Can anyone point me in the best direction for stalking/tracking leopard without dogs. Just don't want to hunt over bait or blind. Saw a post here awhile back on this subject. thanks


Dutch

Hot Lead....Hot Steel....Hot Damn!

I think they hunt stock killing leopards that way in Botswana. I would contact Jeff Rann or Johann Calitz. I believe they hunt them on foot with bushman trackers. I have seen videos that usually finally result in a charge from a pissed off leopard.

Dutch,

PM sent!

Mark

Not a chance in hell to kill one without bait or dogs. Try Botswana using bushman trackers.

We do a 10 day leopard plus PG "fair chase" hunt in Botswana, using bushmen trackers. It's a very exciting hunt and very successful. The chase usually penetrates deep into the Central Kalahari reserve, another great aspect to this hunt. But only 4 permits per year. And we don't sell leopard without PG, it's a package deal.

Dutch,
If your keen, fit and don't mind the heat to much, Ian Gibson of BIG FIVE SAFARIS is keen to try tracking a Leopard in the Zambezi valley during the later part of the season when the bush is thinner and the tracks stand out better in the dry sandy ground.
This will not be easy but Ian is a great lion hunter and his tracking team is great .
Would like to give it a go my self on day. Would be a great hard won trophy.
ozhunter

I leave August 10th for a Kalahari tracking leopard hunt with Grassland Safaris in Botswana. I will let you know how it goes. They have a package deal for ten days with the leopard and five plains game animals for $ 20,000.



You can borrow money, but you can't borrow time. Go now.

for 5000 more you could have booked a 14 day all inclsive bull elephant hunt right next door to johans area with out paying the johan priemium

safaris botswana bound.

I stalked my 2005 leopard. For 18 miles. Across the Kalahari on the border of RSA and Botswana north west of Bray. No dogs or bait. The bushman trackers are so good it's a little scary. Almost as if they've got animal ESP. In the end, the leopard holed up under a tree with big thorn bushes around its base. At that point, the trackers didn't want go any closer, and you could hear the cat grunting loud and clear. It sounds like someone trying to pull start a flooded chain saw.

For the whole stalk, I was carrying my heavy 460 Weatherby and thinking I had the wrong gun. When we finally got face to face with 183lbs of treed and irritated chui, that cannon felt just right!

Peter Harris can set you up. Saeed and I will both give you great references for him.

http://www.ntshonalangasafaris.co.za/

We hunted last year with a young lad named Felix Marnewecke. He was a great PH and has started a pack of dogs. His passion is leopard with dogs and has been doing it for 3 or 4 years. I know you said you didn't want to hunt with dogs. You have basically three options. Hunt over bait. Track with dogs or use human trackers for dogs. The latter hunts are the same. The leopard will tree or go into a hole. The dogs may well go into the hole and fight or flush the leopard for you. Good luck on getting one of the bushman trackers to do that for you. If it goes into a tree, when it sees the hunters it will come for them. With either dogs or trackers you are working the cat into a corner and trying to induce a charge. Things will happen very fast. Trackers would be fun. Hunting with dogs will be extremely similar. Have a good hunt. Shoot straight and quick. Don't get scratched. Please post on your hunt when you get back. D

I just returned from a leopard hunt in Omaruru Distric of Namibia, using dogs. It was the second most physically demanding hunt of my life (Rocky Mountain Goat was the worst-Sheep is easy by comparison). The hunt was arranged and attended by Fanie Steyn of Thaba Mmoyo Safaris. We hunted a 500 square mile farm. We baited. We got on three tracks and lost them before connecting. It was extremely challengingand, in my opinion, totally sporting. We were successful on the tenth day of this hunt, and on my 18th day of leopard hunting.

The first attempt was in Zim using the traditional blind arrangement. Bushwhacking a leopard seeking a free meal is certainly not as difficult as tracking with dogs.