I have made four trips to Africa with three of them being plains game hunts. I was fortunate in taking 46 animals of 23 species during those three hunts. Each animal was unique and special. However, if forced to choose I would pick the steenbuck as my number one animal as they are very difficult to hunt and stalk when you are specifically hunting them and not taking one as an incidental trophy.

Next on the list for me are Nyala (to go with his spiral horned cousins the Kudu and Bushbuck that I already have), Black Wildebeest to go with my Blue Wildebeest, and Hartebeest (because I like the looks of these goofy guys).
Also Baboon, just because.

For me it's;

1 Bushbuck
2 Kudu
3 Nyala

I have only made three trips, all for plainsgame: RSA, Namibia and Zimbabwe. My favorite has been eland. I love tracking animals and all that one sees while following a spoor. Also, eland is the best tasting meat I have ever eaten anywhere. I will absolutely definitely try for an eland on every African hunt I make in the future!

Great responses guys! Valuable intel that gives me a lot to think on before its game time. Thanks to all who responded.

Guided a German lady once in the Zambezi Valley several years ago (she had previously shot the most magnificent 46" Buffalo Bull with John Greef in the Omay a few years prior). She had serious cabin fever back home and just wanted to get out and walk miles and miles of bloody Africa, so I was given the privilege of guiding her on a October Safari.

Her wishlist included Buffalo, Hippo, Bushbuck and Eland - she didn't care about the size of any of the desired species, all she wanted was to get out, walk, smell and "feel" Africa again. If we found an old animal of any of the four aforementioned species, she would be happy to pull the trigger.

Lady Diana was definitely on our side as in two days, we literally had an ancient white faced "Dagga Boy", Hippo Bull and a Bushbuck in the salt with little to no effort involved - just everything fell into place so well. Although the German lady was happy, she was somewhat dissapointed in the hunts being a little "too easy". Feeling bad for here, I told her we would try make the Eland hunt a hard one, just to lift her spirits up!

The next day we found a large fresh Eland bull track while driving down a hunting track,just one hour out of camp. We casually disembarked and loaded a few water bottles into back packs etc and began to track, quite expecting Lady Diana to continue smiling upon us. Two hours into the hunt, a bunch of oxpeckers flew from a bush about 60 yards ahead of us and a huge Eland bull broke and trotted off slowly, not quite sure what we where. We got onto him quickly and I felt guilty putting the sticks down thinking to myself "man, this is too damn easy!!!", but I knew we couldn't pass up this opportunity...all we could see, was a patch of blue which I could make out was the shoulder - bang!! She had dropped the three previous animals with a single, perfectly placed shot from her .375 blaser which she had fondly nick named, "the black mamba"!

The Eland had been standing in some relatively thick jesse bush so the animal's reaction after the shot was somewhat obscured by the vegetation so we were unsure what had happened as we sauntered over to pick up the tracks - all very smug with our mornings stalk!!! The massive bulls tacks were easily followed for about 50 yards when we heard the "clink, clink, clink" (heard when an Eland bulls walks) - we looked up and saw our bull pick up the pace to a trot and disappear over a small ridge. We looked back down at the tracks as someone whistled - there was one little speck of blood!

You guessed it - three days later under the scorching October sun and about 200 km's (realistically about 45-50km's) walked, multiple salt tabs, gallons of water etc the German made a spectacular shot running shot at the Bull, 180 yards away, which brought him down. Her first shot had been just a tad too far forward. This was the first time we had actually seen him since the first shot, as he'd kept holding up either, downwind or in thick Jesse.

Not once, from start to finish did that Lady fall behind us or complain (she carried her rifle every step). From that day forth, I had a healthy respect for my client's endurance capabilities and a frikken healthy respect for wounded Eland!!!!!!!!!!

That was the closest I've come to drinking my own pee! That bull drove us hard but it's etched in my memory as one of the finest plainsgame hunts I've shared with a client.

Morale of the story - Love to hunt Eland BUT don't wound him!

On my 1st eland I got buck fever, missed my shot by 20 inches, gut shot.
Thankfully he only hunched up & took a step forward, by then I had another round in the chamber & nailed him on the shoulder. He dropped right there.
I can only imagine chasing after him if he had taken off before I got a 2nd round into him.
My short legs where not made for chasing eland, maybe aardvark.

8 trips so far. Favorite was klipspringer followed by vaalrhebok

Trading for eland. Was the 6 hardest days of my hunting life of course the partial day off to drive into rustenberg to referee two platinum mining teams probably didn't help me much lol.

Gemsbok in the Karoo. Spot and stalk but we pout in 7-8 stalks to get a monster.

Chasing after Mtn reedbuck with Charl at infinito definatly ranks right up there for me as well.

With 21 head of plains game so far these were ones I want to do again and they were the highlights.

Eland as number one.
My first Eland (and the only one), made me and my PH walk from 08h00 to 17h45.

Gemsbok as a very close second one.

The most exiting; stalking bushbuck along the banks of Old Limpopo River.

The most demanding; Hunting mountain zebra on the rocky hills of Namibia.

For me it's a tracking hunt for eland has to be the best hunting, closely followed by stalk g warthogs on foot in the riverine bush along the Limpopo.

They know you are coming and they don't hang around. I'll never tire of hunting Warties.

K

Just cant get enough of these guys.

I am a bit surprised that hunting eland on foot is as favored as it would appear to be. I certainly think it is the overall best plainsgame hunt (exluding the exotics where the trophy itself is the main draw), and for me a proper tracking hunt for eland is second only to tracking elephant. Tracking Lord Derby Eland is fantastic, but one can have a similar experience with the right PH and trackers in the right area, for a fraction of the cost.

Roan can also be a blast to track, I did this in the sands of the Caprivi years ago and it was fantastic.

Stalking bushbuck and duiker along the river banks is also great fun, especially considering the scenic surroundings. I have yet to properly hunt kudu in the mountains, but this too would be a lot of fun, as would mountain zebra and klipspringer. Bumping into warthog when walking is always cool, and my boys and I shot a number in this manner and every one has a neat and memorable story.

Although I have shot a lot of plainsgame in the typical manner (drive, spot, stalk, shoot) as is required in most dangerous game safari areas, the most rewarding has been when on foot. Zebra and blue wildebeest in the Bubye/BVC was actually quite challanging, especially with an open sighted rifle requiring one to get close. Most game acts different when on foot, especially where they are hunted by natural predators. In Cameroon, the kob would just stand around when you drove by.....but try to walk up on them and they were off in a cloud of dust usually before you even knew they were there. It's all what you want to make it...

Zebra and warthog are a must for any collection. Nyala are to me the most beautiful of the antelopes of Africa. Black wildebeest are whacko, and lots of fun to watch. Bushbuck are a challenge to hunt as well as beautiful. It's hard to beat an eland for table fare. Good luck.

My favorite plains game was a tracking hunt for eland, followed (Preceded actually)by a tracking hunt of blue wildebeest. A group of bulls gave us a real chase before I finally got a bit enough piece of hide to shoot at. Poorman's buffalo is a suitable name, under the right circumstances.

I'm going to have to say lessor kudu for #1 because it reminds me of mule deer hunting back home, and mountain zebra as # 2

I've been fortunate to hunt most of the well known PG species in a number of countries but I think the Zambezi sitatunga was the the hunt I enjoyed the most. It took two dedicated hunts to get it done but it was worth it. A Zambezi sitatunga pulled out of the papyrus is a very special trophy and combined with a black lechwe and tseesbe at Bangweulu in Zambia provides a great safari.

Mark