Charlie64
AH veteran
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2025
- Messages
- 159
- Reaction score
- 607
- Location
- Europe & South Africa
- Media
- 22
- Member of
- LJV NRW Germany
- Hunted
- England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Austria, Czech, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Botswana, Mauritania, Namibia, RSA, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Krygyzstan, Turkey, New Zealand & USA
.
This is a story that I have never told to date yet it is so incredibly I really think that it should be recited & what better place to do so than here on AH!
My wife & I were in Namibia, enjoying a wing shooting break quite some years ago - flighting sandgrouse in the mornings followed by some walked up guinea & Swainsons in the afternoons & then a few pigeon & dove late afternoon. It was all very relaxed & was very much a champagne wingshooting weekend away from Joburg, where we lived at the time. She was shooting her Browning 20 bore & I my Beretta 20 bore. We also had my .375 rifle with us, but did not really plan on hunting.
On the third day after brunch, the PH skidded his Toyota cruiser to a halt in from of our chalet & jumping out asked excitedly "Who wants to shoot a leopard?"
On one the neighbouring cattle farms a leopard had killed a cow the evening before & certain that the cat would return to feed again the farmer had called the PH asking if he had any clients that could come a try to take the leopard.
"We can do it for USD 10.000/-," announced the PH.
Quickly my wife answered & said that we were there for the wingshooting & she was not interested in trying for a leopard, at which the PH said he understood & went back to the lodge.
I had hardly turned the page of my book & my wife not finished her coffee, when the PH returned & announced -
"What about USD 5.000/- ? There is a great chance that the cat will come back this evening!"
I spoke briefly with my wife saying that this was a great deal, but she was not really interested. We passed.
Whereupon the PH said "What about USD 1.000/-?"
I told Anja, my wife, that at USD 1.000/- she had to take it & that this was the deal of a lifetime. Oh, I forgot to mention that I was never interested in hunting a leopard but rather my wife was.
"Good, we are in at USD 1.000/-."
Then everything happened very quickly. The PH called the farmer & announced that we were coming around 16h00. Geared up, we then drove to the range & Anja sighted the rifle for 50 meters & off we drove to the neighbouring farm.
As a little sideline note, the tracker was driving the bakkie & he drove on the donkey path next to the dirt road. I asked the PH why he was not driving on the main dirt road by on the donkey track, to which the PH explained that the tracker did not have a driving license so he could not drive on the road legally! That made us smile.
Pulling up at the farm house, the farmer bounded over to me & greeted me with a bear hug, like old friends
"So you are going to shoot my cattle killing leopard!?", he announced with a smile. To which I said that no it was not me but rather my wife, Anja. His face fell & you could read his thoughts that no cat would be shot that night.
He called a farm hand, who was instructed to guide us to the kill site some 30 minutes drive away & when we arrived we saw the dead cow, with part of her hind quarters eaten, laying some 10 m from a water trough.
Not 20 m away was a Nam Power electricity tower & the PH quickly decided that is where we would build our blind & that is what we did. A wooden board appeared & was laid across the struts of the tower, wired tight in place & camo netting tied in place around the board at head hight with another length of wood tied in place as a gun rest.
With the sun starting to fall as it does in Africa, the PH, the tracker, Anja & I climbed up into the tower & took up our seats, in that order, on the board in the electricity tower. Very slowly, we began to glass our surroundings. In a whisper the tracker announced that he could see a leopard some 400 m out sitting on some large rocks watching us. We all could see him & we watched & waited.
In the south a storm start brewing some 10 - 15 kms away, with flashes of lightening cutting the darkening sky. Great, we are sitting in a steel electricity tower with a lightening storm behind us making its way towards us!
"There is another leopard over on the right," Anja whispered & she was right. Two leopards! And then the tracker spotted a third! Three spots & we had only been in the tower for less than 45 minutes.
The sun set & twilight started to wash over us.
"He's there," whispered the tracker. "On the back of the cow."
In the hazy darkness, we could just make out the shape of the cat on the rump of the kudu & then we could hear the ripping & crunching of meat & bones.
Next to me & deadly slow, Anja raised the rifle & slowly, ever so slowly, sighted onto the feeding cat, sliding the safety forward to 'Fire'.
"OK?" she whispered.
"Yes." the PH replied, at which the shot broke & the muzzle blast light up the darkness around us, momentarily blinding us all.
"How was the shot?" the PH asked.
"Yeah, good", Anja replied.
We waited 5 minutes, scanning the darkness with our binos & the lightening storm getting closer & louder. The PH, tracker & I (now carrying the rifle), descended the tower, with strict instructions to my wife to wait in the tower until we knew if everything was safe.
Slowly approaching the carcass, one step at a time, all senses on full alert, I felt a tap on my shoulder & nearly jumped out of my skin!
"It's me, I am behind you," whispered my wife! Never one for following orders!
The PH switched on his mag light & picked up good blood at the back by the carcass & a thick blood trail leading away towards the scrub cover. We followed the trail slower & with safeties off & barrels pointed skyward.
After less then 10 m the PH turned to Anja "Congratulations!", there lay the leopard, stone dead, shot perfectly through the shoulders! There were sighs of relief & smiles & laughter all around! Anja had just shot a leopard after 45 minutes in the blind!
We loaded the leopard & with the storm nearly on us, drove fast back to the farmhouse. The farmer came out to greet us, shaking his head & mumbling apologies for the storm screwing up the hunt, whereupon my wife told him to look in the bed of the Toyota.
I will never forget his face as he saw the dead cat in the bakkie & how he picked Anja up & swung her around, laughing & swearing in Afrikaans!
The Toyota was driven into a farm barn & the tracker set about skinning out the cat with the farm hand helping, whilst Anja, the PH & I were ushered into his home & the party started !! Brandy & coke flowed for hours, followed by food that the farmer's wife quickly made for us all & only after we finished the second bottle of Klippie did we bid the farmer goodnight & the tracker drove us & the now skinned out cut along the donkey path towards the lodge & a welcome bed & sleep!!
The following morning, the cat & hide were photographed, the neck, the legs & paws, for submission as a cattle killing cat that had been shot & for which a permit was issued post the event. The pictures were to show that the cat had not been snared or trapped.
So that is how my wife got to shoot her leopard - 45 minutes in a blind & for the princely sum of USD 1.000/- whilst out on a 5 day wingshooting long weekend in Namibia.
The hunting gods had blessed us. A once in a lifetime cat!
.
This is a story that I have never told to date yet it is so incredibly I really think that it should be recited & what better place to do so than here on AH!
My wife & I were in Namibia, enjoying a wing shooting break quite some years ago - flighting sandgrouse in the mornings followed by some walked up guinea & Swainsons in the afternoons & then a few pigeon & dove late afternoon. It was all very relaxed & was very much a champagne wingshooting weekend away from Joburg, where we lived at the time. She was shooting her Browning 20 bore & I my Beretta 20 bore. We also had my .375 rifle with us, but did not really plan on hunting.
On the third day after brunch, the PH skidded his Toyota cruiser to a halt in from of our chalet & jumping out asked excitedly "Who wants to shoot a leopard?"
On one the neighbouring cattle farms a leopard had killed a cow the evening before & certain that the cat would return to feed again the farmer had called the PH asking if he had any clients that could come a try to take the leopard.
"We can do it for USD 10.000/-," announced the PH.
Quickly my wife answered & said that we were there for the wingshooting & she was not interested in trying for a leopard, at which the PH said he understood & went back to the lodge.
I had hardly turned the page of my book & my wife not finished her coffee, when the PH returned & announced -
"What about USD 5.000/- ? There is a great chance that the cat will come back this evening!"
I spoke briefly with my wife saying that this was a great deal, but she was not really interested. We passed.
Whereupon the PH said "What about USD 1.000/-?"
I told Anja, my wife, that at USD 1.000/- she had to take it & that this was the deal of a lifetime. Oh, I forgot to mention that I was never interested in hunting a leopard but rather my wife was.
"Good, we are in at USD 1.000/-."
Then everything happened very quickly. The PH called the farmer & announced that we were coming around 16h00. Geared up, we then drove to the range & Anja sighted the rifle for 50 meters & off we drove to the neighbouring farm.
As a little sideline note, the tracker was driving the bakkie & he drove on the donkey path next to the dirt road. I asked the PH why he was not driving on the main dirt road by on the donkey track, to which the PH explained that the tracker did not have a driving license so he could not drive on the road legally! That made us smile.
Pulling up at the farm house, the farmer bounded over to me & greeted me with a bear hug, like old friends
"So you are going to shoot my cattle killing leopard!?", he announced with a smile. To which I said that no it was not me but rather my wife, Anja. His face fell & you could read his thoughts that no cat would be shot that night.
He called a farm hand, who was instructed to guide us to the kill site some 30 minutes drive away & when we arrived we saw the dead cow, with part of her hind quarters eaten, laying some 10 m from a water trough.
Not 20 m away was a Nam Power electricity tower & the PH quickly decided that is where we would build our blind & that is what we did. A wooden board appeared & was laid across the struts of the tower, wired tight in place & camo netting tied in place around the board at head hight with another length of wood tied in place as a gun rest.
With the sun starting to fall as it does in Africa, the PH, the tracker, Anja & I climbed up into the tower & took up our seats, in that order, on the board in the electricity tower. Very slowly, we began to glass our surroundings. In a whisper the tracker announced that he could see a leopard some 400 m out sitting on some large rocks watching us. We all could see him & we watched & waited.
In the south a storm start brewing some 10 - 15 kms away, with flashes of lightening cutting the darkening sky. Great, we are sitting in a steel electricity tower with a lightening storm behind us making its way towards us!
"There is another leopard over on the right," Anja whispered & she was right. Two leopards! And then the tracker spotted a third! Three spots & we had only been in the tower for less than 45 minutes.
The sun set & twilight started to wash over us.
"He's there," whispered the tracker. "On the back of the cow."
In the hazy darkness, we could just make out the shape of the cat on the rump of the kudu & then we could hear the ripping & crunching of meat & bones.
Next to me & deadly slow, Anja raised the rifle & slowly, ever so slowly, sighted onto the feeding cat, sliding the safety forward to 'Fire'.
"OK?" she whispered.
"Yes." the PH replied, at which the shot broke & the muzzle blast light up the darkness around us, momentarily blinding us all.
"How was the shot?" the PH asked.
"Yeah, good", Anja replied.
We waited 5 minutes, scanning the darkness with our binos & the lightening storm getting closer & louder. The PH, tracker & I (now carrying the rifle), descended the tower, with strict instructions to my wife to wait in the tower until we knew if everything was safe.
Slowly approaching the carcass, one step at a time, all senses on full alert, I felt a tap on my shoulder & nearly jumped out of my skin!
"It's me, I am behind you," whispered my wife! Never one for following orders!
The PH switched on his mag light & picked up good blood at the back by the carcass & a thick blood trail leading away towards the scrub cover. We followed the trail slower & with safeties off & barrels pointed skyward.
After less then 10 m the PH turned to Anja "Congratulations!", there lay the leopard, stone dead, shot perfectly through the shoulders! There were sighs of relief & smiles & laughter all around! Anja had just shot a leopard after 45 minutes in the blind!
We loaded the leopard & with the storm nearly on us, drove fast back to the farmhouse. The farmer came out to greet us, shaking his head & mumbling apologies for the storm screwing up the hunt, whereupon my wife told him to look in the bed of the Toyota.
I will never forget his face as he saw the dead cat in the bakkie & how he picked Anja up & swung her around, laughing & swearing in Afrikaans!
The Toyota was driven into a farm barn & the tracker set about skinning out the cat with the farm hand helping, whilst Anja, the PH & I were ushered into his home & the party started !! Brandy & coke flowed for hours, followed by food that the farmer's wife quickly made for us all & only after we finished the second bottle of Klippie did we bid the farmer goodnight & the tracker drove us & the now skinned out cut along the donkey path towards the lodge & a welcome bed & sleep!!
The following morning, the cat & hide were photographed, the neck, the legs & paws, for submission as a cattle killing cat that had been shot & for which a permit was issued post the event. The pictures were to show that the cat had not been snared or trapped.
So that is how my wife got to shoot her leopard - 45 minutes in a blind & for the princely sum of USD 1.000/- whilst out on a 5 day wingshooting long weekend in Namibia.
The hunting gods had blessed us. A once in a lifetime cat!
.
Last edited:
