After months of anticipation and 23 hours in the air, I finally landed in Johannesburg, South Africa on the evening of July 4th, 2010.  It was difficult missing America's birthday but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.  As exciting as plains game hunting in Africa is, I was on a mission to hunt a fellow hunter of plains game; leopard. 
This all started in March of 2010 when Nosler, Inc. purchased the leopard hunt at a local Friends of NRA banquet.  The outfitter claimed to have a problem leopard on his property that was killing his resident cattle and was in dire need of getting a hunter over to his place to "fix" the problem.  Fortunately, that hunter ended up being me.
Although listed and protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the leopard is actually doing well in the wild with the latest population estimated at over 500,000 worldwide.
In preparation, I read anything I could get my hands on concerning leopards and how to hunt them. However, this cat was unique in that he wouldn't come to bait because he would just kill a bovine calf whenever he got hungry which is why he was dubbed the Calf Killer.  Regardless of his eating habits, Hanno, the property owner (who was also the outfitter) had been hanging meat in trees for over two weeks before I got there to try and get trail-camera pictures of the big cat and locate his patterns.  In spite of his efforts, only female and young leopard were enjoying Hanno's offerings.

The morning after I landed, no time was wasted in breaking me in on the fundamentals of leopard hunting. First thing, load the big rubbermaid trash can full of rotting entrails in the back of the cruiser along with some ripe zebra quarters and head out to hang new bait and check old bait for the first half of the day.  This is where the PH and tracker REALLY earn their money; words cannot explain the rancid smells that entice leopard and these guys are elbow deep in this stuff.

Once the morning duties were complete, the second half of the day was typically spent driving around, looking at game animals and trying to imagine of all the scenarios that could take place at the moment of truth with the leopard.  This took place for the next five days (and four more leopard killed calves) when we finally got pictures of a respectable male leopard on bait

The decision was made to construct a blind (pictured above) and wait for him to come in again that night for seconds.  After the blind was finished being built, we rushed back to the house to get our warm clothes in preparation to spend the night sitting in our newly constructed hiding spot.  From the house, we remembered our chairs and spot light were still in another blind a couple miles away where we sat a few nights earlier for an unsuccessful brown hyena hunt.

(This brown hyena is standing in the exact spot the leopard was taken later that evening. This is also where a fresh leopard kill calf was found a few days earlier and our highest hopes of finding the "Calf Killer.")

As we were about to pull up to the hyena blind, I told the PH to stop a couple hundred yards short and we'll sneak up to the blind just in case there was a hyena eating on some leftover bait we had left there.  I loaded my rifle and as we quietly walked up to the blind, my PH Jacu's eyes got really big and he told me to get my rifle ready because there was a leopard on the bait! I did not believe him because it was only 4:20 in the afternoon and there was no way a leopard was on the ground, eating our hyena bait in broad daylight.  I stepped from behind the tree and it took me a second to realize that sure enough, there was a large spotted animal eating the bait with his head turned the opposite direction exactly 30 yards away.  I steadied my Nosler Trophy Grade Rifle chambered in .325 WSM on the shooting sticks and followed Jacu's persistent, whispered order to "shoot him in the shoulder!"  I hesitated for just a couple of seconds in order to make sure the shot was true. The 200gr AccuBond struck him directly in the shoulder and he threw his head in our direction.  That was the last thing he ever did.

We stood there for a moment; Jacu with his bino's focused on him and me with my crosshairs.  The leopard remained still and I asked if we should go up to him.  Jacu replied that we should walk back to the truck and drive closer to him instead. As we walked back to the truck I started trembling and the realization of what just happened started to wash over me. We pulled up closer to the large cat and he still hadn't moved an inch.  Jacu told me to toss a rock at him and with the help of adrenaline, I threw it about 15 yards too far; twice!  Carefully, we walked up to him to inspect his condition and in fact he was dead.  Jacu and I just looked at each other with looks on our faces expressing, "Can you believe that just happened?"  We called Hanno and told him we just killed a leopard and he too didn't believe us until he drove over to see for himself.  He was so excited as months of anxiety lifted off his shoulders with this cat now gone.  It has now been five weeks since the leopard has been gone and still not a calf has been lost to predators. As you can see from all the photos above there are plenty of leopard living on Hanno's property but we all feel pretty confident, the "Calf Killer" is in the salt and as you can see from the picture below; my face tells the rest of the story.

-Zach Waterman
PR Director: Nosler, Inc.