Judging Species

billc

billc

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Some animals get the rings around the horns then normal start to smooth out.Animals like impala,waterbuck, oryx,springbucks.Do the rings mean anything age wise or does the length after the rings were the horns normal go smooth show the age.

I have seen were guys age rams here in the states by the growth rings but I am guessing the rings on african animals does not mean the same.

Brick we may need a impala contest like that kudu one just showing the horns like you did.Maybe examples for different parts of Sa to add to the mix.
 
jaco your falling behind with making me a better hunter.I cant wait to find out how to judge some of these animals.I am thinking oryx maybe one of the hardest age wise.
 
Oryx is easy. Looks at the bases and the smoothing of the horns, my gallery picture has a 30 inch long old oryx, worn down warrior. I'm really proud of him, not many people like the mount...only the mature, true hunter does...sorry didn't mean to step on toes.
 
Here are some threads to check out...
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/6588-judging-trophies-field.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/6367-judging-lion.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/5033-judging-leopard.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/378-judging-cape-buffalo.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/654-judging-blue-wildebeest.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/5018-judging-giraffe.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/5657-judging-nyala.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/648-judging-warthog.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/923-judging-zebra.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/660-judging-eland.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/570-judging-bushbuck.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/618-judging-kudu.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/661-judging-waterbuck.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/386-judging-oryx.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/1310-judging-springbok.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/6288-judging-red-hartebeest.html
- http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/5311-judging-sable.html
 
Jaco is off having a life.

He'll send me some pictures when he gets a moment and we'll start to play.

The hard part of teaching any of this is to cotton on to the facial features.

If I ask you to tell how old a Whitetail is from a picture you will be able to tell me pretty closely.
Just because you have seen them two million times in your life.

We tend to only see trophy pictures here and on the net. Not small specimens.
We also focus on the HORNS to the exclusion of all else.


We'll all have to see what we can come up with.

LIKE ALL THOSE LINKS ABOVE.
 
enysse said:
Oryx is easy. Looks at the bases and the smoothing of the horns, my gallery picture has a 30 inch long old oryx, worn down warrior. I'm really proud of him, not many people like the mount...only the mature, true hunter does...sorry didn't mean to step on toes.
Click to expand...

Eric, throw the picture in here for the fun of it.

I certainly found Oryx/Gemsbok to be the easiest out of the crowd until I ran into some really weird anomalies in Botswana.

You know the standard method of judging Oryx.
Ear length, Face length.

That is all fine unless you get some darned miniatures.
The young Oryx I can into were virtually proportional miniatures of the Old guys.
It shocked me.
If you were not careful you could be in trouble. It's is a very good thing to have a PH hanging around at that point. :)

They remind me of the problem that Mountain Goat hunters have here in North America.
The same trophy judging guidance is provided for them. Face, ears, etc.
Same problem, their faces can be proportional to horn size.
That does not equate to inches.
You have to be able to determine what an immature and mature animal look like.
 
I am also looking to see if there is away to judge when there at there prime age wise.judging horn length is not as hard on them.
 
I tried to link the picture in from my gallery, but my computer is acting up. The head is big, so is the neck, the hide was super thick to cut through. It really dulls the knife. And they are bigger body....but like you said it all relative. Once we started to load the old guy on the truck, it was a real chore! I wish I could have showed how big the bases were...I called him the mini roan. I looked at the picture and it really doesn't do him justice.
 
Eric, Is this this the one you wanted to show

watermark.php
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That maybe the biggest body on a oryx I have ever seen.His neck is huge so thick and solid looking.I just wonder how long he was at his biggest and how much horn he wore off.great old warrior for sure.
 
BRICKBURN said:
Jaco is off having a life.

He'll send me some pictures when he gets a moment and we'll start to play.

The hard part of teaching any of this is to cotton on to the facial features.

If I ask you to tell how old a Whitetail is from a picture you will be able to tell me pretty closely.
Just because you have seen them two million times in your life.

We tend to only see trophy pictures here and on the net. Not small specimens.
We also focus on the HORNS to the exclusion of all else.


We'll all have to see what we can come up with.

LIKE ALL THOSE LINKS ABOVE.
Click to expand...

I think I am not to bad at seeing if an animal is mature or not if I have some time to study it and can see most or all of the animal.
But when seeing only bits and pieces of one, I don't do so good.

The sort of "funny" thing, is that I find Roe deer that I have hunted all my live and shot more than 350 of, to be one of the animals I have the most problem to age on the hoof.
Some bucks are very easy to judge the age of, but others are almost impossible.
I have gotten a few surprises when I have checked the teeth.
 
Eric started his vote with Oryx. So I'll jump in with a few pictures.
Please excuse some of the quality. They are phone pictures.



Some reference points for you.

LENGTH OF THE EAR OF A MATURE ORYX



LENGTH OF THE NOSE TO EYE OF A MATURE ORYX


GIVEN THIS IS FROM ONE OF THESE FOLLOWING TWO ANIMALS.
HOW LONG ARE THE HORNS?
WHICH ONE IS MALE?
WHICH ONE IS FEMALE?

1


2




THIS IS THE SAME ANIMAL ON ITS SIDE.




THEN WE COME TO SOME ANOMALIES

The next three animals I hunted as CULLS.

Is this a mature animal?


Perspective on horn length with the following shapes and sizes.








You ever seen a base like that on an Oryx?
10 inches!
Maybe that will help you guess the length.

 

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First oryx male 331/2" #2 female 39 1/2 the first cull is young second two mature shooters
 
Y
AfricaHunting.com said:
Eric, Is this this the one you wanted to show

watermark.php
Click to expand...

I love that picture, but it actually was the other oryx with the slightly different crooked horn.
Sorry guys, I'm kinda busy today.

Here:
watermark.php
 
Last edited by a moderator:
enysse said:
Y

I love that picture, but it actually was the other oryx with the slightly different crooked horn.
Sorry guys, I'm kinda busy today.

Here:
watermark.php
Click to expand...

Everybody has a life.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
billc said:
First oryx male 331/2" #2 female 39 1/2 the first cull is young second two mature shooters
Click to expand...

You got the sexes right.

It will take me a while to find the measurements and we'll wait to see if anyone else wants to play.

Just like Eric, 2 was taken as a trophy after long discussion about length and that little twist at the top was the clincher.
 
The top oryx I took was 34 inches long, very mature animal. Actually the second animal I've ever taken in Africa, very symmetrical horns. I saw some super long oryx on that trip, but they were all pregnant females.

Thanks Brickburn for posting the pictures.
 
I think 1&3 are definitely old, I'm pretty sure #2 is a female past her prime.
 
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