OK, let's get some fresh and productive dialog going....

Looks like Spots is on my dance card this year. I am looking for hunting advice and would enjoy hearing your stories of success and even not so successful hunts. Post your photos too.

Ann,

The best part of leopard "hunting" is shooting the bait

Ain't it the truth!

OK, how many do I get to shoot?

Where and when are you going??

Late August/Sept to the Limpopo Valley, RSA side for 14 days. Where RSA, Zim and Bots comes together.

I think I spent 54 days before connecting. Granted I was a bit fussy but ingwe can be very clever. You will probably end up shoot quite a few bait animals, From my experience zebra was the best. one of my PH's insisted on impala, insisting that it was the leopards most nautral food, but I had much better success with zebra. I think the most important parts of this hunt are learning how to sit very still and quite for long periods of time (i know this is very difficult for any woman), knowing just where to shoot the cat (its further back than you think) and having lots and lots of luck. the area you hunt is probably the condition for the luck. While i hunted in both zambia and zimbabwe, we would have maybe 2 or even 3 cats feeding. Then I found jumbo moore and his area, where we had an unbelievable 13 cats feeding. Good area brings luck. By the way the one I did end up with was a monster at over 200#'s, 7'10" and 17 13/16" skull. It sure felt good after 54 days.

Wow, sounds like you got a bruiser! How about posting a photo of your cat?

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Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
OK, how many do I get to shoot?

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Which? Leopards or Baits? Could be a lot of baits. maybe no leopards. Depends on area, time allotted to it and luck. Lot's of luck.

I've been lucky, shot 3 over the years without bait, wrong time wrong place for them! Then there has been successful baits and unsuccessful baits.

Impala is traditional, I think, but meat is meat if there is no choice.

Ann I strongly reccomend that you speak to Frank Zitz of taxidermy fame. He has been killing some extrodinary cats with spots for several years back to back. Of the 200# class aforementioned. And yes luck is a major player with spots and natural light. 14 days in Chewore North, worth every second.

ann I'd be happy to post some pictures, but I'm just a caveman barely beyond the "a hammer is the only tool" stage. I just learned how to turn on a computer 6 months ago after my son (who is a computor guru) beat me on the head with it.

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Originally posted by Saeed:
Ann,

The best part of leopard "hunting" is shooting the bait

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Not if you're doing it for someone else?!?!?

I have been extremely lucky with leopards. I have hunted them three times and have taken three toms. I enjoy the strategy of bait and blind placement that goes with leopard hunting. Unfortunately I misshot my first one which led me and two PHs to a harrowing follow-up with a full charge and a real shootout. It's something you don't want to do.The descriptions of how fast a charging leopard moves are all understatements. Plus you can't believe how pissed off they are when wounded. I have read where leopards don't make a sound when they come. I'm here to tell you that I had the exception. He roared when he came and I will never forget the sound. The cover was very thick and I knew we were lucky to kill him without getting scratched. I again knew how lucky I was when I left Arusha and was told that the neighboring PH, George Angelides had been mauled by a wounded leopard that came onto their truck. Good luck and make the first shot count.

I have never been a great leopard hunter and sitting in a blind watching meat rot has never been an activity that has boiled my veggies!

As a kid we used dogs to hunt problem leopard on the farm, and now, as a PH, having been on a few dogged leopard hunts - that is the way to go. It is "sport" of the first order if done properly. From my experience (and more importanly in the experience of the two top hound hunterrs in Zim) you can expect to "tree" a leopard one release in six on hard hunted ranchland and about 1 release in 4 on prime leopard territory. If you are in decent leopard territory you should get at least 6 sets of fresh tracks to put the dogs on in a 14 day hunt so success is just about "guaranteed".
The only thing that I find more fun in hunting is tracking up lion on foot.

If you have a good houndsman with a properly trained pack he should be able to call his dogs off if they tree the "wrong" leopard. Does happen but you must ensure that the houndsman isn't going to stand there with a female in milk up a tree telling you to shoot because he cannot call his hounds off and if you don't shoot, sooner or later the leopard is going to tire of the dogs and kill the odd one.

Happy hunting

I shot this kitty on the fourth day of my second trip to Zimbabwe. This was my first hunt where leopard was my goal. I had four cats feeding on seven baits. Two females and two tom's one on another ranch. I shot four impalas and one zebra. When this cat started to feed we set up the blind and shot him after only two hours in the blind as the sun was setting. Shot him at 60 yrds with a 350 rem mag and 225 gr nosler partition. he measured out at 8'1" and weighed about 200 lbs. My PH was Wayne Clark, who works for Adam Clements. Wayne is the Leopard man for Zimbabwe. I know five other persons in Utah who have hunted leopards with Wayne and each have gotten their cat on the first trip.
Just got the skin tanned and arrived at my taxidermist yesterday

Ann,

The first leopard I have shot - on my second safari - must have been the most stupid spots in the whole of the Zambezi valley - if not africa as a whole.

One afternoon we were putting a bait up on one side of a long valley. And right across from us - about 400 yards away, was water hole.

I saw leoprad walk from the tree line, going straight to the water to drink. I said to Roy, my PH, that a lepoard was drinking at teh water hole.

He just ignored me and continued directing the placement of teh bait, as he is usually at the receiving end of all sorts of pranks.

After a lot of prodding, he did look, and saw the leopard drinking. There was no way we could have gotten closer to him, and I was not about to take a 400 yards shot at a leopard.

As teh wind was favorable, we thought he might walk to our side. So we crawled behind an ant heap, and waited.

After he drank, he went back into the treeline, and started walking parallel to us.

We took the bait down, and drive about amile or so down teh valley, and quickly put the bait up, and build a make-shift blind, and sat in it.

It got too dark, and he did not show up.

We left and decided to come back in the morning.

Just as dawn was breaking, we saw him standing on the bait branch, and one shot from a 270 Ackley did him in.

Kino,

Your leopard looks huge! Matches your smile. I would feel awfully lucky to have something like that show up!

Ganyana, I love hunting with hounds, maybe I will see what the availability of a pack is for this hunt.

Saeed, what time of day did you see him going to water?

Butch, if you email your photo to me I will post it.

Mufasa, I hope I don't experience what you did on your first one!

Can someone post the kill zone on a leopard please?

Late afternoon