Both are classed as classic antelope and very sought after by us hunters. Personally I prefer the Roan and although the two species are related their characteristics vary greatly. I am talking Southern Roan here and have no hunting knowledge of the Western.



I have in my time guided many clients for both Sable and Roan and have been fortunate to hunt prime locations in Zambia.

My findings are that the Sable are easy to hunt and are not timid at all. The bulls must feel secure in herds and the hunting of them is nothing more than a gentle stalk. In certain months in the Kafue they are more common than Impala.

The Roan is considered rare and occupy hard, hot and rugged country. The harder the better for this secretive antelope. You will them in barren craggy hill country and they often seek the high ground of shadeless ridges and knife edge scarps. This calls for hunting.



Roan possess amazing eyesight and will always see you first. They are blessed with extraordinary hearing and generally are of a nervous disposition. To sight a Roan is not too difficult but to hunt that particular animal is hunting at it's finest. Nine times our of ten it will outwit you. Whereas a black Sable bull in all his arrogance or stupidity will simply stand his ground.



Must admit though a Sable is a very handsome animal.



Given a choice and money was no option which would you chose?

When I was in Zambia last year, I spent a number of days hunting sable and a single morning glassing a few groups of roan while looking for a zebra to shoot for bait. I thought I might try to shoot both (I had a classic license and one roan was left on quota), but I ended up shooting a sable late in the safari and then shutting down the hunting to get engaged and relax for a few days. The roan were clearly much more skittish than sable, as you've noted. Also, I was surprised by how pretty roan are, since they can sometimes look a bit awkward in photos and taxidermy. And in the Lunga Luswishi, I thought the roan country was prettier than the sable country. If I could do it over, I might have focused more on roan instead of sable, especially since roan are only available on a classic license when hunting GMAs in Zambia. Still, I'm very happy with my sable, and we had a fun time stalking and shooting it. The choice between sable and roan is a nice one to have, because there's no bad choice to make.

Great post Andrew.

Given your suggestion that the Roan is a more challenging hunt, I would have to go with that choice.

I think Roan constitute "glamour game". They are pretty but the desire to hunt them is often (NOT always) governed by the "look at me" factor. Sable are much more striking in my opinion.

I would wait until I found one behind the other and place an accurate shot through both shoulders of both animals with a solid

Due to the "rarity" factor, I would opt for a roan.

Andrew, if you asked me the same question 10 years ago, I would undoubtly have said sable. In the mean time, I have hunted more roan, in open areas, and they will now get my vote by far. It is interesting, but I had a simmelar discussion with a client just the other day, and he said that he never considered the roan so highly, until he saw how passionate I am about them.

Here's a Caprivi one:

Western Roan from Cameroon in 2004. Both horns over 30 inches long. Really old bull. Had a healed bullet wound in the fleshy part of the front right lower leg and healed claw marks fron a lion on its left flank. Teeth worn down to the gum line.

Personally, I'll take the roan over the sable. They're rarer and really good bulls like the one above are very hard to find and are not common anywhere.

Although our last client did not get one despite seeing lots of females and young ones, Burkina is the place for Roan. The trophy fee this year was 500 Euros! I believe its $5,000 in Zambia!

Here are some pics:












Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: 845 259 3628

Arjun,

Nice Roan but shame about your photos. I have seen better composed pics of road kills.

Karl,

That is a brute of a bull. Looks like your client made you work for that one?

Andrew,

Do you find that your white striped camo in the second picture confuses the Roan?

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:
Andrew,

Do you find that your white striped camo in the second picture confuses the Roan?

Jim

That be my lucky shirt mate.

We started hunting this Roan in the cool hours of the morning. The going was tough and we stripped off excess clothing along the way.

Roan for the "Mystique"...Sable hand's down for exquisite trophy appeal!

Nothing more majestic than a 40+" Sable bull mounted with a quartering head to show-off them gorgeous horns!!

Andrew,

It used to be sable for me as well until I got around roan. After hunting them I realized how tough they can be to find, so it got me wanting one really bad. They are very different animals however and I can appreciate past their prime examples of both specimens. We did see a sable bull in Botswana that was estimated at 46" that got my blood pumping.

Pick one? Sable...hands down, no question. There is no antelope in Africa more elegant.

A Burkina hunt for roan/buff is fairly high on my to do list though.. But if I l've got to pick just one, sable handsdown.

To me, my roan was by far the most difficult to get, yet my sable is still my favorite. But both species are simply wonderful game animals. No wrong answer on this question.

Andrew,

I've been lucky enough to take good sable and roan but I feel the roan is a greater prize as it took more effort to acquire plus I've had far fewer chances to take a roan than a sable. I now regret not targetting the East African roan in Tanznaia and the Western variety in Cameroon. The roan is a magnificnet trophy and very much the equal in my mind of the sable.

Mark

quote:

Given a choice and money was no option which would you chose?

Then I would hunt both

My Roan shoulder mount sort of gets lost in the trophy room. It does not stand out, blends in with the other brownish horned mounts, and for the visitor is overshadowed by kudu and zebra, not to mention the more draumatic floor mounts. However, when I find myself lost in thought, it usually is either the Lord Derby Eland or the Southern Roan that I find myself looking at. Hot, hard, rewarding hunts they were.

I have yet to take a sable...one of these days. A more striking African plainsgame mount I cannot think of.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Andrew,

I've been lucky enough to take good sable and roan but I feel the roan is a greater prize as it took more effort to acquire plus I've had far fewer chances to take a roan than a sable. I now regret not targetting the East African roan in Tanznaia and the Western variety in Cameroon. The roan is a magnificnet trophy and very much the equal in my mind of the sable.

Mark

Mark,

For me the Roan is a truly wild creature and it inhabits what I would call old Africa. It is a wondrous beast.

Sable are magnificent but present little challenge to the hunter.

What fairgame said just now. I hope to make three more hunts to Africa before old age and infirmity close that chapter in the book of my life.

If you are buying, Roan, of course.

Since I am funding the hunt, it will likely be a good Sable, Eland, and a Zebra.

The next time, Roan focus. Two weeks?

thanks for the fabulous photos, all of you. Including that vertical Zebra...

Rich

quote:

For me the Roan is a truly wild creature and it inhabits what I would call old Africa. It is a wondrous beast.

Agreed Andrew, and one of the things that I enjoyed about my Roan (and LDE of course) hunt was that unlike a lot of “plainsgame” (nothing plain about either of these!), we had to work at the Roan. Days of tracking, busted stalks, etc. And in doing so, I really learned about my quarry...where they live, what they eat, when they water, their territorial nature, herd dynamics, etc. Not to mention their propensity to walk after being spooked! This is different that many/most plainsgame hunts where the animals are targets of opportunity. But of course, you already know this!

Roan. A much harder hunt than for Sable, both from my own experience and in my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill C:

quote:

For me the Roan is a truly wild creature and it inhabits what I would call old Africa. It is a wondrous beast.

Agreed Andrew, and one of the things that I enjoyed about my Roan (and LDE of course) hunt was that unlike a lot of “plainsgame” (nothing plain about either of these!), we had to work at the Roan. Days of tracking, busted stalks, etc. And in doing so, I really learned about my quarry...where they live, what they eat, when they water, their territorial nature, herd dynamics, etc. Not to mention their propensity to walk after being spooked! This is different that many/most plainsgame hunts where the animals are targets of opportunity. But of course, you already know this!

Exactly.

A mere "babe" in the woods here when it comes to Africa hunts ( I have managed three plains game hunts in the last 8 years tho). If I had the time and money fir Africa again (and willing spouse to let me go again) the sable would be the one for me. I just love that striking black/white color and those magnificent horns.

Now if someone else were to foot the bill I'd hunt both!

quote:

Originally posted by bisonhunter1:
A mere "babe" in the woods here when it comes to Africa hunts ( I have managed three plains game hunts in the last 8 years tho). If I had the time and money fir Africa again (and willing spouse to let me go again) the sable would be the one for me. I just love that striking black/white color and those magnificent horns.

Now if someone else were to foot the bill I'd hunt both!

Can't do that but put your self in place of this chap.

Giant Sable.

I've shot sable in Zimbabwe's Matetsi and Zambia's Mumbwa, but the only roan I've seen were near the Kafue River in Zambia. There were four or five females and a couple of young. I was excited to finally see them, but I have never been interested in hunting them.

As Andrew said, the few sables I've been around were not wary. In fact, when they were in shaded areas they acted as if they believed they would be invisible if they didn't move.

I don't have enough experience to speak with authority, but the only problem I had with hunting sables is that they would stare at us for long periods without turning their heads so we could judge horn length. When they finally turned, they would trot off.

Roan may be be less difficult to hunt in places where they are more plentiful, such as Burkino Faso.

Bill Quimby

I've always thought the Sable to be a more beautiful animal than the Roan. However, hunting the Roan has always seemed more challenging to me.

Here's a Roan I shot in 2009 with Richard & Andrew in Lunga Luswishi. Finally, I got one!

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by bisonhunter1:
A mere "babe" in the woods here when it comes to Africa hunts ( I have managed three plains game hunts in the last 8 years tho). If I had the time and money fir Africa again (and willing spouse to let me go again) the sable would be the one for me. I just love that striking black/white color and those magnificent horns.

Now if someone else were to foot the bill I'd hunt both!

Can't do that but put your self in place of this chap.

Andrew,

Is that John Rex? He had a lot of good things to say about that hunt, and that Lion he shot was top notch.

Greg,

Indeed it is. He shot one of the biggest Lions to come out of the Kafue recently and some other fine trophies.



Give him my very best regards if you are in contact with him.

Cheers

Andrew

Will do, I talk to him every couple of weeks.

Sable are prettier, Roan more exotic....all things being equal, I would shoot one of the Roan i was well within range of on more than one occasion----but things were not equal! I will just admire my Sable mounts I guess...one is over 45-inches BTW....Greeff guided me to it in Matetsi 6 several years ago.

The only live sable and roan I've seen have been at the zoo, so take this for what you will. I think the sable makes a more striking trophy with the large ibex-like horns and black coat. If I only had one on license though, I'd shoot the roan. Seems to me a rarer animal than the sable.

Sure would love to find a nice way to have both those critters mounted though. Not a fan of the chess-piece mounts. Shoulder mount always seems to look awkward on these two, especially the angle the head has to turn for the sable's horns to clear. Only one I've seen I really like is the full-body mount Nganga has where the sable is rearing on it's hind legs like the Ferrari horse.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom In Tennessee:
Sable are prettier, Roan more exotic....all things being equal, I would shoot one of the Roan i was well within range of on more than one occasion----but things were not equal! I will just admire my Sable mounts I guess...one is over 45-inches BTW....Greeff guided me to it in Matetsi 6 several years ago.

Tom,

There are not many that go over 45 inches. Some excellent Sable have come out of Matetsi and this area must be on par with the Kafue?

Sable for me. The darker the better. They are absolutely gorgeous.

I have only ever seen the north ends of both as they were rapidly heading south.

The sable's arse was more attractive, as I recall.

I don't care much for the Roan at all and Sable given the right opportunity I would take but for some reason they are just not high on my list and I cannot say why. I love the look of the Sable some days but they are just not on my list like a Kudu and other animals.

I have hunted both. The sable isn't much of a hunt, but in my opinion looks much better on the wall. I will be heading to Burkina Faso in two weeks to hopefully put a western roan on the wall next to the sable.

We're not in communist russia! I'll take both please!!! hahaha

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by bisonhunter1:
A mere "babe" in the woods here when it comes to Africa hunts ( I have managed three plains game hunts in the last 8 years tho). If I had the time and money fir Africa again (and willing spouse to let me go again) the sable would be the one for me. I just love that striking black/white color and those magnificent horns.

Now if someone else were to foot the bill I'd hunt both!

Can't do that but put your self in place of this chap.

A sable just like this one!!!!!!