A professional hunter from Queensland has described his extreme encounter with an 800-kilogram buffalo in which he was gored and sustained injuries requiring more than 10 rounds of surgery.
Danny Vanbrugh, who has been leading hunting tours for more than five years, was hunting in a secret location south of Darwin when the incident occurred.
Mr Vanbrugh had shot the beast and believed it to be dead as he tracked it into heavy grassland.
"He went into thick scrub and he sort of came down from the side," he told ABC Radio Darwin's Adam Steer, describing the moment the buffalo caught him unaware.
"One horn went up the right bicep, tore the right bicep out.
"[Then] he just came back up to me and drove me into the ground and bruised my back and kidneys."
Pinned by the beast, Mr Vanbrugh seized an opportunity to escape when the buffalo's horn flicked him into the air.
A fellow hunter then shot the beast before applying a tourniquet to Mr Vanbrugh's heavily bleeding arm and embarking on the two-and-a-half-hour journey to the nearest hospital.
"The boys kept me there, kept me pretty calm and gave some fluids to me," Mr Vanbrugh said.
"I was going into a bit of shock; there was a fair bit of pain there."
As he entered the third week of his recovery, Mr Vanbrugh issued a warning to other hunters.
"I've had close calls before, with charges and things like that, but I've never been attacked.
"Don't go in after a wounded animal. Wait an hour or so and then go in.
"We rushed it a little bit."
He said he intends to have the animal's horns mounted once he has recovered.
