Leopard

grizzly · Jul 6, 2021

Does anybody have any experience with an outfit that hunts leopards, preferably with dogs?

CAelknuts · Jul 7, 2021

I don’t have any experience with hound hunts, but do have a decent amount for the more traditional leopard hunts. I’ve shot a couple nice Tom’s and will be hunting them again in a few months.

For a hound hunt, Namibia is where you’ll focus with an outside chance for Zimbabwe. I’m simply not up to speed on the hound hunts as they don’t particularly interest me.

Perhaps the main thing you want to focus on is the PH and area, with time of year also being a consideration. A good leopard PH in a good area is more important for leopards than probably any other aspect of a successful hunt.

For a traditional bait hunt, some good options to consider include Zimbabwe, in particular the big conservancies including Bubye, Save & Nuanetsi. Humani, part of the Save Valley Conservancy, has been excellent of late. Some really good leopard PH’s include Thierry Labat, John Sharp, Cliff Walker and Alan Vincent. I’d be far more inclined to hunt on one of the conservancies than cattle country in the lowveld, as even though they kill some huge leopards there, those cats are very switched on due to being constantly pursued. Conservancy cats are a bit less wary.

Your other options are mostly in Zambia or Tanzania (where ill be hunting with Alan Vincent). Zambian leopard hunting is mostly in two regions; Kafue in western Zambia and the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia. Richard Bell-Cross is very good in his Lunga Luswishi concession in the Kafue region. Over in Luangwa Valley, there are several good leopard PH’s and I’m partial to Johnny DuPlooy of Muchinga Safaris. He hunts Chifunda, but will be moving to Upper Lupande in 2023. Both very good areas. There are other good options as well.

In Tanzania, there are multiple good operators who take excellent leopards. I’ll just mention a couple with whom I’m personally familiar. Mike Fell hunts Maswa North and takes some fantastic cats. It’s a very scenic area with lots of buffalo and various plains game that leopards thrive on. Alan Vincent, whom I’ll be hunting with in a few months, has Mlele South which is also a scenic area with tons of buffalo, leopards, lions and various plains game. One nice aspect of hunting here is that, even though it’s western Tanzania, a charter flight is not necessary. You can fly from DAR to Mpanda, then a 4 hour drive to camp. Maswa is an expensive air charter.

Snoopdogg · Jul 7, 2021

CAelknuts said:
I don’t have any experience with hound hunts, but do have a decent amount for the more traditional leopard hunts. I’ve shot a couple nice Tom’s and will be hunting them again in a few months.

For a hound hunt, Namibia is where you’ll focus with an outside chance for Zimbabwe. I’m simply not up to speed on the hound hunts as they don’t particularly interest me.

Perhaps the main thing you want to focus on is the PH and area, with time of year also being a consideration. A good leopard PH in a good area is more important for leopards than probably any other aspect of a successful hunt.

For a traditional bait hunt, some good options to consider include Zimbabwe, in particular the big conservancies including Bubye, Save & Nuanetsi. Humani, part of the Save Valley Conservancy, has been excellent of late. Some really good leopard PH’s include Thierry Labat, John Sharp, Cliff Walker and Alan Vincent. I’d be far more inclined to hunt on one of the conservancies than cattle country in the lowveld, as even though they kill some huge leopards there, those cats are very switched on due to being constantly pursued. Conservancy cats are a bit less wary.

Your other options are mostly in Zambia or Tanzania (where ill be hunting with Alan Vincent). Zambian leopard hunting is mostly in two regions; Kafue in western Zambia and the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia. Richard Bell-Cross is very good in his Lunga Luswishi concession in the Kafue region. Over in Luangwa Valley, there are several good leopard PH’s and I’m partial to Johnny DuPlooy of Muchinga Safaris. He hunts Chifunda, but will be moving to Upper Lupande in 2023. Both very good areas. There are other good options as well.

In Tanzania, there are multiple good operators who take excellent leopards. I’ll just mention a couple with whom I’m personally familiar. Mike Fell hunts Maswa North and takes some fantastic cats. It’s a very scenic area with lots of buffalo and various plains game that leopards thrive on. Alan Vincent, whom I’ll be hunting with in a few months, has Mlele South which is also a scenic area with tons of buffalo, leopards, lions and various plains game. One nice aspect of hunting here is that, even though it’s western Tanzania, a charter flight is not necessary. You can fly from DAR to Mpanda, then a 4 hour drive to camp. Maswa is an expensive air charter.

Damn. You seem to know your sh!t!

grizzly · Jul 7, 2021

@CAelknuts, thank you so much for all the great insight, I know it took you a while to write that and I really appreciate it. I'd like to get something booked at SCI this winter, would it be possible to reach out to you as that gets closer if I have more questions?

LivingTheDream · Jul 7, 2021

If you can avoid the charter flight into Tanzania, it might be the better value as you can shoot a couple buffalo for bait and the trophy fees are not too high. I think Tanzania in general probably has the best success rate.

From a per cost perspective, Zim would be the way to go. CAelknuts mentioned some great cat guys with good areas and a great reputations.

You can use hounds in Zim but I believe the license to do so is 5k. Namibia you can't use hounds anymore unless it is wounded. I believe Botswana you can use hounds though I am unsure of the costs (I just saw one advertised but didn't pay much attention since I am not in the market). The rules seem to change yearly on these types of things.

CAelknuts · Jul 7, 2021

LivingTheDream said:
If you can avoid the charter flight into Tanzania, it might be the better value as you can shoot a couple buffalo for bait and the trophy fees are not too high. I think Tanzania in general probably has the best success rate.

From a per cost perspective, Zim would be the way to go. CAelknuts mentioned some great cat guys with good areas and a great reputations.

You can use hounds in Zim but I believe the license to do so is 5k. Namibia you can't use hounds anymore unless it is wounded. I believe Botswana you can use hounds though I am unsure of the costs (I just saw one advertised but didn't pay much attention since I am not in the market). The rules seem to change yearly on these types of things.

In regard to your charter comment above, yes if you can avoid it, that’s a lot of savings. Round trip charter from Arusha to Maswa is about 4,000-5,000 and that assumes you’re splitting it with hunters flying the opposite leg of the round trip. Dar es Salaam to Mlele is even more expensive BUT a round trip ticket from DAR to Mpanda is only $400 round trip business class, then a 4 hour drive to camp. Big savings!

Buffalo are not typically used as leopard bait, though they are a preferred lion bait. For leopards, at least where I’ll be hunting this year, Zebra is a preferred bait. It lasts a long time and leopards like Zebra a lot. Impala and warthog are commonly used for baits in many areas, though I won’t be using any as neither is on my license. The group immediately preceding me will also be hunting leopards, so there will be a number of baits up before I even arrive. Back to buffalo, since a Tanzanian leopard hunt must be a minimum of 16 days, that also gets you 3 buffalo on license. Without regard to the plains game, just ponder hunting 3 buffalo and a leopard in a hunt of about 2 weeks. To me, that’s an awesome hunt by itself.

Grizzly, I’ll be glad to help you in any way I can. PM me with any questions.

billc · Jul 8, 2021

using dogs in namibia is not legal for years now.

CAelknuts · Jul 11, 2021

I just saw an interesting leopard hunt that booking agent Mark Young has posted up over on AR. It’s with Johnny DuPlooy for 2022 in Chanjusi, one of the Luangwa Valley areas. It’s not an inexpensive hunt but Johnny is a very good leopard hunter and Chanjusi is a good area. Might be worth looking into If someone wants a good hunt that includes high success on leopard.

Bushwack · Jul 23, 2021

Namibia don't hunt with dogs anymore, BUT they still deliver excellent specimens at more affordable prices

Blank · Jul 23, 2021

Bushwack: Bravo on some beautiful, big old cats! I agree with his take on Namibia. Very good numbers of leopards, low population density of people, they get a chance to get big, and relatively unpressured, especially for a PH who knows how to hunt them. Cost of bait animals is cheaper, and overall cost of the hunt is probably $10-15K less.

CAelknuts · Jul 26, 2021

Bushwhack, very nice leopards. Well done.

Buckhunter1955 · Jul 26, 2021

Here's the only Leopard in my lifetime, it's a 1000 piece puzzle that my wife and I just finished.

1BigDeer · Aug 19, 2021

Puzzle is a picture of a jaguar…?

OutdoorWriter · Aug 19, 2021

1BigDeer said:
Puzzle is a picture of a jaguar…?

And the willing model for many of the photos among this bunch, as well. It's easy to match the unique spots.

Brazils Pantanal Jaguars

Blank · Aug 20, 2021

They have a couple at Bearizona, in Williams. A melanistic black one and a normal coloration. Sure cool to watch, and they love jumping in their water feature!!!