Most Misjudged Plains Game Species?

[geoff rath]

Good luck for me: I have a BIG park/open football ground across the street from home, so at times I sit on the front deck with my R/F Zeiss binos, and range items (posts etc) up to 500 meters away; learning heaps!!

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Biggest ground shrinkage happens on an Impala, and never only look at him from behind.

 

[fourfive8]

Biggest ground shrinkage happens on an Impala, and never only look at him from behind.

Interesting thread! After giving this some more thought, yes they certainly are mis-judged alot. They are also taken for granted because they are so numerous-- so naturally are not carefully studied as much as, for example, the kudu, one of the most coveted of the PG. They are small to begin with, with long legs and that may emphasize their horns somewhat. Take a small, long legged, thin framed antelope like an impala and add a squared off (I call it boxed looking) set of horns and yep... room for ground shrinkage. The better ones do tend to have that boxed look but it takes more than that for adding trophy length. I think the important part of the horn for adding length is the portion after the horn turns upward. I have learned to concentrate at that part of the horn and compare it to face length when judging them. If that more or less vertical part of the horn looks proportionally long, then chances are good the overall trophy length is good.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Interesting thread! After giving this some more thought, yes they certainly are mis-judged alot. They are also taken for granted because they are so numerous-- so naturally are not carefully studied as much as, for example, the kudu, one of the most coveted of the PG. They are small to begin with, with long legs and that may emphasize their horns somewhat. Take a small, long legged, thin framed antelope like an impala and add a squared off (I call it boxed looking) set of horns and yep... room for ground shrinkage. The better ones do tend to have that boxed look but it takes more than that for adding trophy length. I think the important part of the horn for adding length is the portion after the horn turns upward. I have learned to concentrate at that part of the horn and compare it to face length when judging them. If that more or less vertical part of the horn looks proportionally long, then chances are good the overall trophy length is good.

Forget about the length. Unfortunately we see far too many Impala hunted that are far too young. Doesn't matter if he's 21 inches or 25. Look at the bases. If they have that white, flakey look, he is immature. Rather target age over score.

 

[fourfive8]

Forget about the length. Unfortunately we see far too many Impala hunted that are far too young. Doesn't matter if he's 21 inches or 25. Look at the bases. If they have that white, flakey look, he is immature. Rather target age over score.

Why is it a problem to harvest young impala? Biologically that is the segment the population that is in the most surplus thus carries most compensatory mortality within the population.

As to the question in the OP... Which way is it then for assessing impala?- ground shrinkage of mis-judged assessment of measurement or ground shrinkage of mis-judged assessment of age?

 

[Altitude sickness]

Don’t overlook the senior citizens. They are worthy opponents. Wiley and slippery.

i like this unique animals more than my highest scoring ones.

The PH’s I’ve been behind are usually very close in what an animal is or is not.
Trust the PH

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Why is it a problem to harvest young impala? Biologically that is the segment the population that is in the most surplus thus carries most compensatory mortality within the population.

As to the question in the OP... Which way is it then for assessing impala?- ground shrinkage of mis-judged assessment of measurement or ground shrinkage of mis-judged assessment of age?

Because you will be killing animals before they have had the chance of spreading their good genes. Shooting a 24" Impala that is still flakey at the bases does nothing towards the advancement of the species. Give those rams the chance to spread those good genes for a few years before hunting them.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Because you will be killing animals before they have had the chance of spreading their good genes. Shooting a 24" Impala that is still flakey at the bases does nothing towards the advancement of the species. Give those rams the chance to spread those good genes for a few years before hunting them.

Conservation 101

 

[Art Lambart II]

Here is my advice on judging African PG. If you are assigned a PH with 10+ years of experience as a PH, trust his or her judgment and you won’t be sorry. If you have an inexperienced PH, tell him or her its Gold medal or nothing, that way all of your animals will be high bronze or better. I'm not saying don’t hunt with a newer PH, I'm saying it takes years of experience to judge game animals thru thick brush quickly and accurately in a matter of seconds.

This is the advice the PH on my second safari gave me about Kudu, "if the first curl is outside of his ears take a closer look, if his second curl is outside of his ears shoot."

 

[Vintageguy]

For me, Blesbok was the hardest to judge. Impala would be if not for there usually being others to compare it to due to angles being so important to really tell.
I purchased “Hunters Guide, age determination and trophy judging of Southern African Herbivores” and it was very informative. It even includes the size of home ranges and territories of the various species.
It gave me the ability to recognize the maturity and quality of what I was looking at which added a lot to the experience for me. It also explains why the PH spends so much time with his binoculars because many things are subtle. However, the Blesbok fooled me completely as it happened quickly because they had spotted us and was with two others that were very very similar and I felt I was likely taking a nice but average animal but it ended up being able to qualify for the book so apparently all three were exceptional.
I would recommend to anyone going to read up and study so you can fully appreciate what you see.