Just cataloging some hunt photos for Ian Rutledge. Thought some of these leopard pics would interest AR readers. Some lovely cats.

Who does Ian PH for these days?

He owns/runs Dindingwe Safaris in the Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy (Kwe Kwe) - been there quite a few years now.

Yes, I do remember having one of his Dindingwe business cards. He also did hunts for Ingwe Safaris but I thought he started up in Moz?
A good guy.

Yes, 100% - one of Zim's long-standing PHs, 'old school'. He's mainly specializing in Leopard/Plainsgame packages, as well as big game hunting. Also freelances.

Great looking cats...We hunted in Dande some years ago with Ian Rutledge of Ingwe Safaris.Ingwe Safaris my "best of the best" Zimbabwe operators I have been dealing with.Three times with them so far....

How Ingwe Safaris goes dotay?

Really nice leopards. Over what period of time were they taken.

Wonderful cats!

Actually, I think those two cats are just avearage.

Having said that, I would shure hope to get one as nice!

While beautiful leopard indeed there are some real monsters that come out of the Midlands so those would be average for the area.

We hunted next door for two years and like alot of areas that have huge leopard you had to hunt darn hard and have quite a bit of luck but when you got one you got a beauty.

Ian is an excellent leopard hunter so if anyone can pull out one of those educated kitties it would be Ian!

I think Ian is still involved with Ingwe. I'm trying to convince him to sign up on AR, but he readily admits to being completely computer illiterate – I think the idea of posting on an internet forum scares him far more that following a wounded leopard in the thick stuff!
These cats are mainly from his last two seasons (I think). Last night he sent me this one – August 2011. Don’t think I am allowed to post Ian’s details here, but if you’d like to catch up with him I can e-mail you his details.

No man. Those are Jaguars.

Superb and completely different gene pool to the rest of Africa.

Ian is a great guy and a fantastic PH. Those are all big cats.

Excellent leopards!

Why do you say that Andrew? Is there not a contiguous population of leopards around that area merging with other areas?

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:Superb and completely different gene pool to the rest of Africa.

Does anyone know if Dindingwe Safaris/Ian Rutledge will be at SCI?
I would love to upgrade my current leopard trophy to one of these beasts!

Nice!

Ian's not coming across to the US this year - quite a few Zim Phs are giving it a miss. If you'd like to get hold of him I'll send you his details.

I met Ian when elephant hunting with Buzz a number of years ago in Dande when he was with Bill Bedford's Ingwe Safari. Very nice fellow. Those leopard are quite nice. Well done.

Ian is a great guy and I have been on several safaris with him. Would not hesitate to do anything with him. His is of old school SAS and they are tough bastards. Ingwe has sort of disappeared as Bill Bedford (Ingwe) lost Dande south to Swainsons (or so if you know the background). Ian hunts primarily at Kwe Kwe as someone said but he is a freelance guy as well as if you want to hunt with him in a different outfit you could probably arrange it. Buzz is right about some monster leopards in the area but they are smart and you have to have both time and luck to get one of the monsters. Hate to hear is not coming to SCI but some others such as John Greeff are not as well, probably all for different reasons. Bill might still book some hunts as Ingwe but I do not think they have any significant areas any longer. Buzz has Dande East and now Dande south is with someone else but it is primarly controlled by lions.

The southern part of Dande North is now hunted by Gavin Rorke Safaris, who purchased Swainson's Safaris. I hunted with Gavin in May. Did not get a leopard though the place was crawling with their tracks and lion tracks. I shot a male lion and other game, including ele and buff. Gavin also hunts the northern part of Dande North, along the Zambezi River.

Some fine looking cats.

Mike