Editor’s Note: Pat Reeve and Nicole Jones’ TV show, Driven with Pat and Nicole, airs on the Outdoor Channel Tuesday nights at 8:00 pm and Friday nights at 10:00 pm EST. For the last 3 years, this husband- and-wife duo has won a Golden Moose Award for excellence in TV production from the Outdoor Channel. “Driven” features big-game hunting around the world, but its main focus has been whitetails. Pat and Nicole wear the Mossy Oak Treestand and Break-Up Infinity camo patterns.
When I finally took my water buffalo, I picked up the camera and let Nicole take her bow to look for the Houdini bull again. This was an old, big bull that George really wanted her to take that Houdini bull, because we’d see him, and then he’d disappear. This was day 5 of our 7-day hunt. We could hunt until day 7, but we wanted to leave on day 6. Finally we spotted Houdini on the edge of a river. In the heat of the day, water buffalo like to go to water to drink and to roll in the mud. We had to make a big circle around the bull to get a favorable wind. The ground along the edge of the river was extremely dry, so every step we took sounded like popcorn. George told us, “We’ve got to get in the river and stalk up the river to where we’ve seen the bull.” Just before we got in the water, we saw a killer crocodile. The water was up to our waists. We waded about 100 yards, and George peeked over the bank to see where the bull was. He told us to stay in the water, so he could crawl up the bank and look for the bull. Before George started to crawl, he laid his backup gun down against the river bank. Just as he peeked over the bank, he loudly whispered, “Get ready; here he comes.”
I started to get concerned, because we were in the water with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. I put the tripod and camera in the water and started filming. George went straight for Nicole, because he had to help her pull her 70-pound Mathews Monster bow. Nicole could hold the bow at full draw for awhile, but she didn’t have the strength to break it over at 70 pounds. When I looked up, I saw the huge buffalo walking down the edge of the river bank, about to pass us broadside at 5 yards. We’d be totally in the open. I don’t think he knew what we were, because we were in the water. The bull stopped and looked right at us. Nicole released the arrow and got a double-lung shot. The bull turned and ran away from us. Nicole was shaking. She pointed toward the bank, where I saw George’s gun. In the excitement, George had forgotten the backup gun. If that bull really had known what we were and charged us in the water, that would have been the end. We waited for a few minutes, looked over the bank and saw the bull dead on his side. That bull was one of the biggest water buffaloes ever taken by a female hunter. Later I took my daughter Olivia to Australia, and she killed a big water buffalo with horns 1/2-inch longer than Nicole’s buffalo, but Olivia took hers with a gun.
Pat Reeve and Nicole Jones on Their Australian Water Buffalo Hunt
Pat Reeve and Nicole Jones Bow Hunt for African Cape Buffalo
