How the bowhunters are going to arc up and create a scene etc. The irresponsibility of the situation and so on...

So what is the point of close up stalking one of these creatures in the first place? It’s all about the thrill, right? And the Cape Buffalo falls into the category of dangerous game, right?

I’m going to make the assumption that this is a game farm in South Africa. Often in these kinds of situations the hunter isn’t so much pitting his wits against the animal in a true fair chase, as being placed in close proximity by his guides, receiving lots of help from the knowledgeable and experienced, who tell him what to do, and when to do it. Usually he will be using a big bore rifle that has a certain degree of glamour attached to it. Expensive / classic / supremely powerful. Without any of the aforementioned tools and assistance, the average bloke would probably be fairly useless, and come away either dead, or alive but unsuccessful.

Whichever way you look at it, under normal circumstances the odds are stacked in favour of the hunter. Which with the wife and kids in mind, and the fact that they do not need to eat the buffalo to survive, is probably quite a good idea.

There’s a variety of hunter who wants to do things differently, the thrillseeker looking for way more adrenaline. It’s no different to lots of other recreational activities - hang gliding, base jumping, wing suit flying being three that come to mind that involve playing with gravity, when if you want to simply fly, a small Cessna will do the same job a whole lot safer. Mega fast cars and motorbikes, tightrope walking, extreme skiing, snake wrangling, rodeo, luge, freediving... it’s a long list of what ordinary people regard as recklessness.

If the hunter is wanting to experience the true thrill of the chase then using a .416 plus a PH and others isn’t exactly chancing your arm. A crossbow is a devastating weapon in the right hands with the right type of bow and bolt. The bow hunters that stalk dangerous game close in, alone, are the truest representation of man versus beast that there is, bar spear hunting I guess. Animal welfare doesn’t really come into it.

If the risk taker dies or gets seriously injured in their pursuit then so be it. If you are a professional hunter or a guide and you are taking their money to allow them to take their risk and you get cleaned up in the process, then that is a risk you took knowingly and you must take it on the chin!

I reckon they will tell the story for years, and love every minute of it.
 
Following on from Bogtrotter’s excellent post, I am probably in the risk taking nutter category in most people’s eyes. I have been flying paragliders since the early 1990’s, prefer to ski well offpiste and away from the crowds. And spent a lot of time in African bush in my younger days.

African animals are no more or less dangerous than any others. Rural Africans live alongside leopard, lion, buffalo, hippo and crocodiles all their lives. I used drive over the Luangwa bridge in Zambia and the fishermen were always in the river fishing with crocs nearby.

The main difference is that those living in the bush soon become very good at reading animals. They can tell that the croc is well fed and poses no risk, or that the buffalo are calm and unthreatened.

I can read forecasts and look at the sky and know whether or not its safe to fly, but I can also tell whether its going to be a good day or bad. I can read scottish snow reasonably well, but in the Alps i want somebody with me with that experience.

And its only when you hunt yourself do you really learn to hunt. I have taken people out who have many years of stalking, but it quickly turns out they have never actually stalked. They have only ever followed a stalker, they watched the soles of his feet as the crawl in, and they have then squeezed the trigger. They don’t actually know the satisfaction of actually achieving it for yourself. Or its the difference between wildfowling on the foreshore and shooting reared ducks on a flight pond. It is a totally different language - you need to know Medieval Arabic to read And really understand Medieval Arabic philosophy (And yes I know an individual who does)

Is a crossbow or a spear adequate for buffalo. Of course it is, but you have to get up very close and personal, and they are 1 tonne of grumpiness when you irritate them. You don’t have to do it, but if you choose to, then you better do the job right the first time. And it helps if you know and understand Buffalo.

Either way, they make bloody good stories.

Besides much much more interesting than all of us cowering inside and living in fear of a bloody virus!!
 
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African animals are no more or less dangerous than any others. Rural Africans live alongside leopard, lion, buffalo, hippo and crocodiles all their lives. I used drive over the Luangwa bridge in Zambia and the fishermen were always in the river fishing with crocs nearby.

I beg to disagree on this particular point. Wild animals kill thousands of people every year across Africa. Hippos (the main killer), crocs (second), and to a lesser extent lions, elephants, buffaloes and others leave a trail of mangled bodies behind them.

Fishermen are probably the most at risk, because they regularly enter hippo territory in flimsy canoes, often at night. Villagers get eaten by crocs when washing in the river, or doing laundry, or just playing in the water. Elephant and buffalo smash farmers in their fields, or on the trail. Lions do eat the occasional stray parishioner.

The thing is, they always think that it won't happen to them...

A friend of mine who did a lot of croc control on the Zambezi told me that he never killed a big one that did not have human remains in it. Bangles, shoes, loincloth, an arm, something.
 
1. Using any bow on DG ain't respecting the animal
2. .375 ain't no stoppin rifle
3. Any magnification don't make no sense
 
I beg to disagree on this particular point. Wild animals kill thousands of people every year across Africa. Hippos (the main killer), crocs (second), and to a lesser extent lions, elephants, buffaloes and others leave a trail of mangled bodies behind them.

Fishermen are probably the most at risk, because they regularly enter hippo territory in flimsy canoes, often at night. Villagers get eaten by crocs when washing in the river, or doing laundry, or just playing in the water. Elephant and buffalo smash farmers in their fields, or on the trail. Lions do eat the occasional stray parishioner.

The thing is, they always think that it won't happen to them...

A friend of mine who did a lot of croc control on the Zambezi told me that he never killed a big one that did not have human remains in it. Bangles, shoes, loincloth, an arm, something.
I shot a good few crocs at Cahora Bassa. Every single one had kids' shoes in it.
 
I beg to disagree on this particular point. Wild animals kill thousands of people every year across Africa. Hippos (the main killer), crocs (second), and to a lesser extent lions, elephants, buffaloes and others leave a trail of mangled bodies behind them.

Fishermen are probably the most at risk, because they regularly enter hippo territory in flimsy canoes, often at night. Villagers get eaten by crocs when washing in the river, or doing laundry, or just playing in the water. Elephant and buffalo smash farmers in their fields, or on the trail. Lions do eat the occasional stray parishioner.

The thing is, they always think that it won't happen to them...

A friend of mine who did a lot of croc control on the Zambezi told me that he never killed a big one that did not have human remains in it. Bangles, shoes, loincloth, an arm, something.

I said they lived alongside wild Animals. Some undoubtedly do get killed - one of our staff was cycling through the bush too fast and collided with an elephant - didn’t end well.

Here in the UK, we live alongside motor cars. On every journey you are six feet way from a 60 mph combined impact with an oncoming car every time you pass one in the street. And every time you cross a road you risk being run over. And every day five people are killed and many more seriously injured on our roads.

What I was trying to say is that Rural people who live alongside big animals know and understand them and mostly how to avoid becoming lunch.

For the fishermen standing in the rivers they understand the risk and reward, in the same way as fishermen of old use to row into the middle of the North Sea in 16ft long Cobbles. Most came back, some didn’t. Most understand and apreciate the skills required. Some don’t.

I was born in the African bush and spent my early years there before being dragged to England as a boy. I was at a primary school in Henley - head teacher was very concerned about my behaviour and that I was always checking my shoes for scorpions and wouldn’t climb trees and play on the climbing frames cos there would be snakes etc. I really couldn’t undestand what all the fuss was about. I had grown up to always be alert for scorpions and snakes and had seen dogs attacking snakes and coming second.
 
That's where I disagree... Villagers do not understand wild animals, not anymore than city-dwelling Europeans do. The hunters do, but other people don't. Even the fishermen, they do not understand hippos and crocs. There is no logical thinking in their minds, magic and luck and superstition and plain misunderstanding have much more to do with their perception of animals than any sort of reasoned knowledge.

Whenever we're called to deal with a hippo who killed one or a few fishermen, we hear the same story... "Kill all the hippos, they always go where there is good fish... Send them away, kill them...". No matter how much we try to explain that "No, it's the other way around: hippos poo on the shore or in the water, all sorts of larvae and small fish come to eat the poop, medium fish come to feast on the small stuff, big fish come to eat the medium ones, and fishermen come to catch what they can", nobody believes it. They give us that look, shake their head a little bit, smile like you'd smile at some cult faithful trying to convert you, then they go to the witch doctor and sacrifice a chicken or a goat, because that's what keeps hippos and all sorts of things away. And two weeks or six months later we're back, and there is another lacerated body in the shade, with the air full of flies and the stink wafting around in the morning sun. "Kill all the hippos, they always go where the fish is...".
 
A lot of antis go on about how big game hunters only do it because they are at distance with modern firearms and it’s not sporting. At least this hunter was trying to buck that theory.
 
A lot of antis go on about how big game hunters only do it because they are at distance with modern firearms and it’s not sporting. At least this hunter was trying to buck that theory.
Really? Never heard that argument myself.
 
Really? Never heard that argument myself.
Likewise. Most big game is shot at close range. Not met any hunters who want to snipe at elephant or buffalo off a kopje at several-hundred meters. Pretty much without exception, our clients seek an experience that is up-close-and-personal. It's kind of the point of the thing....
 
Yeah, you’re right. Should of said most antis go on about how people wouldn’t hunt without a gun.
 
That's where I disagree... Villagers do not understand wild animals, not anymore than city-dwelling Europeans do. The hunters do, but other people don't. Even the fishermen, they do not understand hippos and crocs. There is no logical thinking in their minds, magic and luck and superstition and plain misunderstanding have much more to do with their perception of animals than any sort of reasoned knowledge.

Whenever we're called to deal with a hippo who killed one or a few fishermen, we hear the same story... "Kill all the hippos, they always go where there is good fish... Send them away, kill them...". No matter how much we try to explain that "No, it's the other way around: hippos poo on the shore or in the water, all sorts of larvae and small fish come to eat the poop, medium fish come to feast on the small stuff, big fish come to eat the medium ones, and fishermen come to catch what they can", nobody believes it. They give us that look, shake their head a little bit, smile like you'd smile at some cult faithful trying to convert you, then they go to the witch doctor and sacrifice a chicken or a goat, because that's what keeps hippos and all sorts of things away. And two weeks or six months later we're back, and there is another lacerated body in the shade, with the air full of flies and the stink wafting around in the morning sun. "Kill all the hippos, they always go where the fish is...".

Saying it like it is. Great post @Kano383. And best wishes from my African wife who is impressed that she’s finally come across someone on the forum prepared to speak up for the reality of bush life.

I lived 12 years in Africa, and made those years a huge amount more interesting by getting right out there and avoiding virtuous white folk as much as possible. There are very, very few white “hunters” from Europe or America or wherever who travel to Africa for a spot of dangerous game hunting, that have got a fukking clue what is in the minds of the people that surround them.

We impose our culture / religion / politics / science / healthcare / technology / agriculture / and the rest on people who are raised in a wholly different consciousness and frame of mind, whilst we rob them blind. Them we wonder why, as the population explodes because we’re so awfully righteous, there’s no frigging animals left. Any semblance of natural balance was destroyed from the mid- to late-1800s through to the ‘60s, and now that’s coming home to make us feel guilty... oh poor us.

Too many people. That’s the reality. Get over it, not much that can be done about it, other than wait for the inevitable.
 
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