Blesbok Hunting – Field Guide & Tips for Hunting Blesbok

Your Blesbuck ram trophy should have an average shoulder height of around 35 inches, weigh 130 pounds,  and have a Horn Length of approximately 13 – 15 inches.

The Safari Club International minimum score for a common blesbok is 40, and a white blesbok is 39. Measure the length of each horn and the circumference of the bases and sum the measurements to get your SCI score.

This once near-extinct game antelope has been reintroduced across South Africa and boasts hundreds of thousands.

Blesbok live on the open savanna and are primarily grazers. They form a herd consisting of females (ewes) and juveniles. Males (rams) tend to be solitary.

This changes when single males are disturbed during hunting. As a result, ensure that you take the animal of choice when blesbuck hunting.

As available water is essential to this species, hunting near the approaches to water holes can prove productive.

The best time for hunting blesbok is when they are grazing in the morning or late afternoon.

Like many other species, the blesbok lays up during the hottest afternoon.

Nick Bowker Hunting has two large herds of Blesbok, well over a hundred strong, including white Blesbok mixed with common Blesbok.

The Blesbok is very wary and difficult to approach. Longer shots will, therefore, be required. This may be one of the few times you will shoot prone.

Blesbok, however, bunch together, and shooting the right one requires careful communication with your professional hunter, Nick Bowker. Hunt blesbok by setting up ambushes, looking down valleys, and spotting and stalking.

Distances are longer on the open grasslands, the Blesbok’s home, and we recommend the flat shooting 7mm magnums or even the 300 magnums for hunts.

For those hunters who wish to avoid going through the red tape of bringing a rifle into South Africa, Nick Bowker has a 300 magnums fitted with suppressors.

Mounted on the rifles are Swarovski Z8 tactical scopes. We have hand-loaded Hornady ELD-X ammunition. The rifle, including ammunition, is free of charge as part of all hunting packages.

The Blesbok is one of the fastest-breeding game species in Southern Africa. He is seen by many as the perfect animal for the first-time hunter in Africa.

When judging the trophy quality of Common Blesbok, it’s essential to look at the width of the boss, the color of the horn, and the overall length.

Mature males will likely have a whitish tinge about two-thirds of the way up the horn, While females and younger rams have much darker horns.

The neck should be pronounced and stand out against females and young rams.

Also, mature rams will stand out in the herd and be more visible in horn length and shoulder height. The difficulty comes when approaching solitary rams, where you will rely on your professional hunter.

• The name “blesbok” comes from the Afrikaans word “bles,” which means “blaze,” which refers to the white-colored marking on the face of the blesbok.

• In English, they are called blesbuck, alternatively common or white blesbuck. This animal is plentiful in both national parks and private land.

• Blesbok has a medium-sized body and short tail, which ends with a black tuft.

• Males and females have S-shaped, spiral horns that can reach 14 to 20 inches in length, but females have more slender horns.

• Blesbok can run 43 miles per hour to avoid predators, including cheetahs, leopards, lions, jackals, wild dogs, pythons, and eagles.

• Blesbok lives in herds that consist of 10 to 100. Mature males protect females and lambs in the group, and the herd inhabits a territory of 2 to 6 acres.

• Blesbok hunts are always done in the open, especially in the Free State. Male blesbok use piles of dung to mark their territory. The mating season of blesbok takes place from March to May.

• Blesbok can interbreed with a closely related antelope species called bontebok and create hybrids known as “bontebles.”

• Female pregnancy lasts about 7.5 to 8 months, after which a single calf is born.

• Females give birth within the herd, and the young immediately become part of the herd, which is different from many other antelope.

• Blesbok is born during November and December, the rainy season when food is abundant. The calf is beige-colored, and the “blaze” is dark-colored.

• Sexual maturity is at the age of 2.5 year, and can survive around seventeen years in the wild.

Found in the open veld and savanna of South Africa, Blesbok’s preferred habitat is open grassland with water.

Physically, rams and ewes are remarkably similar, with a mass of as much as 150 pounds.

The Blesbok has a prominent white blaze on the face and a white patch on the forehead between the horns.

The body is brown with a lighter-colored saddle on the back and the rump an even lighter shade.

The legs are brown with a white patch behind the top part of the front legs, and the lower legs are whitish.

Both males and females carry horns ringed almost to the tip.

The Blesbok shares a common behavioral characteristic with his cousin, the bontebok, standing together with heads facing the sun and down towards the ground. He sometimes shakes his head violently, stamps, and runs in a complete circle, only to take up his original place.