375Fox
AH legend
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2020
- Messages
- 3,701
- Reaction score
- 11,946
- Location
- Pennsylvania
- Media
- 157
- Hunted
- Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cameroon
If I ever take another elephant it will be a non-trophy bull in an area that can offer an older age class. I took a trophy this year on his last set of teeth. It adds some stress to the hunt looking for a trophy opposed to focusing on the experience.All, since I’ve done a Non-trophy bull hunt I thought I’d chime in about Lin Stanton’s post. While I did not hunt non-trophy elephant with Lin (I did this in 1986 with Roy Vincent on Matetsi 3) the concept is valid.
A non-Trohpy bull elephant can be an excellent hunt! While most non-trophy hunts take a younger, smaller bull; you can focus on an older bull with broken tusks and have every bit as good a hunt as you might get with a 60 lb. Bull. My non-trophy bull hunt was such a hunt. We found a big, old bull that had broken both tusks near the lip. He was transitioning from his 5th to 6th molar, probably in his mid 40’s age-wise. We stalked in close and the bull sensed our presence, turning to face us at about 25 yards. I was set up on the sticks with my Rigby double in 470 NE. The bull presented a classic frontal brain shot, but we had one very big problem…
There was a mopane tree centered between the bull’s eyes and I had no shot! We had quite a stare down that lasted an uncomfortably long time and finally the bull spun to depart. I came off the sticks and brained the bull as he was spinning away from us, my bullet actually entering just behind the right ear and dumping the bull instantly.
I highly recommend a non-trophy bull elephant, especially if you can hunt for a fully mature bull such as Lin offers. On a mature bull, the size of the ivory has nothing to do with the quality of the hunt. It’s a fantastic hunt!