Took the recently acquired Rodda (crystal-indicator sidelock) for an "armed reconnaissance" a couple of weekends ago, to check out in what shape Cyclone Monica had left one of my favourite hunting properties. Sure enough, all the creeks were stlll flowing strongly, flood debris festooned all the trees out across the creek flats, and the game was well scattered.

Nevertheless, I decided to take the vintage double for another walk back there last weekend, this time with better results. I took along one of my daughter's friends, Ralph, who had shot buff before but was keen to bring a really good trophy bull to bag. My wife Rebecca also came along for the exercise, and to help pack out any meat we might acquire.

After walking a drainage-line upwind for several hours, we finally bumped into a mob feeding in the creek bed in the late afternoon. Rebecca and I ducked out to the left and knelt down in a dry overflow to cover their exit from the creekline, and to pick out a fat cow or good bull, whichever presented the best shot as they filed past. I was still being cautious with this calibre (the cartridge is no giant-killer!) but hoped the 440gr Woodleighs would do the job.

I didn't count on the herd turning down the overflow and feeding straight towards us, as we crouched in the open behind 6-inch tufts of grass! Two cows with calves were in the lead, luckily one had an obvious weaner and had fattened up again, because it was her that offered the first opportunity, turning almost side-on at about 8 metres! With no time to lose, I gave her both barrels quickly behind the elbow, then reloaded and put a third into the off-side ribcage, quartering forward, as she about-faced .

I wasn't aware that Ralph had fired, but apparently at my first shot, the bull stuck his head up out of the long grass to reveal an impressive rack, so he immediately caught a 410gr Woodleigh .416 on the point of the shoulder! He turned out to be a very respectable trophy at 101pts SCI (green), and Ralph's largest by a fair margin! What a marvellous result!

I only recovered one projectile from the .500, the one which quartered forward and stopped at the front of the off-side shoulder. It hadn't expanded much, but then penetration is the more important criteria on large game and this one had made almost a metre. One of the other bullets had traversed the chest cavity, centering a far rib but bouncing back inside despite breaking the bone. Couldn't find it though! ...and only God knows where the other one ended up!

Based on these initial experiences, I would be quite confident taking the Rodda against the biggest buffalo bull, providing he was undisturbed and allowed me a good view of his ribs. Perhaps fortune will favour just such an outcome in the next few months!