But this is my point now that how do you know? I would have gone through life thinking all was good if I had shot my leopard out of a blind. I am very thankful for the Heath PH from Zim and his article. The Zim PH’s are the ones that actually put their guns in real dangerous situations often.
Philip
Not a straight forward answer but start with what guy's in the field use...
I do not own any "fancy" name make rifles, but they are extremely reliable and they have never let me down..
I do however look after them, clean them and run a bore snake through the barrel every morning before setting out.
Then when on the range you need to work your rifle hard... ejecting spent cases at slow speed and as hard as you can and do the same with fully loaded rounds un-fired. Always operate or fire the rifle with a full magazine. Always cycle ALL ammo you intend to use, EVERY morning through the rifle before you set out.
I fully understand that the needs of a client and a PH in the chosen rifles are not the same.
Early on in my career I had a close call on a follow up on a wounded leopard that nearly got hold of my tracker. There and then I realized with the speed and close distance the attack took place from that a bolt action was not suited for the purpose. I built my poor mans double for follow up on leopard and have not been sorry since.
Ruger's have had an ejection problem for a long time and this has been documented for just as long, people do not want to accept such when they own these rifles or buy them. They use them and all seems fine, until the paw paw hits the fan so to speak..
Certain rifles and calibers I will never ever own or use again in my life. Remington M700, Weatherby, Ruger(unless a nr 1),Sako for DG are off my list.
Many folks complain about CZ being rough and having feeding issues, that may be so, I never owned one and have no desire to, but they are reliable and they work.
I use ZKK 602's on my DG rifles and yes I had to smooth two of them up, but they have been the most reliable and strong action ed rifles I have ever used and have never ever let me down, even before smoothing them up.
For leopard I use my 12ga Brno, cut down to 24" with ghost ring and slugs or my 9.3x74R/12ga combo, depending on situation and terrain. There is no time to reload a bolt gun when a wounded leopard launches its attack.
Given your hunt was different and getting a charge in that situation is not the norm, the cat should have treed and who knows why he had staged a stand on the ground, perhaps the follow up was a bit too fast, who knows but that is hunting.
I would have been carrying my 12ga/9.3x74R when hunting leopard with hounds.
The bottom line is that what ever the weapon of choice is, make sure by working it in all sorts of ways that it is totally reliable and use technology(Google, yes I know I hate it) but a wealth of information is available that will help you make your choice.
Trust me, no matter how much you spend on trying to rectify that Ruger (even if successful) , you will never trust it again when hunting DG..