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Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum so I'm jumping in here for the first time with my 2 cents worth...

How to judge an Eland trophy?

I think most Africans will tell you that the true way of judging a trophy of this particular species is by the tuft of hair on its forehead... the darker and longer (more bushy), the more mature and the better... But then again; no record book that I know of (Rowland ward / SCI) uses this particular part of an animal's anatomy as means of ranking the trophy...

So what is the answer?

In my growing hunting years I hunted for meat - not trophies - and as such I preferred hunting younger (not necessarily immature) animals simply because the meat tasted better. Yet; the animals I harvested were all "trophies" to me and for this reason quite a few of these animals are now mounted on my wall, considered by me to be "trophies".

As time progressed I became more selective and later became more selective in terms of what I opted to take and what I opted to let go... And later, when I qualified as Professional Hunter and started hunting with clients I became even more selective...

I guess the point I'm making is that I do not believe there is really a "right" and "wrong" as far as this subject is concerned. What is a "trophy" to one may not be considered to e a "trophy" by another...

E.g. the Eland below - hunted by a client of mine in '06 only measured 28.5" which was quite far off from the minimum 35" required measurement as per Rowland Ward. Yet, this was an old bull with a thick tuft of hair between its horns and was way past its breeding cycle. This was what my client wanted and as such was an excellent trophy for him...

This next Eland below - hunted last year by a bow hunting client of mine - measured 38" and was not (by some standards) a mature bull as it had no tuft of hair on its forehead. Yet, it was the client's first Eland, taken with a bow after sitting in a hide for 3 days, it was a perfect shot and we found him less than 50 meters from where he was originally standing... This client was not after horn length... he was after getting his first Eland with a bow, he managed it and should be (as he is) proud of it as am I... And quite coincidentally he got himself into the record books...

Many, many animals are hunted in Africa each year... some of them mature, some of them mot, some of them female and some of them not, some of them even scoring high in the record books... but in a way... all of them are trophies...

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