Blair,
The tip turning out suggestion is the product of some printed material that took hold, was taken to heart, and led many to a false mode of trophy Kudu judgement...It just ain't so.
The biggest Kudu I have seen had tips turned in, although a turned out tip is nice to look at, but its not something one should use to judge Kudu quality for the record book as a rule, it's only something that needs determining as it can work both ways..
I would look first at mass, that tells me he is young, or old, I want an old bull for the most part, but a young big bull is certainly possible, so mass is a criteria.
Length of horn is a good criteria but one must be careful here as with out deep curls it won't score, but it may in fact look great on the wall. A wide spread Kudu is an beautiful mount regardless of the score and in many case preferable.
The fabled big hole inside the curls is the one most determinging factor, but unless you have judged many Kudu its pretty hard to determine at 100 or so yards and best left to the PH. I have noticed the best scoring Kudu have the big hole and turned in tips, but alas they may not be the most beautiful of all mounts, in fact quite the contrary.
Ivory tips is also something I want to see clearly.
My suggestion, other than allowing your PH to make the judgement, is too shoot one that looks good to you!!
Personally for me, I don't shoot Kudu less than 55 inches, prefering to pass them up, and I'm looking for 58 to 60 plus..but I have shot a lot of Kudu, so I can do that, If I don't see one I can go home satisfied, but a first time hunter should try for a really good one and then settle for anything over 50 inches at some point if he has not shot a big one towards the end of the hunt..I did that for years and it seemed to work for me..
