Cost and weight of Eland bull

[WoodsieEC]

Been offered a Trophy Eland bull as a "special"

What would you guys normally pay for a TROPHY Eland bull?
It should dress out to about 500kg

Want to get an idea of how special it is.

[boesman10]

R30 per kg carcass weight

[G-force]

A bull that slaughters out at 500KG is rare.I imagine you will pay R15K for such a specimen.

[boesman10]

Most animal carcases end up being between 50% to 60% of the full body weight. It means that your Eland bull must be over 1000 kg (1 ton) on the hoof. That is an excessively large animal so please take photos of the animal before it is hunted as these specimens are very few and far between.

[TStone]

The heaviest eland bull I've ever weighed dressed out at 440kg. Most trophy bulls dress out between 370 and 400 kg. There are no doubt bulls that will reach, or exceed, 500 kg but those are very much exceptions to the rule. Also remember that virtually all game animals weigh considerably less this time of the year than they would at the end of the summer.

We sell trophy bulls for R20 000. R25/kg is a reasonable meat price.

Trophy quality is not measured by body weight. Horn length and circumference are more important, although, in the case of eland it is not solely horn measurements that make a bull a good trophy. An old, massive (blue) bull, with a good "kuif" and shorter horns will make a more impressive trophy than a youngster with longer horns.

[SBB]

Trophy prices we pay are around the 10k mark. You dont keep the meat ie that is one a client shoots and just wants the trophy. If you want the meat the farmer will normally sell from 20-25 Rand per kg thereafter.

As TStone said, end of winter they weigh a lot less. Last year we shot 2 Eland bulls on a Government reserve. I saw both before they were shot. We shot the smaller bodied one in May for horn length. The other one we shot end of October and by that time it weighed nearly 90 kg's less than the smaller bodied one shot earlier.

'Augustus maak maer September maak dood'

[SBB]

Oh and we paid 7k or 8k per Eland and kept the meat so there are good deals out there still.

[WoodsieEC]

Thanks chaps!

Firstly I made a grammatical error. Should have been a ? after the 500kg.
After doing a little more research, I see that the bull would be more than likely between 300-400kg and the so called "special" price is not really that special.

Must admit, for the exact same money, I would rather shoot 5 kudu or 15 blesbok or 27 springbuck, etc, etc, etc

[G-force]

Woodsie what was the price?I can tell you that in my opinion nothing comes close to the taste of eland.So if you are wanting table meat it remains a better call than a few kudu.

[Toxxyc]

Trophy eland is just that - a trophy. And you pay trophy prices. For a biltong/meat hunter it's not worth it, as, besides the fact that you pay more, you get tough old meat.