Impressive animal

I went to Africa in 2019. For plains game, I took a Contender carbine in 8mm gnr(a 405 Winchester necked to 8mm). I was shooting 210gr Accubonds at 2400fps. The first animal I took a poke at was a Gemsbuck in a tremendous downpour. It was quartering away and I hit it just behind the shoulder. It ran off with the herd like nothing was wrong. We found it the next morning 2 miles from where it was hit. Tough animal. For the rest of the hunt, I shot them all through the shoulder and none made it more than 50 yards, including the Eland that I took. I'm trying to arrange a hunt for 2023 to see if I can get the Hippo and Heartabeast that I wanted.
 
I've seen mule deer bucks downed to a 243... I start at 6.5 creed or 270 myself and usually use a 7stw, 7rum, or 300win... My kid's using a 7mm-08 savage pistol this year if he gets good enough with it,.. Another 500 rounds or so down-range in the next few months should do it...
I said big animals. Mule deer are not big
 
Anything this size I wouldn't bet the trophy fee on small calibers.
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.243 works just fine on them, just shoot them in the head.

I sort of jest... In reality of the 3 eland I've taken 2 were hit with body shots (both of those times I hit it in the heart) and one with a head shot. The head shot, a good size mature male, was the only one that went right down. One of the others (a large female) couldn't walk because I broke both shoulders with a .375Ruger but still took a poke in the bean to finally shut off the engine. The other (a large adolescent male) took a shot to the heart then walked 2km and then took an e-brake setter to the back leg and then took another shot to the chest before it piled up.

African game is made of much sterner stuff than north American game. You shoot a white tail or an elk in the chest and it won't go very far. If you shoot African game, especially wildebeest, in the chest it seems that you're just giving them extra air to run on and they often times go very surprisingly far before piling up. I now have as many head-shot harvests in Africa as I do body shots and will likely stick to headshots whenever I can. It's a lot less hassle.
I was there in 2021. I was extremely surprised how tough the animals are. I took 7 an none just dropped. This was a bucket list hunt of a life time. Jan Loots of Limcroma taught Mr a lot about tracking. And I thought I was decent at it.
 

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