Cornhusker
Long Time Member
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I know a lot of you guys on here have really taken some exceptional animals from all over the world. I may be the only one on here interested in what you consider your best trophy and why you consider it your best? Possibly children or spouse with you or just difficulty of the hunt.
I'll start it out although my selection could be one of several animals like I'm sure many of yours. In June I took a nice leopard in Namibia I would like to tell you it was a 190 lb cat but it weighed 90 lbs instead. The P.H. and I had sat 5 straight nights from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m.. We knew we had leopard in the area from tracks and trail cams. We knew they were moving at night as the norm. Every afternoon we would have a couple of troops of baboons move into the bait tree area. Baboons have incredible eyesight a blink if they are looking in the blind is detected. They would spend the night in the rocks above the bait tree. We also had a least 4 or 5 brown hyena who would stay on the bait for two or three hours. We felt we couldn't take a chance of exiting the blind after dark and get in it by first light. The P.H. I felt had very high ethics because he said we would only shoot one legally not under artifical lights as many are done.
On the 6th night we started with the usual mongoose, baboons and then hyena's, at 4:30 the first brown hyena showed up looked into the blind from 5 or 6 feet and went to the bait tree. Gradually 4 more hyena showed up to the bait until we had five and a honey badger around the bait. With light pretty much gone, the P.H. should have been me but I missed it saw a glint on a warthog quarter. With just enough moonlight we whispered and decided it had to be a leopards eye. We had no idea how big it was until we saw the other eye. The P.H. seeing both eyes said it was a good sized leopard. We still could not see the body and as it ate warthog we could only see the one eye. We decided with several clouds moving to obscure the moon it had to be now or never, so it was shoot him in the eye or a shot would not be possible. I took the shot I saw the leopard fall lifeless the P.H. wasn't sure. he insisted we walk back to the pickup and roll window up to see if the leopard was dead. We got back to the truck drove to the bait tree and found the leopard dead as I expected.
Now I enjoyed the experience of some of the animals I took with my kids, but the reason I would have to list this as my top was several reasons.
1. It is very difficult for me to sit that long at attention in a very tight blind where little movement was possible.
2. The chances of shooting a leopard in natural light is slim at best my P.H said probably 5 to 10 percent in his area.
3. It was a clean kill on a magnificent animal.
4. I did feel the pressure a little since the last leopard they had shot on this conservancy had not been shot well and resulted in a mauling.
5. The image I have in my mind of the brown hyena scattering like a covey of quail at the shot one even crashed into the corner of the popup blind we were using.
( It was only a 63 yard shot but in a few years it will be 300 yards the bullet entered the eye and took the spinal cord out the back of the neck.)
I'm tired of reading the fighting on the Political Forum over the same thing. Let's hear your story. I expect to read some stories about 30" mulies and 400 inch elk but a great hunt on a whitetail doe could be just as interesting.
I'll start it out although my selection could be one of several animals like I'm sure many of yours. In June I took a nice leopard in Namibia I would like to tell you it was a 190 lb cat but it weighed 90 lbs instead. The P.H. and I had sat 5 straight nights from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m.. We knew we had leopard in the area from tracks and trail cams. We knew they were moving at night as the norm. Every afternoon we would have a couple of troops of baboons move into the bait tree area. Baboons have incredible eyesight a blink if they are looking in the blind is detected. They would spend the night in the rocks above the bait tree. We also had a least 4 or 5 brown hyena who would stay on the bait for two or three hours. We felt we couldn't take a chance of exiting the blind after dark and get in it by first light. The P.H. I felt had very high ethics because he said we would only shoot one legally not under artifical lights as many are done.
On the 6th night we started with the usual mongoose, baboons and then hyena's, at 4:30 the first brown hyena showed up looked into the blind from 5 or 6 feet and went to the bait tree. Gradually 4 more hyena showed up to the bait until we had five and a honey badger around the bait. With light pretty much gone, the P.H. should have been me but I missed it saw a glint on a warthog quarter. With just enough moonlight we whispered and decided it had to be a leopards eye. We had no idea how big it was until we saw the other eye. The P.H. seeing both eyes said it was a good sized leopard. We still could not see the body and as it ate warthog we could only see the one eye. We decided with several clouds moving to obscure the moon it had to be now or never, so it was shoot him in the eye or a shot would not be possible. I took the shot I saw the leopard fall lifeless the P.H. wasn't sure. he insisted we walk back to the pickup and roll window up to see if the leopard was dead. We got back to the truck drove to the bait tree and found the leopard dead as I expected.
Now I enjoyed the experience of some of the animals I took with my kids, but the reason I would have to list this as my top was several reasons.
1. It is very difficult for me to sit that long at attention in a very tight blind where little movement was possible.
2. The chances of shooting a leopard in natural light is slim at best my P.H said probably 5 to 10 percent in his area.
3. It was a clean kill on a magnificent animal.
4. I did feel the pressure a little since the last leopard they had shot on this conservancy had not been shot well and resulted in a mauling.
5. The image I have in my mind of the brown hyena scattering like a covey of quail at the shot one even crashed into the corner of the popup blind we were using.
( It was only a 63 yard shot but in a few years it will be 300 yards the bullet entered the eye and took the spinal cord out the back of the neck.)
I'm tired of reading the fighting on the Political Forum over the same thing. Let's hear your story. I expect to read some stories about 30" mulies and 400 inch elk but a great hunt on a whitetail doe could be just as interesting.
