11 February 2009, 10:50
Karl SCat Slam
Seeing that there is a fair bit of interest in the hunt I just finished, here is a short report:We pre-baited for leopard about a week before the client arrived, (my son shot his first gemsbok for bait),
and we had a female feeding within 4 days. She however just fed once, and moved off, maybe due to the huge amount of young antilope around, maybe because it stated to rain just about every day. The cleint arrived, and inbetween checking baits early in the morning, and going back to the lodge at night, he shot a nice bag of plains game, including 2 Rowland ward eland within 30 seconds of each other.
The rain every day- and sometimes through the night did nothing to encourage me that we would get a leopard feeding, or even just a track, as I had a pack of dogs there for if we find fresh tracks. But, nonetheless, we stuck to the task, and I really tried to keep the client's morale high.
Then, after a lunch where he expressed his worries about the weather as well, our luck changed. While driving, I spotted a cheetah running into a valley, we followed, but could not get a shot. I sent my 2 trackers after it, snd drove to the end of the valley to lay in ambush, figuring that it will take the path of least resistance. Just as Gotfried radio'ed me to tell me they have spotted it again, the heavens opened up again, and we where soaked to the bone.
We tried to keep the rifles and scopes dry, but when the cheetah appeared a few minutes later, the client could hardly see it through the scope. It was just ambing past us, the looked up, saw us, and accelerated. He missed his first shot, but hit it the 2nd and 3 time, bringing it down. We found it still alive, and another shot killed it. It turned out to be a very nice RW specimen.
This picked up every-one's spirit, and sure enough, we did not receive any more rain that afternoon or during the night. The next morning we went out to check baits again, and at my 2nd favourite bait spot, found a freshly eaten piece of meat. The chase was on, and we off-loaded the pack of dogs from my Cruiser. We followed with the car, as the terrain is very difficult, and i nomally try and not wear out the client (or myself!) too much before we have the leopard on a hot trail.
About an hour into the chase, Glen (my dog handler), radioed that the dogs have a hot trail, and we moved in. I could see the dogs working below us, and Glen shouted to watch out, as the leopard was just in front of them, and we where about 300m in front 0of the dogs. The dogs started to circle a tree, and I took the client in, hoping to see the cat in the tree, but it was empty. They where frantically working the scent, and Glen, who was about 400m opposite on the other side of a hill, said that he saw the cat, and that it dissapeared into the very grass where we where now standing encouraging the dogs.
Then the dogs went into a small cave, about 3m from where we where standing, which turned out to be where the cat was hiding. We posisioned ourselfs about 12m away from the opening, with guns ready, on a slight inlcine. The dogs fought the leopard in the cave for over 3 hours, but it was feeling very safe in the hole, and except for the verocious growling, did not budge. I saw that if we moved down from the incline, and left about 3 m, we might be able to see inside the cave. This of course also carried the risk of the cat seeing us, and provoking him into a charge.
We moved down and called the dogs off, so that we could have a clear shot if needed. I could see the cat, he was looking straight at us from about 10m, and I instructed the client to shoot. He could not see the cat, even after frantic instructions. (He had trouble to see most game, and I spend considerable time on the PG to get him to see before he made the shot.) The cat melted away deeper into the cave.
We waited, and when his head was again visible, I told the client where it was, and he took a shot. The shot hit the mouth of the cave unfortuneately, and it moved back into the cave. The head appeared again, and this time, I heard my clkient's shot hit something. After the customary cigarette (his, I only smoke a hubbly after a cat is dead), we send in one dog to see if the cat is still alive. Rosa indicated that it is dead, or severely wounded, and we went closer. About 3 m from the mouth of the cave, I saw the cat, and this time the client saw it clearly as well.
It was wounded, and lying at the back of the cave, waiting. I told him to shoot again, this time the cat was clearly hit well, he was squirming around on the cave floor. We backed off, and waited another few minutes. when we went in again, the cat was still alive, but lying on his back with his feet on the cave roof, his head at an odd angle, blinking very strangely. As the client had no solids there, I shot it again (from less than 2m) with a 550gr Woodleigh solid out of my .450 Rigby, going into the stomach, and exiting in front of the chest. This made the cat jump up, and flip/ flop around inside the cave in his death troughs, and I nearly sat on my ass getting up in a hurry, reloading and slipping on a very steep and wet rock- (wet from the previuos day's rain, that is my story and I am sticking to it). (The client's last shot {9.3x62} just nicked the head, next to the ear, and the cat probably only had a bit of concussion when we where eyeing it from less than 3 m.)
We finally had the second cat, an average sized male of about 140 lbs. My client also wanted a African wild cat but we where unlucky with that, due to the very long grass.
Frederik, if you have time, maybe post a pic of the cheetah and the 2nd eland, I am on my way to the airport to pick up other clients.
!!!
) I want to try for a cheetah also - is it possible to use a FOXPRO caller for the cheetah ? I looked at their webpage and they had cheetah sounds ? It it legal and is it possible ?
