Marty i dont doubt for one minute that knocking a BIG Ozzy Buff is hard stuff especially in the heat with the associated flies snakes and other bities abounding all round in fact it would be at times exhausting walking if spending hours on foot in searching for that elusive " biggy".But when buff were in their thousands it certainly wasnt a problem to go out and knock a big bull over as many shooters did in past years.One of the biggest probs with the buff is the numbers have been knocked for six and of course the bigger bulls get shot first,mate Billy worked on the bull-catchers for a couple of years and what we would rate as top trophies simply went to the meatworks,but now those same meat animals would bring big yank dollars if around.This is what i say when rating animals in degrees of "hard to hunt" when they are in good numbers they of course are a lot easier to obtain,not so with your No 1 the sambar--[censored] they can be many and even a good hunter can hunt for days and not even see a ginger arse dissappearing.Any one can find fresh sign of sambar just about any day but actually seeing one or even being honked can make ones day.I was at the old hound masters 20 years ago and saw 19 sambar deer in his pen just simply appear out of 20 inch high thistles they were bedded down in out of the wind in an otherwise bare paddock.It amazed me to see such a big animal hidden by so little, so in their alpine bush home they have it all over us, the Chital, fallow, reds and rusa being herd deer that roar-- grunt in mobs can make it much easier to hunt them,though big Fallow bucks in Tas in season before the rut( no easy rut hunting in Tas) lay up above the rest of the mobs and by [censored] they can take some hunting and i mean hunting --dawn till dusk ten days straight and not sqeezing once in prime country can be very discouraging for many( me too) I gave the hoggies a bit of a go but couldnt come to terms with the waiting, tree sitting side of things--besides it means giving up time on the big boys.Micky Mc. is the first fella i know that took a Banteng up north and he has hunted all over Africa US Australia etc and he told me while we were hunting deer one time that it wasnt much different to knocking any other cattle to him only that there aint many and there is a lot of country mixed up with them that makes it that bit harder,i can only go on the words of the fella`s that have done it as i certainly will never have the money for them.You are right when you say getting the big ones is the hard part on all game. When you mentioned taking sambar by stalking you are spot on with that,though taking the same over hounds can put trophies on walls of many lesser hunters that in my opinion WOULDNT be capable of stalking one many top sambar are taken by the men that lead the hounds into the bush and do many many many miles in tough country its not all sit back and wait for the stag to turn up stuff as many believe.In my time hound hunting i saw many taken but i only took two top heads myself over hounds hunting in self imposed seasons of every weekend for eight months straight.My stalking years have seen me taking another eight heads that on some occasions have been downright easy ( not too bloody many haha)When you come down for a hunt (invitation extended) if ever, come out one on one with me and i`m sure you will see i`m not putting the other deer or game in Australia down at all really its just that these friggin` deer are truly one of the worlds premium game species and can and do run rings around us "expert hunters" like nothing else here in Oz.You are right too about the grunters they ARE fun but pretty bloody easy to walk up to and nail on just about any piece of ground in Oz but tell that to serious pig hunters and they wont agree at all.