“I despise a tape measure on a hunting trip!” That's an extremely hypocritical sentence to open a story about a world record but, from the bottom of my heart, “I despise a tape measure on a hunting trip.” Let me explain. 

In my opinion hunting is more fun when the competition is against the animals not each other. I hunt to beat wild animals at their game in their homes, not to say mine is bigger than yours. I no longer hunt when it’s only inches we are hunting. 

I always say I’ve never killed a big whitetail because a big whitetail has never walked out first. I just don’t care that much about it. I fully respect the systems of measuring and the records and mostly the fact we can look back at what the animals were growing in years past and compare them to today, I just personally never did it that way. I am grateful for organizations like SCI who keep the records and support all of our hunting rights but I’m not looking to personally put my name in the book. 

That said, here’s how I killed the world record airgun blesbok and why it is the record. 

Eastern Cape with Time to Spare

I was on a Cape buffalo hunt in the Eastern Cape of South Africa with the Umarex Air Saber and had a few days left after the buffalo hunt so as usual we turned to plains game. I have been to South Africa several times and never had taken a blesbok because I just didn’t really like them and the hunt seemed pretty easy with a rifle honestly. But when an opportunity arose for a spot stalk with an airgun, well that’s different. 

The ram was bedded facing away in tall grass but on a slope in the open. We had the wind we needed but this grass was tall and it’s thick, not just in its density but also in the girth of the stalks. He needed to be standing to clear the grass on the slope because I was not sending an arrow through that loose standing hay. 

I am normally pretty in tune with the plan on safaris, I understand enough of what I’m hearing between the tracker and PH to get an idea and being hunters we are all thinking very close to the same thing anyway but I missed on this one. I understood that the tracker was staying on the top of the opposite hill and we would go down the draw and come up from behind the ram and use the tracker as our guide. What the plan actually was is this, we stalk into range and ready for the shot and Thimba (the tracker) who could see us and the ram would whistle to alert the ram to stand and turn around looking over us to him when we reached a predetermined point. Both good plans on their own, neither good in combination with the other. 

We stalked into range, I got on the sticks then I heard a whistle and looked back to the tracker for direction. Imagine my surprise when I heard Nick whisper “shoot him” in my ear. 

When I turned around there he was broadside at 27 yards just like Nick and Thimba planned it. It took me a second to realize my mistake but the shot was still well on its way to puncturing a vital organ but then all the sudden it wasn’t. The arrow took a hard right turn as a stalk of the thick grass blew over and caught the front of the arrow making it look like it took an exit ramp off the freeway. Well I guess then it’s a good thing that it wasn't the world record but it did upset me to the point I was now determined to kill a blesbok with an airgun now!

Tuned for a Reset

The focus was now on blesbok. Two stalks later and another miss on a prayer of a shot at a badly wounded animal that had been attacked we find ourselves now in the pasture with the big guy. 

I don’t even know if he’s big or care. I don’t even know how many inches is big if the truth is told but I do know that the farmer says he has a plan on how to kill it. This ain’t no ordinary farmer either this is a retired lion hunter from Zambia so he knows about killing. 

He claimed that when he fed cows in this pasture  recently that this ram would go to the same stand of thorn bush on the far side and hide. He said, “I need to feed them cows too so I’ll give y'all half an hour to set up”. 

I like this plan! Nick, my PH, likes this plan and the farmer likes this plan. The blesbok was not going to like this plan at all. 

Nick and I are running like a Rolex together by now. We have taken buffalo and a zebra with an airgun spot and stalk and wart hog with a rifle. Nick is an excellent bowhunter so he had no problem getting close. 

We backed into thick brush facing what we knew had to be his route. It was thick so there weren’t many choices. That thickness left Nick tucked back deep behind me but he could see over my shoulder. I told him we have one shot if you stop him in that hole right there we got him if not I’ve got nothing. 

I heard the cows start mooing and the feed truck rattling so we were about to see if this farmer knew what he was talking about.

Honestly he may as well have had that ram on a leash because he could not have walked any more direct to the spot we picked. 

Nick and I both saw him coming head down just walking his path through the tall grass between huge thorn thickets to avoid the noise and smell of loud stinking cattle. Three strides before he should enter the little hole I put my eye in the scope and gave the rest of the responsibility to Nick. When the rams head hit the edge of that little opening Nick grunted and the next step he took he stopped to pick his head up, it was a direct shot to his heart through the brush at 24 yards. 

Post Shot Reflection

I never remember pulling the trigger. I saw the crosshairs settle and the rest was automatic. The arrow never slowed down as it passed through on its way toward the Indian Ocean somewhere to parts unknown never seen again. The ram hit high gear, but for a short time. 25 yards and he was stone dead in seconds. We watched him fall in the same kind of tall yellow grass that started this whole mission when it side swiped my arrow from the air two days before. 

Nick knew right away he was big and was very excited at his size. The week had gone by without  me even reminding Nick to put away the tape. He understood it wasn’t part of my style and he said he didn’t care about it BUT when he put hands on the horns he said “man I’m sorry but I have to measure this and call the other PH.” He did and I laughed. I asked “did he do well?” 

He said “Most rifle hunters would love a 19” blesbok.”

 I said “I don’t even really know if that’s big.” Back at the lodge I was told by everyone it was very nice so I understood that it was above average in their area at least. 

I don’t know who first mentioned that the blesbok being taken with an airgun had to be some record so once I was back home I did some research and it seemed that it was not only a good ram by any means but likely would be the airgun world record. 

Having now been through the process and seeing and talking to folks about it I do understand the keeping of the records more and I am very happy for my friends at KMG Safaris who hosted the hunt and for Umarex Airguns for being able to claim a world record animal with their product. 

The ram scored  48 3/8” which is a very respectable animal by any means. Seeing how happy Nick and the guys at Umarex are, I have no problem putting him in the book. However, I would prefer that the credit went to the blesbok, not me, because I did not grow those horns. He survived those years to grow them and he should be recognized not me but that’s not how it works. 

It’s great for an outfitter to have proof of the quality of his animals and it’s great for a company to have their products being used for their intended purpose and performing. 

The Air Saber is a very deadly arrow shooting air gun. I was shooting a 200 grain broad head at 380 FPS with a total 550 grain arrow weight. That is a lot of power! Enough to shoot through a Cape buffalo, I know for fact. 

Chris Cook, Texan, consummate outdoorsman, and baseball fan hunts near and far with air.