What are the toughest plains game animals??

[Boyd Brooks]

Of my limited experience of PG, the blue wildebeest ran the farthest with a heart lung shot from a 458 Lott. The next runner was a Zebra with a 30-06 shot in the sergeant stripes. Both under 70 yards from impact.

 

[Greenhorn]

I'd say I've heard more horror stories from PH's about people having trouble with Blue Wildebeest and Oryx. When I asked my PH he said many people shoot above the spine on the Oryx, resulting in essentially a flesh wound.

 

[IvW]

Toughness or the perseption of toughness comes from bad shot placement....good shot placement with the right bullet from the right caliber=dead....it may be drt or d in 100 yards but dead is dead.....

Wound a BWB, you have problems, wound a Gemsbuck you have problems, wound a zebra(they bleed a lot) you have problems, same for sable, even impala and blesbuck and black wildebeest can give you the run around.....but I can tell you if you wound a old blue Eland bull, Cape or Livingstone you better have well worn in hunting boots lots of water and excellent.trackers......they never stop.....unlike wounded buffalo....after eland wounded elephant....also dont stop....

 

[Newboomer]

Roan and Eland are tanks. Will go for hours, days with serious but not fatal shot placement. Spent 7 hours tracking Roan with shattered rear leg, up and down koppies, through thick bush and nasty monkey thorn. Hell of a great memory!

I have to second the eland. I shot mine head on at about 50 yards with a 375 HH and Barnes 350grTSX. Hit him right under the chin and on into the lungs. He ran for almost half a mile spraying blood like a fire hydrant. When we caught up to him it took a couple more rounds to finish him. One tough old blue.

 

[Jonathan Kashouty]

Zebra is the toughest I have harvested. Taken 5 so far and they were all challenging and fun!

 

[saswart]

Bluewildebeest and Zebra. I have been fortunate when Inwas younger (and now still) do a lot of culling/hunting with my dad for his business. At the beginning we shot a lot of Zebra. I have bucket loads of stories of them just carrying on and on. Literally 2 days ago we went and culled an injured Zebra for its skin, my dad shot it with a 458WM, double lung shot and it just stood there like nothing hit it. If its foot was not badly injured it could easily have done 100 yards plus and left a red carpet to follow on

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

Blue wildebeest
Blue wildebeest
Oh ya
Blue wildebeest

By far toughest most wounded bugger in the bush

 

[VertigoBE]

From my very limited experience, I'd vote eland. @IvW's description of what your next few days look like when an eland is not mortally wounded is very exact.

 

[Scott CWO]

My blue wildebeest dropped to the shot but I will defer to the outfitter/PH experts here.

My personal experience was:

1. Sable
2. Defassa waterbuck
3. Zebra

 

[Travis2282]

Strangely the wildebeest i shot dropped in its tracks and the kudu took 3 shots! One shot on the kudu was high.

 

[IronRanger]

My personal experience would be waterbuck, but both I dealt with were very poor shot placement. Any wild animal will be hard recovery if given a non fatal hit.

PH n what otherwise experience
1. Blue Wildebeest
2. Eland
3. Zebra

 

[R.M.C.]

My ph called blue wildebeest "state agents" , as in real estate agents that will show you every inch of the property if not hit well.

 

[chashardy]

All of them. Seriously.
It depends on the animal and what you are shooting it with and where you hit it.
I have shot warthog though the heart with a 375H&H from less than 50 yards and had them run 150 yards before dropping. I have shot 1000 pound eland with a 300 winmag and had them drop in their tracks. I have shot cape buffalo with a 416 Rigby and put three 400 grain bullets--all fatal shots--into the bull before he fell.
After five safaris in Africa and about three dozen plains game animals, I have a huge respect for how tough they all are.
As your PH will tell you, "Ammo is cheap. Keep shooting until he's down."

 

[mdwest]

In spite of their reputation, the two blue wildebeest i shot dropped and died in their tracks. I've had the most difficulty with zebra.

same... between the wife and I we've taken 4x blue wildebeest.. despite their reputation, none of them went more than about 20 yards before dropping.. 3 were shot with 308's.. the 4th with a 375 H&H..

believe it or not, freaking blesbok for some reason seem to be our nemisis.. she shot one back in 2016 with a 308 that we tracked for a pretty good distance before I hit him with a 375.. and even then he still covered a little more ground before he went down... and then last year I hit one with a 308 at about 200 yards.. it was absolutely a kill shot (confirmed when we recovered him).. but he still made it 300 yards into the bush and I had to put a follow up shot in him before he was done..

 

[Tom Leoni]

I think it's all about where you hit them. All my African animals have dropped in their tracks, save for a blesbok that I hit too high and too far forward. I spent a good 45 mins tracking it.

Conversely, I shot a whitetail deer here in Virginia that ran a good 75 yards with a hart literally reduced to a pulp by a .375 H&H.

I don't think African plains game is necessarily tougher. I think all animals that size are tough, and have evolved to take as much punishment as biologically possible. The only insurance against a long tracking session is bullet placement and performance, in that order.

 

[gram2117]

All my plains games dropped within the sight of the blind with one exception. The eland went about 150 yards with a perfect double lung shot.

 

[steve white]

I'd say I've heard more horror stories from PH's about people having trouble with Blue Wildebeest and Oryx. When I asked my PH he said many people shoot above the spine on the Oryx, resulting in essentially a flesh wound.

+1 on the oryx...had one run for a day and a half. When he would get up from laying down an absolute spray of blood, then very little on the run. Bushmen trackers would find a hoof scrape on a rock, a tiny drop of blood. Went up and down and around the mountain like a stair climber machine from Hell. The bushmen gave up the chase when a last herd crossed the tracks and also were convinced the meat would be no good...southern Namibia.

 

[Greenhorn]

+1 on the oryx...had one run for a day and a half. When he would get up from laying down an absolute spray of blood, then very little on the run. Bushmen trackers would find a hoof scrape on a rock, a tiny drop of blood. Went up and down and around the mountain like a stair climber machine from Hell. The bushmen gave up the chase when a last herd crossed the tracks and also were convinced the meat would be no good...southern Namibia.

I shot mine in South Africa with a 212 grain .300 win mag square in the chest facing straight at us and it still got 40 yards before he quit. Really tough animals.

 

[Philip Glass]

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??

Zebra are one that many don’t realize how tough they are. All African animals are tough however! Get a .300.

 

[Ryan]

Wildebeest and zebra for me. My blue wildebeest was a bow shot double lung and the artery heading up from the heart with a four blade broadhead and it still ran a couple hundred yards at full speed in a circle dropping dead in front of us. My second black wildebeest was hit perfect with a 300 grain 375 and it took off for a couple hundred yards bleeding profusely the whole way. Zebra is just plain stout, far more round in cross section than most antelope so it can soak up a bullet better. Mine took a quartering on shot with a 30-06, 168 TTSX. It broke the front leg and went through the vitals diagonally destroying everything. Even so it managed to run a few yards before dropping.