Karl, if you are able to check in, please respond, but all you other leopard PH's, I want to hear your opinions. I am bringing Karl 2-3 infrared trail cams to SHOT show this weekend to take back with him to Namibia. Is this a valuable tool for a leopard hunt? I am sure it would be if you were doing a traditional bait hunt, but we will be running hounds, but baiting trying to get a good start. Do you think these will be helpful, and if so, what are the big benefits for a dog hunt? Thanks!

Tim
I use them a lot, I only bait hunt though.
The bennefits are that you can generally see if it is a female or a Male in Average cats. Also times the cat comes in, if he comes once a night or more often.
This past season I actually managed to identify 3 different cats at one bait. Without this camera I would have thought that there were just 1. We had a Large Female, medium sized male and a really big male. I could distingquish by looking at diffirent spot paterns on the cats.
Good luck
Ernest

It's all a matter of personal choice really. I know a lot of guys who use 'em and love 'em to bits, but although I also only hunt Leopards from baits, I tend to think the trail cams are a useful entertainment rather than a particularly useful tool.

If it's of any use, here's how I do it: http://www.shakariconnection.c...unting-mr-spots.html

Let me add that a very useful tool indeed for a Leopard hunter is a Surefire Kroma flashlight...... that blue beam really does make any blood spoor show up and tracking suddenly becomes much easier and more to the point, much safer!

thanks guys

Tim, Would recommend you take one (one that takes common rechargeable type battery's)on your next Safari. Likely the PH will have some, but the more you have set up will assist your decision on which leopard to work on.

They are very useful tools for leopard on baited hunts and as even dog hunts usually require some baiting first I would imagine that Karl would find them useful too.

I don't think they'e only useful entertainment. Sexing the cat, knowing what time it came in the previous night(s) and how long they stayed is of much more than entertainment value to me.

Regards,

I have used trail cams both on lion and leopard and to me the value is huge simply because on a lion you can see what type of mane that is feeding. On leopard track size is generally all that is important but to get the nuts on a camera gives you a sense of what you are hunting as well. Two things to point out and why I am responding to this post.

First, batteries are key and some are almost difficult to get in remote parts of Africa. I found the D size to be the most available.

Second, do not think that the leopard does not see the infrared or hear it. They most certainly do. I have found the infrared sometimes does more to scare them than the flash, believe it or not.

The one value to an infrared is to put up on the trail to town where the trackers say they never go at night. You will catch them on the trail and have a good laugh.

I firmly believe they are a good tool for cats.

Tim from my experience, one gets to look at the cats to see if they are worthy to be hunted and not waste time sitting for them... Had 5 different cats hitting my lion baits.

Mike

All cats leave tell tale signs and you just have to find them. Is this not what hunting is about? The expectancy, the anticipation?

A leopard can be accurately measure by the size of his print and a Lion also but usually by the quality or rather the length of the mane hair that he leaves on or around a bait.

Personally I would rather sit in a blind in wild Africa and in close proximity to one of our apex predators than sit behind a bar goggling at a computer screen.

this becomes a moot point since leopard with hounds has been outlawed in namibia , but to answer your question on weather i think there is value in trail cams from me its a resounding YES!

most areas i hunt dont allow nighttime hunting and its a valuable tool in seeing what time the cat/s are feeding -

also leopard are easily educated by mistakes and seeing that a cat is not big enough yet through a trailcam in my opinion is far less disturbance a lot of time that sitting and turning him down

trailcams can also be decieving though and i dont always take it for granted the size of a cat on the cam , one needs to see it in real life to truly judge it

People , heres some trail cam photos taken while I was on safari with bundu safaris this year – who would have thought that this huge tom would have fed at that time- we also had two other cats feeding neither of whom were anything close to daylight hours , one was feeding between 10pm and 3 am and the other between 9pm and 4am , in ten days neither came at dusk or dawn and would have been a waste of time to sit on –

Here he is , notice the time of day and temp !!




He was a big cat



With a huge neck !

Ivan, that Remington cam is pretty clear! You can see the ticks on the cats neck in the second photo!

I like the trail camera A LOT!

Why . . .

Holy dead thread resurrection Batman! I just realized this discussion was two years old. Oh well.

me too will , great cat though - congrats

Ivan,

Love the trail-cam pictures. Great reference for a taxidermist like myself. Even the tree bark and leaves are great to study. Now the size of the cat...XXL. liked that too.... DAN