Just got my leopard back I killed last year w/ Leon DuPlessis, Tri-State did an awesome job as usual. Best base I have ever seen him do, my experience has been rocks are extemely hard to re-create realistically, He really pulled it off. Then the detail in the leopard, The pics don't show it well but the cats ribs and shoulder blades are anatomically perfect, his jowls, all of the folds in the right places. Then the head, with the partial open mouth, the one ear cocked to the side like he is listening in all directions, and his expression looks wicked. When we were chasing this cat we lost him in a koppe for about an hour, we climbed all over that pile of rocks with the dogs climbing and looking in every crevice, it was freaking intense. I wonder if that is how he looked sitting up in those rocks listening to the dogs get closer and closer. Getting this mount back makes me miss Zim and it's wildness. Good thing I'm heading back to Africa in a couple of weeks. Best part is he's mounted behind my desk looking down at whoever is sitting in my guest chair, well done.

That will rate as one of my most favorite leopard mounts! Congratulations on a great Tom.

Awesome mount!

Wow! That one is amazing. Such character!

Beautiful! Congratulations!

Very nice!!!

Brett

great mount!!

Wow! That's an incredible mount!

Beautiful cat on top of a spectacular base! One of the best leopard mounts I've seen.

That is truly spectacular!

One of the best natural poses I have ever seen. Congratulations on a wonderful trophy !!!

Great mount
It is not hard to imagine him looking down at the dogs.

here is how it looks sitting in my office, sorry the quality is not as good as the posed pics.


Send your cats to Tri-State (I think he has the back cover of African Hunter Magazine) This guy is the best there is with cats (and everything else in my opinion).

VERY nice mount!

I currently have a Leopard in work at Life-Form and had asked them for a similar pose on the cat, excepting only that I'm doing a dual mount with an East African Bushbuck -- love the facial expression on yours, classical Leopard.

quote:

I currently have a Leopard in work at Life-Form

make sure to post pics when you get it.

Great mount. You need to paint your office black. How much is a mount like that?

Thanks
John

I think I paid $3800

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:

quote:

I currently have a Leopard in work at Life-Form

make sure to post pics when you get it.

I'll be sure to do that. Life-Form always does great work for me, so I know that I'll be pleased.

That is one of the only mounts I really want, although a jaguar is pretty high up on the list too, hopefully they become legal again soon....

quote:

I currently have a Leopard in work at Life-Form

Old Handgun Hunter, do you have any pics of your leopard from your hunt? Did you shoot him with a pistol? Details?

Very, very nice

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:

quote:

I currently have a Leopard in work at Life-Form

Old Handgun Hunter, do you have any pics of your leopard from your hunt? Did you shoot him with a pistol? Details?

Here's the Leopard from my last hunt:



I did, indeed shoot it with a handgun -- it's the only way I've hunted for many years. I have never carried a rifle to Africa, not once -- although I am considering the possiblility of trying one of the old classic iron-sighted doubles and may adopt one of those to chase the Big 7 all over again in the classic fashion. It will be hard to give up the handguns, however, I truly enjoy handgun hunting -- most especially for game that is difficult using any method.

I'll probably just compromise and continue to hunt PG with the handguns and just hunt DG with a double gun.

Handgunner,
Did you weigh him? He looks about the same size as mine.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
Handgunner,
Did you weigh him? He looks about the same size as mine.

No, I didn't weigh him -- he was shot in the boonies and I doubt that there is a scale within an 8-10 hour drive.

The scoring hasn't been done on him -- he just recently made it to the taxidermist in SA -- but I'm comfortable that he'll be a Top Ten for handguns. I'm very pleased with him.

We were working a much bigger Leopard, a true giant that was the size of a small Lioness, but we had been at it for 16 days and nights when this guy presented himself, so I took the proverbial bird in the hand. That giant is still in the area, as I understand it, so you never know.......

Honest answer! Alot of guy's BS the weight, that's why I asked if you weighed him.

Mine looks like yours (Looking again, I think maybe yours is a bit bigger) and he was estimated by a few guys to be in the 130-140 range. I held mine and carried him to the truck, so I would say that he was closer to 120-130. A leopard with a full belly will be 15-20lbs heavier anyway.

Don't worry about not killing the big one, who cares, you killed a beautiful animal and you look so happy with him, and that's what counts.
Congrats!!

I told Leon before my hunt that I was going to be picky because I would only shoot 1 leopard in my life and wanted it to be a monster (I was going off of my experience Mountain Lion and Bear hunting with dogs). After doing it, I am dying to go again, only this time I want to use a handgun and get closer. Its good to hear from someone who has actually shot one with a handgun, details on your handgun?

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
Honest answer! Alot of guy's BS the weight, that's why I asked if you weighed him.

Mine looks like yours (Looking again, I think maybe yours is a bit bigger) and he was estimated by a few guys to be in the 130-140 range. I held mine and carried him to the truck, so I would say that he was closer to 120-130. A leopard with a full belly will be 15-20lbs heavier anyway.

Don't worry about not killing the big one, who cares, you killed a beautiful animal and you look so happy with him, and that's what counts.
Congrats!!

It certainly wasn't my first Leopard hunt and it won't be my last -- but it WAS a difficult hunt. I believe that this Leopard was the only one taken on that concession over at least a three year period -- and I know that my month there was preceded by one of the big name TV hunters also hunting for a month -- a very talented hunter from what I can determine -- and I was followed for another month by a well known hunter from France -- both of these hunters have taken numerous exceptional cats. There were no spotted cats taken the year before that and, I believe, none taken so far in this hunting season. So, I give my PH's (I actually had two for the entire trip) lots of credit for not only putting me in a position to take this Leopard, but actually putting me in a position where I could well have taken two or three if I had had the tags. These guys were VERY good -- as good as I've seen.

Their job is more difficult than usual when they hunt with me, both because I hunt exclusively with handguns (handguns are always hard, but at night are frightfully hard) and am very night-blind. I like it hard and don't really lose much sleep about it if things don't come together with a good trophy -- it's about the hunt, not the blood. I like to do well -- everybody does -- but that's never enough for me unless it's also very hard. I'm a masochist in that respect. LOL

For me, Leopard hunting is, by far, the best hunting there is and I would be happy never hunting anything else except Mr. Spots and the baits required to tempt him to the right tree and the right time. Given my chosen hunting method and night-blindness, it just doesn't get a lot more challenging OR more rewarding.

I wouldn't despoil the experience by worrying a lot about if my trophy weighs 150 or 190 pounds. On that night, in that location, the local villagers tossed me just as high in the air as they've ever tossed anybody -- I almost broke my nose!

quote:

Its good to hear from someone who has actually shot one with a handgun, details on your handgun & loads?

Sorry to pester, but I am interested to hear details on the handgun you use for leopard if you are interested in sharing

quote:

Sorry to pester, but I am interested to hear details on the handgun you use for leopard if you are interested in sharing

My usual handgun for Leopard is a custom T/C Encore chambered in the wildcat caliber 338GNR -- basically ballistically equivalent to a regular 338, but optimized for the shorter barrel. I use light loads for Mr. Spots because he's a truly thin-skinned animal -- shot placement is what counts -- I use a 225gr Accubond at about 2100fps.

The cat in the picture was not taken with the 338GNR, however, because the trigger group on the 338 I had along got gunked up and the trigger fall was in slow motion on about 1 out of 5 shots -- not good for Leopard hunting, where just cocking the gun makes too much noise let alone having to deal with misfires. So, instead, I used a different T/C Encore chambered in 378GNR - the ballistic equivalent of the 375 H&H, but using a rimmed cartridge. I had only hotter loads on that trip, so I used a 260gr Accubond at about 2400fps. It's a lot more gun than is needed, but it did the job just fine and gave me a perfect one shot kill.

I have a number of hunting revolvers in various chambers that I wouldn't hesitate to use on a daytime Leopard -- in fact, I often have them at the ready in case I should get so lucky as to actually have a male in the tree before dark -- but, once the sun falls, I have to use an Encore because I can place it and even fire it from a sandbag in the dark. With a revolver, my night-blindness makes it too difficult -- and therefore time consuming -- to find the cat in the scope. Were it not for that, however, I wouldn't hesitate to use a revolver in an appropriate caliber -- I prefer the 410GNR, which is a 454 necked down to 41 caliber loaded with 170gr JHC's at 1900fps or 255gr LBT's at 1650fps.

You aren't pestering -- I was just asleep and missed the question. I love to talk about hunting handguns and am always more than willing to engage that subject. I probably owned 50 or so custom hunting revolvers and Encore pistols, each optimized to a specific game type. I Love the things.

Do all of your hand guns have optics, if so what kind? If open sight, what kind? Do you have any recommendations on manufacturers of custom revolvers?
Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
Do all of your hand guns have optics, if so what kind? If open sight, what kind? Do you have any recommendations on manufacturers of custom revolvers?
Thanks

I run the gamut on handgun sights -- I have several open sighted revolvers in various calibers, but their use is limited to either close in game (under 75 yards) or backup duty. Open sighted handguns are a VERY convenient backup gun and in calibers of 454 up to 50 caliber are very effective.

My favorite optics are Leupold, Nikon or Burris handgun scopes (I see better through the Leupolds, but each person is different in this regard); but, I always use a Leupold base and rings -- they are indestructible and totally foolproff (there are NO acceptable substitutes as far as I'm concerned). Most of my scopes are 2-8X variables, although I do have a few 2X or 4X scopes and some people actually prefer the fixed power scopes for reasons that I don't identify with. The real beauty of using either Leupold or Burris, fixed or variable, is that those manufacturers warrant their scopes for life and they cheerfully honor that commitment. This is VERY important because the scopes are expensive and big bore handguns are very hard on scopes.

To vary it a bit, I have a few scopes with Aimpoint Red Dot scopes or EOTech holographic sights. There are other brands, but I find that these two are the only ones acceptable to me, meaning reliable enough to take to Africa without concern.

I even have one Encore, chambered in 338GNR, which is equipped with a state of the art modular night vision system -- a system that I can switch back and forth from daylight to night time use in under 3 seconds and in total silence. It's quite the toy, but it's also a very expensive set up as the various components totaling something over $6K. I've never seen another like it, but I think that it's the cat's meow. If you ever get interested in night vision for a handgun, I can give you more information -- it's useful to be sure but it's something of a novelty.

I have Encores in a wide variety of chamberings -- from rim fires to 475GNR. There is not a beast on the planet that can't be taken ethically with one of those guns. In fact, there are but a handful of chamberings in the world that can't be handled by the Encore -- although there are relatively few handgun hunters/shooters that can handle several of them on the upper fringe. I routinely hunt Africa with handgun equivalents of the most popular African chamberings and, for the biggest thick-skinned game, use even heavier stuff. The Encore is an amazing piece of machinery capable of handling upper tier chamber pressures and with amazing accuracy. I can routinely shoot sub one inch groups at 100 yards with comparable accuracies out to about 300 yards when necessary. Just as an example here is a group that I shot a while ago, under perfect conditions, just to see how good a particular chambering could be. It's a five shot grouping at 100 yards -- and, for reference, the bullseye is 1/4 inch across. There's nothing special about me -- I know lots of handgun hunters that can do this well or better on a similarly perfect day:



No one that I know can shoot a revolver at comparable distances with nearly as much accuracy -- but at 100 yards and under they can be very good -- certainly good enough for hunting by those willing to put in the required hours of practice and load selection.

The revolver is much, much easier to shoot off-hand and the Encore is much easier to shoot at long distances and can handle almost any rifle chambering. That's the bottom line.

Virtually all of my hunting handguns -- both Encores (or Contenders) and revolvers are custom made, some on commerical frames and some on totally custom frames. For my money, Gary Reeder is the very best custom gun maker for hunting handguns because he's a very serious handgun hunter himself and was one of the pioneers of modern handgun hunting. He's hunted with handguns for decades, has hunted almost everything that walks on the planet and knows what works and what doesn't. (he's also a very good friend, but I wouldn't recommend him if he wasn't also a fantastic builder of custom handguns.) There are a few others -- Hamilton Bowen is another favorite of mine -- that make wonderfully crafted custom handguns, but for hunting equipment nobody beats Reeder.

The very best factory gun is made by Bob Baker of Freedom Arms -- the FA83 is the very best production hunting handgun ever made and nothing will ever eclipse it. I own several FA guns and what I most like to do with new FA's is send them to Flagstaff have Gary Reeder breath on them just enough to impart his special magic on the gun. But, out of the box, they're very close to perfect.

That's the simple bottom line on hunting handguns. My usual recomendation for anyone that wants to try it is for them to have Gary make them a custom Encore in some flexible chambering and give it a try. It takes a little practice, but any diligent shooter can, with work, get to the point where he can ethically hunt anything with a handgun that he could hunt with a rifle. Revolvers are wonderful and, if you like the Encore you'll want one or more, but the right place to start is with the Encore.

thanks for the info, gives me a starting point. I looked at Reeders, Bowen & FA websites, all are impressive. Does anyone make a revolver on a custom frame or all they all either Rugers or S&W's?

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
thanks for the info, gives me a starting point. I looked at Reeders, Bowen & FA websites, all are impressive. Does anyone make a revolver on a custom frame or all they all either Rugers or S&W's?

Gary makes some of his guns on totally custom frames -- but, unless this is necessary -- ie for an extra-length cartridge like the 475 or 500 Maximum -- it's a lot of expense for little gain. I know no one that does any serious custom work on S&W's, they're just not strong enough for most of what you would do and S&W won't help by supplying small parts. Most of the custom work is done on Rugers, which are fine guns in their own right and can be modified to handle anything that a shooter can handle.

For 1st guns, there's little to compare to a customized Ruger Blackhawk.