Hey guys, I'm at a hotel in Sydney Australia preparing for the long plane ride home tomorrow but I wanted to share a photo of my Australian water buffalo taken with a .454 Casull Ruger Super RedHawk and 325 grain Barnes Buster hand loads with you.



This combination worked really well on the buffalo but I wasn't impressed with the Busters on the wild boars that I also took. Posting from my mobile phone has proven challenging so I'll share more details later.

Very nice!...What didn't you like about the Barnes Busters?

Nice buff!

My complaint about the Barnes Busters is the small meplat. Wish they made a revolver-only version....

Congratulations on the great buffalo, Darrell! Great trophy! Can't wait to hear the details and see more pictures! WOW - GREAT HEADGEAR!

Dang that's a fine specimen. Good show, Darrell.

Congrats on a great trophy!

Great job Darrell, was wondering if you were over there. Can't wait to hear the rest of the story. I don't see any spears....

Dick

Huge congrats on a great animal!!!!

Great job Darrell -- great bull! Congrats on a job well done. Look forward to hearing the details. Safe travels

Congrats! Darryl on a great bull.

Look at the size of him! Congrats, and excellent shooting. Can't wait to hear the full story.

Congrats looking forward to hearing the whole story.

Congrats, Darrell! Glad it came together, as planned, this go around. That is a fine trophy! There could be a lot of knife scales cut from those horns

Is that 454 SRH borrowed from an Aussie resident or could you bring you own in?

Beautiful..... Glenn told me you were there and I thought to myself that your going finish what you started because I can see the handloads arrived on time.... Good for you but BAD for the water buff which is a monster..... We really needed a "shot in the arm" here and you supplied it in spades. I tip my hat to a true handgun hunter.....

WTG, awesome trophy!!!!

AWESOME...just AWESOME

Congratulations on a nice bull! I'm looking forward to hearing the details, and seeing more pictures!

Great buff, Darrell! Congratulations!

My man!! Great bull Darrell!

Look forward to catching up and hearing all about it!

Congratulations on the trophy, Darrell!

Would like to hear details on trip!

Nice one Darrell. Hope you had a bunch of help getting that out of there!!

Nice looking buff Darrell. Like everyone else waiting impatiently for the rest of the story.

Thanks for all of the replies and positive comments guys! I'm back at home and trying to get over jet lag and get caught up at work and on the honey do list! I'll try to post some more details soon. In the meantime, please see if this video works for ya....

Water Buffalo Video

Thanks again guys, I'll post some more details ASAP.

DJH

Awesome buff and great video. I kept waiting for the reload as you ran forward.

You took one hell of a nice Water Buffalo!

My quest for water buffalo actually began in the summer of 2014. After reading about handgun hunting water buffalo in Australia by handgunners such as Mark Hampton and JD Jones, I knew that Australia was a destination on the bucket list. However, as I understand it, foreigners can no longer bring handguns into Australia. In order to take an Australian water buffalo, I would be required to use a handgun owned by an Australian.

Like many of you, I saw Lynn Thompson's Handgun Hunting Down Under video. After watching the video, I knew that outfitter Matt Graham of Hunt Australia owned at least one revolver capable of cleanly taking water buffalo. I contacted Matt and he informed me that he had a couple of revolvers in camp; a Ruger Redhawk in .44 Mag as well as a Super Redhawk in 454 Casull. Since the 454 Casull is one of my favorite (if not my favorite) revolver cartridges and I had a gun just like his, I knew that I wanted to hunt water buffalo with Matt's 454 Casull Super Redhawk and I booked a hunt for July, 2014.

Unfortunately, even though Matt did have the gun he was having difficulty getting ammo for it. The plan was for me to bring ammo with me. Even though I couldn't bring a handgun into Australia bringing handgun ammunition was not a problem. I bought 100 rounds of Buffal Bore 360 grain hard cast ammo, but since I had no idea what the revolver would like I also took a box of 50 various handloads loaded with 325 grain Swift A-Frames, 325 grain Barnes Busters, and 335 grain Cast Performance bullets.

To make a long story short, I arrived in Australia on schedule in 2014 but unfortunately my bag did not. Therefore I had a nice 454 Casull in camp but no ammo to shoot in it.

Matt's wife Millie and my travel agent worked diligently with the airlines to get my bag located but in the meantime I hunted buffalo with Matt Graham's double rifle in 450 Nitro Express and I connected with a nice bull on day 3 of the 5 day hunt.


My bag finally showed up in camp around midnight the night before the last day of my hunt so I was up before daybreak installing an Ultradot and getting it ready to sight in as soon as it was light enough to shoot.



The gun shot the 360 grain Buffalo Bore ammo well, but it shot the 325 grain Barnes Busters amazingly well.



Unfortunately, I only had one day to hunt with the handgun and I just couldn't get it done. I had a great hunt, but I still wanted to shoot an Australian water buffalo with a handgun.

Fast forward to 2015...

I contacted Hunt Australia and asked Matt if he still had the ammo that I had left with him in 2014. He said that he was sure that he still had it so I booked another hunt for July, 2016. Since there was a gun and ammo in camp, I wouldn't have to depend on the airlines for anything. It was a foolproof plan or so I thought.

About eight weeks before the hunt I paid the final balance on my hunt and booked non-refundable airline tickets. Six weeks before the hunt, I was contacted by Matt and informed that Hunt Australia was no longer conducting water buffalo hunts. My hunt was being transferred to another water buffalo hunting outfit but I would need to change my airline tickets to arrive in Darwin instead of Gove. Matt assured me that he would have the gun and ammo in the new camp when I arrived and I was also informed that my application to bring 50 additional rounds of Barnes Buster handloads into Australia had not yet arrived. To make a long story short, my import permit arrived literally the day before I flew out. The gun was picked up by the new outfitter but the ammo was still missing in action. Foolproof plan? Methinks not!

To be continued...

Darrell, Congrats once again on a dandy bull! And more congrats for your perseverance. They have took the fun out of traveling with guns/ammo for sure. Your success has further reminded me I'm getting old! Good job shooting -- great buffalo!

Great video, and good shooting!!!!

Thanks again guys!

I left Atlanta on Thursday, July 14th and after a brief layover in Dallas I boarded the Quantas flight across the Pacific. I arrived in Sydney in the early morning hours of July 16th after being thrust 14 hours into the future. Luckily there was a bag on the baggage claim conveyor that had my name on the luggage tag containing an Untradot and 50 rounds of handloaded ammunition! After painlessly making it through customs, I now had the ammunition in Australia. If only it would make the next leg of the journey and arrive with me in Darwin the following day then I might actually pull the hunt off this time!

I spent the day near the Sydney waterfront and rested up after the previous days of traveling.


The next morning I left for Darwin and after an uneventful five hour flight, I waited anxiously at the baggage conveyor for my bag. I watched the conveyor like an eagle searching for prey and as the last bag came around my heart begin to sink. I then noticed a lady pushing a bag wrapped in flourescent green tape toward the baggage claim area and quicly realized that it was mine. Again I though wow! This hunt might actually happen this time!

I was met at the Darwin aiport by my guide Peter Anthony and his lovely wife, Donna. After loading my gear into the Toyota Hilux we began the long drive to the hunting camp. After a couple of hours of driving on a paved highway, we stopped at the closest settlement to camp and purchased a few supplies in the little village of Pine Creek.


Afterward, we made a right turn onto a dirt road and I don't think that Peter touched the steering wheel for miles! We drove about 45 miles an hour for another four hours and arrived at Wombungi Station; a large cattle ranch of over one million acres.



Just getting to the edge of the property didn't necessarily mean we were "there". It took another hour or so of driving to finally reach the camp, arriving just after nightfall. It didn't take long before Paul, the camp chef, had prepared the first of many delicious meals.

I learned that the camp had been washed away during the previous wet season and everything had been recently been rebuilt. Here are a few views of the camp:

The cooking/dining area:


My comfortable cabin:


I also had my own toilet/shower:


As you can see, I was really "roughing it".

A small stream flowed through camp and this is where water was pumped for washing dishes, flushing toilets, and hot showers, etc.

Here is the view from the front porch of my cabin:


After flowing through camp, the stream cascaded down a beautiful waterfall forming a deep pool:





It would be hard to imagine a more beautiful site for a buffalo hunting camp anywhere in the Northern Territory Outback.

I sighted in the borrowed Ruger Super Redhawk on the morning of the first day in camp while Peter, Donna, and Paul were busy doing other things. I borrowed a cardboard box from Paul to use as a target and after a few shots, I had it grouping well and zeroed at 50 yards. Unfortunatley the only ammo in camp for the gun was the 50 rounds of ammo that I had brought with me. None of my leftover ammo from two years ago had made it to camp so I sighted the Ultadot in with as few rounds as possible. Shortly thereafter, Peter, Donna, and I headed out for our first day afield.

We hardly made it out of sight of camp when a wild boar appeared on the edge of the road. Peter asked me if I wanted to shoot it? I asked how much hogs were going for these days and he said they were "free". Hmmm...let me think about it..."boom"! The hog was quartering away and the Barnes Buster hit him on his right sight angling forward through the chest and exiting on the opposite side. He gave little reaction to the shot but he ran forward and just stood there for a moment before beginning to run again. I fired another shot in his general vicinity but I don't think that I touched him on that shot.

He crossed the road out of sight. I followed Peter into the bush and I picked up the blood trail but Peter had already spotted the hog. He hadn't gone far; he was just standing there and he was definitely feeling poorly. I shot him again, low in the right shoulder and he hit the ground. Amazingly, he got back up so I put another shot in the same shoulder a couple inches from the previous one and this time he stayed down. He finally expired and quit moving completely a few minutes later. I had my first hand-gunned Australian animal on the ground!


Even though we didn't take a buffalo on the first day we definitely saw many of them, including some that I thought were shooters. However, Peter was being a bit selective since it was our first day of hunting and I was the only hunter in camp.







I also saw many kangaroos on the trip:


Dingos:


And plenty of feral donkeys:


We also saw lots of wild horses and scrub bulls (wild cattle). In order to control their numbers, any of these animals could be taken by hunters at no cost (with the exception of scrub bulls) if desired but since I had only a few cartridges in camp, I felt that I needed to be a bit conservative.

To be continued...

Darrell, I hope that at some point, you will compile your adventures into a book of short stories with the pictures! Thanks for sharing, and I am looking forward to the next installment of the Australian bull chronicles!

A couple of Darrell's hunting adventures are published in my books to include another bovine hunt in my latest book -- too bad I didn't have the time to include this one!

That is simply awesome, Darrel! Are you recovering at home or are you back to work?

DAMM GOOD video of the water buff handgun kill. That was perfect execution of you handgun hunting skills. If you should ever get to South America for another buff, you will have taken them on 3 continents. Just something to think about.....

Good shooting,let em all go!!!!!

Thanks again for all of your comments guys!

Day2

We headed out to a new area on day two. On the way, I spotted another hog on my side of the vehicle and I yelled "PIG"! Unfortunately, he didn't hang around long enough to get shot at so we headed off once again in search of buffalo. Again we saw lots of buffalo, including one nice old shooter bull with broomed horn tips. However, upon seeing us he quickly gathered his harem of cows and left without even saying goodbye.

Day 3

I arrived at the kitchen just as it was breaking daylight and was talking with Chef Paul when all of a sudden Paul said "there's a pig!" I looked in the direction that he was pointing and sure enough, right across the stream from camp was a large boar rooting around. Unfortunately the 454 was in my cabin so I quickly sprinted the required 150 or so yards to retrieve it. Unfortunately by the time that I had returned the hog had rooted out of sight in the long grass. Lesson learned...don't even come to breakfast without your gun in the Outback.

We hunted a completely different area on day three and we were determined to get a bull on the ground. We spotted a nice bull with a herd of cows from the road so we parked the vehicle out of sight and headed back on foot to try to approach close enough for a shot. Unfortunately we spooked a herd of domestic cattle which in turn spooked the buffalo and they ran into the bush. The cattle on the station were wilder than the buffalo!

We drove further down the road and spotted a lone water buffalo bull grazing next to a big brahman bull. After only a quick glance we noticed that he had good mass and broomed horn tips and we decided to make a go for him. He was approximately 100 yards from the road but I wanted to be 50 yards or less if possible in order to ensure a good shot on him. We used what little cover was available for our stalk but he didn't stick around. However he only ran a short distance into the bush and stopped. Peter attempted to call him by imitating the sound of a young calf in distress. While he didn't come to the call he was definitely interested in it and he just stood there staring at us. I attempted to close the distance and again he ran off. Peter once again called to him and he stopped, turned, and faced us.

There was a cattle path that led to a forked tree and Peter instructed me to crawl toward that tree while he called to the bull to keep his attention. This plan worked brilliantly as I was able to reach the tree and get in position for a shot. Unfortunately there was a small bush obstructing the bull's vitals. I could see the buffalo's head but I would have to guess where his vitals were and hope that the bullet would make it through the bush to him so I was uncomfortable in taking the risky shot.

Peter came in behind me and the bull just stood there staring at us. Peter once again called to him and the bull finally made a few steps foward offering me a clear shot. I aimed for the white patch at the base of the throat and sent a Barnes Buster on its way. The bull showed a good reaction to the shot, he stumbled and began staggering around. I was able to get another shot off before the bull ran to my left. I was able to get another two shots off before losing sight of the bull once again so I ran forward. The bull's was kneeling on his front legs and I was able to put my final two shots into him and he slowly laid down on his left side.

As I was reloading the revolver, Peter motioned for me to join him and we approached the downed bull. He asked me to put an insurance shot in the bull's spine and I quickly obliged him. We had finally done it! On my second trip to Australia, we finally had a nice bull on the ground and I learned that Peter's wife Donna had captured the whole thing on video on her iphone. I was glad that I didn't know I was being videoed or I'd probably have screwed the whole thing up!

Water Buffalo Crawl

Water Buffalo Shot

Way to go Darrell.If he's still standing keep shooting,and always pay the insurance!!!!!!!!!!

What a great story. Thank you for sharing, and beautiful bull.

Brenden

How many times did you hit him and where were the hits? How was the penetration and terminal performance of the bullet? That sucker soaked up some rounds!!!

Zee, I hit him 7 times. First shot was at base of throat and last shot was in the spine. I also hit him two times in left shoulder and once in right shoulder, two in guts.

I'm not an expert on buffalo but I was very pleased with how quickly he went down. He was dead in about 60 seconds. My 2014 Australian Water Buffalo took 3 rounds from a 450 Nitro Express and he survived much longer and traveled a much greater distance. Even though he never went out of sight, my South African cape buffalo survived approximately 20 minutes with 5 shots from my freedom arms 475 Linebaugh.

Darrell, That`s interesting about how far your first water buff traveled after taking three rounds from the 450 express rifle compared to the 454.... I remember my first Cape buff took three rounds from my 416 Rigby rifle while the second one dropped at the first shot with my FA`s 500WE. My Florida water buff ( though nowhere near as large as yours ) took a 400gr XTP from my FA`s 475LB and shook like he was electrocuted. I doubt there`s a typical reaction from any of the world`s large buffalo when taken with a handgun or rifle for that matter....

7 times in rather short order.........very nice!

I'm assuming the Barnes are an expanding bullet. In comparison, were the .450 Nitro bullets solid or, less pliable bullets? Maybe a difference in damage done to internal organs in expansion compared to poking holes from solids? I don't know as I'm unsure as to your bullets used in all those instances.

I think James is right in that you never know their reaction. But I DO like comparing instances and bullet types from a scientific standpoint to gain knowledge.

Great stuff!!

Zee, he was using Barnes Busters which are a flat-nosed solid.

This is all evidence that each and every animal is a law unto itself. Some give up the ghost quickly, others don't accept their fate. Nicely done, Darrell!

Very true.

Great hunt and story, DH! I hope you're planning a book of your hunting adventures for the future; you can put me down for a signed copy.

Dar, Your the first handgun hunter I know that used the Buster. I know when I first saw them I wished the meplat was wider like the original Barnes solid. Would you use them again??

Darrell, now that you've seen how the cast bullets did in Africa and the Barnes busters in Australia, any plans to see how your 376 Steyr would do?

good question.......

Dar, Any idea what`s next for you in the "big game" department??

Here are the 45 caliber Buster bullet on the left and the original 45 caliber Corbon flat point Penetrator on the right. The meplat on the Buster is around 0.30" wide while the Penetrator is around 0.490" wide.

Dang....that's a noticeable difference!

Congrats and Well done!!! That was a world class adventure that most hunters only read about and dream of. You make all of us handgun hunters proud.

Save a copy for me.......

Congrats on the great hunt Darrell.

Thanks guys, I'm no writer but I do enjoy sharing stories with those stricken with the same affliction.

James, I would definitely use the Busters again. I wasn't necessarily concerned about meplat size since it is my understanding that they do deform slightly. You can see some recovered bullets that show slight expansion in this old Barnes ad video.

Barnes Buster Ad


I had always waned to give them a try after reading about Il Ling's handgun buffalo taken with Barnes Busters in the 454 Casull Super Redhawk a few years back.


After seeing how accurately they shot in Matt Graham's revolver in 2014, I thought that it would be a perfect opportunity to give them a try this year.

David, the 376 Steyr XP100 currently resides in Kansas. Fortunately, my buddy Glenn would probably let me borrow it back should the need arise.

After shooting the buffalo we headed back to camp midday so that Peter could boil out the skull. Upon arriving in camp, we were entertained by Larry the monitor. Larry lives somewhere along the creek that flows through camp but he regularly visits Chef Paul who has domesticated him by bribing him with meat scraps.







Peter had the skull looking good in short order. It just needs the final treatment that consists of soaking it in a peroxide solution and it will be ready to come to Georgia.



On day four we headed back to the same area that we hunted on day two in search of the the old bull with broomed-off horns. We didn't see the bull or his harem of cows but as we were leaving the area we noticed a scraggly looking old scrub bull standing on the side of the trail. I joked to Peter that he should let me shoot that scrub bull free of charge in order to put him out of his misery and we both laughed. Little did we know that that my request would soon come to fruition.

As we approached the bull, he spun around and tried to run off but he lost his balance and he fell over on his side. We got out of the vehicle and approached him as he laid there with his eyes rolled back in his head, stiff-legged, and bellowing at us. Try as he might he could not get up. It became apparent that the right thing to do was end the old boy's suffering. After dispatching him, Peter hooked the bull to the vehicle and we dragged him away from the trail.



The bull was emaciated very badly and completely covered with ticks. We couldn't help but wonder just how long the old boy had been suffering from his affliction.

Later that afternoon we spotted a buffalo that had some very long horns. It was standing on the edge of a creek and we decided to go for it, dropping down into the creek and stalking right up the creek. About fifty yards away, I got in front of Peter and rested the handgun on a tree trunk from a kneeling position. Peter once again called to the buffalo and it came running toward us, stopping at only 25-30 yards away. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a large cow with a very impressive set of headgear. That cow has no idea how close she came to getting shot!

In addition to the long-horned cow, we saw several animals that afternoon including buffalo, donkeys, and a sow with a litter of pigs. It had been another good day in the Outback.

Darr, Thanks for your info on the buster and let me add that you had one heck of a nice buff hunt..... Good for you.

Well dang Darrell 😉 maybe our good buddy Dur would let you bust one with his 475 JDJ...you know, for comparison purposes 😉

The small meplat on the Buster has been a criticism of mine from day one. The Penetrator on the other hand has(d) a great big meplat. Just wish they still produced them. This is the same issue I have with the CEB handgun solids. The meplat is small and while they work and they penetrate like crazy, I like a bigger meplat (and bigger wound channel).

know what you mean.......

On day 5, we hunted a completely different area. We saw few buffalo that morning before breaking for lunch. After lunch, we set out on foot for a stalk along a nearby creek.




It wasn't long before Peter spotted a buffalo cow walking in the tall grass. We froze and began glassing the area for other buffalo. We slowly moved forward and before long we spotted a group of buffalo lying in a wallow to escape the mid-day heat. We used the topography of the land to approach the sleeping buffalo and were within 10 yards of them when one of them slowly stood up and stared at us. We froze in our tracks and she began walking toward us, trying to figure out what we were. Peter began calling and all of the buffalo in the group slowly stood up, including a bull a mere 10-15 yards away.

I thought that the bull was a shooter but Peter insisted that he was too young to take so we just watched as they huffed, stomped the ground, and slowly walked out of sight. We slowly made our way up the creek and had several more encounters with females and juveniles but no more bulls.

As the evening approached, we decided to head back to the area once again where we had seen the old broomed-horn bull. Along the way, I spotted a boar on my side of the road and I yelled "Pig"! The vehicle skidded to a stop and Peter slowly backed up and I bailed out of the vehicle. The hog was walking away from me as I squeezed off a shot. He appeared to be hit but he took off running and I fired a warning shot, missing him completely. He turned broadside and stopped. I put the Ultradot on his right shoulder and slowly squeezed off a shot. He dropped on the spot with a high shoulder shot.

We stood over the boar and waited and waited for him to expire but he just kept blinking his eyes. Finally I could take no more and I put the barrel of the 454 Casull up to his ear and pulled the trigger.





We had time to check out one additional area and saw several more buffalo and a sow with a litter of shoats but no shooter buffalo bulls. It had been another fantastic day!

Very nice pig!

We can probably make that happen if I'm not using it that day......um, yeah we are probably safe for you to take it

Great shooting buddy and awesome trophies!!

Nice Buff!

Again Darrell, great shooting and a fantastic trip!!!



David, if the Australian Po-Po would have allowed him to import it, I'd gladly contribute my JDJ in the name terminal ballistics science

What's a little jail time in the pursuit of ballistic knowledge 😉😁

According to Greek mythology, the skilled craftsman Daedalus fabricated wings from wax and feathers so that he and his son Icarus could escape captivity by flying away from the island of Crete. Unfortunately Icarus became overconfident and flew too close to the sun. This triggered a trajic chain of events after the wax that held Icarus' feathers melted and he tumbled to his death into the sea. Like Icarus, on my last day in Australia overconfidence also caused me to tumble (although on a much less tragic scale) from the high that I had experienced during the previous day's successful hunts.

After heading out on the last day, we encountered another hog not far from camp. Again, the vehicle skidded to a stop and I bailed out, put the red dot on the hog's shoulder, and quickly fired two shots. I then opened up my ammo holder and reloaded the revolver. I thought that I had hit the hog but he gave little reaction. What happened next is a little fuzzy but I chased him a long way and fired...well, let's just say "many" shots at him. As I fired at him, the dust boiled up in the ground below the hog's feet. About the time that I ran the revolver dry, the hog grew tired of me chasing him and he turned to face me and began popping his teeth. I reached down to reload and discovered that during the chase my spare ammo had fallen out of the ammo carrier.

I then noticed that I was all alone. I later learned that Peter had gone back to retrieve the vehicle and he was tracking his poor-shooting client by the volley of gunfire erupting from the Super Redhawk. When Peter caught up with me, I asked to borrow his rifle since I was now out of ammo. I aligned the front bead and the notch of the express rear sight of Peter's 375 H&H just behind the hog's left shoulder and slowly squeezed the trigger. The hog dropped at the shot.

Humble pie had been served and I felt like a complete rookie. I was so thankful that this performance had come on the last animal of the hunt instead of the first! My confidence had been destroyed and I was almost relieved that we saw no more hogs and "O" buffalo on our last hunting day.

Notwithstanding the last day's events, I had an incredible hunt in Australia. As I stated earlier in this thread, I booked the hunt with Hunt Australia but I wound up hunting with Goodhand Outdoor Experience and I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who has stuffed up the last and easiest animal of the hunt

Seriously, it sounds like you had a great time. You may think you're not a good writer, but I find your stories compelling and an inspiration to all handgun hunters. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations Darrell.

Epilogue:
After my dismal shooting performance on hog number three, I couldn't wait to get home and try to reenact the shooting scenario. I had taken the Ultradot off of my 454 Super Redhawk to use on the Australian 454 so it was temporarily out of commission when I returned home.

The next evening after I arrived home, I took my 6" S&W 629 (worked over by Montana gunsmith Ben Forkin) topped with a Trijicon RMR to the range in order to reenact the pig shooting scenario. I have an 8" steel target, which roughly represents the size of a pig's/deer's vitals and I backed up about 25 yards. I cocked the hammer and quickly brought the gun up to the target. As soon as the dot of the RMR touched the target I pulled the trigger. I fired quite a few rounds and was able to hit the target about 5 out of 6 times so I was convinced that I had a scope issue in Australia.

Over the course of the next couple of days, I re-mounted the Ultradot used in Australia on my 454 Super Redhawk and I took it to the range to use it in the reenactment. My Super Redhawk has had an SSK trigger/action job and while it is not as slick as the Ben Forkin massaged 629...it ain't half bad. After getting the Ultradot sighted back in, I repeated the drill. As soon as the dot of the Ultradot touched the steel target, I pulled the trigger. I was only able to hit the target about 50% of the time using this gun. I noticed that when I did miss the target, my bullets would impact the ground below the target. This is exactly what happened to me in Australia, when I pulled the trigger, dust would boil up at the pig's feet. I fired 50 rounds at the target and the Ultradot stayed put, I had no POI changes.

The Super Redhawk in Australia was bone-stock factory with a typical factory trigger pull. After this experiment, I am of the opinion that the extra effort that was required in pulling the trigger caused me to shoot low while snap-shooting at the pig with the borrowed gun. It didn't necessarily make me feel better about the poor shooting performance, but at least I could explain it.

Thanks again for all of your comments guys, I reall appreciate it!

Some viable to me. Poor trigger squeeze on a right handed shooter usually results in low and left POI.

Daedalus, errr, Darrell, ya can't be dropping Greek Mythology on us knuckle draggers! Chalk it up to equipment failure and take it to the grave...

Actually, kudos to you for sharing it with the masses - everybody has the yips from time to time, regardless of your practice, experience, or trigger time. I have certainly done similarly (actually worse), with no one to blame but this loose nut behind the trigger. Fortunately you exhausted your allotment of errors on the last game animal of the trip, and no one was injured or mashed into the Australian mud in the process.

(Dibs on the PBFD gun if you don't return from one of your adventures)

Indeed.

That seems entirely plausible to me, Darrell. However, on the buffalo, where it counted most, you were dead on. Well done, Darrell!

Just an incredible trophy for sure. Well done Darrell

Its always great to see another bucket list animal from any of the handgun hunters on here..

Superb

well said.............

great hunt and write up darryl! i had been off the boards a bunch and somehow missed this. congrats on such a good hunt and great write up.

Great Buff - everyone be sure to also read the thread in Gun News & Politics about imported trophies. Humane Society FOIA