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Cape Buffalo with a longbow. Let the adventure begin!

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    Cape Buffalo with a longbow. Let the adventure begin!

    Just over a year ago, my wheels started turning and really TRULY thinking about chasing Cape buffalo. It's been literally my #1 bucket list hunt I've wanted to go on for as long as I can remember.
    Well, during my last trip over to Africa, my buddy Lammie and I discussed it and decided it was fully doable with a longbow (and after seeing Mr. Tim King smoke his big bull a couple months ago with his recurve confirmed that!). After talks of the hunt, next came the equipment preparation. I really wanted to go with a longbow since that's always been my go to bow, so I contacted Mike Westvang from Dryad Bows about my plans and to see if he was up to putting together a bow. After a few talks, he and his crew were up for the task of putting together my buffalo bow.
    Fast forward to this summer and we really ramped up the plans and decided on what needed to be done to get the bow built and not have any worries bout it. They put the handle together using Dynamax, glass laminations, and several strips of carbon for added strength. For the limbs I wanted two sets, one as my "warm up" set and another as my buffalo hunting set. Both came in right on the money in weight with the warm-up set being 67lbs and the heavy set being 76lbs. My plans are to build up my muscles as much as possible and get comfortable with the lighter set, then fully transition into the heavier limbs a couple months out from the hunt.
    I've never shot any trad bows that are near this heavy so it's going to be a whole new ballgame. I figure arrow tuning is going to be the biggest issue, just trying to get the weights I need to fly as PERFECTLY as I possibly can. The hunt is scheduled for next August/September so I've got lots of time to get everything prepared for this gig. I'm sure I'll be bouncing questions arrows and this and that off of you guys that have shot heavier bows. Should be a wild ride one way or the other!








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    #2
    Following along!!


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      #3
      Awesome! Where in Africa?

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        #4
        Cool deal! Following, I bet Buff would have some good pointers.


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          #5
          Awesome!!! I would bend Buff’s ear if I were you.

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            #6
            That'll do!!! Good looking set up!!

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              #7
              Cape Buffalo with a longbow. Let the adventure begin!

              Originally posted by CastAndBlast View Post
              Awesome!!! I would bend Buff’s ear if I were you.


              Originally posted by Caddo View Post
              Cool deal! Following, I bet Buff would have some good pointers.


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              Buff will most definitely be in the loop on all of this. I actually talked to him first before I ever started making actual plans for all this.


              Originally posted by Aggiehunter08 View Post
              Awesome! Where in Africa?

              South Africa, most likely in the Zululand area.



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                #8
                Start with a 300 grain tuff head with titanium Broadhead adaptors and work backwards from there.
                76# limbs will get it done but you need a heavy arrow.
                When we went to Australia for water buffalo, Mark was using a 75# bow and started out with 700 grain arrows that did not do a great job.
                He started using my 980 grain arrows and had much better luck

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                  #9
                  Getting you bow and arrows "Just Right" is half the fun.

                  I know where you can get a Cape Buffalo for $7,500.00 all in.
                  I'm going next year and take one with a .69 caliber muzzle loader

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                    #10
                    Good looking bow!! That'll be an awesome hunt.


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                      #11
                      76# Hurts my shoulder and collar bone just thinking of pulling it back. You guys are tuff.

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                        #12
                        Good luck getting prepped. Really cool scheduling a trip like this.

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                          #13
                          You know what I really like about that bow... is that it looks like a cape buffalo

                          I've pulled back an 80# bow once... the second time I didn't quite hit anchor

                          My only suggestion is that when working on building up your muscles, I would consider hitting the gym and working on all aspects of your upper body... back, shoulders, chest etc. Nothing is going to as good as pulling back the bow itself, but archery is naturally and imbalanced muscle recruitment and it would be good to strengthen in a balanced manner.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Buff View Post
                            Start with a 300 grain tuff head with titanium Broadhead adaptors and work backwards from there.
                            76# limbs will get it done but you need a heavy arrow.
                            When we went to Australia for water buffalo, Mark was using a 75# bow and started out with 700 grain arrows that did not do a great job.
                            He started using my 980 grain arrows and had much better luck
                            Getting you bow and arrows "Just Right" is half the fun.

                            I know where you can get a Cape Buffalo for $7,500.00 all in.
                            I'm going next year and take one with a .69 caliber muzzle loader

                            That's is exactly where I'm planning on starting at with the arrow setup. I'm shooting for something in the 950-1000grain range hopefully, just gotta find the right shafts for it. Didn't you put a smaller diameter shaft inside of a carbon express 350??
                            And I will apologize now as I will prolly be calling you a few times in the future trying to get this all figured out!

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by widdler View Post
                              76# Hurts my shoulder and collar bone just thinking of pulling it back. You guys are tuff.
                              Haha, yes sir. I put together the 67lb set last night and looked at it for a long time and thought "how the heck am I gonna string this thing, much less shoot it!"


                              Originally posted by SwampRabbit View Post
                              You know what I really like about that bow... is that it looks like a cape buffalo

                              I've pulled back an 80# bow once... the second time I didn't quite hit anchor

                              My only suggestion is that when working on building up your muscles, I would consider hitting the gym and working on all aspects of your upper body... back, shoulders, chest etc. Nothing is going to as good as pulling back the bow itself, but archery is naturally and imbalanced muscle recruitment and it would be good to strengthen in a balanced manner.
                              Honestly, that was my first thought when I opened the case and saw the riser for the first time. Although we'd talked about materials, I didn't really know what color it was going to be, but was pleased with the darker look very reminiscent of an ol' cape buffalo's horn colorations.

                              I started working out (more seriously) about a year ago now and began incorporating a lot of back and shoulder exercises into my routine up until a couple months ago and switched things around to get ready for the mountains. I'm lucky that I have a wellness center literally across the parking lot from my office so I go workout during my lunch time which is really nice. I will agree with you big time though on one thing, there truly isn't a better exercise to prepare yourself for shooting a bow then to actually shoot! My biggest thing is I want to shoot it correctly, not just rare it back and fling an arrow down range, not only for consistency sake, but also because I don't want to cause any unnecessary injuries to my shoulders or back.

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