What are the toughest plains game animals??

[CBH Australia]

In my limited experience and my safari it was a Blue Wildebeest.
That may be why it was one of the last animals we hunted, they wanted to be sure I was up for the task.
Anyway, I hit it hard with a 7mmRm but it ran 50-60 yards over the horizon.
We had no idea how far it went but happy to find it over the rise.

 

[mark-hunter]

Anyway, I hit it hard with a 7mmRm but it ran 50-60 yards over the horizon.

My experience:
Blue wildebeest, shot at heart and double lungs, ran 100 yards
Black wildebeest, side quartering shot, heart, lungs, ran 90 yards.
Other possibly difficult animals, due to body mass (I was lucky with "Perfect shot", DRT)
Hartmann Zebra, high shoulder broad side shot, broken spine and probably some artery, down on spot.I also had red hartebeest shot with high shoulder shot, same effect, drt.
Cape eland, high neck shot, broken spine, down on spot.

Wildebeest experience, is most illustrative.

High shoulder shots:
Althouh in my cases all high shoulder shots have been very effective, the reality could be different, and will require second insurance shot asap.
It also depends of caliber and type of bullets used.
When passing high through shoulder bone, bullet can fragmet, and spray fragments on the spine.
This creates short term shock effect, and animal goes down instantly.
That can be deceiving, and in case spine is not broken, animal can wake up, and run away, wounded.

Above is as per my PH comments.
I have seen kudu shot at close range, 50 meters, by a 2nd hunter in the camp, high shoulder, with soft point, 300 win mag, that kept walking, a bit confused and shocked but kept walking nonetheless. Second shot brought him down, high shoulder again. He kept kicking lively on the ground. Third shot for insurance was then required, to keep him down.

 

[Bos en Dal SAFARIS]

1. Wildebeest
2. Wildebeest
3. Wildebeest

 

[IvW]

From my experience, the 375 with your typical 300gr premium/buffalo bullets, doesn't seem to kill PG/deer/pigs as quickly as you'd expect from faster moving smaller caliber rifles. They seem to punch through the animal without doing as much damage as usually seen from something like a 300 Magnum or similar, with softer bullets. I'd expect this to be less pronounced the heavier you go up the scale in body weight. Something like an Eland would seem to provide more resistance to the larger 375 bullets, and give adequate expansion. In fact, every smaller animal I've ever shot with a 375, except Baboon, has ran some distance before going down. This includes deer, pigs, Impala, Kudu, Gemsbuck, BWB, Waterbuck, Bushbuck and Blesbuck. However, my Eland never made it out of sight when shot through both lungs. Same for three Australian Water Buffalo. Don't get me wrong, when shot placement was correct, nothing ran very far, except a Zebra I shot that made it over 300 yards with a double lung hit. So, I'd say bullet construction and velocity play a fairly big role in dropping PG on the spot, or very nearly so.

Not if you use a premium bonded controlled expansion lead core bullet....Barnes very true....

 

[IvW]

thi thing about a zebra, based on experience, doesnt matter where u hit in the body, he is going to die.
so if you have a track and can keep a track you will find it . if you know the shot isnt great give it an hour or 2 then go and u will almost always find it within a hundred metres or so

True even gut shot with an arrow.....do not folliw up too fast and best not shoot at last light as you will find it next norning chowed by jackals or hyenas....

 

[CoElkHunter]

On my recent hunt one of the hunters lost a waterbuck. When I talked to him he said that he had hit it but that the bulled didn't expand. I asked him what bullet he was shooting and it was a Barnes TTSX. I then asked him how he knew that it didn't expand when the animal wasn't recovered? He didn't have a answer to that.

I heard that. Do you know what caliber/cartridge he was using?

 

[Nkawu]

Good point here. My first time hunting oryx I will confess to having made a horlicks of a couple of shots. We tend to be a nation of meat hunters and shots on deer are ideally placed on the Atlas joint or just behind the shoulder 1/3 up the body to minimise meat damage.
African antelopes anatomy is somewhat different in that the heart and lungs are further forward.
”The Perfect Shot” makes for great reading for anyone contemplating a trip to Africa.

View attachment 511825View attachment 511826

What rifle and cal?

 

[CoElkHunter]

My ONE African PG hunt. 12 animals including kudu, gemsbok, blue wildebeest. No zebra or eland. .300WM using 180gr TTSXs. I actually felt almost "over gunned". Excluding my four misses (with a broken rib) everything were one shot kills even with some less than perfect shots. I clipped the wildebeest's heart low at 150 yards and it ran 40 yards and died. Both the kudu and gemsbok were lung shots and DRT. I shot my impala 8" back and high. It ran 100 yards and died. NONE of these animals were near as big as a bull elk. The kudu was the size of a large cow elk and the wildebeest smaller but heavy. Here in Colorado, I've taken all my elk with my .338WM using 225gr Core Lokts, but I'm now going to use TTSXs for everything. Just my ONE time experience hunting African PG. I DO want to take a zebra and eland and maybe a waterbuck on a future hunt though.

 

[JimP]

I heard that. Do you know what caliber/cartridge he was using?

7mm Rem mag, I'm not sure on the weight of the bullet

 

[Sika98k]

What rifle and cal?

7x57, 175gr Partitions. Still use it, doing the business perfectly

 

[Safari Dave]

My PH wanted me to use my .375 H&H on Zebra, Kudu and Gemsbok.



He was OK with me using a .300 Winchester Magnum for everything else we ran across including Blue Wildebeest.



I made a DRT shot on the zebra with the .300, because my PH didn't have time to tell me otherwise.



In hindsight, I think I would have been better off on all of them with the .300 WM, because I was limited to a 1.5-5X scope with the .375 and could have gotten better bullet placement with the .300.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

My PH wanted me to use my .375 H&H on Zebra, Kudu and Gemsbok.



He was OK with me using a .300 Winchester Magnum for everything else we ran across including Blue Wildebeest.



I made a DRT shot on the zebra with the .300, because my PH didn't have time to tell me otherwise.



In hindsight, I think I would have been better off on all of them with the .300 WM, because I was limited to a 1.5-5X scope with the .375 and could have gotten better bullet placement with the .300.

@Safari Dave
The 1.5-5x scope should not have limited you on any shot 300yds or less. For many years I used a 4 power for all my hunting and never found it lacking, even on pigs to 300yds. Now I use variables but they are always set on the lowest power and when I have time I crank it up.
Bob

 

[Dr Ray]

I actually don't think that you can pick one.

I have seen heart shot animals go 100+yards after being hit. I have also seen them drop in their tracks. So if you ask the hunter that had one go 100 yards he'll say that the animal that he shot is a tough animal. The hunter who had one drop in it's tracks will say that there is no problem. So who's right?

I had a black wildebeest go 50 yards, I had a blue wildebeest drop in it's tracks, so is the black wildebeest harder to kill than the blue wildebeest? I had a kudu drop in his tracks and another one go for a mile or more with the same hit through the lungs, which one is tougher.

I also had a bleastbuck take three hits to put him down, my next one dropped in his tracks.

?????????????????????????????

All were shot with the same bullets out of the same rifle at various distances.

I agree
I shot a very big scrub bull at around 70-80 m with my 416 Remington.
Broke right shoulder: bullet went through both lungs and penetrated and exited the left shoulder,
The bull ran 80 m and fell down but was still not dead!

Holy mackerel!
400 grain bullet too!

 

[Safari Dave]

@Safari Dave
The 1.5-5x scope should not have limited you on any shot 300yds or less. For many years I used a 4 power for all my hunting and never found it lacking, even on pigs to 300yds. Now I use variables but they are always set on the lowest power and when I have time I crank it up.
Bob

In most cases, I would agree with you. The kudu was late in the evening, getting dark, and approaching 300 yards.


On 5X, I didn't have much light to work with the 25mm objective and 1" tube.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

I'm a new hunter. Just wondering which plains game animals are the hardest to bring down. From my experience, I think it might be blue wildebeest??

Mine ran 25 yard one shot from .325 wsm.

All of them can be tough. The problem is buck fever and being able to shooting off sticks in a timely manner. Proper shot placement with the right bullet usually no problem. I've seen old ladies on youtube with .280s and 30.06s smoking pg animals because they could really shoot off the sticks well with great bullets.

But then again a lot of guys make great shots and the animals keep going, they are just that damn tough.

 

[Switup]

BUSH BUCK!
my next target when I return to africa!

gona try with my bow!

I could of shot a real nice bush buck on my last safari,but I was hunting warthog and didnt want to end the stalk prematurly,dumb idea!