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Thread: Shot Placement - Eland
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07-12-2018, 11:20 #11
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
Any thoughts on that big ridge running diagonally left / down? Trying to visualize where the shoulder blade lower edge is, hence my interest.
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07-12-2018, 11:25 #12
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
No there is nothing wrong with Hein's advice, I just added to it, thinking out loud.
Our PH guys like T-stone or Pre 64 or such have not answered yet, but when they do they will probably say use enough gun.
And when they say that with it comes the fact that you don't have to worry about hitting bone anymore.
I am not an eland hunter they are just too big, but I have seen my fair share of kills. Some people get rattled and if they wound a big one the things tend to be more robust than a springbok.
So the advice I guess must first be use enough gun, and secondly aim in the middle of the vitals, so that any shooter error can be more forgiving.
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07-12-2018, 13:57 #13
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
With a cup and core bullet, even in a large caliber, I'd place my shot in the crease behind the leg. In other words on the left hand line of Hein's circle. I have done this with both the 6.5x55 and 6.5Creedmoor. This gives you a very small margin of error though. A shot anywhere in the yellow circle will kill the eland, at this angle.
With a monolithic expanding bullet, even in 6.5mm I'd aim to the left of the circle, on the shoulder. You can safely take a shoulder shot, in the middle of the vital triangle, without hitting any bone. You need to hit very low, very high or far to the front to hit thick bone. Eland are really not hard to kill, unless you wound with the first shot, the vitals are huge and they are not as tenacious as wildebeest or gemsbok.
It is important to keep your shot below the mid-line of the body, however as Hein mentioned, not too low. You'd need a truckload of luck to find an eland shot through the brisket.
The best shot placement book I have seen is Kevin Robertson's "The Perfect Shot". This is a book written by a veterinarian who is also a hunter.
Never try a neck shot on an eland.
Do not think that a large caliber with inferior bullets will get into an elands chest cavity if it hits thick bone. I have seen 3 consecutive shots with a .375 H&H, loaded with 300gr Hornady Interlock's fail to reach the vitals on a large eland bull. Bullet construction and shot placement trumps caliber.
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07-12-2018, 15:03 #14
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07-12-2018, 15:03 #15
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
The heart is usually located in line with front leg, and it's not behind heavy bone.
This is true for most African plains game excluding a few exceptions.
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07-12-2018, 15:10 #16
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
180gr Swift Aframes, Nosler partitions or sako super hammer heads at about 2350fps from a .308.
Would this do for a shoulder shot?
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07-12-2018, 16:22 #17
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
T Stone, those Hornady Interlocks you are writing about are definitely as stated not good enough. Interlocks are not strong in construction. They might work on "softer" antelope, but on African antelope they are just as prone to breaking up as any other brand of Non-premium bullet construction. Out of a .375 I will definitely not use those for Eland, except if loading down to below 2200 fps velocity. But anything higher, they will just go splat.
On Eland the calibre is less important than bullet construction and shot placement. I have downed a fair bit with my 30-06 and Hornady 180 gr InterBOND.
Anywhere in the yellow circle should be fatal on Eland, but anywhere does not mean a bit to the right! That might be the recipe for a long day and many walking hours.
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07-12-2018, 16:24 #18
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07-12-2018, 17:02 #19
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
Interested to hear how everyone defines this? I spent a little time this afternoon just summarising some more popular calibres looking at momentum, Ft-Lb, HITS and it is interesting.
HITS is Hornady's attempt to define terminal performance on game. Bullet construction obviously playing a vital role as mentioned previously but not "factored" into my table. PMP mainly used since I have all their information. The .500 Jeff is at 50m.
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07-12-2018, 17:22 #20
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Re: Shot Placement - Eland
Messor...T...You chaps have it covered.
T...I have also seen 270gr 375H&H spire point bullets fail on the shoulder.
A broadside Eland presents quite a large vital area.
One turned so that it quarters towards you is more tricky due to bone coverage.
One turned so that it quarters away from you is also more tricky due to the sheer amount of Eland you need to penetrate to reach the vitals.
A shot too high or too far back will set the Eland into a fast trot where kilometers of mountains mean nothing to the distance it is capable of covering.
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