Last part of Mick's report ....

We soon spotted 6 more buff 3 small bulls and 3 others in the shade of the river bed, they were fairly undisturbed but soon moved on in a stampede when they worked out they were being watched. It was a great sight stalking animals this big and suprisingly quite alert.

After an hours walking through super tight river country that was just littered with sign a good bull was spotted on the other side of the river , I quickly got into a position to put a shot of him where I didn't have 50m of vegetation to shoot through. It was a good looking Bull that was standing its ground, I slowly moved into position and put a well placed shot into its chest (the HD video of the shot proved this to be the case), the bull lurched and run to the right where I put another one in it and then it disappeared. I waited a while and then headed over to where I was expecting to find the animal to only find a blood trail from 2 holes, at this point I was shocked that it had taken another step but it was going to have to be tracked slowly.

The tracking was easy but dangerous as it was heading parallel to the river through head high grass, it was like someone was painting a line through the grass at shoulder height and there were steady drops coming from the chest shot as well. I had found a point where the animal had sat and then pumped out a good amount of blood, I must have pushed him from this spot which I am glad as I would have never seen him coming. After a Km of very nervous tracking I heard a commotion in the water so quickly went down to just see that the river had been disturbed. I found a heap of wet blood on the ground entering the river but he never came out. It went in at the deep section but didn't make it to the other side. We went a km up each side and not a mark was cut or another drop was found on the edge. It appeared that he went to cross with what he had left and didn't make it. With light fading and the croc's in the area a search through the river was impossible so it had to be left there for my mate to hopefully find when it floats. We had to leave that night and the track in was impossible to drive on at night as it was near impossible in the daylight so unfortunately couldn't wait for it to float that's if something hadn't got to it before us anyway as the whole strip had crocs constantly diving in.

The big boy that got taken by the river

This concluded a hunt that we will remember for ever, I was lucky enough to get at least one of everything I was after and couldn't thank my mate Nathan enough for what he provided us with for the price of an airplane ticket and car hire, not to mention the use of his car and equipment. The trip in total cost me $750 thats with beer and food, you couldnt ask for a better way to spend that money. I managed to get quite a few first which included Buff, Srub Bull, Donkey, Horse and Barra and I also got my biggest pig and hooks to date. Next year was already booked in but unfortunately will be on a different station, the hunting was a lot different to my usual deer hunting but was a style that I really enjoyed.

Some Bullet performance

The 300gr RN PP opened up dramatically and here is an example on a 120kg Pig that was shoulder shot.

Weight results

Woodleigh 63% Weight Retention
Nosler (have to check forgot this one, less then the woodleigh)

The 260gr Nosler Accubond didnt open up quite as much and lost a majority of its core, this was taken out of a shoulder shot Donkey.

The two side by side

This bullet testing showed me one thing, and thats field testing on the game that you are chasing can not be matched as the results I had previous to this on smaller game was dramatically different.

Unfortunately I didnt get to test the new Hydros but with some more range testing they will be used heavily on the next trip as all I will be targeting will be Buff and Bulls.