Me and two guys from the board here have been planning a cow hunt this last sunday and we managed to make it happen. We met at the trailhead around 6 and started on the trail. It was a nice walk in and we got there at 9ish. We hung out at the end of the trail for a bit to catch our breath and stop sweating. Soon after we started up the river again, about 200-300 yards up the river I spotted some brown. Jason performed a textbook stalk and downed a small one. The day had started off as it should. After butchering it we started up the river again. Jason chose to stay behind and hunt the river and the small drains along it. So Ed and I headed off into the forest to get us some beef or pork. We ended up at a giant cliff face waterfall thing which was dry, I think Ed may have a pic or two. So we backtracked a bit and climbed up some muddy slope back into the bush. We headed northwest for a bit more or less aiming for where I believed the grassy area begins. About an hour into the hike I stepped out from behind a huge ohia tree and saw a cow about 40 or so yards away. I tucked back behind the tree and told Ed to step up for the shot. He kinda lagged a bit and by the time he poked out the cow started jogging away. He fired a shot and clearly hit it somewhere in the front quarter. I saw it stumble and turn from us and keep running, I put 3 rounds into its butt as it ran away hoping to maybe get a spine or texas heart shot. No such luck, we saw a small ammount of blood but nothing guranteeing a kill. We looked for a bit but couldn't find it. I have a feeling his shot hit shoulder and might have not penetrated vitals. While mine probably felt a bit like flea bites on it's butt.
At this point we started arching our track back towards the trail, about a quarter mile or so in from the river. We saw tons of sign, some places more than others. After crossing a few huge ravines we saw a real fresh pig wallow, another 5 minutes after we stopped to have a snack. About 10 feet from us a pig jumped up from a tangle of ferns and ran away. We never got a look at him though. As we rounded south towards the river we started to get into these real marshy little draws full of some sort of reed. There was a lot of fresh cow track everywhere and I knew we'd see one eventually.
Then I saw a branch shake about 75 yards through the trees. I let Ed know there was something ahead and we both dropped down low. They were behind a big tangle of ferns about 50 yards away. I crept up to maybe 40 or so yards away with a bunch of trees and logs in between us and picked the closest cow, waited until I could tell which way it was facing and put a 150gr slug right into his vitals. I saw it drop to its front knees when the shot hit and heard a lot of commotion. There were a bunch of cows running away from us and I assumed our cow was in the group. I waited a minute or so and poked my head into the trail to see if he was still there or not, I didn't see him so crept a bit closer to check for blood. Right then I saw its butt about 20 yards away, he was standing still behind a clump of uluhe fern. All I could see was his butt so I waited a bit. He took one step backwards and his vitals were exposed. BAM, one shot, BAM, two shots, BAM three shots! All these shots were aimed straight at his lungs and it looked like I hadn't even hit the damn cow. He didn't do so much as quiver like when a fly lands on their backs. Right then he took a step backwards and caught sight of me. I hadn't seen the head of the cow at this point and it was a giant mature bull. He lowered his head and started running at me from about 20 yards. I turned tail and started down the trail towards Ed.
I remember reading something on an online forum by a bunch of cape buffalo hunters. They unanimously (sp?) agreed that when you are charged it is best to wait and pick your shot wisely, rather than shooting as many bullets as you can into the neck, chest or snout of the animal. My brain flashed on this and I spun to face the cow with my last bullet. It's funny what your brain is thinking during times of severe stress. At this point the cow had gained on me and was only 10yards from me. This all happened in slow motion it seemed like, me spinning and cocking my hammer, planting my feet and centering my sights on the forehead of this massive beast. In this time the cow had taken another two steps at me, covering another 2 yards. As my sights centered I pulled the trigger and......*click*
After putting three rounds in the butt of the first cows I had only reloaded another 2 rounds. Very bad mistake. Right after my attempted last ditch effort I spun around again and saw Ed raising his gun, still 5 yards or so in front of me. He blew three 12ga slugs right by my shoulder and into the charging beast at a distance of about 10-12 feet. This put him to his knees and I kept running through the open swampy area, fumbling with my last two cartridges in my shirt pocket. I remember yelling at Ed to shoot him again but Ed had dropped his gun in the shuffle. He forgot to take out the plug in the magazine for it to hold more shots, so it was still in crappy California mode with only 3 shots. At this point he dove out of the way of the bull and over a small log dropping his gun on the bull side of the log. He had to climb back over the log with a still live 1000lb bull only 10 feet from him. He retrieved the gun and put one more final round into the head of the bull. I fired my last shot into its head to be safe.
This whole experience, as exciting and relieving it may be, is something that I could go the whole rest of my life without experiencing again. I nearly crapped my pants afterwords the adrenaline was surging through my body so hard I was stuttering and shaking like a leaf. Ed pretty much saved my life out there. I am SO lucky he was there and manned up to the threat instead of turning tail like me. Looking back at the event I can see how many faults I made. Didn't have a full magazine, sneaking up on a wounded bull...the list goes on, the biggest of which is being totally undergunned for a half a ton animal. But all I can say is I am so so happy to be writing this story on here and not in some swamp in the Hilo Watershed with a rotting bull on top of me. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, we got the bull butchered and nervously laughed for an hour or so. We got back to the river about 3:15 and met up with Jason. We started hiking out and it took us all of the 2 hour alotted time. We made it to the truck and parted ways.
I still feel like I can't tell the story right, it doesn't sound nearly as intense as it actually was. The whole thing took place in under 15 seconds or so. It's all such a blur. The whole 'dangerous game' thing kinda has me freaked out, Im actually considering ending the cow hunting and sticking to pig hunting.
At this point we started arching our track back towards the trail, about a quarter mile or so in from the river. We saw tons of sign, some places more than others. After crossing a few huge ravines we saw a real fresh pig wallow, another 5 minutes after we stopped to have a snack. About 10 feet from us a pig jumped up from a tangle of ferns and ran away. We never got a look at him though. As we rounded south towards the river we started to get into these real marshy little draws full of some sort of reed. There was a lot of fresh cow track everywhere and I knew we'd see one eventually.
Then I saw a branch shake about 75 yards through the trees. I let Ed know there was something ahead and we both dropped down low. They were behind a big tangle of ferns about 50 yards away. I crept up to maybe 40 or so yards away with a bunch of trees and logs in between us and picked the closest cow, waited until I could tell which way it was facing and put a 150gr slug right into his vitals. I saw it drop to its front knees when the shot hit and heard a lot of commotion. There were a bunch of cows running away from us and I assumed our cow was in the group. I waited a minute or so and poked my head into the trail to see if he was still there or not, I didn't see him so crept a bit closer to check for blood. Right then I saw its butt about 20 yards away, he was standing still behind a clump of uluhe fern. All I could see was his butt so I waited a bit. He took one step backwards and his vitals were exposed. BAM, one shot, BAM, two shots, BAM three shots! All these shots were aimed straight at his lungs and it looked like I hadn't even hit the damn cow. He didn't do so much as quiver like when a fly lands on their backs. Right then he took a step backwards and caught sight of me. I hadn't seen the head of the cow at this point and it was a giant mature bull. He lowered his head and started running at me from about 20 yards. I turned tail and started down the trail towards Ed.
I remember reading something on an online forum by a bunch of cape buffalo hunters. They unanimously (sp?) agreed that when you are charged it is best to wait and pick your shot wisely, rather than shooting as many bullets as you can into the neck, chest or snout of the animal. My brain flashed on this and I spun to face the cow with my last bullet. It's funny what your brain is thinking during times of severe stress. At this point the cow had gained on me and was only 10yards from me. This all happened in slow motion it seemed like, me spinning and cocking my hammer, planting my feet and centering my sights on the forehead of this massive beast. In this time the cow had taken another two steps at me, covering another 2 yards. As my sights centered I pulled the trigger and......*click*
After putting three rounds in the butt of the first cows I had only reloaded another 2 rounds. Very bad mistake. Right after my attempted last ditch effort I spun around again and saw Ed raising his gun, still 5 yards or so in front of me. He blew three 12ga slugs right by my shoulder and into the charging beast at a distance of about 10-12 feet. This put him to his knees and I kept running through the open swampy area, fumbling with my last two cartridges in my shirt pocket. I remember yelling at Ed to shoot him again but Ed had dropped his gun in the shuffle. He forgot to take out the plug in the magazine for it to hold more shots, so it was still in crappy California mode with only 3 shots. At this point he dove out of the way of the bull and over a small log dropping his gun on the bull side of the log. He had to climb back over the log with a still live 1000lb bull only 10 feet from him. He retrieved the gun and put one more final round into the head of the bull. I fired my last shot into its head to be safe.
This whole experience, as exciting and relieving it may be, is something that I could go the whole rest of my life without experiencing again. I nearly crapped my pants afterwords the adrenaline was surging through my body so hard I was stuttering and shaking like a leaf. Ed pretty much saved my life out there. I am SO lucky he was there and manned up to the threat instead of turning tail like me. Looking back at the event I can see how many faults I made. Didn't have a full magazine, sneaking up on a wounded bull...the list goes on, the biggest of which is being totally undergunned for a half a ton animal. But all I can say is I am so so happy to be writing this story on here and not in some swamp in the Hilo Watershed with a rotting bull on top of me. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, we got the bull butchered and nervously laughed for an hour or so. We got back to the river about 3:15 and met up with Jason. We started hiking out and it took us all of the 2 hour alotted time. We made it to the truck and parted ways.
I still feel like I can't tell the story right, it doesn't sound nearly as intense as it actually was. The whole thing took place in under 15 seconds or so. It's all such a blur. The whole 'dangerous game' thing kinda has me freaked out, Im actually considering ending the cow hunting and sticking to pig hunting.
