Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 300 Win Mag for Eland?

I took my first African animal, a gemsbok cow, on the White Sands Missle Range a few years ago with a 200 Accubond fired from a 300 RUM. It performed perfectly for me of course.

Since then I have been fortunate to have taken somewhere between 80 & 100 African animals in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia with archery gear as well as with a huge variety of rifle chamberings and bullets.

I have also spent countless hours chatting with experienced PH's and hunters on the subject of choosing the ultimate caliber and bullet for this or for that, as I own and shoot a ton of different combinations and tend to be fascinated and intrigued by such...

My first Eland fell to the great old 30.06 and a 180 grain Norma Oryx. I shot everything from Steenbok to Giraffe with that rifle and load on my first African safari. I flew in to the hunt straight from my work in Africa, borrowed it from the PH and tallied 22 animals on that trip.

In my honest opinion, you very well may have as good a combination going with your current set up. There's not much on the menu that I'd hesitate to tackle with your choice. Stick with that 300 Win Mag and the 200 Accubond. Shoot them right the first time and then shoot them again if they move and you'll have no trouble.

Good Luck!

I have taken four eland with four 130 Barnes TSX & TTSX 277 bullets and one with a single 130 BBC all from a 270 Win at about 3100. Good shot placement and you have an eland. Pretty straight forward.

PS. If you can't shoot well then get a 375 or a 416.

Took mine with a 30/06, 165gr Nosler partition. I shot, back edge of left side ribs, and bullet found in Right front shoulder. Ran on about 60 yds and piled up.

Took mine with 3 hits from a .416 Remington. I have no doubt that a heavy bullet from a 300 would do the job. However, as per other quotes I've seen on this forum...it's what will work when everything goes wrong!

Took mine with a 30/06 and 180 A-frame.

Nice Necro-thread resurrection here.

.338-06 with a 185 gr TTSX @2950 fps
That combo worked from springbok to eland

If you want a guaranteed pass-thru you are going to need more than the .300 Win Mag with a 180 grain (or even 200 grain) premium bullet. What you would have to step up to in order to get that, I can't say.

But is it necessary?

I whacked mine stone cold dead and he was an ancient, massive bull that had to be culled. He weighed 2,352 pounds in total ... they use guts and crap like that, so we got a live weight.

Anyway, my .30-'06 with a single 180-grain Hornady Interlocked bullet did the deed wonderfully.

By the way, old "blue bulls" are practically hairless and do not have the cute forelock on their heads like the younger bulls do. Also, the madala bulls' horns are worn down from multiple decades of scraping tree bark and fighting.

Blessings,

Steve

I whacked mine with a .300 mag and a 150 grain Partition.

Your the Poobah he saw you and was dead of a heart attack before the bullet arrived!

My father shot two eland with a 270 win and 150 partitions.

Theres some truth to that. Ungulates the world over tremble at the mention of my name.

Pigs...on the other hand....have to be hazed.


But you knew that.....

300 wsm and 180gr partition. Only took one shot

Hell YEAH,

Fuggin' A !!!!

Blessings,

Steve

Little private joke there Steve. last year at the pig hunt I decided on the last day just to do some stump sitting. dvdgeorge came along and said he would make a loop over the hill, and see if he could drive anything towards me.Within a minute I could hear him shouting and hazing a whole sounder of pigs my way!

One didn't make it out alive

I have shot two eland, and used a 7mm Remington Magnum with 175-grain Nosler Partitions on both of them. One was standing 80 yards out and collapsed at the shot; the other was running at about 50 yards and went down before I could shoot again.

As JJ said, a .300 Winchester Magnum with 200-grain premium bullets would be a great combination for eland. I would use that combination on everything from grysbok to lion (where it is legal), and not mess around with different loads.

Someone above suggested that larger calibers would compensate for poor shooting. Wrong. Shot placement is everything, and most American hunters are not accustomed to shooting anything larger than a .338 and do not consistently shoot the bigger bores well.

Bill Quimby

rufuous a friend picked up his huge eland mount yesterday. Notjust big, but big for an eland and weighed more than one of his heiffers. Lucky he has a tractor. It wandered on to his deer lease from a game ranch nearby. Neck shot it with a 150 grain Hornady from a 270 win and it bucked and ran a short ways. When it paused he put the second shot in to the heart and dropped it. Sounds like your choice will be more than adequate and exactly what I might pick if making the trip, Best of luck. Sounds exciting.

From what I understand an Eland is similar to an elk. The best caliber of elk is suppose to be a 338 because the bullets have the penetration required to kill from any angle. So a 338 with controlled expansion bullets might be some what better an a 300 win mag. Am I wrong?

When I hunted Africa, I used a .300 with 200 gr. Part. I did not get and eland, due to a goof up on my part.. On the same trip, my pal shot a .338 with 250 Nosler part. He did well and so did I.. But I did find the 200 gr. shot though all of my game except one a blue wildabeast took a 200 gr. in the left shoulder as it faced me, and the bullet was found in the right rear leg... We did recover a number of .250's that did not shoot clear though.. But no game was lost with either..