If you've taken a gemsbok, please share with us your story. I think they are one of the best trophies and neatest critters in the world.

I've been to RSA twice and still have not collected a "desert unicorn", due to freakish events. It looks like I will be returning in May or June to bowhunt and I can't wait!

I have had close calls and even my safety off on several occasions, but something always happened to prevent me from shooting — usually another gemsbok or zebra standing behind the one I wanted. On my first safari, my buddy accidentally shot two gemsbok (long story) and I ended up giving him my allotted animal. I had to grit my teeth for the remainder of the trip, whenever a gemsbok bull would "get stupid" and I'd have to just watch.

They say you always need to have something to return for, and gemsbok is my something.

Thanks for sharing!

39 1/4" Namibian Oryx. One shot 338 Win. from a Browning A Bolt. Beautiful animal and good eatting!

I never connected in RSA but took a real nice one on the White Sands Missle Range in New Mexico. They offer permits there and the hunt is a dandy. The missle range looks just like most of the places in the RSA and the hunting is very hard. The USFWS and Dept of Defense run the hunts and it is a lot of fun.

Gemsbok were one of my highest priorities when we got to go to Namibia in '03.

I took this bull with an X bullet out of a Sako in .340 Wby. We were on a walk to a watering area on a morning hunt and this bull was coming back solo. He was quartering toward us at the shot. He ran about 60 yards and piled up.

They are beautiful animals and have a neat trot. The meat is terrific as well.



Best of luck on your next hunt.

Kyler

40" cow gemsbok taken with a 405 gr. 45-70 from a Marlin 1895GS offhand at 80 yards through the spine in RSA Aug. '03. Not a great photo taken by my hunting partner. I'm holding her from rolling over on me!

Stagman,

RSA is probably not the place for really good gemsbok. Most of RSA is not native habitat for them other than the far west Kalahari region.

If they are your main target animal for an upcoming safari I would give serious consideration to an outfit in Namibia that specializes in bowhunting as you said that would be your weapon of choice.

When I hunted them in Namibia the property had a huge health population of gemsbok and I took a 38.5" bull and 3 more non trophy bulls. I will tell you that you need to put your arrow right in that crease behind their front leg because a hit further back will not do the job. What would have been a solid lung shot on my bull if it was a North American animal ended in a gut shot and a long follow up.

If you'd like some ideas on hunts in Namibia and specific bowhunts with experts in the field contact me anytime.

Mark

TJ,

Looks like yours was a cow also...thinner bases, long slender horn mass.

Here's my gemsbuck taken in the Kalahari desert in Namibia.

I represent this outfitter and they routinely take Gold Medal gemsbuck in this area. Anyone interested in big gemsbuck feel free to contact me and I will supply details. Their prices are extrememly reasonable.

Todd Rathner
The T. Jeffrey Safari Company
tjeffreysafari@aol.com
520-404-8096

Gemsbok

I have a South African friend who pronounces their name with a hard "G" like in the word "Grunt" or "Game". TV shows and north american hunters invariably pronounce it with a soft "J" as in the word "Jem".

I know better than to argue with someone who was born and raised there about such things. I prefer he stay my friend. I suspect my friend from RSA has it right. Otherwise would it not be spelled "JEMSBOK" instead of "GEMSBOK".

I have found it wise to respect such subtleties versus being labeled the "Ugly American" or "Ignorant Tourist".

I wonder what the more experienced in this lot have heard.

Gemsbok are stunningly beautiful in my opinion. Fine trophies indeed. Some places I hear they are quite difficult to obtain.

If you have your heart set on one. I believe Namibia holds the most and biggest. I am certain several folks on here can narrow it down further if you ask.

Gemsbok are certainly beautiful and I look forward to hunting them again. I have taken a couple of bulls in the Northern Province of South Africa at Sandhurst.

I have taken six with my bow and like was said earlier if you want a short track get that arrow in tight on the shoulder.I like to be inside the crease and on the big muscle of the front shoulder.Kind of "in the V" that is formed by the scapula and the humourous bones.Even better is quartering away so that the arrow enters behind one shoulder and exits in front of the other.This shot works real well.

Gemsbok are one of my favorites and I also reccommend Namibia as the premier destination if that is an animal you covet.

As to pronounciation,most of my African aquaintances pronounce it as Him's buck.The G is pronounced as an h .

I apologize but cannot give the derivation of the name which would likely aid in determining the true way it should be pronounced.

quote:

Originally posted by eyedoc:
As to pronounciation,most of my African aquaintances pronounce it as Him's buck.The G is pronounced as an h .

I apologize but cannot give the derivation of the name which would likely aid in determining the true way it should be pronounced.

The pronunciation I heard most was "Oryx."

(PH and trackers):

To get even closer, you have to pronounce the initial letter like the 'ch' in German. It's sort of like clearing your throat and saying 'h' at the same time. Since the word is Afrikaans, it makes sense to pronounce it "Germanically" as Afrikaans derives from Dutch which is half-way between German and English. And, yes, I am a school teacher!

I really enjoy Gemsbok, and I'll never tire of hunting them. They are a wary, tough, challenging, enduring, and totally sporty animal to hunt.

They can be dangerous as well. In fact, the only charge I've ever had to deal with in Africa was with a gemsbok in Namibia. I shot a bull at long range from an elevated position, but I didn't hit him quite right. He staggered at the shot, stumbled a few yards, and collapsed in a clump of thornbrush. We drove around the mountain to get to him, and my PH went forward and nudged him in the flank to make sure he was finished. As soon as he did, that Gemsbok got up and came around that throne tree, straight at ME! So I instantly shot him right in the chest with my 300 Win. Mag., and he went down in a heap, just a few paces away.

My PH, who did not carry a rifle, was quiet for a couple of moments, then stated that he'd never had a client charged by a gemsbok before......

Don't take gemsbok for granted, and ALWAYS have a rifle of your own in-hand when you approach ANY downed animal.

AD

I shot mine in the northwest province of S.A. in 2004. He took two shots from my .300 WTHBY with 180 gr. Nosler Partitions before going down. He was a nice bull, going 42" per side.

BOWHUNR

A 36" bull that I took in South Africa last August. Game farm (18,000 acres) in the Northern Limpopo Province just about ten miles south of the border; bushveld country. Gemsbok wasn't even on my "menu" for that trip. We were hunting Blue Wildebeest when this guy showed up. Not the biggest bull by any means but I decided that I couldn't pass him up. I hit him straight through the heart (literally) at a range of about 80 yards with my 9.3x62 firing a 286 gr Woodleigh RN handload at 2390 fps. He ran about 70 yards before piling up. Tough critters. The red spot just below the hump is not a bullet hole. It's a stab wound from probably another Gemsbok.

-Bob F.

39" gemsbok from RSA's East Cape. -TONY

I'll air some of my dirty laundry here, please be kind.

I took mine at about150 yds through a window of some heavy brush. Didn't have the best visualization of him, could see horns and thought he was facing me. I fired thinking I was putting the crosshairs right inside his shoulder on a quartering towards shot. He statred walking away, walking, not running. Something was definitely not right with him. Could tell he was hurt, but not how bad. He only walked about 20 yds. away and stood behing some brush.

We followed him a short distance, and then he stood behind a big tree. We were now about 80 yds away. We waited for about 10 minutes with the gun on the sticks for him to clear the tree. Fnally he came out from behind the tree and presented a perfect broadside shot. Second shot was a perfect behind the shoulder shot. He crumpled and quit thrashing witin a minute.

When we inspected him, his horn length turned out to be better than originally thought. It also turned out that my original "quartering towards" shot was an almost perfect (but totally inadvertent) Texas Heart shot. I'm not proud of it, but it's one of those memories that will stick with you forever.

Caleb,

Been there, done that on a whitetail...

Anybody who has hunted any length of time has made the same call a time or two. Main thing is you got a second shot and made good on it.

I hunted Namibia the end of May this year. I took 3 Gemsbok and 5 Springbok. My 3rd Gemsbok was a 42". Because I was from RSA and registersd as a meat hunter I could not bring out the trophies.

The meat is fantastic.

A quick and easy recipe:
Take a piece of the backstrip and cut it lenght wise. Fill it with cheddar cheese and mussels. Close it up and turn pieces of bacon around it. Pin the baconstrips with tooth pic's. Roast it in the oven, I prefer mine medium to rare. Make sure that the cheese starts melting.

It is a wonderfull dish.

You can see mine in the icon. Shot at 120 yards with .300 win mag 180gr nosler partition.

Stagman

Like you I am waiting for my first Gemsbuck. This summer I was at a ranch, in Botswana, on the edge of the Kalahari. The ranch was huge and had a lot of gemsbuck, even more nice Kudu, but I had the misfortune to follow a group of Russian hunters who took 60 animals, not all trophies, shooting mostly from the trucks. By the time that I got there the game was conditioned to run at the sound of the truck. All I saw was the southbound end of northbound Gemsbuck. I had one possible shot but declined to shoot from the truck.
One positive, the Russians left some Cuban cigars. My buddy, a retired Marine pilot said that payback was sitting around the fire smoking Cuban cigars liberated from the Russians.
By the way, they mostly pronounced Gemsbuck as Oryx there.

TerryR

.

Namibia '97 Bull

Heartshot @ 350 meters - .375/270X

stagman,
Gemsbok are indeed a fine trophy.Here is my bull from last year.He was shot at about 50 yards at dusk.

I put my email address above and it is incorrect. If you are interested in hunting big gemsbuck in the Kalahari email me at:

tjeffreysafaris@aol.com

Todd J. Rathner
The T. Jeffrey Safari Company

I took a nice Gemsbok in South Africa near Douglas in 2002. Was a beautiful male with 42" horns. My hunting companion took a nice female during that same hunt that was 41 1/2". Just this year, some friends of mine hunted with that same outfitter and one of them took a 45 1/2" female Gemsbok and another a male of 42". Not bad for the RSA don't you think?

I was able to have a great hunt while I was stationed at Ft Bliss, TX. New Mexico has offered gemsbok hunts on White Sands Missile Range but never on Ft Bliss. Even though Ft. Bliss is in TX, the huge majority of the bases training area is actually in NM and borders White Sands. Last year NM ofered 30 controlled hunt tags for active duty military stationed at Ft Bliss. I put in and drew the #1 tag. The happened on in OCt last fall. I was escorted be a Ft Bliss Range Rider. We would drive the ranges roads looking for sign. If we found fresh sign we would try spot and stall. After hours of not seeing anything in an area where it was normal to see dozens in a short time we became very frustrated. Finally after climbing one of the old abandoned WW2 range towers ro glass we spotted one. THe horns looked nice and he appeared to be a solitary animal. A stalk was made and I fired my first shot straight on with him facing me. The bullet made a loud "thwack" sound when it hit. He bounded off all hunched up with his nose almost touching the ground. I circled to where he presented me with a broadside shot and I placed #2 in the front shoulder.

He was a beautiful animal and I still feel very privelaged to have taken such a nice trophy. He measured 36 1/4" on each side and had very heavy thick horns. I am having a shoulder mount done and I am still waiting for it to be completed by the taxidermist.

I used my CZ 550 Safari in 375 H&H and Winchester 270gr Fail Safes. They did a great job.

Oh, yeah! I love gemsbok. I took my first one in 2000 here in New Mexico at White Sands Missile Range. It was only a two-day hunt, so one couldn't be overly selective. At nine am on the second day I shot this 37.5" cow at 80 yards with a .300 Win after a nice long stalk.



When I booked my hunt in Namibia last year I initially told the PH that I didn't really want to shoot another, as I already had a nice trophy and wanted to focus on other critters. Of course, that only lasted until I saw them in their native habitat. Several days into my safari we spotted a nice bull walking near the road. We dismounted the Toyota and started to sneak closer for a closer look. Off he went. We played tag with that bull for several hours and at least two miles. Our short stalk from the truck to take a look ended in 200 yard shot (then a 286 yard shot, then a finisher - see what a marginal shot gets you on oryx?). We estimtated him at 36" when I shot, which I would have been happy with after that stalk. Upon closer scrutiny we found he was an even 38" - the near perfect match for my US cow.



My wife has also taken one here in NM. She shot hers at about 250 yards with a .257 Roberts after a short sneak. She had a tag for a non-typical, which hers surely is.


If there are gemsbok at my next African destination, I will certainly try for one. No more illusions of "one is enough."

I took this one on the Eastern cape of RSA. I used a Remington 721 custom gun in .300 H&H and Swift A-Frames at about 160 yards.

One shot was all it took. The bullet was not recovered.

Alf,

If you go back to my post you will see I said that gemsbok were native to the Kalahari. I apologise if I didn't lay out the geography correctly. I quess what I should of said was that gemsbok are not indigenous to most of RSA. To me it is important to hunt animals at least in their historical range even if they have initially been stocked on a property.

I represent some excellent people in RSA but if a guy comes to me and says he wants a big gemsbok I would stear him to Namibia everytime.

Regards,

Mark

This Gemsbok was taken at 250 yds with a single shot from my 300 Win Mag in the Northern Provence. We had glassed some Kudu and were making a stalk when we found the Gemsbok in a draw.

42.5 inch Oryx taken September 2005 in Namibia after a great stalk. 100 yards .375 H&H.

Old sarge is right on how to pronounce it...

Mine was shot at 250 yards right through the heart... he spun a few circles ran about 80 yards... spun a few more cirlces... ran back to where I shot him... then as I aproched him all his hair stood up on end and then he died.

I shot another at 70 yard and dropped him hard... then he got up and ran off. We never found so much as even a drop of blood??!! I was told later i prolly shot one of the long bones that extends downward from their back bone.

In Namibia the longest will be in the Kalahari and the Khomas Hochlands being shorter but most of the time much heavier. Mine is a 36" and very heavy from the khomas Hochlands.

Aaron

Anybody see what their gemsbok did just prior to expiring? If you watch them closely, all of the hair on their body stands straight up just as they are dying. Very interesting to watch. Was pointed out to me by my PH.

Gemsbok are tough animals. Mine dropped at one shot from my 300 Wby with 180 gr Partitions. Hunted the depth of the Kalahari in Botswana in 2003. This gal is 43".





My son took a nice 38" on the same hunt. I just loved hunting in the Kalahari.

I was fortunate enough to take this bull in the Northern Cape of SA after a long stalk followed by what seemed like an infinte wait until he gave me a clear shot. When we reached the group of Gemsbok on the stalk, this bull was bedded. After he stood up, he chased a couple of teenagers around for what seemed like an eterity. He finally stopped and I scored a fatal blow. He was taken with a Sako chambered in 300 WSM with 180 gr. Speer Grand Slam bullets.

A gemsbok story:
http://www.savageshooters.net/Hunting/GemsHunt.html

A very heavy 37" Gemsbok taken in Namibia in July 2004. 375 H&H and 260 grain AccuBond.