Is it size? Age? Score? Or something more elusive?

By Craig Boddington

Just recently there was a great photo of a sitatunga posted on Accurate Reloading’s African forum. Heck, any photo of a sitatunga is a good and unusual photo! This was a very nice bull…except that his left horn was broken, the upper third completely gone. A professional hunter took the photo, and the question with the post was, “Would you shoot it?”

The responses were interesting. Some guys said they liked the character and would shoot it instantly. Others said they wouldn’t. With something like a hundred days of sitatunga hunting in six countries, I have some sense of how rare that photo really is. I have taken sitatunga on the first day, and on the last day of a two-week hunt, and on several days in between…but I’ve been about 60 percent successful when hunting this animal, so there have been several outings where I never saw a shootable bull at all! So, to me, this was a hard question, and the decision would be a tough call. I answered that it would depend a whole lot on what point in the hunt this animal appeared. Early on I would probably roll the dice and pass…late in the hunt my hesitation would diminish a whole bunch!

As often happens in these forums, I was castigated for this choice, and perhaps I missed the point. Maybe the real question wasn’t “would you shoot it?” but rather, “is it a trophy?” Well, yes, any mature sitatunga bull is definitely a trophy! But to each of us, a trophy is also in the eye of the beholder. The Europeans have a wonderful hunting ethic that reveres older animals. I support this completely. We get way too wrapped up in “measurements” and “score,” while the real concept of trophy hunting should be to take older animals that have bred and passed their genes along. From a management standpoint, this is the most important concept. From a personal standpoint, the trophy taken should also be an animal that pleases the hunter. Many European hunters carry this a huge step farther, placing additional value on trophies that are, well, weird: Broken horns, freak or mismatched horns or antlers, anything exceptionally out of the ordinary.

If a horned animal lives long enough at some point tip wear will exceed horn growth. My best Zambezi sitatunga, taken in 1996, is clearly an older animal, with horn tips noticeably blunt and worn down.

While I work very hard at taking older animals, I don’t willingly go along with the second step. I don’t like broken or grossly mismatched horns or antlers. Again, this is a personal decision. Obviously I’ve made mistakes…I’ve taken animals that were younger than I thought they were, and I’ve felt terrible about it. I’ve also taken animals that had broken horns and broken antler points without realizing it. Sometimes there just isn’t time to get a good look at both sides, so you have to make a split-second decision to take the hidden side on faith…and sometimes this blind faith is rewarded, and sometimes it isn’t. I don’t feel so bad about this.
 

Not all bighorn sheep broom their horns—it depends on how they grow—but with bighorns most sheep hunters accept worn horn tips as a mark of age and honor, even though the overall measurement is probably reduced.

Also, it depends a lot on the degree of the deformity. A broken horn tip doesn’t mean anything when you’re looking at thick bases and good shape…but a horn that’s completely missing is something else. Broomed horns on sheep are cool, a clear mark of age. I don’t mind in the least a broken point or two on a multi-tined antler…but I wouldn’t knowingly shoot a great whitetail buck that had broken off half of a main beam. After all, there’s a fundamental difference between antlered game and horned game: An antlered animal will grow a complete new rack the next year, so while it is very natural for antlers to be broken during the rut, I prefer to give a badly broken-up buck a chance to grow another complete set.

Horns are much different. Horn growth is more or less continual, although in older animals the growth slows and wear at the tips will usually exceed growth. However, growth comes from the base, so a broken horn will always be broken, and will never catch up with the unbroken horn. However, it should also be said that a broken horn is not, of itself, a sign of age. It is purely and only a sign that the horn is broken! It could have been recent, it could have happened months or years earlier, but once broken the horn will stay broken throughout the animal’s life. In many areas I’ve encountered broken-horned animals that my guide or professional hunter has seen before, and a standard comment goes something like, “That animal has job security!”

All animals can break horns or antlers. This can happen at any time in their lives, although one might theorize that breakage is more likely when the animal is young and his horns are spindly…or perhaps even more likely when he’s in his prime and doing the most fighting for mating rights. Older animals tend to be less aggressive and more cautious!

Tusks are a bit different. Whether pigs or elephants (or anything in between) tusks can be broken while fighting, digging, feeding, or in a fall…but the likelihood seems to vary with the area. Rocky country is hard on all headgear, but it has seemed to me that, on several hunts in Botswana, I’ve seen a fairly significant number of elephant bulls with at least one broken or badly worn tusk. Johan Calitz told me that it’s something in the minerals that makes the ivory brittle. Again, these are judgment calls hunters have to make. Would I shoot a one-tusker carrying a hundred pounds in the one tusk? Yeah, I probably would…but I hope I’m never faced with that decision! My best elephant had one perfect tusk and the other broken about a third, still with good weight and lots of character. I had no trouble with that decision. On another hunt, when it wasn’t my turn, we bumped into a wonderful old bull with incredibly thick tusks. Both were broken at the tips—but he was still carrying at least 70 pounds per side. My partner wanted more perfect ivory, so he passed without hesitation.  I would probably have taken that bull, but it wasn’t my decision so, unless faced with actually making the call, I can’t be sure.

My “best ever” elephant, taken with Johan Calitz, has one perfect tusk with the other both broken and showing considerable wear. This doesn’t bother me in the least, but I don’t think I would have made the same decision if the worn tusk was broken off extremely short.

Most animals wear down their tips as they get older. This is a normal part of aging, and often the wear is uneven from one side to the other (right-handed or left-handed?) This kind of wear will eventually reduce the measurement, since badly worn or “broomed” tips rarely make up for incremental increases in base or circumference measurements as an animal ages. Sheep are particularly bad about this, although some varieties are worse than others. Many sheep with tight curls “broom” or wear their horn tips down. The theory is it interferes with their vision, but most bighorns lose their sharp “lamb tips” (the first part of the horn to grow). Although it reduces the “score,” most sheep hunters consider broomed horns a mark of maturity and thus honor—but it depends on the species. Both of my Marco Polo rams are wonderful old guys with deep curls and thick horns. I love them…but both of them had broomed off their lamb tips, which prevents them from having the full “bragging length” horns possible with that species.

Back to that sitatunga. After very careful study, the intact horn appears to be sharp, with very little polished “ivory” at the tip. There is also no apparent wear on the front surfaces of the horns. I have enough experience with some animals to get some idea about age from body shape and other indicators…but sitatunga isn’t one of them! Even so, I’m not at all certain he’s an older animal. But if I were sitting in a machan, I probably wouldn’t have time for that kind of careful study. I would see that he had one darned good horn, and one horn broken short…and I would have to make a decision. This is the kind of decision we all must make, on any given hunt, before we slip the safety and place the shot. The life of a fine animal is at stake, and we have to live with that decision for the rest of our lives. Given full legality and appropriate age, it’s really a very simple decision, but also a very personal one.

A good guide will put it to you thus, but you can ask the same question of yourself: “Do you like him?” If you do, take the shot. If you don’t, better pass!

My 2003 Marco Polo argali has wonderful mass and an exceptionally deep curl…but because he has broomed off his lamb tips he doesn’t have the extreme length possible with this race of sheep. He’s big and old, so I could care less.