Like all hunters, I have taken some animals that hold a special place for me. I got to thinking and decided that I have one that takes my top place. What I would like to know, is which one holds that special place for all of you.

Mine is a Western Roan. I took this animal on safari in 2004 in the Northern Savanna of Cameroon. I was hunting with Borge Ladegford's Ngong Safaris. My primary animal on the safari was Roan and after a lot of research I decided this was the place to go. I booked for 12 days in the brush with travel days on both ends. Total time for the safari was 16 days.

I told Borge that I wanted a good Roan. For trophy purposes that means horns of at least 28 inches. All hunting in Cameroon is conducted via foot and the PH I was with was a French guy named Daniel. I passed on a number of bulls until We found this one on March 3 which just happened to be my Father's 70th birthday:


I'm on the right, Daniel is in the middle and a tracker named Numa is on the left.

The bull has horns that both go a little over 31 inches. He was so old his teeth were worn to the gumline. He had an old healed bullet wound from a poacher in the fleshy part of his hind leg and a set of healed scars on his left shoulder where a lion had hooked him. In other words, he was absolutely perfect! Big Roan are getting very, very hard to find in the safari areas. He was the biggest we saw and ended up being the biggest taken in Borge's area that season and the 3rd biggest of all for him.

The shot was a little over 300 yards across a lava rock plain and it took 2 bullets from my 375 H&H to bring him down. I handload a 300 gr Woodleigh PP bullet over a stiff charge of WIN 760 powder with Federal 215Magnum rifle primers. It is a very accurate load in my 375.

So, show me your special animal.