Hot off the blind!

Just received an email form AH member tap which I would like to share with all of you.

Here's a picture with Ian van der Vyver holding the tom cat I killed the night of May 4th after spending 2hrs in the blind. Ian is 6 feet tall and about 200lbs. We weighed the cat after we removed all the meat from his stomach and he weighed exactly 83 kg (182.98lbs) on an industrial digital scale. We also discovered that the trail cam was taking 20 seconds of video at the exact time I shot him with my 338 lapua magnum at 60 yards. I shot him near Pongola South Africa in the KwaZulu-Natal. Feel free to share if you guys like. I believe he was around 7 1/2 feet long. All I know is that he was massive. I'm thrilled beyond belief.

Wow, that's a big kitty! Congrats to the hunter.

Congratulations, beautifull cat!

Congrats to Tap, a huge animal !

This area must be specially good for cats.In 2010, in MKuze Falls PGR, which is near Pongola, I saw a huge one in broad daylight. My PH said he had never seen a bigger one !

I borrowed Ian's computer to check in on things at home right fast and to check in here. I am actually staying on a place bordering mkuze falls right now. Ians brother in law, Cobus Scribante, actually manages mkuze and has helped take some large leopards there. The cats here are extremely massive. Granted they feed on cattle year round. My cat was estimated at 4 years old and isn't that old but I couldn't believe the size of him. We had another giant cat on camera from december which is the reason I booked the hunt but all the big cats were giving us problems. I simply got lucky sitting the blind for the first time on day 5. We were going to check out a small cat that was religiously hitting the bait when this guy came in. We kept getting trail cam pics of this guy but he never hit baits. We saw his tracks heading to the bait we sat in so that's the reason we decided to sit there. We guessed he would randomly show up at different baits and we just happened to luck into a fairly quick and extremely exciting hunt. My last leopard was a zim low veld cat that weight 128 lbs and looked like a short stalky bruiser that I could easily pick up with two hands. This cat I could barely lift off the ground with the help of another person. I also wanted to measure his weight with an empty stomach so we emptied his stomach of 10kg worth of meat before getting his official weight of 183 lbs. He may not have a 17" skull but the sheer size of this cat is amazing.

Well now I've got to fill my time so were planning on some eland, nyala, and kudu hunts and possibly a lioness hunt or something. Who knows. All I know is that I have 15 more days to hunt so Im going to have a ball and enjoy myself. I'll keep you guys posted if I get anything else big

Great cat tony.Enjoy your hunt and shoot straight on the rest.How did that late elk hunt go for you?

Congrats tap that is one big leopard!!!

KZN Leopard! Great Cat. Congrats T.

nice tony, first that elephant and now a great leopard

well done mate , that one cracker leopard .

spike.t said:

nice tony, first that elephant and now a great leopard

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Congrats TAP. This has been a great 8 months of hunting for you. Super nice tom.

Holy crap! Nice kitty!

Congratulations on a bruiser of a leopard! Seeing those names like Mkuze and Pongola sure make me miss my safari in those area for plains game. Leopard is a bucket list hunt .............. and a cat like that would be a dream come true.

That is nice!!

Awesome awesome awesome. I KNOW you are on Cloud Nine! What a beast!! Cannot wait to hear of your other successes.

that's fantastic Tony. Congrats to the 3rd power

tap,
congrats!

That is sure one "MR. SPOTS." Every hunters dream cat!

congrats tap, that is a beaut!!

Congrats with a great cat tap

the late hunt went well for the elk. i hunted the edge of the grand canyon and passed a 370+ bull. i have pics of him on this phone but he inability to upload directly to africa hunting will probably prevent me from posting future pics. since the cat i've taken a 54" kudu with my bow at 66 yards and today ive moved to another camp where i plan to attempt to find an eland bull that will pass as a brahma bull. wish me luck. i may also hunt one more leopard. were looking for another tag thathasn't been filled yet and ian may have a lead on one more so im crossing my fingers.