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I've taken eland myself, used a 375 with 300gr AFrames and I was glad I did...wrote this about ten years ago:
MY MOST MEMORABLE HUNT

“Let’s get Big John turned into the wind, ring up twenty five knots and notify the Captain we will be ready to launch the first strike in fifteen minutes….” I was sitting in the Captain’s chair as the duty Command Duty Officer (Underway) awaiting the CO’s return from a meeting with the Admiral commanding our strike group as we prepared to launch the first strike from the USS John F Kennedy (CV 67) against Taliban forces in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. It was hard to imagine that just a month ago, September 11th, 2001, that I was in the middle of Zimbabwe when we heard over the BBC the tragedy that had befallen our country. It just didn’t seem real….

All of a sudden as was their custom, the trackers froze and slowly signaled to my PH, John Sharp to come forward with his binoculars. The two feeding eland bulls were positioned in a clump of scrub mopane and acacia trees about two hundred yards directly ahead of us. John, in his usually precise manner motioned to slowly move up at take a look. “He’s over there on the left, he hissed, about 175 yards. His shoulder is between those two trees, can you see him?” I nodded and quickly got up on the shooting sticks and centered the heavy duplex crosshairs on what looked like the perfect shoulder shot….
The 31st day of August 2001 finally arrived and after an early rise at my home in Orange Park, Florida and the seemingly interminable flights, connections and layovers, my first morning in Africa was finally here and an adventure I anticipated since childhood. Only my desire to be a naval aviator flying jets off aircraft carriers attained greater intensity, but after twenty-two years in Naval Aviation, I was ready for Africa! . After much research I decided to go with one of the legends of the game, Professional Hunter John Sharp out of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. I booked a twelve-day Plains Game hunt with John after being thoroughly impressed with his credentials and personality at the SCI Convention in Las Vegas.
After a fascinating drive from Bulawayo, (it’s not often that one gets treated to herds of impala, kudu, impala and even giraffes crossing the four lane asphalt road out of Bulawayo), we arrived at camp. We were hunting on the Malangani Conservancy, a 155,000 plus acre enclave in southeastern Zimbabwe and today part of the Bubyee Conservancy. The habitat in this region is near perfect for all plains game including buffalo, and leopards are also abundant. John runs a tight, glass-smooth operation there, with virtually zero poaching and incursion from the plague of “Mugabe’s “War Veterans” that ravaged and destroyed many farms in the area. Game was plentiful, especially Kudu, where I was fortunate to bag a 58 3/4”bull on the eigth day of the hunt after passing up what I considered over twenty “shootable” specimens.


Camp Malangani, on the shores of a huge lake of the same name, consists of a series of cottages clustered around a thatched, open area dining facility, a beautiful pool and other supporting structures like skinning sheds, vehicle storage areas and staff dwellings. Two huge Daimler-Benz generators provide electrical sufficiency for lighting and other duties, including the pumping of water to strategically located water reservoirs throughout the Conservancy, serving in the office of supplemental water during times of drought. Accommodations were nothing short of luxurious and the service provided by his staff superb. My chalet was positioned on the shore of the lake, which incidentally is full of “good ol” American Stripped Bass, faced west, just a short distance from the main dining area and the traditional fire pit. Every evening prior to and after dinner and under the Southern Cross, we would plan the next day’s hunt around the glow of the fire pit, a Castle Beer and a good cigar in hand. I’m here to tell you that the taste of eland and indeed all the African animals on the menu including zebra, exceeded all of my expectations, with the eland surpassing any cut of beef I had previously tasted. It was truly a dream come true to fall asleep in my comfortable bed in the coolness of the African night and to the sounds of Africa and among the usual racket of insects, but unquestionably, the highlight of my first evening in the African bush were the sounds of literally dozens of animals including eland, zebra, kudu, wildebeest and impala, as they diligently fed on the lush green grasses around my cottage, fed by the waters of Malangani lake. Like a youngster furtively slithering out of bed to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus on Christmas eve, I slowly padded my way to the screen mesh window to catch a glimpse of this truly magnificent spectacle that I often-times read in books and magazines, only now I was doing it for real.
The eland was the biggest trophy on the menu and my second priority after the kudu, proved to be the most difficult to collect. I bagged my kudu on the 8th day, after previously collecting a large zebra stallion, a good representative Tsesebee and a beautiful twenty-two inch impala ram during the first week. On that day, we had been driving along a sandy dry river bed looking for baboons, when this beautiful, tightly curled bull, peered down at us from the edge of the river’s embankment before quickly swapping ends and disappearing over the dry river’s bank. That’s the way hunting in Africa goes, when you are looking and expecting to find a particular trophy, she surprises you with something completely different, in this case a magnificent kudu bull. After a short and textbook-tracking job lasting twenty minutes, he offered a perfect broadside shot at 125 yards and a 300gr 375 through the shoulder paid off with a magnificent 58 3/4” bull that stands as my finest African trophy.

We now concentrated on eland in earnest, with only warthog and bushbuck remaining on my “to do” list. During the course of the previous eight days we had seen quite a few herds of the huge antelope, but unfortunately either we were out of position, on spoor for another animal, or there were just no shootable mature bulls in the herd.
When it comes to their elusiveness, their ability to smell danger that launches them on their signature “galloping sprints”, eland can be quite challenging. If and when they slow down to a walk, and if you are still in range, your best efforts can again be thwarted by shifting wind currents or the alarm shriek of the ubiquitous “Go Away!” bird, the Grey Lourie (Corythaixoides concolor).
Hunting eland is a demanding but rewarding task, requiring total concentration and the presence of mind to take advantage of a situation requiring an instant snap shot at a fleeting giant as he melts into the African bush. Eland do not have a particularly tough reputation for absorbing hits and will drop quickly to a reasonably well-placed shot from an adequate caliber like any of the 300s, but that morning I was carrying my Winchester Model 70 in 375 H&H, a cartridge that in my view just seems to fit the whole African experience and a good choice for eland.
I find the eland a fascinating animal. A mature male sports a noticeable “blue-jean” colored dewlap, a distinct shoulder hump, and black-reddish tufted hair on the top of his head, with spiral horn configuration. Bulls measuring over thirty inches in length are considered very good, and anything in excess of thirty-four is outstanding. His glossy tan and striped coat does indeed round out its attributes, making for a beautiful trophy and as I alluded to previously, I had often heard and had now experienced stories on the quality of the meat these huge ruminants were famous for. Although good-natured to the point of being docile, like any wild animal they can be extremely dangerous when wounded and cornered, especially one weighing over a ton.
Eland spooring can be readily identified by their bovine shaped tracks and droppings and also by the singular habit of breaking branches with their horns to access green leaves. I was thoroughly amazed at the ability of John’s head tracker of seventeen years, Isaac to determine how recently eland passed through an area. Tracking prey on their terms with only the trackers skill, your PH’s ability to assess trophy quality and your individual prowess to quickly and accurately “throw down” and squeeze off a round in mere seconds, is hunting in its purest form.
That morning we had set out to explore some eland spoor Issac had spotted the previous evening and with our trackers Isaac & Kevin standing in the back of the Toyota “Bakkie” to better spot game, we began driving the interminable dirt trails cris-crossing the Conservancy, an efficient tactic to locate game. After two hours into the morning hunt, Isaac started tapping the Toyota’s roof, signaling John to stop. He spied a couple of good bulls traveling together and crossing into a nearby thicket. I quickly jumped out of the truck, chambered a round, and the hunt was on as we took up the spoor.
The spooring was going well, as Isaac and Kevin kept a stealthy but deliberate pace on the constantly moving bulls. The spoor was obvious even to this amateur; the broken branches from their horns were numerous along the circuitous route they had taken since the stalk began.
We were about two hundred yards away, when the bulls paused to feed and with the wind in our favor, John had a good opportunity to assess both bulls. “Take the one on the left he quipped, so I snicked off the safety and with my rifle steady on the shooting sticks, the big 375 boomed. I came off recoil and quickly reloaded. I could see that he was down on his hindquarters with Isaac, who is usually calm, anxiously communicating in Shona that I had “shot him in the back!” Just as fast, I placed the crosshairs on the bull’s neck and gave him another 300-grain pill and he was down for good. John and the lads were elated. I however, was not. I could have potentially lost my best trophy and only by chance—and the 375’s heavy projectile that I was able to anchor the huge animal. Quite simply, I aimed for what I thought was his shoulder when in fact it was the animal’s hindquarter. The second bull was halfway hidden but in close proximity thereby presenting a confusing sight picture. Another couple of inches either way and I could have at best had a long tracking job ahead of us or at worst, lost him altogether. On reflection, I realized that I had changed my procedures that on previous shots, I had always asked John “Which way is he facing and how far is he?” In my haste and excitement, I had forgotten to do so and could have cost me big. Carefully we approached the downed bull but he was down for the count. Finally, I was able to enjoy this great trophy. He was a magnificent, old specimen with perfectly symmetrical spiral horns, measuring 34 ½ inches. As always, I stayed with the kill while John and the lads went for the Land Cruiser some three miles away. I settled myself against a small tree, flipped open a bottle of Coke and topped off the day with a fine Macanudo. I hunted for four more days, rounding out my safari by taking a gorgeous impala and a very nice wildebeest, but the eland remains my favorite hunt of that trip. It was done the real way, “walking it up” as the locals say and a day I will long remember. Africa has another disciple and deer hunting back home will never be the same. Now it’s back to sea duty and naval aviation, but the “spirit of the hunt” will remain with me, only this time it’ll be in the “Gulf”, hunting an entirely different and more dangerous animal.


EQUIPMENT SIDEBAR
I’m a firm believer in redundancy and plan accordingly. For this hunt I took to rifles and either one could fill the bill for the animals on my trophy list. A Winchester Model 70 Super Express in 375 H&H topped with a Leupold 1.75X6X32mm heavy duplex reticle and hand loaded 300gr Swift A Frames. (As you can see in the photograph the Swifts performed flawlessly with virtually 100% weight retention, near perfect mushrooming and superb penetration. From left to right they were recovered from Zebra, wildebeest and eland while the lat one on the right is a 180gr Hornady Interlock from an impala).

My other rifle is also a proven African performer a Weatherby MKV Deluxe with a Zeiss Diavari 3x9X36 variable and factory Weatherby ammo. Optics also included Cabelas’Alaskan Guide 8X42 binoculars
You can see the blood trail on the ham, where I busted the pelvic girdle with the first shot. Ergo, large caliber saved my ass...