How do you tell the age of the African Horned animals. His length, mass, what is it?

I have more then once have a PH say an animal was a mature animal would go at least certain horn length. Only to find out when we got up to him he was short by several inches and obviously an immature animal. I did not care about the length of the horn but I did care about shooting an obviously immature animal. I like mass and maturity in my animals. If I get one with tremendous horn length or width that is frosting on the cake.

I suspect your horned antelope of Africa can be aged as to horn growth and I assume you use age rings, wear etc in some cases. In North America you can age Mtn. goat and sheep by their age rings on the horns. Antlered animals you can not age them as to their antlers but you can make a good guess as to a mature or immature anmal. You can the tell the difference between trophy animal and immature animal in most cases. Teeth is the only way to age these animals. Something to point out. The world record, Pronghorn antelope was only 3 1/2 years old. Pronghorn rarely live beyond 4 1/2. World record whitetail was 3 1/2 years old from what I read in one article a few years ago. That whitetail had long spindly points, not much mass. I saw it in Sportsman show and it was impressive but obviously an immature animal. I hope he and his daddy past on their genes.

So, the next time I go to Africa, I would appreciate some help in this area. I have immature waterbuck, hartebeest and couple of other antelope and I do not want to make the same mistake again.

Horn lenght has nothing to do with age the shape is the determining factor

375 fanatic

I guess I did not make myself very clear. I was looking at how you determine age on your horned animals. Is it mass, wear, age rings, length. I do not know what is it. I just wanted make sure when I come to africa next time I have better understanding what is mature animal. And it is not just the length of horn. As I said, sometimes you get PH's all they are interested in getting you that super long horn instead of that a mature adult animal. Don't get me wrong. I have taken some very mature trophies from Zim and South Africa. For example, very worn, heavy Eland, beautiful deep curled hard bossed buff, tight curled,tipped out Kudu, very old warthog, very heavy,elegant but still long bush buck and tseebe. But, it has been the waterbuck and hartebeest that disappointed me. Was it the PH that just wanted me to take the first animal. I don't know, I am looking for help here.

We have a magazine called SA game and hunting they do a proper article every month about a specie and they show the horns at different ages send me a list of the species you are looking for and i can go through my old copies and see what i can get for you or you can order them here
http://www.wildlifehunt.co.za/vorigeuitgawes.html

Might be pressure on the PH from the outfitter, but it is difficult to make a judgement on the hunt from a personal point of view as we do not have both sides of the story.

Waterbuck and Red Hartbeest is fairly easy, and lenght in THIS case can be a very good indication of age. Waterbuck from 27" upward are 90" of the time full mature and heavy animals. The horns get a nice white "shine" and the tips get worn down the older the animal gets. Mass in Waterbuck is NOT a good indication of age. The genetics of each individual animal can determine mass.

Red Hartbeest is another example of "lenght" being a good example of age. The big boys are ussualy over 22". And of course there is the general shape of the horns. Any PH that hunts these animals on a full time basis will be able to tell the avg. age of the animal if he gets a good look at him for a couple of minutes...

Body colour is another good sign of age if combined with the other factors like horn lenght and body mass. But colour is a VERY muddy topic as the "coats" differ a lot from area to area in the same species.

I hope this helps. I made it a point in 2007 to make sure that we shoot only fully mature animals, and even then some of my PH's slipped under pressure, but at least the shooting of immature animals is down by 90%.

So by the way, if you want a good value hunt with a PH that you can trust shooting only fully matured (read old) trophies, then do not bother trying to learn all this, just drop me a line....

Thank you in any case for taking the effort to ask about this. It is good to see some folks realy care about what they shoot.

Charl

I appreciate the information. You, have answered my questions.

I went two different hunts with different PH's. I have taken very mature and sometimes exceptional animals on hunting trips. The exception was a Red Hartebeest and Waterbuck. In both cases it proved not the case. I told each PH I did not want anyhthing less then a mature animal. A a Red Hartebeest I said 23 inch length minimum with heavy horns. I felt that way I would get a mature animal. He assured me no problem. I was not looking for record book animal. I ended up shooting a 21 inch animal. I was not happy, not because of the length but because it was appeared to be immature. Second was the waterbuck. Again, I set my sights on 28 inch minimum because I figured this would be a mature animal. Well I was told to shoot and when I went up to it I new it was an immature animal right away. It was not heavy had sharp points and it only measured 26 inches. I am saying the length in both examples for reference only. So, when I do go back and the PH tells me to shoot I am going to tell him no way, I am not going shoot an immature animal. It has nothing to do with length of horns. It is taking that older class animal that has finished his breeding but can still be considered a trophy.