Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa What Attributes Should You Look for in Assessing a Kudu as a Trophy?

Apart from how hard you have hunted for a kudu bull, what do you look for in trying to assess a bull as a good trophy?

I've come to the conclusion, that the first thing to look for is that the tips are turned out.......but that is assuming he is a 2 and 1/2 turn bull.

I then look for a wide, long first turn, that sets the stage, as it were, for the second curl being good and long............and then good tops.

What makes life difficult is that a tightly twisted horned bull could actually measure less than a big open curled bull........

The other thing I find fascinating with other kudu nuts is their preference for narrow or wide heads.....

Here is a bull of mine that meets my criteria............





And what length do you think this bull (below) measured? 2 PH's and 3 clients got it wrong.......one PH was on the money to the inch. (the mount was taken off the wall and measured with a cable and tape)

62"

Ingwe

Go to my website and read the article on judging Kudu and selecting a trophy, I think it will help you in many decisions you will have when hunting them.
http://www.huntingadventures.net/index.php?nav=newsandarticles&id=2

Let me know if this helps you.

You asked us that that bad boy scores before, and never posted it, so let the cat out of the bag!

I will be going to Africa in May, and of course kudu is on the menu.

Given the choice, I would rather shoot a 52" narrow bull, over a 55" wide bull. I dont know why, I just like their looks alot more.

I'm with you on the narrow over the wide type horns.........and any decent outfitter should be able to get you a 55", given time and restraint on the hunter's part.

I want to see what other people reckon it measures before letting the cat out of the bag.............

I was out by 3" No shame in being wrong, just goes to show how hard they are to judge.

Whaddya reckon?

Thanks JJ. Very good article.

I didn't go into the contentious area of a bull being immature if the tips are turned inwards.......actually I don't believe it.

firstcouseswas80,

Here is a "narrow" bull shot in Zim in '98......he went 51"



And a mate's first ever Kudu.......as wide as they come; went 55". He was taken along with my 55" and 58" with Mike Kibble in 2006.

59"

My rule of thumb is, if you like 'em, shoot 'em. Can't go wrong.

Pretty good rule of thumb!

Well, I will be hunting Cape Kudu, so I have to set my mark a little lower. Never seen a Kudu, so I dont know.

Tell us what that thing scores already!

Tips of horns pointing forward indication 3 complete curls. A bit of white tip is nice. Any Cape Kudu over 48" with 3 complete curls is very nice.

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..

Mine is not long, but has 2" of ivory, and you could drop a tin of tomatoes down the pipes. I confess my judgement was in this wise. The PH sais "Randy, you have to shoot him" and I shot him. We had seen four other bulls that morning who all looked very nice to me. The one I wanted had one beautiful horn and one wonky one that curved downward. They were about ten yards apart eating Kudu berries. Lalase told me I had to shoot the one I did, and now I am glad I did. I can judge whitetail, and moose and even caribou, but mostly it is a matter of it being mature, and looking good to me.
Randy

Looking at the pgoto with background perspective, I would guess 58", the operative word being guess.

I admit to knowing next to nothing about Kudu, having only seen a few in the wild and I never really got to study them. I did miss one! However, it seems to me that the ones I've seen (in pictures) that are wide seem to have relatively tight curls and are therefore not always the biggest. Is this true, within reason, realizing that there are always exceptions? The one that Blair's mate shot obviously is a very good one. Personally, I like the wide look, but I also want to shoot a mature, heavy bull. Thus my question.
Test

Here is a nice Cape Kudu.......he originally measured 51" but with shrinkage he'd be about 48' now...........

Ray,

Once again, learnt a lot from your post. The tipped out horns was something I picked up from an Aussie mate of mine who has done something like 15 trips to Africa.........BUT he shot his one and only Kudu in Namibia in the '80's; it went 61"........he has never shot another.

I think your advice to new hunters is spot on.............

What is your opinion of tips turning in denoting an IMMATURE bull?

Test,

Personally I don't like the wide style as in the Kudu my mate shot.........I prefer the one of mine at the beginning of this thread. He's wide; but not too wide and has good curls and tops.

Well, I suppose it's showtime and I thank everyone for contributing..............

The kudu on the wall of the lodge is 53"

The resident PH called it 56" and a RSA PH called it 57"......my estimation was 56" as well, along with a few American clients, though one called it 60".

Mike Kibble who I was hunting with, called it 53" to cries of bull..@#$. Anyway, after another malt, we pulled it off the wall and the LONG horn was just 53"

The poor resident PH (he was new at this lodge) got a bit of a ribbing from the other PH's with regard to the Gemsbok on the pedestal mount too........one comment was: "Jannie why did they put DUIKER horns on that bloody Oryx?"

I have seen the same sort of thing happen quite often, both with southern kudu and Cape kudu--and a lot of other animals as well. The truth is that very few hunters, guides, PH's etc. can call inches very closely. Part of this is due to different body sizes of animals, and part of it due to configuration of horns.

As an example, a couple of years ago I hunted elk with a top outfitter in New Mexico. The very first morning he and I ran into two bulls unexpectedly, only 100 yards away in scrub oak brush above us. "Shoot the one on the right!" he said. I'd already had the same thought, and my rifle was on the way up. I dropped thye bull with a high shoulder shot, and he was a fine bull--but scored about 15-20 points less than the outfitter had guessed, because of somewhat short main beams. I didn't give a damn, mostly because I don't score animals anymore--but he did.

My hunting partner went 5 days looking over a lot of elk, his guide thinking none were big enough. The hunt was coming down to the wire when the outfitter and I found a nice bull feeding across a canyon. We went and found my partner and his guide, and they made a late afternoon stalk on the bull.

The outfitter guessed the bull at under 300 points. I thought it was over 300 but kept my mouth shut. My partner's guide thought it was around 300, but my partner had never shot anything bigger than a spike before, so they made the stalk, and my partner made a nice shot at over 300 yards.

Turned out the bull had a HUGE body, and scored just under 350. Part of the problem was that he was all alone, with no other bulls nearby, even long after the rut. Another problem was that he was grazing on a snow-covered hillside, and the glare from the snow made his heavy antlers appear thinner.

All I know is that after I decide pull the trigger, I'll be happy with the result.

One of the things that is overlooked when people look at the massive horns is the beard. I've shoot 2 kudu - one is 55" and one 54". To me, the 54" looks better - has wider horns - turn out and a much nicer beard.

When I was in Namibia last time, I could have shot one that the PH thought had a 61-62" horn. Only thing was - it just had one horn. The other one was broken at the base. I'm sure that saved that kudu's bacon more than once. When I got home, my taxidermist said he could have fixed that - I don't know if I'd do that or not.

Jeff