Man, do I love your eland. Both of them.

And your photos tell volumes.

Many, many congratulations on a hunt well done and on lives well lived!

Ditto on the eland...just love the color and the ruff.

Excellent report. Congratulations to both of you! Those are some fantastic trophies. I especially like those eland and the bushbuck as well.

I too love hunting eland and I could really appreciate your photo series as you were getting closer. It brought back memories of tracking eland in Namibia in 2007.

This is a hunt I would truely appreciate and will have to look into it.

Thanks for posting.

George

Great trophies. Great piece of Africa. What next?

Coutada 9 is very good for the spiral horns and eland are paticularly abundant. When I hunted there in October '07 I could have shot two big eland bulls easily in one day.

Mark

Great report and pic's.
Congrat's to all.

Wow! The photography is awesome. Great job and Congrats on the hunt.

Now that is what I call a serious hunt! Congrats on the whole affair, I really enjoyed your report.

Dean

quote:

Coutada 9 is very good for the spiral horns and eland are paticularly abundant. When I hunted there in October '07 I could have shot two big eland bulls easily in one day.

Don't rub it in

I will not pretend to know this area at all as we were only there for 10 days and that is a very small window. I will say that the eland were not growing on trees while we were there. The warthogs and kudu ARE groing on trees. In fact you have to watch where you walk or you will pretty much step on them.

I think we saw one or two (young) eland from the truck in ten days. In fact the two bulls we got were really the only two chances we had at bulls in eight days of hunting hard for them. In fact, if the wind had shifted or a certain termite mound had not been at the right place at the right time, our outcome could have been much different. The eland are there but based on what we saw you should be prepared to dedicate multiple days for them.

In areas as big as this the game can really move around, so you have to dedicate the time to find them. A perfect example is Mike's nice sable he took on his first day. We never saw a sable in ten days. They are there and I would have no doubt with a little luck you would have a decent chance at one if that is what you were after.

When initially planning and researching this hunt I was thinking we would need 14 days to get two eland. Mokore told us up up front that we had a good chance at two mature bull eland in ten days of hunting in this area. That is what we got,and more.

Even with that said, my expectation going in to this hunt was a good chance at one blue bull in ten days and possibly the chance at another, with a couple of other animals as a bonus. Gary knew the eland were a priority for us and anything else was gravy.

I would not call an eland a "sure thing" here but that is not the experience we were looking for anyway. Success is sweeter when the chance of failure is always playing in your mind.

Who knows? The next group of hunters could see eland all over the roads and probably a few in camp!

Hell, just look at that 49" buffalo and that will tell you "anything is possible!"

P.S. I measured your buff Mike and he is about 48 1/2" so he is shrinking on you. Stop telling people about your 49" buff. By the time you get him he may be 39"

Thanks everyone for the nice comments on the report.

Well done Grafton! Eland are my favorite plainsgame animal to hunt and you and the Missus did yourselves proud... though she may have been a bit prouder!

Very nice bulls and I like the red duiker also!

Congratulations on your hunt.You got some really nice trophies.

Welcom home Grafton & Jennifer! What a fantastic trip and wonderful way to celebrate your anniversary. Beautiful animals and the scenery is awesome! Glad you are both safe & you are also right that our wives can also be the best hunting partners. We really enjoyed your and look forward to seeing you at DSC if you & Jennifer can make it. Again, a great hunt & thank you for posting such a detailed report. Give our best to Jennifer.

Dave & Joan

Congratulations Grafton.You both scored mighty fine trophies.thanks for the wonderful photos.

Great pangolin, great Dog....oh yeah, the Eland are fantastic! Great Ruffs which is what counts!!

What an eland!!!! That first eland is surely a trophy of a lifetime.

Congratulation on your hunt and very nice eland.


Joe

Great Eland and some wonderful trophies, congratulations. Very nice report too with some exceptional photos, thanks for sharing.

Congratulations Grafton, that Eland is outstanding. Excellent report and photos, I enjoyed your report very much.

Regards
Aziz

Grafton,

Anytime my clients are nealy 100% on a species they really want I consider that species to be abundant. I think abundant means quite different things dependent on the animal in question. You guys shot a impala ram on Coutada 9 but they are definitely not abundant there. You may see some each day but abundant impala would mean that you would see hundreds in a day which is possible in several places. Eland on the other hand are great wanderers so one day you might see several and the next nothing. Compared to the places I have hunted before where the Livingstone's eland is present Coutada 9 has a thriving population and an excellent number of big bulls.

Mark

quote:

I think abundant means quite different things dependent on the animal in question.

Agreed

I very much enjoyed your report and pictures. Thanks for sharing. Now if only I could get my wife to start hunting.

Excellent report and congratulations on some remarkable trophies. I am hunting with Mokore next year and Mark and I were discussing my email today whether Moz would have been better for what I'm interested in. Eland is at the top of my list but I'd love to shoot one with a bow. If worse comes to worse, I'll just have go to Moz on a future trip. Congrats again for making some life time memories.

I'm just catching up with my reading...wow, what a neat trip. Your eland is nice, but your wife's is stunning!!! Please post pictures on this thread of the mounts, I am anxious to see how that mop looks on the trophy. They (and bushbuck) are my favorite non-dg animals and what a great idea building a hunt around one for each of you.

Mozambique looks like real-Africa, and thanks for the variety of pictures.

Next time you need to paint your toenails too, just like the picture of Gary's (which I must say, look nice).

Congrat's on a great hunt and what will be memories and conversations for a lifetime.

Regards, Bill

Thanks for posting.

I'm catching up too! Outstanding report and pics!

WOW. Those are both unbelievable eland bulls.
A bull like one of those is on my menu for my next African hunt.

Congrats!

Scott,

You know someone that can help you with that eland.

Mark

I am hugely jealous! Some fine animals, and a gal to share them with! Thats awesome! Nicely done!

Grafton
Those Eland are beautiful. Full body mounts? Obviously well planned with excellent execution! I could not have passed on those Kudu....

Two shoulder mounts for the eland most likely. I thought about a full mount, I mean who really needs a dinning room table anyway?

I am planning on a full mount for the red duiker, bushbuck, and baboon.

Thanks for the comments.

Congratulation on your hunt and very nice elands.


Hamdeni

Certainly one of the best hunt reports I've ever read.....thanks so much for taking the time to do it!

It takes a lot of time to post all those photos...

Thanks again
vapo

You have my vote for most successful all round safari for 2010. The Red Duiker is an exceptional trophy. Your Bushbuck is exceptional as well, and of course the Eland are both toads. Trophy quality in this area seems to be outstanding, judging from what you shot and photographed. And I take my hat off to you for using a Ruger no 1.