Thanks for any advice you can give about trophy assessment of East African Impala and Grants Gazelles. I am going to Masailand for the first time this summer. What is considered good trophy quality for these two species. Is EA Impala supposed to be larger than the Southern Impala say from Zimbabwe? Thanks for your input. Hugh

Hugh,

Your trophy expectations on both of the animals you mentioned will depend on the particular area of Masailand you are hunting. A Grant's from the Natron area wouldn't even get a look unless he went 26" or better. Farther to the east a 23-24" might be quite a nice one. The same applies to the impala. Those 30" monsters only come from one area although I think in Masailand the average impala is larger than most places to the south.

Trust your PH to show you what makes a good representative trophy in the area you are hunting.

You'll love Masailand!

Good Hunting,

Mark

Huge,

You will be hunting out of our Lobo camp and as far as what the averages would be that you can expect in this area would be the following.

Grants 24"-27"
Impala 24"-26"

These are the averages that we normally take and what you can expect as a reference.

I am headed over to Tanzania in about 2 weeks to go into Lolkisale and Lobo as we will be relocating and putting in brand new camps and upgrading everything there. So, you will enjoy all the new upgrades this year on your safari.

I took my EA impala and Grant's out of the Lobo camp in '03. My Grants was a good one, a bit over 26".


My impala came on the last day after passing up several I shouldn't have. One I passed in Lolkisale was close to 26". Don't ask, it was early in the hunt and they had seen one that was pushing 28" earlier when ForrestB was there. I was holding out for him and we never saw him! This ram measured 24" and was taken after a fun stalk so he made a memorable hunt and took two 300 grain .375 slugs before being kwisha'd. Pardon my swahili!

Hugh,
You're going to have a great time and see some terrific animals. I had only hunted in Botswana prior to my trip to Lobo and Lolkisale. The impala we saw in masailand were much larger than those I've seen in Botswana (which seem to run smaller than in RSA or parts of Zim). We saw a lot of impala that would have been "shoot on sight" animals in Bots, but didn't merit a second look from our trackers in Tanzania. I took this impala in Lolkisale and I'd describe him as average. I wounded and lost a much larger one in Lobo and saw a couple of others that were at least 2" larger than this one. I don't know what the measurement on this one is though.


We saw much better Grants in Lobo than in Lolkisale and I saw nothing as nice as Bwanamrm's in Lolkisale. I only saw one, maybe two, Grants nicer than this one, so I consider him above average. The trackers didn't seem to rate him any better than average. Again, I don't know what this guy measured; but he's a beautiful animal.


I really envy you. I wish I were going back this year. Have a great time.

EA Impala (26.5") and Grant's (23.5") from Masailand.

Regards,

Terry

Thanks for the great pics guys! Your post are only adding to my excitement and anticipation! Hugh

quote:

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Originally posted by Hugh W:
Thanks for any advice you can give about trophy assessment of East African Impala and Grants Gazelles. I am going to Masailand for the first time this summer. What is considered good trophy quality for these two species. Is EA Impala supposed to be larger than the Southern Impala say from Zimbabwe? Thanks for your input. Hugh

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Hugh,

If you see an impala about this size, shoot it . It came from Masailand a couple of years ago.

There were no Grant's in the area that I was hunting while I was there, but we saw a few Thompson's (none that I considered shootable), so it all depends on the area of Masailand that you will be in as to what is available at that particular time.I did get nice gerenuk, fringe-eared oryx, and lesser kudu though.

Jim

Dang Mbogo!

I'd love to see your other masailand trophies if you don't mind posting them.

quote:

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Originally posted by ForrestB:
Dang Mbogo!

I'd love to see your other masailand trophies if you don't mind posting them.

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Forrest,

Here they are.

gerenuk



fringe-eared oryx


lesser kudu


Here is a pretty decent Kirk's dik dik from the same hunt.


Jim