This is a story that I posted here in 2002 about the leopard that I just got back from the taxidermist this weekend. I wrote this for friends and family. I thought that you might enjoy reading it again.


"Day 1
I was hunting Chete concession with professional hunter Ivan Carter and HHK Safaris near Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe in September of 2002. I had never hunted dangerous game previously but I did have one trip under my belt hunting plainsgame in Namibia with a bow. The first day of my hunt started off with me missing a shot at an impala from about 150 yards across a dry lake bed. I did not feel comfortable shooting off of the crossed sticks that are so popular when hunting in this brush country. We then move on down the road about 1/2 a mile and come across fresh buffalo tracks. The trackers and my PH think that these buffalo spooked with my shot at the impala. The decision is made to follow these tracks looking for a herd bull or a good cow to use a leopard bait. After about an hour of tracking ,we come up on the buffalo feeding in dense brush. After checking the wind, we start our stalk. It was quite exciting to be in Africa sneaking through the brush, smelling, hearing, and occasionally seeing the buffalo as we went. The herd spooked twice and each time we would jog around to get ahead of them, Finally, on our third attempt, the wind was right and we were in a good position. The herd slowly grazed towards us but we could not see a large bull. We had buffalo moving on each side of us and at any minute they were going to see or smell us. Finally, out of the brush steps a very good cow without a calf and she looks to be a dry. My PH indicates that is the animal that we want. Finally she turns so that she is quartering towards us and stops where there are no other buffalo blocking the shot. We are crouched in the grass only 20 yards away from her. As I move my gun, we are seen by a young bull from only 10 yards away. My PH told me later that the young bull was staring directly at me the whole time I was setting up. The whole herd thunders off in a cloud of dust with the blast of the rifle. The shot looked good and she only goes 50 yards before going down. Her horns had a spread of 39 ½ inches. I had just taken my first animal with my Winchester Model 70 in a .375 H&H magnum caliber with a 300 grain Barnes-X soft bullet. I was in Africa hunting dangerous game!




The Barnes-X lost one petal after breaking the onside shoulder and angling back into her stomach.



The work began as we had to cut in a road and retrieve the buffalo. My PH then dresses and quarters this buffalo using a simple carpet knife and an ax. With some difficulty, the buffalo is loaded into the jeep and we go back to camp. We have a late breakfast and then go out to hang leopard baits.. As my PH had hunted for leopard on this property several months ago, he had several trees picked out where he had had baited in male leopards successfully. During the course of time it took to hang these baits, I also shot two impala. By nightfall, we had hung up a total of 5 baits with the last bait being put up as it was getting quite dark. I had completed my first day hunting dangerous game. After a shower, sundowners by the campfire, and supper, I slept very well that night.

Day 2
Early in the morning, we drove out about 4 hours to another part of the concession that gets hunted very little because it is far from camp. Our plan was to hang baits and then leave a vehicle there.. We would then be commuting by boat (30 minutes) back and forth to camp. My PH uses 2 vehicles when hunting cats which makes checking baits more efficient. We were able to get up 4 additional leopard baits that day before a call came in on the radio that one of the baits from the first night had been hit. We quickly came back to camp by boat, grabbed a blind, and set off for the bait. This bait was the last one that we had hung in the dark the previous day and was only 10 minutes from the main camp. It was thought to be a leopard that had been shot at unsuccessfully several months previously. Getting quickly to the bait, we found out that the leopard had pulled the impala out of the tree and moved it up a dry creek bed by about 200 yards. His track measured 8 cm long and my PH thought it to be a good male. We quickly put up the blind and by 4:45 pm we were sitting quietly with this being only the second evening of my safari!

At about 6:00pm, I could hear something moving off to our right and behind us. We could not look in that direction because of the blind. Later, my PH told me that I was listening to the leopard’s tail twitching in the leaves. That went on for a few minutes and then stopped. Shortly after that, the leopard walks down the dry creek bed and lays down in broad daylight about 20 yards from me. It is a big male and his fur looks like gold in the sunlight. He is so close that I can see his muscles ripple as he walks. Now my heart is racing and my mouth is dry! He stares directly at me for what seems like 5 minutes and I am sure that his eyes are burning a hole through the blind as I sit perfectly still. He finally looks away from me and towards the bait. My PH gives me the signal to shoot but I can’t! He had locked my rifle into a tripod to be used as a shooting rest. It was pointed directly at the bait but could not be quietly moved towards the leopard. I try to loosen the tripod clamp but I am making too much noise. After several more attempts to get the rifle loose, the leopard looks up at the blind. He gets up and walks slowly towards the side of the creek bed away from us. He is not going towards the bait! The leopard may have heard me trying to loosen the tripod and is leaving. My PH indicates that I should again try to get the gun out of the clamp or the opportunity for a shot will be gone. With some difficulty, the gun is free but where is the leopard? I eventually find him at 40 yards but he has moved into the tall grass. He seems to be broadside and is looking directly at us. I find his head, shoulder and the outline of his back in the scope. I come down with the crosshairs about 6 inches below his shoulder and slowly squeeze the trigger. At the shot, he is growling and coughing but runs away. I was calm with the shot but now I am really nervous.

We wait about 10 minutes while I tell my PH how it all had played out. By the angle I had on the shot, my PH could not see out of that side of the blind. We slowly walk up to where the leopard was standing when I took the shot. My heart falls as there is no blood. We then slowly walk through the grass in the direction that the leopard had taken. We are standing about 5 yards apart and go for about 100 yards but there is not sign of a hit. The trackers have now shown up because they heard the shot. I go back to the blind directing the trackers to where the leopard had been standing. The trackers find a flat rock with what appears to be a bullet mark on it and a few white hairs but no blood. By now it is dark so we elect to leave and come back in the morning. I do not remember much about the ride back to camp or the evening meal. As I layed in bed that night, I played the shot over and over again in my mind thinking about what happened.....

Day 3
After a sleepless evening, we return to the track at first light. My PH very seriously explains to me that I can stay at the truck if I so desire. After a short discussion of the do’s and don’ts when following a wounded leopard, I decide that I am going along. He tells me that if I am coming along, he expects me to shoot the leopard and that he is there to keep anyone from getting hurt. We were accompanied by an apprentice PH who is the camp manager and our 2 trackers. I am now carrying a 12 gauge Remington 870 pump shotgun with 00 buckshot, my PH has a .450 English double, and the apprentice PH has his 458 Lott scoped rifle. I hope that we have enough variety in firepower to handle whatever situation comes up. We set out on the trail of this cat with 2 trackers leading, a PH off to each side and slightly back, and with me bringing up the rear behind the trackers. The trackers find part of my bullet and a few drops of blood near the flat rock with the bullet mark on it. 50 yards past where we had stopped the evening before, we find where the cat had bedded down and there is a fair amount of blood. He had only ran about 150 yards before stopping. Things are looking up! Over the next 200 yards, we find blood where the cat has bedded down 4 more times but still no fresh sign. Everyone seemed excited that the cat had bedded so many times so quickly. Then the blood stops......

Over the next hour, we follow his tracks slowly for about 500 yards losing them several times. Each time, someone eventually finds his spoor and we are on his trail again. Suddenly there is added excitement as a few drops of fresh blood are found immediately above a steep rocky gorge. We then find his track entering into the gorge. This is not a good situation as the gorge is deep and the rocks are very large. An angry leopard could be hiding anywhere in this obstacle course. Tracking becomes almost impossible as there is very little sand among all of these boulders. Now I am starting to wonder if I should have stayed at the truck?

The gorge gets steeper and narrower the farther down we go. The leopard could be anywhere with us on top of him without us knowing it. After slowly going down this gorge for several hundred yards, the lead tracker suddenly stops and points to his left indicating that he heard a claw on a rock. We all stop and stare intently at the left wall of the gorge. Suddenly, from 15 yards back behind me the leopard leaps out from a rock overhang growling as he comes down towards us! I am unable to mount the shotgun and shoot from the hip getting off 1 quick shot at about 8 yards. The antry cat angles past me and disappears down the gorge. Again, he is gone! No one else had a chance at a shot because the boulders were so big or I was in their line of fire. That leopard had let other 4 people walk by him and then came busting out like rocket right behind me. I do not know if or where I might have hit him with the shot happening so fast. I am starting to think that he knows who wounded him last night and he is now up ahead laying in wait for me. I tell both of the PHs to shoot the next time we see the leopard. Maybe I should have stayed in the truck?

We get reorganized and again slowly move down the rocky gorge towards where we last saw him. We go about 100 yards with no sign. Suddenly excitement as the apprentice PH find a spot of fresh blood. Then we start to find lots of fresh blood splattered on the rocks. I did hit him with the shotgun! This made tracking much easier over these boulders. Now we know that we will find him again. After following this blood trail another 100 yards, my PH calls a halt with the idea that we should let the hit from the shotgun work on the leopard. We stop at a very large boulder where the trackers have a smoke. 10 minutes pass and then we get organized to go at it again. We had moved only about 10 yards further when suddenly hands are grabbing me pulling me around that big boulder. I am thrust to the head of the line and the leopard is only 5 yards away from me partially hidden down in the rocks. I mount the shotgun and shoot him quickly before anything else happens!

Suddenly, it was all over and then I start to get nervous. I just have sit down for a few minutes and let it all sink in. We had been very lucky. I had my cat and no one had gotten scratched straightening it out. That leopard had only been 15 yards away with our last stop. He could have been on us while we were standing there talking and smoking. Now I was glad that I had not stayed in the truck!

At 7’4” long and an estimated live weight of 150 pounds, what a beautiful animal he was. They estimated his skull to be 16 inches but I had no good way to measuring it. With inspection, my first bullet had entered the muscle behind his right shoulder, angled forward and down into the muscle of the chest, exiting near the midline without breaking any bones or damaging his lungs. It must have ricocheted off of the rock as it had then reentered the muscles of the left chest and angled back up into his left shoulder burying itself just under the skin. We now believe that the leopard had walked into the grass and was actually lying down at an angle on the rock when I took that initial shot. That would explain all the blood in his beds but no dead cat. I had not seen his legs in the grass as I set up for the shot. I was looking at his head, shoulders, and the line of his back through the grass. I had been pretty rattled trying to get the gun out of that clamp when the leopard had walked away from the bait. I learned something about hunting dangerous game. DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING! This is not like hunting whitetail deer. I should have let him walk when he got into the grass and my Ph could no longer judge the shot. I forced the shot because I was afraid that the leopard was going to get away.

This is the .375 caliber, 260 grain Nosler Partition bullet that we found under the skin of the offside shoulder. It still weighs 155 grains which is amazing considering that it ricocheted off a rock back into his body.





My first shot with the shotgun broke one of the 2 bones in his right lower leg and put several pellets into his abdomen over his liver. This was why he started bleeding heavily after that shot. If I had not hit him with the shotgun, I do not think that we would have recovered him.

My second shot with the shotgun went into his right shoulder, through his chest, with BB’s buried under the skin of his left shoulder. His right shoulder was pretty shot up but the rest of the cat was untouched.

We carried the leopard out to the lakeshore for lots of pictures and celebrations.









We went back to camp by boat and are there in time for a lunch. That afternoon, we went scouting for a buffalo bull. Late in the day, I did shoot a good klipspringer from about 100 yards near a waterhole. It was then back to camp for sundowners, shower, supper, and a nightcap by the fire. Lying there that night in bed, I could not believe how blessed I had been with the happenings of this day. I slept well that night....."

Seven YEARS to get your leopard back from the taxidermist; that must be a record.

quote:

Originally posted by Ron L:


At about 6:00pm, I could hear something moving off to our right and behind us. We could not look in that direction because of the blind. Later, my PH told me that I was listening to the leopard’s tail twitching in the leaves. That went on for a few minutes and then stopped. Shortly after that, the leopard walks down the dry creek bed and lays down in broad daylight about 20 yards from me. It is a big male and his fur looks like gold in the sunlight. He is so close that I can see his muscles ripple as he walks. Now my heart is racing and my mouth is dry! He stares directly at me for what seems like 5 minutes and I am sure that his eyes are burning a hole through the blind as I sit perfectly still. "

I absolutely love it! Well done Ron, this is a splendid tale.

Alf, you need to read this.

David

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
Seven YEARS to get your leopard back from the taxidermist; that must be a record.

It was only at the taxidermist (The Wildlife Gallery) for less than 3 months. I kept it in my freezer for 7 years.



Go to this link to see more pictures that I posted this weekend.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...1411043/m/6421097701

Great story and a beautiful mount!

Ron,

What a great story.

Congrats again on a magnificent trophy !!!

Great story and beautiful mount!

What a story and what a cat.

Thanks for sharing.

Great hunt, you really earned this magnificent cat, well done.

Ron L, I posted this question on your other thread but no one responded. Perhaps you can tell me what "wet tanning" is?
Peter

Excellent history and animal, congratulations.

Oscar.

Ron L,congratulations ,pursuing injured leopards is a real DG most dangerous indeed that our hunt of wild boar with knives in 2002 i believe......On respect on the shotgun GANYANA wrote an excelent article at AFRICAN HUNTER and i posted here shotgun on cats,due the lack of penetration of buckshot.
GANYANA recommends reading INTO THE THORN a book ABOUT HUNTING LEOPARDS IN ZIMBAWE.CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE AGAIN HUNTING PUMA.