I have seen this charge before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...ure=player_embedded#

This video gives a bit more info about the hunt.

You have to make your 1st shot count when it comes to these kitties...

Hey, awesome video, must be terrible attack of a leopard, but I'm frightened by how close to the hunter's been the last shot that has become one of the components of the hunt.

Regards,

Oscar

It is easy for any and all to comment of this attack, what I would or would not do. The most important thing is to make the shot.
Oscar, cool emotions and one good shot. As the video shows a very close but well aimed final shot.

Mike

Another never-miss internet-hero screws up the shot.

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
As the video shows a very close but well aimed final shot.

Mike

I could not tell where the final shot came from. It looked like it was from the left of the guy who was being attacked. If so the guy in the ground is lucky he was not shot in the legs as he was kicking the cat.

Did anyone else notice the black African moving in on the leopard as it had the guy down while the others were making a hasty retreat? What was the black guy carrying? It looked like a panga. You have to admire that guys pluck.

Cool footage.

Not sure if I agree with waiting till morning to follow up on that leopard. If you are going to shoot leopard at night you should be prepared to get the job done and follow up at night as well.

This is the real deal: Leopard attacks Bob Parsons!

A follow-up at night; torches, long grass and an axe-wielding tracker...real Capstick stuff!

Give me a 10ga shotgun if I ever get into that situation.

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Give me a 10ga shotgun if I ever get into that situation.

I would take my 500 Jeff...

Did we never learn from the old pro's. They still make 12 gauges and buckshot don't they? A scoped rifle with a spotlight behind it half the time. Gee wizz I'd need a bottle of scotch after that or maybe I'd be better off having it before.

FWIW,

I use my .500 for those situations but (as an example) I did one with a friend a fellow PH a few years ago where he used a 12 gauge with heavy shot. (Don't remember what size but very heavy indeed)

The animal was in mid air at about head height and a few yards away when we spotted him and both of us shot at the same time.

Later examination showed us the my bullet gave him a third nostril and exited out of his arse and the two barrels of 12 gauge broke both hinges of his lower jaw but none of the pellets had penetrated the skull at all. They were all found just under the skin.

other useful tools are a small Surefire flashlight taped to the barrel, a good bright headlight and a Surefire Kroma set to blue light for the tracker to use...... the Kromas cost a bloody fortune but are worth their weight in gold when you have to do a night time follow up.

I don't care what anyone else uses, but I'll take my .500 every time.

See forth pic down here: http://www.shakariconnection.c...unting-mr-spots.html

The follow up and final shooting is featured on 'First season' The Mopani collection which I purchased on line from Safari press. A very enjoyable DVD filmed in the Omay. The narration was by the local filmaker in his own accent which made a change from most north american productions.

The axe carried by the tracker is a traditional Ndebele axe sometimes called a Batonka(?) axe. It is a standard tool of tribes in the west and NW of Zimbabwe. Usually carried hooked over the shoulder leaving both hands free. I have one hanging on my wall.

Steve, I've heard before that a large bore rifle/double is preferable to a shotgun in this situation. I don't know how a shottie with solids would go though ?

Edit: The client made the final shot. The spread of the wounds made by the top and bottom incisors of the leopard on the 2nd P/H's chest are certainly impressive.

quote:

the Kromas cost a bloody fortune but are worth their weight in gold when you have to do a night time follow up.

I will never understand how Surefire can sucker people into paying those outrageous prices for their flashlights, when there are so many good lights out there, many which put out much more light a good bit longer. I do like their lithium batteries, though.

Great leopard video, too.

I started out using my 12 gauge - it worked, but as time went by and I witnessed a few more charges, I moved over to my .460 Wetherby. It is a weapon I am very comfortable with and have the utmost confidence. I have used it once on a charging cat, hit him just below the chin, exited from the back rump, BUT stopped him immediately.

Code4,

I've never used a shotgun with solids so couldn't comment I'm afraid.

Fred,

Surefire are the best torches I've ever seen or used and although they are expensive they're worth it to me..... just wish we could buy the proper Surefire batteries more easily here.

As for the price of the Kroma, from my experience, when you have to step out into the darkness to look for a very angry pussy cat, you'd be happy to pay four times the price!

You should try an EagleTac P10C2. Half the price as the brightest Surefire, longer battery life, and 292 lumens on high setting, 60 on low. When that rabid honey badger was circling my tent at three AM in Kitiangare last July, I was glad I had it taped to my .375.

The Kroma is a great light for your purposes, though. Sometimes, you have to pay to get what you need...

A few years ago, I changed the way I rehearse the client for the leopard shot and since then, I'm glad to say every client has got the shot right. I'm just writing about it for something else and have here's the draft text of how I do it:

Once you have the cat on bait and the blind built and equipped, use your rangefinder to zap the exact distance between blind and where you expect the Leopard to be sitting when he is shot. Also measure the height from ground to the same place.

Then go off to the range and recreate the shot exactly. Put the client in the same type of chair he’ll be sitting in when in the blind, build him a similar rifle rest and make him equally comfortable.

Next step is to take a couple of cardboard boxes and draw a life size outline of a leopard on the side of it. Take an empty 1 or 1.5 litre plastic water bottle (always plenty of those around), drop in a few pebbles to give it weight and fix it inside the box where the cat’s heart will be. Then have someone climb a tree and fix it in a place where it is exactly the same height as you expect Mr. Spots to be when he cops a bullet.

Then wait until the client is perfectly comfortable and relaxed and tell him he has all the time in the world but he has to be able to put three consecutive shots through the ‘heart’ of the cat before he does the real thing. Most clients get this wrong the first few times, but don’t worry about it. Tell the client it’s better to get it wrong a few times here than get it wrong on the real thing.

Sooner or later, he’ll consistently get the shot right and then, you can tell him he’s ready to sit for the cat.

Steve,

What bullet would you load in the Jeff for a follow up on a wounded cat?

Mate, I use a Woodleigh SP (NOT the PSP)

They work a treat!

I've also used the Stewart SP (can't remember what he calls it) Both are good but I reckon the Woodleigh probably wins by a nose.

My favorite part of that video is right after they shoot the leopard and the guy jumps up. Someone says to injured guy, "You scream like a bitch." I died laughing when I heard that line!

quote:

Originally posted by StormsGSP:
My favorite part of that video is right after they shoot the leopard and the guy jumps up. Someone says to injured guy, "You scream like a bitch." I died laughing when I heard that line!

And he did.

quote:

My favorite part of that video is right after they shoot the leopard and the guy jumps up. Someone says to injured guy, "You scream like a bitch." I died laughing when I heard that line!

I heard that too. That was funny. The poor bastard had just had a pissed off leopard chewing on various body parts,... and client nearly shoots him to kill the leopard,...and then one of his unscathed buddies tells him "You scream like a bitch"!!!

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Mate, I use a Woodleigh SP (NOT the PSP)

They work a treat!

I've also used the Stewart SP (can't remember what he calls it) Both are good but I reckon the Woodleigh probably wins by a nose.

LOL

I have Stewart SP's will play around with them...

They're so close to each other in performance, it's probably more a case of seeing which of the two your rifle groups best.

Mine prefers the Woodleighs.

Don't know if you know Ken & Kathy Stewart? but they're one of the most interesting couples you'll ever meet.

Ken is an old time EA PH and then had a game capture company in the days of chasing 'em down with Champs & Landies and lassooing 'em!

They both also knew ALL the old EA families & names etc.

I spoke to Ken quite a few times.

He sounds like a great bloke.

Would love to visit him and sit down and have a cup of coffee with him.

You need at least 5 or 6 hours with him because he has so many stories to tell......

We usually have dinner with them whenever we go up to Bots when we overnight in Pietersburg.

Just one of the stories is that he provided all the animals (from memory) for Born Free & I think also Mogambo.

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Blue Devil:

quote:

My favorite part of that video is right after they shoot the leopard and the guy jumps up. Someone says to injured guy, "You scream like a bitch." I died laughing when I heard that line!

I heard that too. That was funny. The poor bastard had just had a pissed off leopard chewing on various body parts,... and client nearly shoots him to kill the leopard,...and then one of his unscathed buddies tells him "You scream like a bitch"!!!

Just shows how truely sensitive "Real Men" can be

quote:

Originally posted by AzGuy:
Just shows how truely sensitive "Real Men" can be

Either that or how painful leopard scratches are!

I've only ever had one dab from a leopard but I can tell you, it's not just painful, it's fucking painful.

ozhunter:

My outfitter, (yeah, not my PH) was renowned by the Ministry in the Chirisa District of Zimbabwe as a "lion man" - but he told me that in going after a wounded leopard in the bush, as he did on occasion -that he wanted a short barrelled shotgun -or if he was in really close bush that he was crawling through(as he described, it was when a leopard was not "knocked off" a branch, but simply fell into the brush below the acacia) he wanted either a Colt Python (357 Mag) or a Colt 45ACP. It's a magnificent trophy and like all you guys , you want to make the shot clean. (I saw one at about two hundred yards distance in daylight splayed across a branch of an acacia. The trackers (Zulu)spotted him. I needed the PH's binocs to really look at him/her -and was awed by how beautifully he/she was colored -and the quick glimpse of that cat face. I have read that the leopard -along with the polar bear and the jaguar will hunt man without provocation. I met some villagers in Africa who were disappointed that I was not there to hunt leopard -because they had lost babies to leopards - so I certainly want to encourage anybody to shoot a leopard! I'm just mentioning my own first encounter with a leopard.

Another leopard attack, courtesy of YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E48fq-LqEM&NR=1

quote:

Originally posted by umshiniwam:
Another leopard attack, courtesy of YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E48fq-LqEM&NR=1

Holy shit eek:

quote:

EagleTac P10C2

Out of stock just about everywhere! Thanks for the tip though.
Peter

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Give me a 10ga shotgun if I ever get into that situation.

Do you think this one would do? I use it for home defense and varmits.

you get 19 pellets per shell in OO buckshot, 54 pellets per shell in #4 Buck and if you want slugs they are 1 7/8 oz.

The key question to me is, follow them up in the morning, or follow them up at night? I can tell you what I'll be doing, and it won't be at night.

If I look at the first charge and say, play that scenario out at night, I think the leopard wins more often than he loses. Too much chaos to be making shots at midnight at a leopard on top of a guy, and not enough time to wait for the leopard to get tired of ripping him open so you can get a safe shot in him. They needed the man on the ground to kick the leopard clear so the others could drop him. I see some pretty bad odds there.

I think the main objective in following up the cat at night is to limit the chance of something eating most of your expensive trophy before daylight. A few good hounds may save your bacon, by pulling the cat off you if things go south.

Did anyone ever see the video "Mauled"? Now that was a leopard charge video! I believe the PH was John Young. He holds the leopard down after it jumps on him while another guy shoots it. I have the VHS, I need to convert it to dvd.