I am getting the urge to add another canoe to my small collection and the Buffalo 16ft Royalex has caught my eye.
The company’s website has only limited information and my search of the internet hasn’t come up with many good photos.
Can anyone here share any good pictures of either 14 or 16 ft Buffalo Canoes and any opinions / reviews, good or bad, would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Ric
In very wet North Queensland.
Australia
The 16 footers look similar to the
old Blue Hole OCA. Flat bottom, little rocker, but maneuver decently in easy whitewater. I have paddled OCAs both solo and tandem. I don’t know of a specific source for pictures of Buffalo canoes. The only pictures I have seen were small enough to be not worth scanning. Maybe this reply will be wrong and inspire someone to cut in with better information.
They Look Pretty Good
I have never paddled one but they look very robust. I have seen a few that were used on rocky streams, they seem to hold up well. They remind me of a heavy built Old Town Camper.
Good Luck,
Ty
I wonder if they are built like the old
… Blue Hole boats. My brother has a Blue Hole that he got in about 1980 or '81, which he still has. I don’t know what model it is, but it is a tandem which is kind of a barge, if that helps 
Anyway, the Royalex in that boat is roughly twice as thick as the Royalex on any of my canoes. That thing is heavy, but also very tough.
you are probably right
if you look at their brochure:
the pic of the purple canoe is the same as in an old Blue Hole catalogue ( I took it out of my files and compared…). And the 65 lbs for the 14 footer seems like BH’s layup as well. Must be one tough animal, though…
They were designed and built by
people who were going to put them to hard use on east Tennessee rivers. The ABS must have been heavy, because it didn’t pooch upward even if the boat was used without a float block. The aluminum gunwales were way over-designed, very stiff and strong, though if they did break, they were the devil to splint.
On about my second Ocoee trip, in '79, I was with a TSRA group led by the redoubtable Dick Wooten, who resolutely refused to use any added flotation in his Blue Hole OCA. He wrapped the boat badly around a rock. We all sat and watched as he peeled it off, stomped it back into shape,splinted the broken gunwales with driftwood, and paddled most of the rest of the river standing up, saying he needed to keep the bottom of the boat from pooching upward.
Saw them, talked to the builder.
Tough boats. Based on the Blue hole, the hardware is oversized. You can bash one these around without worry.
Maybe a bit heavier but that is due to the thickness of the plastic.
I Appreciate the Responses so Far
I’m beginning to think these canoes are just what I expected them to be. I reckon the Buffalo and I will get along just fine. Hope someone can come up with a few photos for me, thanks again to everyone for your input.
Ric
I know several
canoe liveries in AR and TX that rent them and swear by them. They are some of the most durable I have seen, at around 80 lbs for a 16’ they are also some of the heaviest. They don’t have much of a dealer network though.
Hey Ric
I think for your use it would be a good boat. VERY good value compared to other royalex tandems on the market for river paddling. They’re being used more and more with canoe liveries here in MO. I’ve looked at them, touched them, talked to the owner, but never paddled one. They look to be very solid. My cousin has a ‘70’s model Blue Hole OCA and you can tell it’s essentially the same boat.
As I recall, when Sloop, my wife, and I were talking to the owner, he said the 16’ Buffalo was built using the old Blue Hole mold, while the other models were newer molds.
And they’re built in one of the prettiest little towns I’ve ever been in; Jasper, Arkansas. Heck, I wish I could pick one up and deliver it to you myself, Ric, but it’s one helluva paddle to get it down there (LOL)! WW
Buffalo photos
I managed to find quite a few Buffalo 16 ft pics scattered here and there on the internet then I struck pay dirt at the City Christian Fellowship website, it looks like they have a fleet of them. If anybody would like to have a look there is a good variety of assorted colors in their photo albums entitled Mens Canoe Trip 2003 / 2005
http://www.ccf-fortsmith.org/albums.asp
And Terry,
If you are going to pick one up in Jasper and paddle it to Australia you better be sure and have a good breakfast the day you are leaving.
Ric