I just got back a couple of days ago. I am run ragged here, trying to catch up. I have not had time to draft a full report. In addition, my camera is still in my bag. I keep forgetting to bring it. In the mean time, I have copied below an e mail I sent out regarding a serious leopard incident. I hope you enjoy it. I promise a full report soon.

I will give you all some hints. The leopard below was clearly a highlight as was the buff with bosses of almost 18 inches and the elephant (probably over 60 pounds) taken with a perfect frontal brain shot after tracking it for 6 miles.



Greetings from Zimbabwe.

Most, but not all of you are my friends that hunt. We have been back about an hour from my leopard hunt. It is 315 in the morning. I am quite confident that I will not sleep at all. Accordingly, I decided to tell you all about my leopard hunt.

Two days ago, just before dark, I whacked a massive old giraffe bull. I shot him for bait. The recovery was done the next day. While we were doing recovery, one of the game scouts told us about the track of a large leopard they were seeing on an island in the Save river. Hmmmm......

Well, we decided to take a look. This required us to wade across the Save river to get to the island. Did I mention the Save is full of crocodiles? Well it is. I was not happy about crossing the river but I did it. The vegetation is thick. REAL thick!

Two days later, while we are elephant hunting, we get a radio call. Two of our baits have been hit, including the one on the island. Off we go to have a look.
Collen comes back and says the track is the largest track he has ever seen. Good! We make a plan. We crossed the river even though we saw two crocs on the bank right by us. We build a hide in a good location. We enter the hide and proceed to wait.

Around 5 pm, I hear the leopard jump onto the bait tree. I look up and I see him. He moves in an odd way. He is big. Big head. Very long. Looks heavy.

I get ready to shoot. Off goes the safety. I put the cross hairs behind the shoulder. Then I think, no, he will run off a few yards and die. Given this thick vegetation, I do not want to do this. I move the cross hairs to the point of the shoulder. Boom! Down he falls like a sack of potatoes. I think he is finished and dead on the spot. So did Collen. So did Murray (camerman). Then we hear the leopard grunt. Strange. Very strange indeed.

We get out to have a look. We find the tracks. We find blood. We follow about 50 yards. I am concerned. I opine that we should go back to the camp and get shotguns, then come back. Also review the footage on Murray's computer. Off we go.

Collen has a shotgun. We decide that I will use the game scout's shotgun. It is a total piece of shit. The action will not lock. I decide to use it anyway. We review the footage. It looks like I did in fact hit the point of the shoulder. Unfortunately, the footage also reveals that the leopard was quartering slightly when I shot. Off we go back to the river. The trackers bring our rifles.

We discuss the situation. All 3 of us think the leopard is dead. We go to the last place we had seen sign. It is now 8 pm or 3 hours after the leopard was shot. The fun begins.

We tracked the leopard. It was an amazing masterful tracking job, no thanks to me. This stuff was insanely thick. We were often on our knees. The guns could only be pointed straight ahead. We could hear several lions calling and numerous elephants trumpeting and feeding close by. This is the real Africa. I was nervous. This was dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. I do not want anyone to get hurt.

After a long time, we get to a place near the river. The consensus opinion is that the leopard will make it's final stand there. Long story why. This place is largely insanely thick reed beds. We have a pow wow. It is decided that Murray will take the game scout's gun. I will use my 416 as it is less than certain if the game scout's gun will even fire. We proceed further cautiously.

At one point we round a corner. We hear something. The bushes shake. No one shoots. Damn!!! We see some sign. The leopard is dragging a left leg. Hmmm... We move forward. Murray and Collen think they see something. Boom Boom, they shoot. Unfortunately, they shot a stump. Nerves are frayed. We continue.

After 50 or so yards, the leopard takes off. We can't even see him and he was LESS THAN 2 yards from Murray and Gabriel ( tracker). Collen shoots. Murray's gun misfired! Apparently no damage is done. I happened to be looking behind us as leopards are notorious for attacking from behind. Damn, this is nerve racking. The pucker factor is high. REAL high.

We continue. After another 50 yards or so, I think I see the leopard. As I am telling them and raising my gun, the leopard tries to run. Murray has another misfire. Collen shoots. Someone, in their haste to not get hurt, lunges into me. I cannot shoot.

We look intently into the thick reeds. I see him! Is he dead or alive? Not sure but he appears dead. He was in fact dead. It was now about 12:15! Over 4 hours since we started tracking in the dark with flash lights. We are ecstatic.
The relief was unbelievable.

We pull him out. He is magnificent. Then, we notice something very odd. The leopard is MISSING his right front foot! He has apparently been caught in a gin trap or a snare. His front left foot is damaged. Probably a snare. He has a massive head and is over 7' 6"! Damn big leopard.

My shot was precisely where I aimed. There is a big exit hole right in the center of the chest. The slight quartering angle apparently caused my shot to miss the vitals. Had I shot behind the shoulder as I started to, this would have been a short story.



We carry him back. I carried him on my shoulders across the river.

It was an amazing hunt. There was incredible tracking. This is one of the two most dangerous things I have ever done while hunting. I am glad it is over.
Collen, his trackers and the game scouts are the real deal. Serious, no bull shit, skilled big game hunters. We are lucky no one was killed or hurt.


By the way, this magnificent creature was in serious decline. He could not hunt with his foot situation. He was in real serious decline.

Was I scared? Hell yes!!! Was I terrified? No! I was proud of myself. I was able to maintain my composure with out doing anything stupid or dangerous.

Finally, a lot of people say shotguns will not work on a leopard. I can tell you from personal experience that these people are WAY wrong.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Riviting account. Well done and congratulations on an outstanding safari.

Larry,

Great stuff as always!

Many Thanks

HBH

Larry,
Welcome home and congratulations! Hope you had a cameraman along for this one.

Larry,
Gotta see the pic's!!

quote:

It was an amazing hunt. There was incredible tracking. This is one of the two most dangerous things I have ever done while hunting. I am glad it is over.
Collen, his trackers and the game scouts are the real deal. Serious, no bull shit, skilled big game hunters. We are lucky no one was killed or hurt.


By the way, this magnificent creature was in serious decline. He could not hunt with his foot situation. He was in real serious decline.

Congratulations on the great trophies Larry. Well done to everyone for dealing with the situation, a huge relief nobody was hurt I'm sure, a relief to me that I wasn't there for sure! Collen and his guys are the real deal, no doubt, highly experienced team. So good you got that poor old tom out of the system, how he must have suffered.

Cheers, am looking forward to some pictures, Dave

Serious pucker factor there, Larry.

Looking forward to the pics.

Way to go Larry! Welcome home.Glad it all worked out for everyone

David:

The guys (including the leopard research guy) recon this cat may have lost up to 40% of it's body weight. I saw his climbing on the tree was strange. I thought it was an injury NOT a missing foot.

This foot situation is what caused the entire problem with the angle. I looked at the limb for an hour. I was 100% certain it was full on broad side. However, I didn't count of the missing foot. I did not realize the leopard had it's left foot further right than normal. I still can't believe it did not die right there after seeing the hole in it. I was as certain on this shot as I have ever been in my life. Considering all my other leopards never ran a foot, I was highly confident, until I heard it growl.

We saw the swollen part on his left leg. We knew it was some type of old injury. However, when the cat was skinned, the snare was still on the leg! The skin had grown back over it.

We do have film of the shot in the tree. However, the tracking at night we have very little film. The reason being that the camera light highlights everyone. It makes it much easier for the leopard to see you. That did not last long at all. No one wanted to get nailed.



I learned two valuable lessons from this:

1- Following the leopard at night, while scary, is the way to go. The light has to confuse them and make it more difficult to see the people. It is actually safer even though it did not feel that way at the time.

2- If I ever hunt leopard again, I will absolutely bring my shotgun. I would have written a large check for my Super Black Eagle and a box of 3.5 inch 00 buckshot. We could not see this leopard at less than 2 yards. We would have had ZERO chance with a rifle if he had come at us from close range.

To those guys that say buckshot will not penetrate, I say BULLSHIT! I never believed that having shot a ton of stuff with buckshot in my twisted youth. At long ranges maybe, but at these ranges, it was the ticket. There is absolutely zero doubt.

Larry- Did you have a chance to have Dusty (conservancy Ecologist) take a look at this cat. It sounds like you might have bagged Popeye! Regardless, Way to go!!!

He did see it. It was not Popeye. He called him Zuko or something like that. He had no sign of the cat in 2 years and thought he was dead.

quote:

To those guys that say buckshot will not penetrate, I say BULLSHIT! I never believed that having shot a ton of stuff with buckshot in my twisted youth. At long ranges maybe, but at these ranges, it was the ticket. There is absolutely zero doubt.

+1

I forgot to add one humorous item.

We had a game scout with us the entire time named Etai. The local scouts patrolled their designated areas in which they lived. One of the local guys looked familiar to me. it finally hit me that he was the spitting image of Dave Chappell.

Congrats larry. Leopard hunting at its best! Get us the pics!

Larry, Way to go! I want to hear more of this over a crown and sprite.

Mike

The Legendry Popeye, that cat has to be old enough to be Poopdeck Pappy by now!

I have heard he is a brute.

HBH

Mike:

Only 1? Served by a waitress that shows her tatoos? LOL!

Damn, I bet that got the heart pumping quickly.

Chrissakes, I had a dry mouth and a quick heart-beat just reading the dang story!

Glad it all worked out and nobody got buggered up.

Congrats on the other trophies as well. Looking forward to a full report soon.

Yup. It might have lowered my cholesterol a few points! It was intense. I was on the island wanting whatever was going to happen would happen sooner rather than later. Four hours of this intensity was a lot to take.

I am buried with work. I will try and draft it tomorrow.

quote:

Originally posted by Webster:

quote:

To those guys that say buckshot will not penetrate, I say BULLSHIT! I never believed that having shot a ton of stuff with buckshot in my twisted youth. At long ranges maybe, but at these ranges, it was the ticket. There is absolutely zero doubt.

+1

+2-- It sure turned out the lights on my leopard at less than 10 yards when pattern centered on his neck/chest on a full( unwounded) charge.

Larry congrats. John B said you nailed a great cat. Can't wait for pics.

Congrats Larry...I have to agree, following a leopard after dark is one of the scariest things I have ever done without a doubt. Glad yours turned out so well...

Tim: +1

Great preview, Larry.

I look forward to the rest of the story and am glad everything turned out well.

Larry, congratulations on a great leopard and a marvelous hunt.

It beats my story,, which I will tell sometime, about my leopard coming up within 3-4 feet of our blind, behind our backs. John Knowles, my PH, was holding a short barreled Mossberg 10 gauge, but never had to use it.

Great report and congratulations on a unique animal & hunt.

Yes shotguns work on all kinds of big game. In India traditionally most of the hunting was done with shotguns. Litterally thousands for tigers and leopards were shot with 12 bore LG & Ball ammo. My dad shot 2 tigers in 1951 & 52 with Elley LG & Ball ammo. I know of another guy who killed a charging bull elephant with a Wesley Richards 12 bore using LGs at less than 10 yards - he put both barrels into the chest between the front legs & the bull went down on the spot.

What a great story.

I'm anxiously awaiting the pics.

Great report. Thanks for posting. Reading your report will just make the week go slower. My son and I leave a week from today to hunt with SSG.

Hartley

Fantastic report and great animal. Its funny you mention a leopard with one paw missing as there is a large male that lives near the Turgwe river who lost a paw to a gin trap several years ago. It has been seen a few times but seems to have managed to overcome the injury.

Hope we meet up next time you are in Zim

Great report and thanks for sharing. Having followed a leopard in the dark for two hours up a thorn covered hillside last year I know some of what you went through. Thnakfully we found it dead. Its that feeling of not wanting others to get scratched for your actions that haunts you isnt it ?

Ja I don't think any follow up has had my heart pounding more than when following a wounded leopard in the thick stuff...A few years ago, my brother and I and Amos (bro's senior tracker) had to follow one on Hammond and it was really tense. We covered only a few hundred meters in hours, and I expected the cat to leap on me from every bush! I remember how reluctant I was every time Jonny signaled for me to check out a particular clump of bush on my side...Flippin older brothers...It ended the following morning when a houndsman and his dogs arrived on the scene. The dogs flushed the cat from a small kopje and soon there was a rough and tumble going on between them in a relatively open bit of mopani. Was pretty cool because Jon grabbed a scoped 30.06 from one of the trackers, waited a couple seconds for his chance and then shot the leopard dead. The dogs were a bit disappointed I think...

I hope you sort out your satphone issues soon Larry, so that you can focus on your report!!

Outstanding story Larry. I really enjoyed the mobile report from the bush. I agree about the shotgun. At halitosis range 3 1/2 inchs of 12 guage dissuader would be ideal.

Jeff

Larry, you're killing us...let's see the pic's!!

My apologies. I am slammed with work. I have dictated the report. She has typed through the first day. I will get it this week.

No pics, no leopard!

Congrate on an EXCITING hunt w/a fairy tale ending. Look forward to the pics and full report.