Blesbuck

Blesbuck

  • Average weight male: 70 kg.
  • Average weight female: 60 kg.
  • Shoulder height male: 95 cm.
  • Shoulder height female: 95 cm.
  • Mating season: April, May

The blesbuck lives on the open plains of the South African highveld. Primarily grazers, they form herds consisting of females (ewes) and juveniles, while the males (rams) tend to be solitary when not in the rut. The neck and top of the back is brown, darker on the flanks with a white belly. A small white blaze on the forehead and a larger blaze below is usually divided between the eyes. With both sexes carrying horns, care must be taken when hunting blesbuck. Listen to your professional hunter and be carefull not to shoot the wrong specimen when looking at a herd.

The best time for hunting blesbuck is while they are grazing in the morning or late afternoon. Like many other species, they tend to lay-up during the hottest part of the afternoon.

The blesbok shares a common behavioral characteristic with his cousin the bontebok – that of standing together with heads facing toward the sun and faces low to the ground. He sometimes shakes his head violently, stamps and runs in a complete circle only to resume his original place. As available water is essential to this specie, hunting blesbok near the approaches to water holes can prove productive.

This once near-extinct antelope has been reintroduced on the game farms of southern Africa and boasts a population somewhere in the hundreds of thousands.

Calibers like the .270 or 30-06 give excellent results for longer shots out on the plains. While hunting blesbok in the bush, you may want to select a heavy-for-caliber round nose bullet. Place your shot by following the centerline of the fore-leg about one third up into the body, which will strike the top of the heart and the lungs. If this does not drop him, he will not go far.