Hi, y'all!

Well I am getting an awesome Christmas present- I am getting to hunt a blackbuck in January! I am seriously excited and very grateful to the landowner for giving my fiancé a very heavily discounted price so we can make it happen. as you can probably imagine I reacted a lot like my stepson did opening his gifts this morning

So, any tips on hunting blackbuck? 4500 low fence acres where we have seen blackbuck many times. I am assuming sitting in a blind is not the way to hunt them- they're constantly moving it seems. How close can you usually get to them before they mind/average shot distance? I am allowed to take a buck of any size- what is considered small, medium, large? Size is just a bonus, I am thankful to take any of them.

Thanks y'all for any tips and info, and merry Christmas!

My experience is that they are skittish,and while small, will soak up a bullet and still run. Anything over 20" straight measurement is a really good blackbuck in my opinion. Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Blackbucks are very territorial and mark their area with poop piles. Find the piles and you’ll find a buck. They like staying out in the open but will stay in cover if they feel pressured. 20 inches is a good buck but they are hard to judge just like any straight horn measurements. Count the curls to help with measuring length. On my place I mostly have 4 curl genetics so I can count curls to get a rough estimate. Depending on genetics you can have a 20 incher with 3, 4 or 5 curls. It takes a lot of experience to tell the difference between a 19 and 21 incher on the hoof.

When looking at them with their head down if their horns are above the top of their back they are a decent blackbuck. Guiding I always look for a dark color (generally the most dominant one) I look at the curls. 4 is a good start. then when their head is down eating. If the tips are above the shoulders you have a good one. 18+ strait tape. Shoot them in the shoulders. a little bit forward than a whitetail. The anatomy of a blackbuck is more like an african antelope. I have killed several and guided on 50+ If you shoot them square in the shoulder you will drop them fast if it is behind the shoulder they can run like the wind and it is a pain in the [censored] to track them

Thank y'all very much, I am very excited and grateful for the tips. As Tony mentioned they seem very skittish, when we ride around in the Polaris they bust out of there a lot sooner then whitetail do. I guess the plan is to find their general area and spot and stalk. It'll be a three day trip with the offer standing to return if I don't get one.

I am hoping for a nice dark coat or a transitional color would also be nice. Is this more to do with dominance or more to do with season?

Color has more to do with age, genetics and season. Right now is a good time to get one. Our herd rotates dominance between a couple bucks so the darkest one or biggest one might not be with the does.

Congratulations on a very cool Christmas gift.
We love to spot and stalk BBs. They are easier to get to than WT, in our experience, but you have to catch them preoccupied. I have put my wife on two stalks where we both got to 50 yards on one and to 60 yards on the other. I know you can get really close when they bed down in their poop piles (yes, they lay in these piles) or have does they are following. As stated, they like open fields and can be seen from a distance, watch for horns sticking up mid-day while they are bedded. My wife's closest one was stalked when she saw the horns sticking up through the grass. She had to be ready when he popped up, she had about a second.
They will come to corn but not as aggressively as WT, but will hit a protein feeder all day, and night, again this is in my experience where we hunt. We hunted a LF place that did not feed protein and they would hit the corn harder there.
The black being a dominance thing seems to be the understanding, but I have seen otherwise. I have a 22" BB (22" x 21 1/2") that is as golden as a BB doe, my niece has a 20" one that looks the same. All the other males gave mine space and he would chase them till they were out of site. Black may be a dominance thing as it generally comes with age and maturity, and maybe I have seen the exception. I am sure there are guys on here with more experience on that than me.
They are definitely better looking when black. But they generally will not get black on the back of the neck and the tail, so do not let that be a factor on shooting, but they can run a beautiful black streak down each leg. This isn't an issue for mounting as it isn't seen on a shoulder mount, just looks sharp if doing a full hide.
I hope you can find a larger one, I would call that 18" or taller. But we have a beautiful 17" in the camp house that we use as a size guide, I would call it a medium size one.
Excellent info on all the post on this thread.
Good luck.

I Bow hunted them before on the Baker ranch (low fence). Find the poop piles is good advice. Another tip that worked for me is hunting a fence line when they were pressured they follow the fence (usually they dont jump it). I harvested mine with bow, I aimed for the front shoulders and it moved by so fast that I hit in the hind quarters. Hit the femoral artery and ran 80 yards before going down in view.

Good luck

They're an antelope so they have great vision. In my experience a spot and stalk is the most fun way to hunt them. They're very good at picking up movement, but aren't great at picking out what a predator is. If one spots you, freeze for a little while and they'll resume grazing. I've been incredibly impressed with their toughness, I've seen them shot with a .308, .270, and 22-250 and all of them have ran at least a couple hundred yards before falling over so shoot a bullet that'll open up immediately and cause good damage. Good luck on your hunt

That is true. They will soak up a bullet and go for a ways if not a kill shot. My son hit one angled back and it took nearly 3 hours of tracking.

Tony, where in VA are you from? I lived in C'ville for a couple of years before moving back to Texas

Much tougher than you think. Break both shoulders.

Thanks everyone, phantom and Simple Searcher the horns above the back seems like a great way for a novice like me to get a general estimate on if I should shoot or not. If I can keep it under 200 yards I feel very confident, probably won't go over 250 though so knowing you can creep up on them makes me feel better!

I'll be taking my 308 loaded with Barnes triple shock and aiming to take out both front shoulders. So far they've been a wrecking ball to anything shot with them. This property is much flatter and more open than mine (and exponentially larger, low chance of animals crossing into another property) so I'm hoping the combo means we won't have to track far and if we do, it won't be a nightmare.

I sincerely appreciate all the advice. I've always said I'd like to hunt one but never thought I'd have the opportunity this soon. It's going to be a lot of fun! I've never done a spot and stalk before either so lots of new experiences with this.

Good luck! You will do just fine. Be patient while you're spot and stalking! You're gonna get a giant!!

Let us know how yo do!