Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Best deal on leopard?

I'm considering a leopard hunt. Any suggestions for a guy that can't spend a ton?

Tough call. Bargains really don't exist with the Big Five. RSA, Zim, and Namibia are your best bets. JJHACK might know more.

Many countries, such as Zambia and Tanzania, have minimum licenses i.e. 14 day, 16, day 21 day for cats. At $1500/day +, it adds up in a hurry.

PM sent.

Mike

From what people have told me, and what I have read, Zimbabwe, first, and Namibia, second. Also, it may take you more than 1 trip to secure your leopard, and you probably will need to allow 14-16 days to get it done. Good luck.


maddog

Namibia, in spite of its newly introduced regs, is still probably the best country for an affordable Leopard hunt. Zimbabwe is also another good option. I think Mozambique has emerged as another good destination.

Without a doubt, Zimbabwe. Find the right PH with a good concession that doesn't kill you with incidental costs and you can do a 14 day cat hunt for about 16 grand with a fairly good gurantee (90% plus) you'll get a shot at one. We're talking over bait. Dogs are another matter. Very effective but a whole different hunt. jorge

Nick Nolte, Namibia. Call Jack Atcheson Jr.

I also book for Nick Nolte. He's an excellent choice for baited cats. He has a great lodge, a high success rate, and reasonable rates.

yeah, but he takes terrible mug shots.

You threw me off there for a second, but you're right, the other Nick Nolte does take terrible mug shots

Chris Troskie.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/832100588/m/7431055641

He lives in the middle of prime kudu, warthog and leopard habitat and this is a PAC hunt, not some cultivated game ranch animal. The day rate is quite low so you won't pay exhorbitant money without success.

Here's some vid of the area. Please excuse my nasal Aussie drawl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwLIQPSctRg

There's an old truism about African hunting and especially about leopard hunting and that's that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

If you shop by price alone as your primary criteria, you're never going to get a good quality leopard hunt in a good area with a good PH.

If you buy cheap, you'll get cheap and the chances of your going home without taking a leopard will be much greater than if you bite the bullet and pay the price for a good quality product.

Some areas, let alone some countries have considerably higher success rates than others and I'll repeat that you need 3 things to get a good leopard hunt.

You need a good PH on leopards, a good area and even with those two things, you also need a degree of good luck.

My advice would be to buy the most expensive product you can afford rather than the cheapest deal you can find.

Steve,

Not everyone needs five star service and their arse kissed when hunting. There will always be outfitters prepared to undercut the opposition to fill their books for the season and clients prepared to look for a deal. It has always been the case that the more money you throw at somthing the (bigger the trophy) more likelihood of success.

Luckily hunting world wide is not only available for the mega rich, landed gentry. I hope for all our sakes it stays that way.

Free enterprise. I love it.

tophet,

No, you're dead right but my point isn't about quality of camp or sycophancy etc, it's about quality of area and PH........ not all PH's areas or indeed countries are equal and a cheap leopard hunt is going to mean a second rate area and/or PH and that will result in far lower success rates.

Pay the extra for a top area and an experienced and successful cat man and your success rates will improve dramatically.

I'll give you an example. In RSA and a few other places, the vast majority of farmers in the vast majority of areas have been trying to kill leopards by any and all means possible for generations and that means that the cats have got very highly educated and success rates are generally lower than in an area such as the Selous Reserve where there hasn't been any permanent human habitation since about WWI...... which in turn, means the leopards are far less suspicious.

There's no such thing as a fre lunch in life and that goes for hunting as much as anything else. You can't buy a Westley Richards double for the price of a Brno, or a Rolls Royce for the price of a Ford or a top area/PH leopard hunt for the price of a cheap one...... and the cost of 2 or 3 cheap/unsuccessful leopard hunts are far more than the price of one good quality/successful leopard hunt.

Try doing a survey of hunters who have hunted leopards and I'll bet the vast majority who say they went several times before they got their cat will have hunted areas and/or with PHs not particularly well known for producing success on that species and then ask those who went once and got their spotted pussycat and you'll find the vast majority paid the higher price and hunted good areas/PH that were known for high success rates.

And that's the point I'm trying to make.

Steve: Spot on with everything. That said, there are some places in Zim and Tanzania where success rate runs in the 90s and the reason it's not 100 is due to clients passing up the cat or missing the shot. Up in Dande, Chewore it's almost a slam-dunk, but you do have to pay. jorge

Jorge,

A couple of examples of what I'm saying is a few years ago, I was hunting in Masailand and took 2 bloody good leopards out of the same tree, 10 or 12 days apart (and incidentally, won myself 2 bottles of malt whisky by doing so ) or about 4 years ago, I went into an area in Botswana, hung 6 baits and 24 hour later, had decent cats on all of them.

I doubt there's a single area in south Africa where that could be achieved with wild leopards.

I'd say Zim is probably one of the best value for money countries for all African hunting, including leopards but even there, a good quality hunt ain't gonna come cheap.....certainly cheaper than somewhere like Tz but that's an apples to oranges situation and still not cheap.

Remember that it is not uncommon to have to make several trips across the pond to be sucessful on leopard. That can add up and make several budget trips not so much so... a great area and less hunting pressure with an experienced cat man is what you want.

As Jorge so quite rightly says:

"there are some places in Zim and Tanzania where success rate runs in the 90s and the reason it's not 100 is due to clients passing up the cat or missing the shot"

And I'll add also similar areas in both Mozambique & the private areas in Botswana that are equally good.

I'm sure 'good areas' and 'experienced cat' men exist but the same methods/trade secrets used to shoot leopards eg. feeding the animal for months before hand, eliminating competitive hunting pressure, IR movement detectors, trail cameras, hiring a local (no big cost)to track and keep tabs on individual animal movements etc. can equally be employed in any location where leopards can be found.

The extent to which these activities are succesfully prosecuted and the amount of pre hunt preparation will add some cost to a hunt.

I still beleive that with due diligence the cost of any hunt does not have to be the top dollar/first rate quoted. You don't need a Rolls Royce to get from A to B when a Ford Escort does the same job.

I'll take and pay for the Rolls.