NAMIBIA: Leopard Hunt With Nick Nolte Hunting Safaris July 1-15, 2025

[TTundra]

Congrats on Mr. Spots!

 

[Russ16]

Congratulations! What a marathon hunt.

So how many bait animals did you go through in a hunt that long?

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

What are your taxidermy plans?

I am going to have King's Taxidermy in Namibia do a full body mount. I haven't decided on the pose, but thinking about a mirror image to my mountain lion. It's a relaxed pose, laying on a branch. King's will also do a shoulder mount for the Cape Buffalo I took in the Caprivi with @ndumo HUNTING SAFARIS.

One of the reasons for having the work done in Namibia is King's will do the work simultaneously with the CITES application process. It saves a lot of time.

 

[Betterinthebush]

I am going to have King's Taxidermy in Namibia do a full body mount. I haven't decided on the pose, but thinking about a mirror image to my mountain lion. It's a relaxed pose, laying on a branch. King's will also do a shoulder mount for the Cape Buffalo I took in the Caprivi with @ndumo HUNTING SAFARIS.

One of the reasons for having the work done in Namibia is King's will do the work simultaneously with the CITES application process. It saves a lot of time.

Congratulations! I’m so impressed with your long adventure. What memories. Thank you for your time in writing this.

I elected for King to do the work on my wife and my PG animals as well. Toured their shops Giel was a very nice guy.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

So how many bait animals did you go through in a hunt that long?

Too many to count! This is a big part of the "Value" of doing a hunt with Nick Nolte Hunting Safaris. Where other outfitters might charge for pre-baiting or for you shooting bait animals, Nick completely covers the cost and supply of baits. There were two other guys in camp with me, both doing PG hunts. They killed 23 PG, including 3 zebras. Zebra is prime leopard bait. Every animal harvested went in the cooler or the freezer. Also, the stomach of most animals went into a 5 gallon bucket. The stomach are used to drag around the bait area to add scent. The tracker ties a rope or wire around it, makes a few cuts to start dropping the contents, and walks around the bait area in a big circle.

We had up to 9 different baits, scattered over a 20 mile radius or so. Either a front quarter or hind quarter hanging. A bait would last 3-4 days and then be renewed. The bait needs to be large enough that a leopard can eat multiple nights. You don't want a small bait where it's a one and done. Just a guess, but 10-12 PG animals for bait on my hunt.

I've seen a lot of questions and comments about shooting baits during a leopard hunt and asked Nick about this. For a leopard hunter, it's expensive and time consuming to shoot your own bait. If you can shoot a bunch of inexpensive warthogs, fine. But the warthog population in much of Namibia is way down, due to the persistent drought. My opinion, from what I learned on this hunt, leopard hunters should focus on leopard hunting.

 

[PARA45]

Oh my, what a cluster with the airlines, it seems like these issues never end. Glad you only lived 200 miles away, and not further. I would write Lufthansa about your ordeal, and maybe they will reimburse you for the trip and your time. Who know, it's worth a try.

 

[ArmyAV8tor]

Congratulations on the leopard!

 

[Troubleshooter]

I am going to have King's Taxidermy in Namibia do a full body mount. I haven't decided on the pose, but thinking about a mirror image to my mountain lion. It's a relaxed pose, laying on a branch.

Although it will be quite some time before those are completed, the sight of those two mirror-image cats on your wall will be impressive to see. Looking forward to it, as I am sure you are too.

 

[Randy F]

Congratulations!!! Well earned!!!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

One of the other hunters in camp got this video.

 

[Doug3006]

That’s an amazing video! In daylight no less. Looks to be a good sized cat. I was impressed with the population of leopard in that part of Namibia. On my hunt and April, we had seven different tracks in the area of our baits. None of them look to be the same cat. Similar to your situation, only one of them hit our baits. Still, there’s a lot of leopards in the Erongo region.

 

[Shootist43]

The good Lord rewarded the patience and doggedness of a good hunter. Another good hunting story to tell the grandkids.

 

[Arctic97]

The saga continues!

When the Lufthansa 747 flight from Frankfurt landed in Houston, I checked my AirTags and saw that my rifle case was left in Frankfurt. The United app says it was loaded on the plane. It was not. I found a Lufthansa baggage agent near the carousel and he had a print out of about 20 names and mine was on it. Keep in mind that I had a 4 hour connection time in Frankfurt.

The Lufthansa guy said my rifle case would be on tomorrow’s flight (Sunday) and they would forward it to Shreveport and United would deliver it to my house.

Sunday afternoon, I received a phone call from Lufthansa in Houston. They said the rifle case was locked and I needed to come to the airport and unlock it so CBP could clear it. I reminded them about the flight I took to Shreveport (about 200 miles from IAH) on Saturday. At that point they told me they couldn’t put firearms on a United flight without a passenger.

I spent all day today (Monday) driving down to the Houston airport, going to the Lufthansa ticket counter and then going to the CBP location at the baggage claim area. The CBP guy was cool, had me unlock the rifle case and he looked at the serial number on one of the rifles. Checked on his computer and “Thank you, have a nice day.”

I am pretty disgusted with Lufthansa.

That just sucks that you had to go to that trouble. I do this in my rifle case for just this reason. I can just tell them cut the locks and use the ones inside...