LAST DAY LEOPARD 2019
I had a very close relationship with this Leopard. After 2 months of constant baiting I’m sure he figured me his personal chef! I was still riding around on the bait truck with the guys and we fed this old boy anything and everything we could get our hands on. We could just never get him patterned consistently. Even lowering the bait to make it harder for him to get at, to moving a couple trees over in a little bit thicker cover to make him feel more comfortable. He just never acted quite right and knew what the game was I was trying to play. Over 3 safaris we hunted him. There were multiple times we thought we had him figured out. Then all the sudden out of the blue he would decide to switch it up. From feeding 2 evenings in a row, to feeding at 8 am the next day, then coming in at 1 o’clock in the afternoon the following day. There was just no fooling this big guy!
While I’m stuck messing with this one single cat, Nathans off hunting and killing 3 other big Leopards. So of course there was a bit of a competition between Nathan and myself, and it’s safe to say he came out on top 3-0.
This cat finally settled into a somewhat consistent feeding pattern. With the way the terrain was down along the river a mashan was the way to go to try and get this cat. Well, that didn’t work. He went back to his antics of showing up and disappearing whenever he felt like it again. After a lot of work and maneuvering, we were able to get a very small ground blind cut into a thick patch of small acacia trees. Big enough for 2 guys, barley.
The last Safari of the year is coming to a very quick end. Everything on the clients list has been filled except for the Leopard. A plan was made to try and sit for this cat one last time in the morning and if it didn’t happen, we shift to another cat that has been feeding on another bait a couple hours from camp the past 3 evenings in daylight.
Unfortunately, I was not there when the cat was shot. But everything worked according to plan. The guys were in the blind before daylight per usual and set until 8 am with no sight of the cat. At 8 the truck came and drove straight to the tree and a fresh bait was hung. The guys then drove out as if just another baiting session. 15 minutes later our long awaited Leopard was in the tree. 5 minutes after that, we had one happy client with a monster cat to boot.
After all the time and effort I had put into that cat, and to hear he had finally been shot, I was almost as excited as if I had pulled the trigger myself, almost.
--Sam Beavers
@sambeavershunting on Instagram