Shangani Leopard

Hunt Dates – 31 March – 9 April 2013
Location – Debshan Ranch, Shangani, Zimbabwe
PH – Mike Payne (Save Safaris)
Appie - Adrian Oliver
Equipment Used
Sako Kodiak .375 H&H with Leupold VX-6 2-12x42 scope
Ammo – 300 gr Barnes X triple shock hand loads

Browning Safari .222 with Leupold VX-3 2.5-8x36 scope
Ammo – 55 gr Sierra Game King SPBT hand loads


The day I stepped on the plane to travel to Zimbabwe in August 2012, National Parks rescinded the hunting permits for the area I was to hunt in the Save Conservancy with Mike Payne (Save Safaris). I am a firm believer in taking what Africa gives you and not worrying about the small stuff, so when Mike told me were going to hunt a tuskless in Dande (courtesy of Gavin Rorke Safaris) vice a buffalo in the Save, I was all for it. Zimbabweans always “make a plan”, and in my case the hunt turned out to be really great.

Fast forward to March 2013, and I once again had a buffalo hunt booked with Mike Payne in the Save Conservancy. And once again, National Parks was playing keep away with the hunting permits. The difference is that this time Mike and I looked for an alternate hunt much earlier, and I was thrilled when Mike was able to secure a leopard / plains game hunt at Debshan Ranch in the Shangani region of Zimbabwe. It turned out that the ranch manager, Jamie Campbell, and Mike were lifelong friends, and Jamie helped Mike secure the hunt. For those of you that have read Wayne Grant’s book “Into the Thorns”, you know the area where I hunted and that I would be hunting huge cattle killing leopards. On top of that, there was a ton of plains game on the ranch, and my best friend Ken, currently deployed to Afghanistan, would be joining me for a plains game hunt.


So, with a great Plan B in effect, I arrived in Harare the evening of 28 March, and we drove to Debshan Ranch a couple of days later. I had arranged for pre-baiting with zebra quarters the week before, and the news from Debshan was that we had at least 3 cats feeding, and 2 of them were pretty large – hopefully they were males. My actual hunt started on Easter Sunday, and the first order of business was to shoot a zebra stallion for more bait and check the baits already hanging. There are literally hundreds of zebra on the ranch, so taking a nice stallion did not take very long.


Mike also wanted to get a couple of impala for bait, so I shot 2 decent rams with the .222 (we saved the inside fillets), and we were on our way.

Checking all the baits, we found one that was hit hard by 2 cats (looked like a male and female from the tracks), so we refreshed the bait and set up a trail camera to see exactly what was feeding and when. With a $21,000 fine in Zimbabwe for shooting a female leopard, you REALLY want to make sure you are shooting a male and not a large female! We put up a couple of new baits in the process as we came across some pretty big tracks near a river bed.


The next day we were out checking baits again, and the trail camera we put up yesterday showed the cats feeding were a very large female and a small female. That was the bad news. The good news was that the new bait in the river bottom had been hit hard by a cat with a very big track. Hopefully, this was a male. Another bait had also been hit – things were looking up.

The morning of 2 April found us checking all the baits again, and one of the baits hit the day before looked so promising, Mike decided to set up a blind and sit there in the evening. The setup was great, but all that came in that night were brown hyenas – no cats. So, we would have to make another plan.

The morning of 3 April showed the river bed bait had been hit really hard again, so Mike decided to put up a trail camera to see what was feeding.

We ended up getting really great photos of a really big cat, but he always had his bum pointed away from us. We just could not make this guy grow a set of nuts. As this cat continued to feed on subsequent nights, we moved the trail camera to get a better look at his back side. Finally, when checking the camera the morning of 6 April, we confirmed our large cat was a male. A blind was quickly erected, and it was game on. With a river bed between us and the bait, we had a near perfect setup 85 yards from the bait. With the cat feeding at 2330 and 0330 however, it could prove to be a very long sit in the blind. I had no idea how hard it would be to stay quiet for that long a time – it proved to be agonizing!

So, with everything set, Mike and I entered the blind at 1630, and Mike said we would sit until sunrise if need be. At about 2330, Mike could hear the cat feeding, so he told me to get ready. He turned on the red spotlight, and he said “he is right at the base of the tree – take him”. Of course my rifle was pointed at the bait and not the base of the tree, so I never saw the leopard. Mike said the cat looked at him for a few seconds, then just casually walked off. I knew in my heart I had blown the opportunity of a lifetime, and Mike telling me the cat was really huge did not help matters any! So, Mike turned off the spotlight, and we hoped against hope the cat would return.

At 0120, Mike heard the cat feeding again, and he told me to get ready. As the spotlight came on, I saw the cat standing broadside in the tree feeding on the bait. I placed the crosshairs in back of the shoulder and fired……and then, nothing. No sounds of the cat thumping to the ground, no growls, nothing. Mike said the cat looked hit and fell out of the tree, but he was also at a loss for why there were no sounds after the shot. So, we got out of the blind, took a leak (that we both had been holding for the last 2 hours), and carefully made our way to the dirt road near the blind. Of course, our “boys” in the cruiser had fallen asleep and not heard the shot, so we walked almost a mile before they finally realized we had shot and were walking towards them. When the cruiser finally picked us up, we drove slowly towards the bait with Mike and I on top scanning for the cat. When we got to the tree, reality sunk in – no dead cat under the tree. Mike told me to stay in the truck while he and the trackers looked for blood. They found a 3” chunk of liver under the tree, but they could not pick up a blood trail. The jess was really thick, and after looking for blood for about 15 minutes, Mike decided the situation was too dangerous to handle in darkness, and we would return to track at first light.

We got back to camp at about 0300, and I could not go to sleep. When dawn came, we were on the road driving back towards bait tree. Shortly after arriving, one of the trackers found a second chunk of liver about 20 yards from the tree. Then they found a light blood trail leading into the thick jess. I was told to stay 30 yards behind Mike and his Appie while they had rifles ready for a charge as the trackers tracked. As the jess got progressively thicker, they threw rocks and sticks into the thickest parts trying to provoke a reaction from the leopard, but none came. About 50 yards from the bait, the trackers found a large pool of blood where the cat had laid down – Mike said he was really surprised the cat had not charged us during our search in darkness as they were actually pretty close it when they gave up. The light blood trail continued through the jess, across the road, and into a field with chest high grass – very good cover to hide a wounded leopard, but very scary to track in. About 50 yards or so into the field, Winna, the lead tracker, pointed ahead. There was my leopard, stone dead. A thousand different emotions raced through my mind, but all I could say was “Holy shit!”. The leopard was huge. It turned out that he weighed 180 pounds and his skull measured 17 ¾”. I was sure glad we did not meet this guy when he was alive, because he really would have inflicted some damage on us. Back at the farm house, we took photos and retold the story of the hunt. As this part of the ranch had lost 43 calves to leopards the previous year, the ranch staff was pretty happy that this cat would not be feeding on their stock any more.





Along with the leopard and the bait animals, I also took a steenbuck and a jackal. Ken, my hunting companion, took 2 Tsessebe, 2 impala, a wildebesst, a 40” sable, 2 kudu (one 52”,one 58”), an eland, a jackal, and a zebra. Overall, it was the hunt of a lifetime for both of us, and I can’t wait to get back to Zimbabwe next year!

Really good stuff there.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

Congrats !! Beautiful Cat !!

Great Report...do you have any more details on the Debshan Ranch such as how big is it? and where it is located (Lowveldt I assume)?

Could you keep us posted on the status of Mike's Save quota?

Congrats on that great Leopard!

Great leopard Dave. Congratulations! Sounds like you had some great lemonade again.

Great report Admiral, really well done!

Stunning--simply stunning-----

Sir,

I loved the report. Congrats on the huge spots!

I totaly understand the addiction to Zim and it's wonderful people.

Many Thanks

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Great Report...do you have any more details on the Debshan Ranch such as how big is it? and where it is located (Lowveldt I assume)?

Could you keep us posted on the status of Mike's Save quota?

Congrats on that great Leopard!

Debshan Ranch is huge - I do not know the exact size, but what I saw is broken up into 2 separate ranches - the North ranch is the most miserable thorn brush I have ever seen. The South Ranch, where I hunted, is more of a grasslands. Plains game abounds on the South Ranch, especially zebra and tsessebe. The ranch is owned by the Oppenheimer Family, and it is near Shangani, which is between Bulawayo and Gweru.
As far as the Save permits go, the Zim VP has gotten involved personally, and she is very pro Conservancy ie keeping it the way it has been. She gave the minister controlling the hunting permits 10 days to resolve the issues, and then she is going to step in and make things happen. Apparently she fired a different minister a few weeks ago for lack of action. Mike sees this as very positive. I will keep you posted.

Wonderful trophies all!

excellent

Jaws leopard!

Congratulations on a great leopard

Fantastic Leopard, and great plains game, a hunt well done !!

Excellent!!

I'm glad plan B worked out!!

Awesome cat and fine report.

Congrats on a great leopard

Torbjorn

Fantastic......at 17.75" skull will be one of the biggest cats taken in Zimbabawe this year, if not the biggest!! Well done, great achievement.

Awesome leopard - congratulations!

Wonderful Leopard!

I am glad it all worked out for you..Again

Thanks for the Report

Great leopard. Congrats!

Thank you for the good report and congratulations!

Monster leopard!

Congrats, looks like Plan B worked out pretty well.

Proper thick set "Mr Spots" - Makorokoto!!!!

Congrats!!!!!!

Subsailor

Excellent report and a superb trophy. Hunting Mr. Spots is one of my favorites and offers a very special experience. Big congrats!

Mark

great report and great cat. Huge congrats...

Outstanding cat. Huge congrats

Admiral, that is a great story!! 17&3/4" skull!! WOW. What a cat!! I can only imagine the agony of having to go back to camp and wait for daylight.

I really applaud how you and Mike have "made a plan" and not let the Save issues weigh you down from having a great safari ... twice now!

Congrats on Mr. Spots. I just love that chess game of baiting for them. For some unknown reason, I'm starting to get "Spotted Fever" again. Probably because of hunt reports like yours!!

Fantastic leopard! Congrats to you and Mike, and your mate on some fine plainsgame.

I hope they get the situation in the Save sorted out soon, its one of Zim's great conservation success stories.

Again, well done Sir and thank you for the report.

Wonderful pics and super trophy's. A full spread of animals.

Mike

A very nice cat... well done!

I finally had a chance to go through the digital photos that my PH Mike Payne gave me. I think this one with our tracker Nicolas shows how big this cat really is!

WOW..With the size of that Leopard,I bet he was a "cattle killer" for sure.

Once again Congratultions Admiral.

Awesome indeed!

Massive and it equals the Zambian record.

Fantastic cat! I have one in the high 16's that looked like a basketball, and yours seems to have a much more massive head. Dwarfs most leopards taken these days.

Congrats and that is an unbelievable Leopard...he looks twice the size of mine!

Who's mounting him for you?

Please post every pic that you have of him

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
Congrats and that is an unbelievable Leopard...he looks twice the size of mine!

Who's mounting him for you?

Please post every pic that you have of him

Todd Rapalee of Raplee Taxidermy in Goochland,Virginia will be mounting him for me. Todd has done all my African animals, and he does very nice work close to home. Here are a couple of other photos - the kids in the one photo are my PHs son and daughter. Here are more photos.

Damn that's a BIG cat!!