Hello all,

I will be going to Burkina Fasso to hunt Buffalo and West African Roan as the main focus of a hunt in 2011. I have been to Africa before and have seen Roan in the bush several times. I have been pouring over pictures of mounted roan trying to get a gauge on how to judge them.

Any advice???

Thanks in advance for the help....

Jamie

Sounds like a tremendous hunt and should be quite a departure from the Southern and Eastern African experience.

To me, Roan is the ultimate PG species. I consider them on par with Bongo, LDE, and Mt. Nyala. As far as judging them as a trophy, I think you could apply a lot of the same criteria as you would to Sable. Width of bases, space of ridges, and, of course, horn length.

IMO, there are two unique things to look for in Roan. First would be body size. They are the second largest antelope in Africa, so a fully mature bull should have good, large body mass. The second would be their facial markings. I would really look for clear, symmetrical patterns and colors. They are such striking animals that I'd prefer a mount that has clear, sharp facial markings over horn length.

Roan are really neat antelope. They are a desirable trophy as they are somewhat exclusive given their limited ranges and quotas, and interesting to me because of their massive thick necks, long ears, and unique markings.

Others can advise regarding how to best judge their horns, but I'd look for thick bases carrying all the way thru a nice backwards sweep. After you see a few, and you should see herds of bachelor bulls in BF, it will be easy to tell the young bulls. Often the mature bulls will be with cows and young, and personally I would have felt guilty breaking up their little family units. A lone bull, tracked on foot, is what I would look for. Chances are you will see them while driving, but tracking them is most satisfying.

I saw many of the Western Roan in Cameroon, but selected the buffalo as my second animal (much to the chagrin of my French hosts, who hold the Roan in much higher esteem).

Western Roan: http://www.wild-about-you.com/GameWestRoan.htm

Here’s what you can expect to see from the truck:







Here's a Southern Roan we tracked in the Caprivi Strip in 2003. It was a great hunt, as the roan would walk long distances to and from the waist-high grass savannah they seemed to prefer, to water each night. Notice the horn tip lodged in his muscular neck. The force to snap this off must have been tremendous. He was solo, and this was obviously a result of a scrap over females. I did a shoulder mount of him, with the horn tip still imbedded (the taxidermist struggled with this, he thought it was odd).

Bill,

That is really cool. Thanks for the info. The horn tip mounted in the animal reminds me of another animal I know of being mounted. My best friend shot a buff in Tanzania that charged. (I was in attendance) In the fulsade of bullets that was thrown at it one broke the tip of its horn. He mounted it as is. The broken horn tip was part of the story and we thought it best to preserve it.

Jamie

Jamie,

If you look at Bill C's Roan you will notice it has a good curl and although it is difficult to judge from the angle of this photo I would say this excellent Roan would be roughly 27 inch. If the horns have a straight up apperance and lack decent curl then they will not go over 26. Generally the better the curl the longer the horn. An exception would be a very old bull whose tips have broomed off, however he will have thick smooth bases and would make for a great trophy.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Jamie,

If you look at Bill C's Roan you will notice it has a good curl and although it is difficult to judge from the angle of this photo I would say this excellent Roan would be roughly 27 inch. If the horns have a straight up apperance and lack decent curl then they will not go over 26. Generally the better the curl the longer the horn. An exception would be a very old bull whose tips have broomed off, however he will have thick smooth bases and would make for a great trophy.

But who will get the tape out to measure???

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:But who will get the tape out to measure???

To quote myself from a previous thread Matt: "I am curious what I shoot, enjoy “data”, and am not ashamed to pull out a tape measure now and again - BUT I will never let the number dictate my contentment with the animal or the trip." And Andrew is spot-on, as I recall the longest was 27, and the shortest just shy.

Here's another shot, although maybe no better for purposes of judging length. This was a brutally hot October hunt, and I was actually there on a lion tracking adventure, following a successful leopard/buffalo hunt earlier in the same year where our camp was invaded by several large males. My son and I had just unzipped our tent when we heard and felt a deep roar immediately followed by the crashing of pans (the kitchen staff was cleaning up after dinner carrying the pots/pans to the fire to be washed and did a drop-and-run, which my PH described to me later and still makes me laugh when I think about it). The PH yelled in a thick Zimbabwean accent, "Beull, stay in your tent" To which I replied, and I quote, "Not a problem". The lions remained in and around camp for most of the night. The PH took refuge in his Cruiser and drove it thru camp to his tent...but oddly enough he seemed to still be in there come morning!!!

However, in October we saw little lion sign and much of the 14-days was pretty bleak. The highlights were tracking and after some 7hrs getting on a pride in a rather exciting manner (just a young male as would be expected) and this Roan. The area was allocated just one Roan tag a year, and I was fortunate as the last hunter of the season to be able to shoot one.

Great photo.

This may not be that helpful but this one is from the Luangwa isjust shy of 27".

Hello Jamie

I shot this Roan a few years ago in Burkina Faso, It measured 30 inches. I am posting 4 photos so you can get a better idea.
Best of luck on your hunt, game populations were excellent where I hunted.









Regards
Aziz

Good lord Aziz! Someone might mistake that for a sable with a skin pigmentation disease!!!


Brett

My goodness! Now THAT is a trophy roan!

quote:

Originally posted by Bill C:

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:But who will get the tape out to measure???

To quote myself from a previous thread Matt: "I am curious what I shoot, enjoy “data”, and am not ashamed to pull out a tape measure now and again - BUT I will never let the number dictate my contentment with the animal or the trip." And Andrew is spot-on, as I recall the longest was 27, and the shortest just shy.

Yeah I now mate - I am with you... I just think it is funny that people bag the SCI and other records books and programs but happily discuss trophy sizes.

Everyone has their own things that they hunt for and not everyone is a 'collector' or chasing the 'biggest and best'. That is why relatively few SCI members even enter their trophies, let alone chase the awards programs. To those that do - good luck to them and from the perspective of an outfitter and 'conservationist' - bless you all!! The huntable game animals of the world are prospering from all of these different programs and hunting promotion.

Great photos everyone - thanks for posting..!!!

Honkey,

Second fairgames' advice would just add that it helps when the horns do go up high and then curve as well.
Aziz's Roan is a good example where you can see the initial straight up height and then the good curve and long tips going back.

Here's a couple of photos from a big Roan I got in Cameroon in 2004. He was a little over 30" on one horn and a little under 31" on the other. He had bases over 10" around. This was an extremely old animal and the teeth were worn down to the gumline, he had scars from a lion's claws on his left flank and an old healed bullet hole in the fleshy part of a foreleg.








I'd guess this is about as good as you can expect to do on a Roan these days. There are bigger ones taken, but they're few and far between. I took this one on the 7th day of a 12 day hunt and I looked over a bunch before I took him. 27" and 28" Roan were pretty common in the area I hunted, but anything over 30" was hard to find.

Notice how high the horn goes and how far back the tips reach. That's what we were looking for, height and length of tips.

Good Luck. Roan are a great game animal and they don't occur just anywhere.

Awesome Roan

Here is a Roan taken by my 95 year old neighbor William Mossesian in Zambia 35 years ago. This is an East African Roan!!!!!



Regards, D. Nelson

Sorry D. Nelson,

That is not 30 inch. Fine animal but you really have to compare it to others that we have seen on this thread to see that that will not break 27.

Fairgame;

This is what the old guy gave me...

Whatever it is, it is a great EA Roan!!!!

D. Nelson

quote:

Originally posted by D. Nelson:
Fairgame;

This is what the old guy gave me...

Whatever it is, it is a great EA Roan!!!!

D. Nelson

That it is and not only a fine trophy but a nice old grainy photograph that well depicts those safaris of old.

Wow, some excellent roan above. I took a 26" roan in Benin in 2008. He was a nice mature bull and we saw a number of them while hunting there. Very alert and tuned-in animals, quite difficult to approach. Several stalks before we caught this old bull with his mind on his harem. My roan trophy is one of my favorite trophies I have taken in Africa.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL THE INFO AND PICTURES....


Jamie

Those 30 inch Roan are the stuff that dreams are made of. I love them.

Are Roan available in Zim? Thanks in advance.

quote:

Originally posted by kudu4u:
Are Roan available in Zim? Thanks in advance.

Nowadays only with dogs.

They have them in the north and perticularly northwest areas of Zimbabwe, but they aren't on license. The western Caborra Bassa area of Mozambique and northern Botswana have them as well, but like Zimbabwe they aren't on license.

Brett

Thanks for the Zim info.