I went to Namibia the end of last month for eight days of plains game with a chance of leopard. There were eight of us. Seven of the eight were interested in leopard. It was obvious that we all were not going to get a leopard or maybe even a chance. We put names in a hat and drew names. I drew number two. I ended up getting a nice 57 kilo leopard. I was knocked out. What an experience. I will give details and pictures soon, as my wife is on me to get all the rest of the unpacking done so she can have her dining room back. Good hunting.

D, congrats and welcome home... When are you planning to return to Africa....
Looking forward to pics of chui..

Mike

Who did you hunt with in Namibia? Can't wait for the details and pictures.
Congrats

Extremely misleading thread title.

Congratulations on the cat. I look forward to a full report.

Sex can happen almost any time but how often do you beat those kind of odds on a leopard.

OK, here is the tale. A bit long I am afraid but here it is. We were in Namibia, hunting with Safari West. Paul Meyer is the outfitter. The lodge is an old army baracks or fort from before the first world war. It was refurbished into a comfortable hunting lodge. My PH for this part of the hunt was Willa(details on request) Enough of that, on to the hunt. (Some one with more savey than me needs to help me with the photos. Thanks for that in advance.) The first day hunting my friend Wayne was in the catbird seat as he had drawn the number one chance for leopard. On his way to the blind to check out the bait etc he and the PH were walking a sand river to get to the blind. The leopard was sleeping about 5 feet from them in a blown down tangle of tree trunks. It spooked and ran right by them. Talk about an increase in heart rate!! Whew. After the days hunt they went back to the blind and waited on dark. Just before dark the leopard came to just the edge of the shooting lane and just sat down. It was not a large leopard and gave no clear shot. They left that one alone the next night and went to another blind that had a large leopard working it sporadically. He did not arrive that evening. That made it my turn on the blind. We had a timer set up on the bait. The leopard had come to the bait at a bit after 7 at night. Last shooting light was about 6-6:15. We went mid afternoon to resight my 300 winmag to 40 yards. It took a small adjustment and we went back to the game fields to hunt until the 4 o'clock time to go to the blind. We stalked a good sized herd of gemsbok. I got a chance at a good bull. I had to shoot from the PH's shoulder. My shooting was less than exemplory. We tracked the gemsbok for over 500 yards before we found the first drop pf blood but we found it. Gemsbok bought. We still could not find the animal though. We bumped the herd again and they ran off for a long way. Time was up it was time to go to the leopard blind. Not a confidence builder just before going to depend on my shooting to keep the PH and I from getting scratched. The leopard had fed the night before. He was a big one. He sometimes skipped a night or two but had been feeding there off and on for about 10 days. Maybe tonight was the night. Willa my PH had given me very specific instructions about quiet, no movement unless something absolutely had to give. He gave me some non-verbal instructions for our silent communication. If he grabbed my knee and squeezed it meant that the leopard was here. If he scratched my knee, it meant that he was feeding. If he rubbed the flat of his palm on my knee it meant hold off, DO NOT SHOOT NOW. If he poked my knee twice with his index finger it meant shoot him NOW. This was all new to me, having never hunted leopard before. The blind was a clever setup with a canvas covered with sticks and grass, inside of a large bush. It was exactly 37 yards from the bait with a clear view. There were three holes for viewing and for a rifle barrel to stick through. It had comfortable chairs and was roomy enough for three but better if only two were there, less chance of noise. The rifle setup was clever too. The forend had a firm rest and there was a string from the top with a loop on it to put the back of the scope through. This made a very stable support for the rifle and it was rock steady but was flexible enough to move to most of the viewing area.
We got into the blind at about 4 and began the wait for the leopard to arrive. Just before dark my PH, Willa, was looking through one of the viewing holes and started to breathe pretty hard. I could tell he was getting excited. I looked as hard as I could. I thought I saw the grass behind the bait moove just a bit. After a minute or so Willa held out his hand palm down and waved it side to side. Duiker he mouthed silently. False alarm. It slowly got dark with no further excitement. I figured my one and only chance at leopard was over. At breakfast the next morning just before the pairing up of PH's with hunters one of the party made a specific request on pairings that put me back into the blind for the night. Again we went to the blind at a bit past 4. It was hot. We both had a hard time staying awake. We had checked the bait earlier in the day. The leopard had come the night before at 11:35 at night and eaten the whole gemsbok shoulder. He had eaten late and well. Most likely he would be full and either not come tonight or come late. We refreshed the bait just in case and planned to go anyway. Nothing ventured nothing gained. I was pretty relaxed(surprisingly)in the blind that second night as I figured he was not comming. It got nearly dark, I looked through the scope and realized the time was just about gone. The feeling that all deer hunters will be familiar with. The feeling that if it does not happen in the next two to five minutes it will not happen at all. I looked around one more time and rechecked my scope. The cross hairs were becoming just suggestions and not clear lines. Just them Willa grabbed my leg and squeezed. THE LEOPARD IS HERE. I looked through the scope. Nothing. I tried to look around my rifle through the viewing hole. Again I could see nothing. Willa was starting to breathe deeply. I could tell the adrenaline was flowing. I looked back through the scope and saw movement right to left. There was a form there but that was all I could tell. The form stopped. I tried to look hard through the scope to make out details of where to shoot. I could only surmise that since it had moved from right to left that the head must be on the left. It was still and with no movement. I couldn't tell much. Willa stuck his index finger in my leg twice telling me to shoot now. Before I could get on it movement began and he rubbed the palm quickly saying, Hold Don't shoot now. I saw the leopard turn to face away from me, left to right now. He stopped and looked around. Still I could not make him out clearly. I grabbed my scope adjustment. I was using a 3.5x 14 Leuopold LPS scope. I cranked it up all the way watching the image all the time. As the image enlarged I saw clearly the head, the shoulder the elbow and the small depression behind the shoulder. I cranked it back down about half way keeping track of all those landmarks. The leopard hopped up with his front feet on the bait. There he was with his back feet facing left to right and his forbody facing right to left. I had a clear view of the length of his back. I lined up the middle of the scope with the spot between his shoulder blades, looked for the crosshairs. In the fading light the crosshairs were just suggestions. I looked at both the middle of the scope circle and the suggested crosshairs, yep that has to be the right place. BOOM! The world disappeared in the fire of the muzzle blast. We were blinded for a minute. Willa had told me to be very quiet after the first shot. If the cat is moving and roaring we need to know which direction he is moving and whether he sounds hurt bad or just a little. If you work the bolt immediately the sound may keep some important information from you. After about a second or two of silence Willa started talking to me in Spanish(most of his clients are Spanish speaking) I had no idea what he was saying. I surmised quickly that it must be "Reload, reload". I did. By the time I had a round in the chamber Willa was bringing a torch to bear. At first just a point of light in the darkness then two points arced from left to right, Eyes and moving. Then the light was better and I saw a paw slapping at the air. I said to Willa, "He is still moving. Should I whack him again?" As I was saying this I was scanning the darkness for signs of life. I made out his head, shoulder and slapping paw, then the rest of his back and put the cross hairs on his chest as best I could. By the time Willa got to the "S" in YES the gun had gone off the second time. Blind again. When I could see again I saw his head go up gasping for breath, once, twice, three times and then he laid still. Willa called on the radio for the Toyota to come for us. I reloaded and looked for any movement. There was none. I told Willa I thought he was down. In just a few minutes the toyota was there. We got out and checked that he was really dead. The eye touch proved he was done. The whole time, from the time Willa squeezed my leg until the second shot was fired was maybe 20 seconds.
The celebration began. Those Germans know how to throw a party. On autopsy the next day, the first shot hit dead between the shouder blades,broke his back and traveled down his front leg and exited just before his paw on the right side. The second shot entered his back at about the last rib and exited between his front legs. Both killing shots. He weighed in at 57 kilos after leaking at least a half gallon of blood on me while taking pictures. Lucky me. Just goes to show you that even the blind hog gets an acorn once in a while. If someone can help me a bit I will try to get photos posted. Wiedmansheil

Great story! Thanks! Love to see a photo.

riodot

Thanks for posting the story. It sounds like it was quite an exciting hunt.

quote:

If someone can help me a bit I will try to get photos posted.

Terry Carr has posted an explanation of posting pictures here . The short version is to upload the pictures to a photo hosting site like Photobucket. Then get the URL of the image you want to post (it should end in .jpg) and copy it into the box you get when you click the image button (second from the right) at the top of the "Post a Reply" box you get when you click "Reply."

If you have any questions let us know. We would enjoy seeing your cat.

quote:

Originally posted by D Hunter:
No joy with pictures yet. I will try again. D

It looks like maybe the whole image file did not upload to Photobucket. You might try re-sizing the photos to a smaller size with a program like Microsoft Office Photo Editor. A smaller picture will load faster.

If you get desperate email them to me and I will see what I can do. My email address is in my profile.

Edited: I can see enough to see that it is a fine looking cat.

Very nice cat:

Thanks Charles for your help.