Ideal bullet weight for eland?

I have killed a lot of elands and your calibers are more than enough. The most important is the bullet quality used and of course, the shot placement.
A good bonded bullet into the vitals, and your eland won't go far.
 
Any of your options would be fine.
Most of the eland that I have shot over a thirty-year period was with a 30-06 and 220gr bullets.
Some with 375 H&H....some with 416 Rigby.
My biggest bull however was a mountain hunt using a 7,62×39.[ circumstances].
Shot placement much more important than caliber.
Have a great hunt!
 
The ideal bullet weight is the one you can comfortably and consistently put in the bullseye within a reasonable distance given the caliber. (y)
 
Hunter-Habib said:
Hi, @A Good heartshot

All three are magnificent choices for eland. I personally like the .338 Winchester Magnum loaded with a 250Gr Nosler AccuBond.

Remember that while caliber and bullet selection are important, initial shot placement must be quite critical. To put matters into perspective, I have made one-shot kills on eland with the .30-06 Springfield (loaded with 220Gr Remington Core Lokt soft points) and even the 7x57mm Mauser (loaded with the old 175Gr Winchester Super X soft point). But for a novice, I strongly recommend a minimum of .338 caliber.
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Agreed, all three are great calibers for eland. I would probably choose the .338 as it is the most powerful and has the flattest trajectory. I would also use 250 grain bullets because I think they are a nice combo of sectional density and flat shooting.
 
Might be the perfect application for some 250 gr. A Frames in 375 caliber I picked up on a whim long ago....
 
If things go right it will be a 416 Remington magnum and a 400 grain Swift A-frame. In fact if it wasn't for me wanting to kill a Buffalo with my 470 double, I would just take the 416 as a one gun safari rifle!
 
Eland are BIG animals. Livingstone's get to be 2,400 lbs! Use the 250s in .338. Took a huge old blue bull in Zim using the 338-06 at 150 yds. It dropped but their lung volume is so huge it did require a finishing shot to speed the inevitable up. 'Son got a similar beauty on a follow up Zim trip using his 375 HH and 270 gr SPs (at 80 yds, 1-shot, straight down for the count.) I would stray away from low SD (light-for-caliber) bullets, as they may not penetrate so well (esp. on the much larger specimens, and/or where the skin is thick, bone encountered, etc!) GL. Enjoy! Eland is one of the finest tasting meat on Earth. I'm not certain if they still do, but the Russians previously domesticated them for retail meat sales, as do some folks in TX.
 
If I was leaving on an eland hunt tomorrow I would be using a 375 HH with a handload 270gr TSX going 2720fps. I've been really lucky with eland, have used a 338 WM, a 416 Rigby, and one with a 500 Jeffery. The key to Eland is the lungs, put one where it needs to be and you won't have problems.... if you don't do that, you'll be in for a long walk tracking.
 
My PH says that he lets clients use his 308 for Eland and as long as the shot placement is good, there have been no issues. If I were hunting them, I think I would feel better using a 338wm or similar just in case the shot angle is not ideal. My son and I just completed a Nilgai hunt in TX a couple months ago. Nilgai are smaller than Eland but are tough like a Wildebeest. Three of our party used 338wm rifles and all three of us had bang-flop results. Two will 225g TTSX ammo and on with 225g Nosler AB's. A fourth hunter used a 300wm and had to track his bull for about 150y before a kill shot finished it off. It was still on its feet after 150y from a well placed 180g TTSX. Your three choices should all work but if in doubt, take more gun. I would hate to travel that far and end up losing a nice critter. I know little about the 338-06 but suspect is is not too different from the 35 Whelen so, I suspect it would do just fine with good loads. Just make the 1st shot count. Practice from your shooting sticks as chances are you will need them.
 
IMO you can kill a whole bunch of stuff with a 308 but here is the difference, and it is encountered more often than you think. Shooting through thick cover, and that is why I like the 375 for even plains game. Last year I was fortunate to hunt blue wildebeest, it was a great hunt, but tough shot. They figured out we were onto them at about 110 yards in thick cover, it was the last day of the hunt and I was staring through the scope of my 375 looking at fragments of a bulls body. A 4" mopani branch was in the way about 6 feet in front of the bull. With anything smaller than 375 or so a guy would probably pass on that shot, I just decided to shoot through it with the aforementioned hand-load....dead wildebeest. NOT ideal shot, but that is a difference.
 
I took my Eland with my Sako 75 in 338WM using my hand loads and 250gr Nosler Partions @ 2625fps. The 338WM is my go to rifle for plains game. You will be just fine

Paul
 
A Good heartshot said:
Just heard from a friend from Canada who went twice to Namibia for Plain game,he said that Eland tend to be harder to knock down than a moose，So I'm a little concern of bring my 338-06 rifle (bought from my friend at a fair price) to my eland hunt,and considering using a 338Win Mag for carry heavier bullets like a 275gr SAF or 300gr A Tip,or should I switch to my dad's .35 Whelen for better close range?Which one is better among these three cailber?What cailber and bullet do you prefer for your old eland bull?
Click to expand...
If I had a 338-06, I'd hand load some 225 or 250 gr pills and go with confidence.

Even at a modest impact speed of say 2100 or 2150, that thing is still gonna strike like Mjolnir.

Something like a 250 gr Partition fired at a sedate 2350 is still above 2k fps at 200 yards and about 2400 ft lbs of energy.
 
Which ever rifle you choose, use the heaviest bullet that your chosen rifle shoots with the most accuracy. JM2cents
 
@A Good heartshot
been designing loads for a 338-06AI will be building and looks like staball6.5 is a good fit for me. I ran the 338-06 thru my file for 250gn partition, shown below for eland (for iron sights):

33806_nos250prt_eland.jpg


as you can see, good load density and I set my pressure such that with the staball temperature changes, comfortable in a warm climate.
Retained energy at 270yd is a respectable 2772ft-lbs. Anyhow, might have your dad take a look at staball.
 
I happened to be carrying a 416 Rigby for ele when this eland surprised us. I had a 400 grain cupped point solid that hit him in the tail going away and almost exited his chest. He fell so fast that the PH said it looked like someone pulled the hand brake! More gun than was needed of course but I needed the penetration! I just picked him up recently from the taxidermist and was told to get him out of here as he is embarrassing the LDE waiting to be picked up. We were lucky to find him in the middle of Zim.

IMG_0373.jpeg
 
A full grown bull eland is a very big animal! Thinking minimalist caliber with no margin for error is a mistake. Thinking they are always easy to kill is a mistake. Don’t underestimate them.
 
Dakota Hunter said:
I have only shot one Eland and I used a 400 grain Hornady DGX out of my Heym Martini. It was enough but did not exit the off shoulder.View attachment 760145
Click to expand...
I'm surprised it didn't exit on a broadside shoulder shot? I get exits on cape buff shoulder shots with my 416. Love the color on that bull.
 
For pure finesse....300 H&H 220 RNSP....(I like)
....or....for versatility....a .375 H&H 300 RNSP....
Or anything in-between and above....the Eland won't be taking notes of it....
 
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