The day of the leopard…..
We had a bait that a large Tom was hitting every day. The trail cam photos showed him arriving about 4am and leaving just about sunrise. So we built a blind and came back at around 2am to sit him out.
Around 3am, another leopard was sawing behind us. Werner said he didn’t think it was our cat. It is sure an eerie feeling knowing an apex predator is nearby in the dark.
Like clockwork our Tom arrived at the bait at 4am and started to feed. He fed and lied down alternately for the next hour or so. He made a big mistake not leaving before legal shooting time. I was amazed how big he was. We had hung the bait about neck high. When he stood, his head was above the top of the bait. I waited for him to stand on all fours and shot him high on the scapula. He dropped to the shot.
He weighed 150 lbs on the farm scale and was 6’ 8” in length, nose to tail tip.
As you would imagine, I’m one happy hunter.