Looking at hides and mounts (as well as some quick Google Fu), leopards seem to be no bigger than mountain lions. Are they thicker skinned/heavier boned or something, or is their dangerous reputation what drives the common suggestion of needing a bigger round for them?
While I wouldn't endorse it on leopard by any means, I have seen several mountain lions killed easily by .22 LRs and it seems like the shots people generally get on leopard are similar to a treed mountain lion. I am just curious as to why some PHs recommend rounds from the 7mm Mag and up.
Shots on baited leopards tend to be quite a bit trickier than on a treed mountain lion. The range is typically somewhat longer, though normally not more than 50 yards, because you don't want to spook a leopard coming to the bait. While the shooting is usually done from what's essentially a benchrest inside a blind, the shooter often has to sit quite a while while the leopard approaches the bait tree, and then climbs up to feed--sothere's plenty of time for the shooter to become a little nervous. The shot also normally occurs around sunset.
You may also have noticed that not only do safari hunters have different opinions on leopard rifles, even if they've never shot one, but PH's do as well. Which is why it's always interesting to read safari hunters quoting the opinion of their PH on appropriate cartridges and rifles, as if he would be the ultimate authority.
But PH's have MANY different opinions on that subject. I know this partly from knowing quite a few PHs, but the most telling instance I can remember occurred during a month-long cull hunt in South Africa, including two "shifts" of a dozen hunters. This of course meant there had to be plenty of PHs in camp, and during one beer-filled evening several of them got into a loud "discussion" about rifles and cartridges. Their opinions were all over the place, and while his may have been partly because they'd all guided in several different areas, including other countries, in my experience such differences are common even among guides who specialize in elk or brown bear hunting.
