Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa ENOUGH CALIBER

Yes, great thread on your part Jorge, I'll just try to keep my clutter down.

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...

Thanks for posting the story, and pics. Very nice description of the dewlap on the eland being 'blue jean' in color. Does John still hunt this area, or has the mugabe crowd overrun it now?

I'd love to have some eland steaks to throw on the grill tonight!

It's now part of the Bubye Conservancy. Yes the steaks were great that night!

Nice read Jorge. Eland steaks are my favorite.

I've been contemplating going "grocery shopping" here in Texas and slaying an Eland for the freezer, but concerned with the difference in diet if they would taste the same.

Thanks Jorge - great story of your hunt. I enjoyed!

Regards, Guy

Jorge, you make a great case for the .375 H&H. It's a classic and for a reason.

DF

Take a .375 with 300gr quality bullets and get over all the angst. I have shot everything from elephant down to red duiker with it and no complaints. You can over think and over analyze anything and this thread proves it....you don't need to hand load or chronograph anything. Factory ammo kills 10 times as much as handloads all over the world. Now let the flaming begin. If your .375 load isn't traveling at 2478fps instead of 2368 fps it won't kill anything. What a joke.

Careful with the logic, J...

Of course, you're right. But this IS the Fire...

And, a belated welcome to you.

DF

Great animal Jorge, I'll hopefully drill one soon and get to try those Eland steaks, can't wait.

Being that an eland is the size of an Alaskan moose, I'd be a bit hesitant to purposefully go after one with a .243 regardless of which bullet I used...and I say that as a stout and devoted supporter of .22 CFs on deer; even big mule deer.

I'd start to feel comfortable with a stout 130 grain .277" bullet, but would take a .300 Mag of some sort in your hypothetical situation. As for a bullet, I'd love to whack one with a 200 grain original Speer grand slam (the best bullet ever made for game IMO), but an A-Frame, accubond, Interbond, TBBC or even a partition would be where I would really start to feel comfortable.

What is a fast Leupold scope? And 2700fps seems a bit fast. Is Bitterroot still in business?

Fast, as in quick bracketing of animals at 1.5 power, and no, Bitterroot is out of business, I bought BSA's pre-64 375 H&H and he graciously threw in a bag of the 275 gr BBC's, actually, with 79 grains of RL-17 they run 2755 fps, chronoed one round, shot a 3/4" three shot group and have 16 rounds left for hunting.

Quickest load work up I've ever done.

That burr in your saddle must really be bothersome and making you read stuff I didn't write. There is no "angst", there is no issues with attaining a certain velocity or anything else, for the simple reason I'm not going anywhere.
As to hand loaded ammo, is that a factual number or something you pulled out from "somewhere"? I'm not doubting your statistics, just your relevance to the topic at hand and some of us DO enjoy hand loading. Oh and since I did reference bullets in my article, here's a picture of the recovered bullets in question. Whisky works wonders for burrs is saddles BTW.

One more point of discussion. Craig Boddington, who has over one hundred and twenty (!) safaris under his belt, relates a story in one of his books where he lost out on what was going to be his biggest kudu. Why? because he had with him a 3006 and the animal only presented him with a "Texas Heart Shot" (sic). He goes onto say, had he been carrying his 375, the shot would have been a no-brainer. Granted this was early on in his career where bullet technology was not what it is today (Partitions were around), but regardless, my point continues to be that shot placement/bullet construction are not always the end be all.

I see what you did there.

I'm willing to try "corn fed" eland. Works for Black Angus!

Texas Eland may be my best shot at one of those steaks. I hear they are great table fare.

I know how good S TX Nilgai meat tastes, some say Eland is even better.

DF

This is a very pertinent example, in my view. Let me add one from my experience in Zim in 2015. As you may recall, my friend, after much discussion with you, Ingwe, JB, Paladin, and of course John Sharpe, I had decided to leave my second rifle (a Sako 338 Win Mag) at home and shoot whatever I had to shoot with my 375 H&H and 300 gr Swift A-Frames. The cartridges were my own handloads, proven in my rifle during the 3 months leading up to my safari over and over and over again. I won't disagree with jdollar's statistics on the proportion of game killed worldwide with factory vs handloaded ammo, that is a completely irrelevant factor as far as I'm concerned; I used my own handloads for the same reason I've done 99% or more of my game-killing with my own handloaded ammunition, and the same reason I've caught at least 99% of the trout and salmon I've caught on my own hand-tied flies: it gives me great satisfaction to do so.

In any case, I had made the decision to go with the 375 H&H/300 gr Swift combination for everything, and had practiced with the combination extensively at ranges from 10 yards with irons to 300 yards with BOTH scopes I planned to take with me. I was confident I could place my bullets precisely anywhere in that range.

We had been hunting kudu quite hard for two days after killing my big Cape buffalo. This was Day 5 of my safari. It was late in the day, and we were headed home. The sun was barely above the mopane brush on our left, and I had pretty much given u pfor the day after several long walks in the bush chasing kudu tracks. I was hot and thirsty and really looking forward to a cool sundowner and my pipe, which I'd left in camp at lunch by mistake.

Suddenly John hit the brakes and said in a low voice, "Look at that monster!" I couldn't see The Monster, but on his say-so I spilled out the left side of the Land Cruiser and worked the bolt of my rifle as John peeled out behind me. We moved carefully to the back of the truck and peeked around the corner. There in the mopane scrub, a scarce 50 yards away, was a great gorgeous kudu bull. John whispered that he was "a big one", which from previous discussions meant it was close to 60", about as big as kudu get in the Bubye Valley Conservancy herd.

I put my sights on him, centering the thick post of the Trijicon Accupoint sight on his left shoulder 1/3 of the way up, and the rifle roared. I brought the rifle back down and worked the bolt simultaneously, looked for him with both eyes and the scope, but he was gone. Isaac, the tracker, twirled his finger in the air and said, "Zeezeezee!", indicating my bullet had ricocheted off a twig and likely missed the bull. Oh, well, thinks I, there goes my one shot today, but we'll get another tomorrow. When we followed up the shot we found a thumb-size branch cut off about 10 yards from the kudu's tracks, accounting for my miss. How I failed to see this branch when lining up the shot should have been a clue to me, and we were shortly to have even more trouble with this. The short version is that the bright green triangle at the top of my scope's reticle was too bright for the failing afternoon light, and in my ophthalmic cortex the necessary adjustments were flooding out the details of little things like intervening brush.

We were about to return to the truck when Isaac hissed, and we all looked to the right, and the kudu was just standing there, 50 yards away, just looking at us! John whispered at me to take the shot if I could, but it was too tight in the bush for the sticks, and I hurried my offhand shot, and missed again. The kudu ran off, but this time Isaac sang out that I had hit him, but maybe too far back. My heart sank. A wounded kudu in the African bush costs the same as a dead kudu in the back of the Land Cruiser, and I knew we had limited time to track him and finish him.

We tracked him several hundred yards back into the bush. Isaac insisted the bull was dragging one hind leg, and John translated that the tracker thought I'd gut-shot him. "No way," I insisted. My sights had been right on the shoulder when I let fly, the bull was broadside, and there was no chance of a hit that far back. But Isaac's opinion carried a lot more weight on the trail than mine at that point, so what I knew didn't really count for much.

Then we came across the bull again. He had made a wide half-circle by this time, and he was now west of us, with the setting sun almost behind him. Bad light. I could see him, but not well, and through the scope he was invisible. I tried changing my line, but no go... he simply vanished in the scope. Then he turned to his right, and suddenly his entire left side caught the sun and he stood out brilliantly in the dark brush. John was telling me to take my rifle off the sticks, that we would try to maneuver closer, but I saw the bull so clearly! In my mind was the knowledge that the bull was hit and wounded, and aside from my lost trophy fee this part of the Bubye is crawling with lions, which meant he'd be feline fodder by midnight with a bullet wound in his hindquarter. I couldn't let that happen.

So I put the post on his left flank and pulled the trigger. The rifle roared, and my hunter looked at me incredulously; he hadn't seen what I'd seen, and he clearly thought that my shot was folly. But Isaac shouted that I'd hit the bull hard, and dashed forward ten yards and called out that the bull was down. Sure enough, he was, and that was that. The kudu turned out to be only 53", nowhere near the anticipated 60", but that's the trick of the light in the bush. No matter, he was a beauty, and he was mine. He was down, mortally wounded, unable to rise; I put a finishing shot in his chest as he lay on the ground, and that was that.

I went to the skinning shed and stayed with the skinners to see what had happened. It turned out the bull was in fact unwounded before my shot into his flank, despite the trackers' insistence that I had wounded him. That gave me some satisfaction. But what gave me more satisfaction was finding the first Swift A-Frame under the skin of the offside (right) shoulder. The bullet had mushroomed very little, which was the expected result for a shot that did not hit bone.

The bullet travelled from his left flank, just forward of the hindquarter, throught the paunch, the ventricle of the heart, the right lung, and the right shoulder. It was exactly the performance I had anticipated this bullet in this caliber would give me. There is no chance that the 225 gr Accubond bullet I shoot in my 388 Win Mag would have been able to make that shot and kill that kudu.

And that is why I would take my 375 H&H with 300 gr A-Frames for Lord Derby Eland in the CAR, Jorge.

375, either H&H or Weatherby.

I have both, both built on Model 70s. Both weigh the same and are equally accurate. Both wear the same Swaro scopes, 1.5-6x-42 PHs.

270 TSXs in the H&H or 300 TSXs in the Wby.