HUNTING Eland

[archer36]

OK, all the talk is with Rifle. What about archery?

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

archer 36.
Mate I've got absolutely noting against stick chuckers I admire there HUNTING skills, no long range sniping. It's hunting where you must that get closer to your target.
I'd do have a thing against bows. I ran the string down my forearm. Holy snapping duck manure bat man it hurt. END of bows for this black duck mate.
Cheers
Bob Nelson

 

[Ridge Runner]

archer 36.
Mate I've got absolutely noting against stick chuckers I admire there HUNTING skills, no long range sniping. It's hunting where you must that get closer to your target.
I'd do have a thing against bows. I ran the string down my forearm. Holy snapping duck manure bat man it hurt. END of bows for this black duck mate.
Cheers
Bob Nelson

LOL...been there, done that, more than once, I still enjoy chucking sticks.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

LOL...been there, done that, more than once, I still enjoy chucking sticks.

Ridge runner.
Glad you still enjoy bow hunting , I'll stick to rifles mate less painful.
Once bitten twice shy. I value my forearm makes it hard to wipe your ass when your arm hurts like he'll.
Cheers mate Bob

 

[206moose]

OK, all the talk is with Rifle. What about archery?

I used a 550 grain arrow tipped with a 150 grain single bevel cutthroat broadhead. Shooting 28” 70# Mathews triax. Complete pass through at 20 yards. He ran less than 100 yards. I’m now shooting 650 grain arrows with 250 grain cutthroat. Unless you’re into long range shooting with a bow which is an oxymoron in my opinion use a heavy arrow and a 2 blade broadhead preferably single bevel. JMHO

 

[archer36]

archer 36.
Mate I've got absolutely noting against stick chuckers I admire there HUNTING skills, no long range sniping. It's hunting where you must that get closer to your target.
I'd do have a thing against bows. I ran the string down my forearm. Holy snapping duck manure bat man it hurt. END of bows for this black duck mate.
Cheers
Bob Nelson

Use a crossbow. LOL

 

[archer36]

I used a 550 grain arrow tipped with a 150 grain single bevel cutthroat broadhead. Shooting 28” 70# Mathews triax. Complete pass through at 20 yards. He ran less than 100 yards. I’m now shooting 650 grain arrows with 250 grain cutthroat. Unless you’re into long range shooting with a bow which is an oxymoron in my opinion use a heavy arrow and a 2 blade broadhead preferably single bevel. JMHO

View attachment 333198View attachment 333197

Great. I'm using a Tenpoint Steath NXT 410 Crossbow. It generates 145 lbs of KE with my setup. I am using arrows with a total weight of 475 gr. I'm using 125 gr. Muzzy Trocar Crossbow heads. I was originally going to use an arrow with a total weight of 550 gr out of my Tenpoint Carbon Nitro since it is a bit slower and wanted to up the KE.

 

[206moose]

Great. I'm using a Tenpoint Steath NXT 410 Crossbow. It generates 145 lbs of KE with my setup. I am using arrows with a total weight of 475 gr. I'm using 125 gr. Muzzy Trocar Crossbow heads. I was originally going to use an arrow with a total weight of 550 gr out of my Tenpoint Carbon Nitro since it is a bit slower and wanted to up the KE.

My 13 year old son used a ravin r9 with same cutthroat broad heads. Pass through on everything up to blue wildebeest.

 

[Rosch]

Nice Elands...nice hunting!

What I'm worried about ist, that some calibers mentioned, won't be a good choice for hunting such a big animal. 30-06 even with 220 Grain are beneath the lowest caliber I would advise any hunter, if the bugget list shows also Eland.

On the pictures which show those monster Eland hearts, one thing is missing: The thick pack of pure fat, which covers the heart of those animals. It works like a resistor. Also those massive muscles of the shoulders aren't seen. My opinion is, small cartridges, like 7mm, .30, 8mm will have problems with that and are therefor not sufficient on Eland at all.

Sure, the PH has no problem, if the client wants to shot his "normal"gun. Best chance for clients good shoting, isn't it ? But if the Eland is shot and gone, and as You can read, they still walk even dead, Your trophy is gone too and You are driving home, taking with Your sad story, thinking years and years later about that shot You messed up and lost Your animal and trophy for ever. Besides, an noble animal, like an Eland, which was shot with vain and stupid principals, WILL die a horrifying dead, eaten alive by maggots and shakals, waisted for ego. What a sin....!
But, safari rules, there was blood running, so the hunting fee, even with no trophy in Your hands, has to be paid anyway !!!

Every one, planing an Eland Hunt, should listen to my well-ment advise:
Go get an adequate gun (338 Win, 8mm Rem, 8x68, 375 Ruger, 376 Steyr, 375 H&H, 9,3x62, 9,3x64, 404 Jeffery, 416 Rigby & Rem. and so on ) train some time on a shooting range before going hunting until You're really firm with the gun, fly to Africa and get Your Eland, doing it the save, the good way!
I promise You, if You did thinking before and Your hunt goes well, there is nothing better than Your first beer at the boma fire before dinner, all people looking at You, partying Your success and talking about the great shot You did, which brought the "safari" to an good end and a hell of a trophy home. You just feel great and You know, You did, what had to be done, in a good way, to fullfill Your dreams.
What evening is it going to be, if Your Eland is wounded but gone ??

Hunting is a good mirror to every person, every character. On a hunt, especially in African bush, everyone can see, what You're made of, what Your principals are. Remember, the chances for the game are so low, the chances by the hunter so big. Do the best You can do, to pay respect and give that animal You're after, a noble, means a quick and fair end at least. Look at it before pulling the trigger. They for sure deserve that!!

 

[Nevada Mike]

This eland was shot at about 225 yards with 400 gr. Swift A Frame from a 404 Jeffery. I had never fired that rifle on game or a target at that range. I held mid-shoulder and the first shot shattered his upper leg at the shoulder joint... just below the heart on the diagram originally posted. He laid down and was obscured by the 15 or so cows he had with him. Once he again moved the opportunity for additional shots was presented and I shot him a bit further back - a high lung shot. He made for cover and took another shot from my PH's 7mm RM. But he was done and made it to some cover after maybe 25 yards and was dead when we arrived.

 

[MountKling]

What about a quartering away shot to the left side of an Eland?
For Moose I would never take that shot due to the whole stomack beeing there, full of tightly packed, half digested grass. Same for Buffalo i suppose..

 

[Hunter-Habib]

My son, Rakhi with his life’s largest eland (up until now).

I’ve shot most of my elands till now with a .30-06 Springfield (employing 220Gr Remington Core Lokts), 2 with a 7x57mm Mauser (employing 175Gr Winchester Super X soft points), 1 with a .338 Winchester Magnum (employing 250Gr Nosler Partitions), 1 with a 9.3x62mm Mauser (employing 293Gr RWS TUGs), 1 with a .300 Winchester Magnum (employing 200Gr Swift A Frames) and 1 with a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum (employing 300Gr RWS Kegelspitze cone points).

Best point of aim from a broadside position is the shoulder bone itself, in order to get both lungs & the heart. A perfectly placed shot to this region with any caliber larger than .338 (employing a bullet strongly constructed enough to hold together through the entire ordeal) will break both the shoulders and anchor the animal.

 

[fourfive8]

What about a quartering away shot to the left side of an Eland?
For Moose I would never take that shot due to the whole stomack beeing there, full of tightly packed, half digested grass. Same for Buffalo i suppose..

Yes, the quartering away shot through a full rumen on large animals is difficult for any bullet to penetrate to vitals protected behind. Similarly, a quartering toward shot through heavy front shoulder muscle and bone on large animals is difficult for any bullet to penetrate to vitals. This shot is especially vulnerable to deflection. Small caliber bullets at high vel are grossly ill suited for either task. Let’s say the hunter, armed with something like a 6.5 Manbun is a rare exception with extreme discipline and does not take that shot. But instead, waits for the 90’ broadside with his marginal caliber and craters the shoulder but does not penetrate to the vitals. The next few critical follow up shot angles are going to get worse. The Manbun plops another bullet or three into the rumen with even less effect than the first shot into the shoulder. Field conditions are full of errors. Marginal calibers offer no margin for error. That is not opinion, that is fact.

My recommendation is use enough gun with a good, tough bullet. It is hard to use too much gun or bullet for any game animal. Larger, slower calibers do less excess damage to smaller game than smaller, faster calibers. Hunt close and shoot straight.

 

[Altitude sickness]

What about a quartering away shot to the left side of an Eland?

Hunt close and shoot straight.

(Taken from video). You can see my white arrow feather fletching against the skin as it’s entering the Elands left side. Hard quartering away. The video is being shot from my left. The arrow is coming in from the right of this picture. Pretty hard angle. Probably steeper than I should have taken. But he went 80-100 yards. Recurve bow at 48#. A very stiff, straight flying, heavy arrow and very tough, sharp broadhead.

Of course bullets and Broadheads work differently.

Bushmen Xyphose bow made in Florida. I retired from the U.S. Navy and asked Steve to make it in an ocean theme, with certain items I wanted added. Only 48# but very efficient design and fast.

Valkyrie Reign arrows and BH’s

 

[fourfive8]

A slightly quartering away shot from either side is THE ideal angle to reach the heart/lung area for either a bullet or arrow. All other angles present varying degrees of complication.

 

[randallhebert]

A slightly quartering away shot from either side is THE ideal angle to reach the heart/lung area for either a bullet or arrow. All other angles present varying degrees of complication.

Shot my eland with centec 70 lbs pull shooting 125 grain annialator broadhead with a total arrow weight of 650 grains. He laid down about 75 yds away. We could see him pick up his head when another eland would come by. The rest of the herd stayed around the water trough. Waited for 2 hrs. Called trackers to come in with the truck and my rifle, as the eland are used to the workers truck being around the area. The herd walked off and the bull got up to leave with the herd. Able to get a 75 yd, left side slight quartering away. 3006 with 165 Barnes tssx. Hit right in front of the hip and came out inside of front right shoulder. He turned to his right, rolled, Hit the brush and died about 50 yds later.

 

[Longwalker]

I found out the hard way, once more, DON'T shoot your eland while aiming through / around sticks and brush. I placed this shot exactly where I aimed, from about 100M, and almost lost the eland when the bullet ( an excellent Swift A Frame 300 Gr. .375 ) hit sideways after striking a very light screen of twigs only a couple of meters in front of the eland. Bullet failed to penetrate adequately, Many anxious minutes and some tracking, and a follow up shot later with a solid from a rear angle ended the affair. I know better, but the brush was so thin, I could see clearly that the bullet would have no trouble... (I thought!)

 

[leslie hetrick]

getting my eland was a very hard two and a half day hunt on foot, i just about gave up on getting one, but jumped a small group of five and managed to get a killing shot into one from my .375 H&H C-Z 550. not a very long shot after we found them.

 

[Buffalo1]

I have shot 2 elands with a bow. My first eland I hit high was a 20 yd, single lung shot. After 28 hours of chasing animal, I terminated hunt with a British .303.

The second eland I shot was a double lung at 17 yd pass through. Animal expired in about 170 yds.

I used a 62# compound with 500 gr arrows on both hunts.

An eland is a thinned skinned animal. They are huge in size compared to other plains game animals. Their appearance is overwhelming and beautiful. Good table fare.

Best of luck on your quest !!