This year we have had the pleasure to hunt quite a bit of wildebeest with clients.
It doesnt matter what caliber you use or the best premium bullets but if that wildebeest does not want to die and give up they just dont want to listen.

It is by some magic that you can blow the heart or the lungs but common logic doesnt want to prevail to them death is not an option. Then on the other hand half of them goes down bang flop. But the one that does give a ph a big headache and the client some bad moments of a wounded and lost animal are the ones that live without blood in their veins. On a few occassions this year so far the wildebeest make sure they leave no blood. They must have learned an intricate way of keeping that blood from not gushing out even if you hit pure heart or lung. A good friend of mine has got this theory about them and the more I think of it the more I tend to agree. He says that wildebeest is born sick and as soon as you feed them "lead" they are healthy.

I will take two instances of the last two that was hunted with us. A swedish client build is own home made double wait for it a 45/70 govt on a side by side Merkel shotgun by inserting two 45/70 barrels. Accuracy was not MOA but good enough for distances up to 50 yards. Now the man wanted to shoot a wildebeest with it and so we tried and after a couple of failed stalks we finally end up 25 yards from a youngish bull in thick bush with a break in the bush. The shot goes off and the bullets impact exactly on the point where I told him to shoot. He stumbles and runs for his life splitting from the herd. It took a few steps for him to dissapear in the bush. We wait a while and walk up to the spot where he shot the beest. No blood whatsoever nada, zip zero but I know the animal as been hit good. The ground is covered with very fine bush and very thick grass making it very difficult to pick the tracks. By jumping the tracks a bit we come onto a road where he crossed still no blood and this is 80-90 yards from where he was shot. About 20 yards from the road I find our first blood but it doesnt look good it looks like a meat wound, no pink coloured blood or froth but watery looking blood. From the spot we find no other blood expect for the spot where he stood, we decide to get the help of a dog and myself and the client waits at the spot of the last blood.

Luckily for us the tracker had to go round the road and he calls us over to a magnificnet sight our wildebeest dead ! That was about 100 yards or so from where we found the first blood and by backtracking from where he laid we still found no blood whatsoever. Both lungs were destroyed and the slow heavy bullet punched a very big hole in the ribs so why didnt the wildebeest throw any blood ? The bullets used was 400gr speer running at around 1800 fps I think.

The next day we were after wildebeest again this time aother client armed with a dirty 06 Norma oryx 180gr bullets. The shot was angled and close 30 yards but precisly placed where he was told by me and the beests thundered off again. He was part of a bachlelor group and we could hear the others waiting for him which gave us good confidence. We slowly moved to the spot where he got hit and I took his tracks remember there is no blood again we move 20 yards into the thicker part of the bush when I spot a lone beest standing and quickly indetify him as the one we shot. He is sick and is ready to drop anytime or so I thought, the client and I drop to our haunhces and wait for him to fall over. We see movement behind him the others are still waiting for him to join them. He moves a leg and almost topples over but stays up and we wait but nothing is happening he took a further two steps and before he gets another burts of energy I let the client hit him again whereby the wildebeest runs another 10 yards before falling over. Walking up to him he still wanted to get up and soon expires. The first shot took both lungs and the second the heart it is just amazing how tough these animals are and when hit properly not throwing any blood.

Both these clients arrived in Africa for the first time and looked at wildebeest as the dumb easy hunt animal and left with what must have been the most exiting and nerve wrecking hunts for them.

Earlier in July CChunter shot an old wildebeest cow with a 7 x 57 and 160gr rhino bullet trough both lungs and a tad too high she dropped 10 spots of blood and we found her 500 yards away without any futher blood dead as a doornail.

Dont be fooled they are not stupid to hunt and not easy to kill they are the cheapest of the bigger antelope to hunt and will give you, your money worths.

Interesting Frederik!
- mike

I had exactly the same experience last year. I shot a Blue Wildebeest with a .303 174gr bullet. After the shot I saw the Wildebeest run off and drop about 50m further on. I then took my eyes off him while walking toward him, to find him missing. We went back to where he was standing when the shot was taken - no blood. We eventually found him where he fell (so we think) and backtracked on his spoor for pure interest to look for blood NOTHING ! If his spoor did not show he was hit hard and I did not see him drop we might of called it a clean miss. The bullet took out the top of the heart and both lungs with a nice exit wound.

Any ideas what would cause this will be very interesting -

I've had similar experiences with the 4 blue wildebeest that I've taken, and I was using either the .338 WinMag or the .375 H&H. Sometimes there would be a pool of blood but within 20 yards or so the spoor would diminish to a trickle then disappear altogether. They always gave me a run for my money and the trackers had to use every bit of their skill and luck to find the beests after I'd shot them. I guess that's why I enjoy hunting them.



Old Fool of the Veld

Namibiahunter

I've taken blue and a black wildebeest and the both dropped pretty readily. The black had a fair amount of thick orange blood coming out and theblue blead like a stuck hog. leaving 4' puddles as he ran 100 yards or less. These were both taken with a "dirty" 06.

7mm. guy

Frederik:
I agree with you in your assessment of the wildebeest being thee toughest of plainsgame. The solo or bachelor bulls go down fairly quickly, but if dispatched from a herd the bull fights longer for survival. Would you agree?

Moja

Shot one a client had wounded in the ass, with a 7mm RemMag 160gr NosPart right though the boiler and he went approx 400 didn't bleed a drop. Opened him up and he was a mess ,a wad of fat had plugged the hole!

How could someone wound a wildebeest in the ass?

judging from the poster's address, obviously a Texas heart shot!!

IMHO, the key is to equate the wildebeest with the cape buffalo.

I have not used less than a .375 on them and that has been enough, but - amazingly - not as much enough as one would think.

Even with a 270 grain expanding bullet through the heart and lungs, I have seen them leap up, dance, buck and then run for minutes, until finally, and almost regrettably, dying.

I love them.

On the first wildebeest shot with the 45-70 400 grain Speer bullet; did the bullet penetrate completely?

I killed one with a 9.3 x 62 Mauser shooting a 250 gr A-Frame back in May that didn't leave a blood trail but he didn't go over 50-75 yards. He was rather bloody on his side when we found him.

In 2002 I shot a black beest with a 286 grn. Norma Alaskan from a 9.3x62 at just about a dead even 300 yrds. My longest ever shot on an African animal. I rolled this boy a full 360 and then he just stood up and looked at us. I decided to go back to the truck, have a drink and candy bar and let him bleed out as he did not run and I did not want to get into a tracking job. One Coke and Snickers later we try and sneak back into position but once again he is still looking straight on at me and there is a lot of green felt between the cue ball and the corner pocket. I told my PH I wanted to try and get at least a better angle rather than just straight on so we hunker down and move thru the tall grass. We round the thornbush and set up the sticks when Mr.Blk Beest decides he will come investigate the two ,fat, white boys. He gets to within 125 yrds or less and I fire again. Now you can see dust fly off the back side and once again he does a 360 roll and once again the PH is telling me what a great shot. I asked him if it was such a great shot why in hell is the Blk Beest hauling butt? Now it sounds like WWIII breaks out as I start slinging lead again. One of those shots connects and he in now down again. We walk up to him and I use the PH's 40S&W pistol to put the final touch on him. I was tired of shooting at, near or around him. I had fired all told 12 rounds and had 360 rolled him twice in the process and each time the PH telling me he was dead Oh, sure.. Anyway there was one spot where you could have put in a golf ball or maybe a tennis ball in his right hind flank. The first shot hit him a bit high on the left shoulder as I did not understand he was standing in such tall grass but still I rolled him twice.
We recoverd several of the bullets and they did well as far as expansion and there is still plenty of weight left. This is the only animal period that I ever shot so much lead at while knocking it down twice before getting it to stay down. My cape buff was a cinch compared to this bad boy. A tip of the hat to Mr. Wildebeest be he black or blue. That brass is now loaded with 286 Nosler Partitions and 250 Barnes X. I hope to get another run at a wildebeest of any color. They are plenty tough and deserve much respect.

The Blue I shot a week ago was the same, a .375 where it matters and it still went at least 250 yards with little to no blood.

While hunting the Gonabisi we had the opportunity to provide meat for the village. Of the 6 we provided, 5 ran over 100yds with severely compromised circulatory systems disrupted by 350 grain Swift A Frames from my 416 Rem Mag. The one exception staggered a few steps and went down.

A nice bull as a trophy was taken head on and was a BF. They are extremely tough and loads of fun to hunt. Like my PH said, their antics make them truly “Wild Beastsâ€.

That's definitely different than my experience with a Nyassa in K4 in '06.

It was a harder hunt than the buff we had taken a couple of days before.

We began spot and stalk on a herd, but their outriders, the Lict. Hartebeest and the Zebra kept alerting the Wildebeest and kept them 500 yds away. We'd sneak toward the herd and one of the boys would take off, and there they'd go.

Next day, we did the same thing all over again in a light rain and got 300 yds from a good one standing there grazing.

Charlie put up the sticks and I took the shot with my .375 with a 300 gr. A Frame. Hit him in the shoulder and down he went. We hiked over to where he was and I put a finishing shot into him and he let out a death bellow worthy of a Cape buff. He tasted doubly good at dinner that night.

They are very tough but every wildebeest has a handbrake with the cable running through its neck if you shoot it in the neck you break the cable and it wont stop running,. it might be the cheapest large antilope but the farmers will tell you that every wildebeest get paid for twice

the best shot is low in the chest with a gsc that penetrates right thrue 2 holes much more blood to follow i have also followed a few without any blood trail only to pick them up stone dead. if you see him standing after the shot shoot again. like Frederik said lead makes them healthy

Ercolino sempre in piedi!! (always standing up little Hercule)

This has been the definition given by a friend of mine some years ago. In Zimbabwe he shooted three or four times to a wildebeest with his .375.
Every time, well hitted, the poor animal collapsed, but after a while it stood up, chocked of course but stood up. The last shot in the neck closed the hunt, but my friend was stunned by the event.

At the end he understood that it was a bullets fault. The bullets infact disintegrated at the impact, too soft and fragile. A vast superficial wound was the only reault of his shots.

Instead I did not have problems, a shot with my 9.3x62 and a few second agony, the time do make a pair of turn on itself and the wildebeest was dead.

I did not wantes the skin, and tis has been a mistake because it was wonderfull. But it was out of budget....