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http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e156/BigTBear/022_18A.jpg[/img][/image] The water buffalo was taken on Brahma Island Florida several years ago with my .416 Rigby. Brahma Island is the largest privately owned freshwater island in the US & covers about 19 sq. miles. The Lightsey Cattle Co owns the island & a large track of land on nearby Lake Kissimmee. The Lightsey family emigrated from Germany in the 1700's & purchased the Lake Wales Region & Brahms Island from the King of England. This in its self is interesting since this was Spanish Florida. The Lightseys continue to raise to raise cattle & farm the original land holdings. Other than an a former cowboy bunkhouse powered by a gen the island remains as wild as when the indians roamed the island & Florida. Boar were brought by the Spanish for food & have thrived in Florida & on Brahma Island. On the island about 10% are blue or Prussian Boar & a very few or Red Russian. I have A Red Russian mounted that weighted 400 pounds with a 61/2' diamond rattlesnake in its mouth that I also shot on the island(in self defense). Numerous indian burial mounds & artifacts exist on the island & the locations are protected. Cary Lightsey runs the hunts & is a noted environmentalalist. Cary has received numerous awards & has restored 38 endangered species to the island & ranches. The island is home to the largest population of Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states. About 35 years exotic goats, sheep,axis,fallow,sika, blackbuck & other critters were released on the island. Nothing is fenced or replaced if the species didn't adapt, which happened to the blackbuck. At times, giraffes, white rhinos, & other animals have temporarily been released until a permanent hime could be found. I have hunted the island with mostly SCI friends each Sept. & we are the first group on the island each fall. Our guides for this trip are cowboy & great hunter "moby" Dick Pershing" & & Billy Johnson a former Colorado elk outfitter, manager or a nearby hunting & cow ranch & also a great hunter. Now to my water buffalo hunt. A small group of water bullalo reside in the swamps of the island & have a bit on an attitude. I decided to try for an especially large bull. The entire group decided to to join in & watch the action(hopefully). As luck would have it a light rain & visibility was limited. A small convoy of Moby & I in a safari style jeep(raised rear seat) & a stake bed truck with the other hunter hunters & Billy began to glass. After about 5 hours not a water buffalo had been seen or much or anything. The rain definately had the animals in the heavt cover. The elevated seat in the jeep makes for a great platform to glass from. Finally, the rain stopped & the for began to lift & the first cow buffalo was seen. Speaking of cows, some years ago when the water buffalos were brought to the island the young herd of bulls suddenly disappeared. Its quite a swim to the mainland & when they went was a mistery until Cary received a call. It seem a rancher had some sort of strange bulls that wore his cows out & whipped his steers a$$. It seems the bulls walked on the bottom of Lake Kissimmee until they needed air they surfaced & returned to the bottom. Cary & his cowboys loaded the love sick water buffalos in cattle cars for transport back to the island & I am told It was a real circus. As in most hunting finding the females is the key to the males. Anyway, shortly I began to see bulls & the guide & I began to sneak toward the largest. We left the rest of the party including Billy about 500 yards away. I looked up as the stalk continued & could see Billy motioning with his arms but thought he was stretching or just doing some some sort of weird cowboy sort of thing. Later, I realized he was trying to move us from the path the herd would take if they decided to stampede & return to the swamp. We would have been right in their path & probably not a good thing. I set up the shooting sticks & proceeded to fire a 400 grain Barnes XLC with my .416 Rigby. It sounded like a sack of concrete being dropped from a 10 story building. The bull didn't stagger, but blood shot from the double lung hole like a hole in Hoovers Dam. I definately had his attention. I worked the bolt & sent another 400 grain XLC into his lungs & when the bull fell I could feel the earth tremble. I was told by my PH in Africa to have some Woodleigh 410 solids ready in case the bull ran. Not needed here. The herd bulls have a nasty habit of wanting to charge while one of their buds is being dragged away. I sttod guard while Moby positioned the jeep & finally the herd moved away bellowing & farting & looking very unfrindly at me. Now it was time for the real work to begin since we had to load a 1500 pound bull without a winch. Back at the lodge a block & tacke was used was used so one of my buddies could prepare for a pedestel mount. Moby cut the bull into quarters & I loaded into my ATV trailer for transport by barge to the processor. I obtained about 750 pounds of steak, hamburger, & sausage. Meanwhile, Billy proceeded with the hunt & at the end of the 3 days a number of boar & gold metal deer were taken by our party.
