Hey guys, here's a few pics of my Eland pedestal mount. He was mounted by Rocky Cooper of Brush Country Studios in Houston. The base is custom made out of Mesquite. Rocky puts out very high quality work. I took this bull here in Texas 2 years ago. We actually got to weigh him on a truck scale, right at 2,000 lbs. What do ya'll think?

You either need a bigger house or a smaller eland!

Very nice. The taxidermy appears excellent. I like the turn on the eland. I would prefer a bit larger base. That size pedestal would be better for deer sized animals IMO. It appears top heavy. Also The color of the wood is so striking that it detracts from the mount some. I would prefer a more subtle tone on the wood to better compliment a color on the eland. Overall, still a very nice piece.

Yes, we do need a bigger house. We plan to start building in the next few months. We definitely have to have it done before our safari to Namibia in '07. We will probably have over 20 animals from that trip.

Eland Slayer, after seeing the second picture I will say that the base does not look as small as I thought. The angle on the first picture makes the base look small to me.

Very nice!

Love that wood on the pedastal!!!!

Very nice indead!
Great trophy and great taxidermy work.
I will also say that the pedestal is awsome and very stricking. I would also say it would look much nicer if it was mine!
Did you have it made or the taxidermist? I think that good ole Texas mesquite is hard to beat!

Eland Slayer,
Mesquite is a great wood! Very Impressive Eland! They do make a majectic trophy. If you do not mind what was the @ cost of your pedestal base. Did the use of custom wood make your cost go up?
Robert (a former token texan!)

Great work.

Kyler

The third picture looks like the squirrel is entered in an eland rodeo!

Your eland looks great. Rocky does excellent work; I was going to use him for my trophies, but then I had to relocate to AZ.

Very, very nice! -TONY

I like it VEY MUCH! It also gives you a good perspective WRT the deer next to it. There's african hunting, then there's the rest! jorge

Why did you let that squirrel take a chunk out of his ear??

Looks great, nice job!

Very Nice

bo-n-aro, to answer your question: I actually had it made by an old man who works at a flea market.

RobertJr, to answer your question: I think I practically stole it at $500. I beleive Rocky said that if he had done it, he would have charged around $1,200! The pictures just don't do the base justice.

Great job on a wonderful trophy, beautiful base, but please... the story behind the squirrel? Good hunting..

With whom did you shoot the eland? It is a very nice mount. I think I'll have to shoot one for myself now.

308Sako, actually that is my first squirrel. I shot it when I was 5 years old. (just so ya'll know, I'm 17 now)

Sevens, I shot the Eland at the Camp Cooley Ranch about half way between Houston and Dallas. You really should shoot one, if nothing else just for the meat. In my opinion it is better than beef. It is one of the only other animals besides beef that has marbling in the meat. Even on a large old bull like this one, the meat was extremely tender. I mean, you can literally cut it with a fork!

Wow, wish I could have hunted for one of those when I lived down there. Bet you had one hell of a time getting him into the back of the truck! Makes that nice whitetail look tiny.

Steel Slinger, actually we loaded him into a 16 foot "low boy" car carrier trailer with a 100 HP John Deere tractor. That was the easy part. The hard part was cleaning him. We had to hang him from the front end loader of the tractor because none of their winches at the skinning shed were strong enough to hold him!

Beautiful mount, and absolutely terrific wood. You done good.

Nice job!
Out of curiosity, how long were his horns?
I have an eland huntign coming up this June in KwaZulu-Natal and pics like this are getting me stoked!
Can you tell us a bit about caliber/bullet placement/reaction to shot?

Boghossian, his horns were 28 1/2 inches around the curl and he had 12 1/2 inch bases. Not a HUGE bull but he was very mature and past his prime. He also had a limp. When we skinned him, we found that someone had shot him in his front right shoulder with a .22 rifle. There's a county road that runs in front of the ranch and they have had problems with poachers. I just can't understand how someone could do that. Anyway, I used my Browning A-Bolt Composite Stalker chambered in .300 WSM with 180 gr. FailSafe bullets. They performed flawlessly. The first shot was at 130 yards broadside. I had to wait for him to put his shoulder forward so I could put it in his heart and he was feeding in a bachelor group with 3 other bulls, so it took about 10 minutes before he finally got clear of all the other bulls so I could get a clear shot. The first shot cut his professional football sized heart in half. He hunched up really bad and trotted 10 yards further and at about 140 yards, I put another one through both lungs as he was quartering away. That hurt him really bad and he did a complete backflip onto his back. As the other bulls decided it was time to leave, so did he and I gave him another double lung shot as he was on his knees trying to get back up. They are very tough animals and I would never suggest anyone hunt them with anything less than a .30 caliber unless to plan on shooting it in the head/neck. He was dead on his feet from the first shot, but the group was only about 25 yards from a large, heavily wooded area and we didn't want him to reach it because we would have to cut down several full grown trees to get to him. The first shot was the only one that didn't penetrate all the way through (it stopped only a couple inches from the other side). The last 2 shots went clean through him. It was by far the most rewarding and exciting hunt I've ever been on and am dying to do it again!!! We hunted hard for 6 full days before getting a shot at this bull. Eland hunting isn't easy. You will do LOTS of walking and most of the time, they will outsmart you and escape, but if you hunt hard and are willing to maybe make a 200+ yard shot, you will get one. The only reason we got to within 130 yards of mine is that they were in a small valley and we happened to be on top of a small hill which had a very convenient tree on top of it. I agree that sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. hope all this helps and if anyone want anymore info, just let me know.

quote:

I took this bull here in Texas 2 years ago.

Maybe I missed it, but where in TX did you hunt this and with whom?

333_OKH

I hunted my Eland on a ranch about half way between Houston and Dallas called the Camp Cooley Ranch. My guide was a guy named Ryan Schoeneberg, but he doesn't work there anymore. We have become very good friends now and he works for Texas Parks & Wildlife. They sold off quite a few of the Eland, but they still have a very large herd compared to most other ranches. They had approx. 125-150 when I hunted there but now I believe they only have 60-70. I saw 2 other bulls larger than mine while I was there, but I never got a chance at them. You can check out their website: Camp Cooley Ranch It says on their website that the ranch is 11,000 acres. This is correct but the Eland are in a high fenced area that is 1,000-1,500 acres. BEAUTIFUL ranch!!! Lots of wildlife!