I will be going to Namibia this June to hunt leopard and plains game. I will be using my 8mm mag with a Zeiss Conquest 3x9 and my old 30/06. The /06 now has a Leupold 3x9x50 vx2. My questions are, should I swap out the vx2 for the 4.5x14x50 vx3 that is now on my 7mm Sendero or use the vx2? On my first and only other trip to Africa I used 165 partion handloads with a great deal of success and I know this will work on the leopard and other game up to the size of kudu and wildebeest, but should I switch to a 180 Partion or A-Frame? I will be shooting 220 A-Frames in the 8 mag and I know this will work for plains game, but is it too much bullet for a leopard? Any/all advice is appreciated. Jerry Hoover

Jerry, I would bring whatever you like to shoot

Everything you discussed will do an excellent job. When I used a 416 Rem Mag with 350 grain A Frames on plains game, everything hit well went down very fast. The same can be said for my 300 Win Mag with 180 grain A Frames.

The below tom was taken with a .375 H&H pushing .300 grain Woodleigh softs.

Jerry,

My Ph summed it up after I discussed where to shoot and from all angles..He said, "Mike pass the bullet thru the chest end of story..."
The only other thing I would say is do you have an iluminated scope... I used a 3.5/10X 50mm, german 4 with red dot...Super in the low light time...Leupold VXIII

Good luck,

Mike

Thanks for the prompt replies. I think my concern is the light gathering capabilities of each scope. I know the vx3 will gather more light than the vx2, but is the field of view that much more restrictive to cancel out the better optics? The Zeiss is new and has not been used under actual field conditions, but the reviews have been more than satisfactory. The major reason I am taking the 8 mag is for eland and gemsbuck. My PH is not a 30/06 fan and has reccommended the big 8 for these animals as well as zebra. What do you think? Thanks, Jerry Hoover

Oh the vx3 has a heavy duplex and has served me well here in Texas on deer and pigs, but has not been used at the close range I expect to shoot a leopard. That is why I have questions about which will work better. Thanks again, Jerry Hoover

Are you hunting with dogs or over bait? It makes a big difference in the ideal scope for leopard.

I think a .30-06 with good bullets and proper shot placement would be fine for Zebra and Gemsbok based on my very small sample size, but the 8 Mag is just more of the good stuff and will make a bigger hole for tracking if shot placement is slightly off. I would go larger in the future but used a .270 Weatherby on mine.

Jerry, Are you doing a bait hunt there? If you are, I wouldn't worry too much about shooting a Leopard then! Check the bait-sucess percentage, then go to Zimbabwe....bait sucess rates in Namibia are very low.

Sorry it has taken this long to reply. Somehow I got logged off and I could not remember my password. The long and short of the story is I understand my chances of taking a leopard are not great. That is a a given, but if the chance occurs, I want to tilt the odds in my favor. Here are my choices- I can shoot a 30/06 with a load that that I have complete confidence in in with a scope that has served me well (3x9x50 vx20 or I can take the vx3 4.4x14x50 with a heavy duplex off my Sendero and put it on my old 30/06 and see what happens. My question is ,which will serve me better, the better field of view that the old vx2 offers or the better optics of the vx3 4.5x14 50 with a heavy duplex. My other option is to use my 8mm mag with a Zeiss 3x9 x40 conquest. I have never hunted leopard before and any sage advice would be appreciated. I will be using a 180 grain Noslers in the old /06 and 220 grain Swift A- Frames in the 8 Mag. By the way I do shoot the old /06 better, but practice with the 8 mag may change that. The last thing I want to do is wound a leopard and cause it a painful death. Respectfully, Jerry Hoover

No dogs ,it will be bait only. This should be challenging. Namibian leopards are smart and wary. Let's hope I find a big dumb tom. Thanks for all your advice, Jerry Hoover

Being comfortable with the rifle is very important. The '06 is enough gun for leopard in my opinion, although I am not an expert. I would pick light gathering and resolution over field of view as the shot on bait will be carefully set up.

The bottom line is that you will be best served with an adequate rifle you shoot well and a good quality scope.

Which scope is best in low light in your experience?

i have seen game that could not be seen with the naked eye with both scopes. If someone would put a hammer lock on me, I would say the vx3 would do the better job. Shucks, this means I will have to go to the range and shoot more. (LOL) Wish me luck in Namibia. In less then 4 months, my beautiful wife, my best friend and his beautiful wife and I will be on the trip of a lifetime. Oh, a word to the wise, if your significant other balks at going to Namibia or RSA, bribe them with 2 magic words- GOLD and DIAMONDS. They are not cheap, but they can be less expensive. Jerry Hoover

Best of luck to you! I sat some nights until I could no longer even see the tree but the darned cat would not come until we were gone. But they do come in -- the next hunter after me got his cat and I think they were three for four last year (one with dogs though).

When the tension mounts you will be happy to have an old friend in your hands.

Swift Aframe are a bit hard for cats but I was very pleased with 300 grs Swift A frame that killed my leo on the spot this year in the CAR. Right trough both shoulders, the leo fell like a ton of brick and never moved again.

Jerry,

I know this is not one of your stated options but for leopard I would highly recommend a scope with an illuminated reticle.

Sometimes you need to be able to shoot in very little light (I shot my leopard almost by moonlight) and the illuminated reticle really helps. It's true that you might not need it, but if you do, IMHO, there is no substitute.

I shot my cat out of a tree over a bait with a .375 H&H Mag. having an illuminated reticle S&B Flash Dot scope on top (set at 4x) and using a 272 grain Hirtenberger ABC soft nosed bullet. The shot was at 40 yards. My bullet sailed through the cat's shoulders and he died before he hit the ground.

On a prior day, I had been in a different blind and we had seen an immature tom, also just at last light. Then, I had a 7mm Rem. Mag. with an S&B 2.5-10x56mm Zenith scope on top, a very, very bright scope, with a heavy 4A (sort of a duplex with only a fine wire on top) non-illuminated reticle.

Even though the cat was too small to shoot, I lined up on him a few times for practice. I could make out his silhouette in the scope, but the fine, inner reticle wires were invisible. I might have made the shot by centering the leopard's shoulder in the wider, outer reticle wires, but that would have been riskier than I would have liked, and a wounded leopard is a very bad thing to have to deal with.

That's why the next time in the blind I took my .375 with the illuminated Flash Dot scope on top, and I ended up being very glad that I did.

I shot my leopard last June with a 30-06 and 165grn Barnes X-bullets. It was dead under the tree. I think the 30-06 is the perfect leopard rifle.

I think that you're close to being right.

Another vote for the illuminated reticle when hunting leopards over bait.

Its very likely to be sunset-thirty when he comes in. I have tried it both ways -- with and without. With the illumiated reticle is definately much better for getting off a well aimed shot under those light conditions.

Look at the Burris Euro Diamond 1.5-6x-40MM with the 3P#4 E-DOT. Its available at Midway. The price is reasonable and they are one of the best light gathering scopes out there.

Thanks for aoll the fine replies. Being a Special Ed. teacher close to retirement, money is always a concern. Depending on finances, I will look into an illuminated scope. I have several guns that I no longer use that may be sold to finance a new scope. In my old 30/06, the 165 Nosler partion has done yeoman duty and has taken a bull elk, wildebeest, kudu, 2 impalas, blesbuck, warthog,more deer, and pigs than I care to count. It has been a friend that I can always depend on and has never let me down. Since it already has the high rings, I will put the vx3 leupold on it and see how it does. Where I live we have more deer than Carter has pills and I can use those for low light dry fire practice. If I find that this is not an optimal situation, I will look for another ie illuminated scope. I had planned on using the 8mm mag for the bigger/ tougher plains game, such as gemsbuck, zebra, and eland. I am leery of using a 165 grain Nosler on these animals. I know the 165 will work if the situation is optimal, but in hunting Africa, things are rarely optimal. If the new loads for the 8mm mag are not what I expect, I will use the old /06 and not take any marginal shots. Given my health and finances this may be my last African hurrah and I want it to go as smoothly as I can control. Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks to all who replied. Jerry Hoover

I was also told by my PH that an illuminated reticle's the way to go for the type of hunting done in Zim. So I gagged (I HATE 50mm scopes)and put a Leupold VXII 3.5X10X50 witha German #4 on my "cat rifle" a Cusom 338 Model 70 the lovely mrs. jorge gave me. The minute I kill that cat, the scope's gone. Maybe I'll put it on my "hog rifle" but man that is one ugly, bulky scope! jorge

Jerry I will tell you that My vote too is for an illuminated scope. I did not have one on my only leopard. It sure took a bit of trust in my rifle and fate to get that cat. It was too dark to see the reticle. I remembered that some one told me that their reticle broke on the first day of a safari. They shot out the full safari by centering the middle of the visible circle on the target and pull. It worked well for them. I did the same and then looked hard for any hint of the reticle. I saw just enough of it that I figured it had to be right and made a clean kill. An illuminated reticle would have taken a lot of uncertainty out of it. Those cats have a habit of coming out at the last bit of light or just after regular shooting light is over. Any help will be welcome when you know you may not get a chance at another leopard hunt and there he is just a gray form on a gray form that is maybe the bait. Some scopes can have an illuminated reticle added. Check with leupold. Good luck.

Anyone ever use a Red Dot sight with no magnification? I think they would be just the ticket for leopard.

TJ under certain circumstances it may be just fine. A variable scope saved my chance at my leopard. If I did not have a variable scope I am not sure I would have been able to make the shot. It was so dark that mostly what I could see was an amorphous gray glob that kind of drifted around near the bait. I was able to crank up the magnification and pick out spots, an ear, an elbow. Yep there were the landmarks. Then I could crank it back down and make my shot. You don't usually need hi mag for this setting but some mag may come in handy when there is almost no light. Good hunting. D