saj I've looked soooo close at .35 Whelen, and .375 Whelen, .375 Whelan Improved, .375 Hawk, .411 Hawk. Based on the ability to carry more rounds in the gun compared to a big .375 round. And I have several '06 based rifles on hand.
All of the '06 based mid bores are all capable cartridges but I'm seriously thinking .375 Hawk, a version of .375-06 with the best velocity using 260 gr. NP. I may be stuck in the '80's but I love the old school NP fast expansion and that seems to be the ticket on large felines.
J
A .30/06 (or .300 mag) is more than enough for a first shot on a leopard. They can be killed with a well placed shot from most deer rifles with a quick expanding bullet, such as a NP or Woodleigh soft. I have a friend who is a retired PH. His "client rifle" was a .35 Whelen loaded with green box garden variety Remington softs and he swears by that combo as a leopard rifle. Another friend recently killed a very large mountain lion with one shot from a 9.3x 62 loaded with a 286 Barnes TSX. He said it was boom, plop. DRT. BTW, he killed his leopard a few years before with a single close range shot from a 9.3x 74 double. They were tracking the cat with dogs and the dogs failed to locate the cat, which was a few yards away behind a bush.
A lion can also be killed with a well placed shot from a .30/06 (where legal). However, having successfully hunted (and followed up) a lion, IMO, your .375 Ruger with a 260 NP is a better choice. Or a .375 H&H with the same bullet. Woodleigh makes an excellent soft that I would not hesitate to use for a first shot on a big cat.
Don't worry about magazine capacity too much. The odds are a leopard will either drop at the first shot or run off. You are unlikely to have time for a second shot at a leopard, much less a third. But I suppose it could happen.
You are more likely to get a second or a third shot off at a lion.
However, for followup on a wounded leopard or lion, a large bore double is, IMO, the best choice by far.
Just out of curiosity, where and when are you going cat hunting?
