Pat and I will have to admit that Water Buffalo has always been on our hunting "bucket list" but never did we think we would get the opportunity to go this soon! Last February we received the invite from George Stewart at Leithan Valley Trophy Hunts who also operates an outfitting business in New Zealand.  My first goal was to shoot one with my bow, no matter what it took I was going to work hard to get to my 70 lb mark.  For the next few months I worked my rear off lifting weights and shooting my bow trying to get to 70 lbs on my Monster that the guys and gals from Mathews made me just for this hunt!  I made it to 64 lbs myself and it just seemed I hit a rut that I couldn't get out of!  The last 6 pounds may not sound like a lot to most of you but being a 5"4 female that normally pulls 54 lbs seemed like a ton! 

After 2 solid days of travel we were heading to camp and I couldn't wait to get out there and hunt! Our guides George and Yogi were all ready for us to go and one of them was going to have to help me hit that breaking point of getting my bow back the rest of the way.  Once it was back, no problems holding it back for me!  The first few days we stalked and stalked and stalked on tons of great bulls but just couldn't seem to seal the deal.  On day 4 we spotted a bull feeding in tall grass by himself so we decided to have Pat put the stalk on him.  He belly crawled up to 15 yards from the bull and made a perfect shot! He ran out to 30 yards turned around and Pat put another one in him on the other side! So here we are watching him standing there with arrows sticking out behind both shoulders, he then takes off and whirls around. At this point I thought oh my he's coming after us! No longer did I tell George to "Get the gun ready" the bull had fallen and we were celebrating our first water buffalo!  Pat made two perfect high pressure shots and did the job! Little did we know the work had just began! After 3 hours of caping, fleshing, butchering, etc we were finally finished and packing up the jeep headed back to camp!

The next day it was my turn again I was ready to go! All morning long we searched for this bull we had Cuddeback pictures of we called Houdini and finally around 3 o'clock that afternoon we spotted him under a shade tree by himself, the stalk was on! There was one major problem though...the only way for us to get to him without him seeing would be getting into the creek which keep in mind we had just spotted a crocodile 200 yards upstream and he wanted me to get in that water, ummm, what was I thinking?! I wasn't, without even hesitating we were all in thigh deep water stalking up the bank going after this big bull!

  All of a sudden he decided he wanted to walk down the trail which was right above the creek, so there we were stopped in the open and in he comes.  I get drawn back and shoot him at 5 steps!  He only ran 80 yards and he was down! There were so many emotions at this point I didn't know what I was doing or feeling! Out of the water we came and spotted him laying there in the tall grass.  It was one of the most exciting points in my hunting career! As we walked up to him our guide George couldn't stop talking about how big he was! Eventually we came to find that he is possibly the new world record bull for a female! The hunt was full of highs and lows but this was a trip I will never forget! And yes as we always say, We will be back!! If your looking at going on a hunt of a lifetime after monster water buffalo, or at his New Zealand operation for Tahr, Red Stag or Chami then contact Alan, Sue & George Stewart at Leithan Valley Trophy Hunts! You won't be sorry you went!! Thanks again to all of you for making our hunt so memorable!

We will be back!!

Click on the photos below to see more images from the hunt!