Like every other outfitter in the Northern Territory, Graham says things started out slow due to the wet conditions caused by those cyclones we told about last month. Graham hunts the Gan Gan concession in East Arnhem Land for Asian water buffalo. This is an aboriginal-owned wilderness area with no fences or agriculture and a herd of 4,000 buffalo. Graham says he is sticking to Hunt Australia's past practice of taking only 30 to 40 bulls per year from this concession in order to maintain a trophy quality that averages over 100 SCI each season. Graham points out that not every buffalo taken here scores that high, especially when clients choose to take wide sweeper-style trophies that look huge but typically do not score as well. However, he says this year's success was on par with previous seasons. Early in the hunting, one of his clients killed a buff that green-measured 110 SCI (the minimum is 80). Towards the end of his season, a group of six hunters took six bulls in one week with an average score of 104 SCI.
Graham says there are also some wild boar in Gan Gan, although his trophy boar hunts take place in a specialized area that Hunt Australia has been managing for over 15 years. This year, one client hunted with a spear and took three trophy boars out of tree stands set up throughout the hunt area. On the last hunt of the season, two European clients harvested 27 trophy boars over seven days. One boar tipped the scales at 300-plus pounds. For 2007, Graham says he will be updating this camp and building more tree stands.
This year, Graham also expanded Hunt Australia's culling operation.........(continued)
