The Leopard Hunt that Started with a Bourbon

Article written by: Maxwell Hammond

It all started on a cold February, 2021 evening at a dinner party at my cousin’s home in Los Alamos, NM.  My family and I had just moved to New Mexico after living for seven years in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and were enjoying the warm company of new friends and family.  The hunter advocacy organizations such as SCI, DSC, etc. have done a great job at bringing their auctions to you through online portals.  After dinner and a few drinks, I realized the Alaska Chapter of SCI was having their annual banquet and fundraiser that night and as a former AK SCI Chapter Board Member, I felt obliged to log on.  Anyone who’s attended the conventions and live auctions knows how much easier it is to bid on hunts when you’ve had a few drinks!

So, with the aid of the internet and confidence of bourbon, I proceeded to monitor the hunts being auctioned.  When the leopard hunt came up, I knew the PH, Jacobus Van Der Merwe, as I’d hunted with him over ten years prior.  I knew he was taking some great leopards and had exclusive access to a huge family-owned ranch west of Windhoek, in the Khomas Mountains.  With the bidding going fast and my crowd of backseat drivers chanting “bid, bid, bid,” I kept the bidding going.  I’d set a price limit and we were approaching it at warp speed, then what seemed like an eternity the auctioneer said “SOLD!”  It took me a few seconds to realize that I’d won and was going on a leopard hunt!  

This was my third trip to Africa and second Big 5 hunt.  At the recommendation of the Jacobus, I booked the hunt for August 2021.  After all the planning and long flight, I’d finally landed in Windhoek.  The PH and I’d been communicating for the weeks leading up to the hunt and he had been hanging bait for a month before the hunt and had five leopards hitting bait.  The trail cam pics he sent me got me quite excited.  I figured he was playing one on me by sending me his top ten trail cam pics over the past decade because it was highly unlikely he had those leopards on bait.  

We drove for several hours from Windhoek into the mountains to his remote camp.  The camp was a temporary camp with hard wall tents and propane stoves.  It was a treat that he had a wood-fire-heated shower set up.  We spent just enough time for me to drop my gear, get freshened up from the flight, and headed straight out to hunt for more bait.  After an hour or so we found some mountain zebra.  I’ve always prided myself on my shooting, but after that long flight and time zone change, I felt as if I’d been worked like a worn out rented mule.  I managed to hit a mountain zebra at about 300 yards with a .375 H&H, just not in a part of his body to anchor him.  Jacobus laughed at me and said, “Max, I see your shooting hasn’t improved in the past ten years. You shouldn’t shoot animals in the hind quarter.” I smirked back and said “It’s such a small target.”  I gave us the opportunity to get some exercise chasing that zebra, but we finally got the job done.  Back at camp the trackers and skinners made quick work out of the zebra and we settled in for dinner and a glass of wine by the fire. 

The next morning, we loaded the fresh bait and drove to check the bait stations.  Jacobus was very particular in checking the bait.  He only let himself, one tracker, and me go check and hang new bait.  He made sure to instruct us not to touch anything, walk around, etc.  The trail cams showed four out of the five bait stations had leopards hit over the previous few days.  Only one was a female.  With fresh bait set, we spent the rest of the daylight hunting Klipspringer which were common in the area.  The next day Jacobus didn’t want to disturb the newly placed bait, so we continued to hunt Klipspringer and plains game.  I did manage to take a nice Klipspringer, but the huge exit wound would make sure Animal Artistry would earn their money!  We settled in back at camp for another relaxing evening, excellent dinner, and a glass of wine by the fire.

My second full day would start with a nice breakfast, coffee, and a chance to relax. Jacobus wanted to check the bait with only himself to minimize disturbing the bait stations.  He returned after a few hours and was pretty excited.  He told me there was a very nice leopard on one bait station that he’d like us to hunt.  We had lunch, got packed up, and headed to the blind.  We were hunting a dry river bed at an intersection where the river split.  The blind was 140 yards from the bait and situated well above on a hillside overlooking the bait.  This was a nice spot for a blind as the wind direction and elevation were working for us.  The hours went by and felt like days, it was difficult to not make noise and stay perfectly still.  The day went on and I must have had a couple dozen different conversations with myself, and Jacobus tapped me a few times as I’d dozed off and started snoring.  As the day slowly moved into the prime time for a leopard to move, I was able to spring to with eyes wide open. As the hunting light was coming to an end and like a ghost out of nowhere the leopard appeared. I simply couldn’t believe it and had several seconds of just awe. Jacobus whispered quietly in my ear to wait until he got on the bait.  He circled the bait and hit it.  He was facing away from us and we were looking down onto his back.  The blind had a rifle rest that fully supported the rifle and we kept the gun loaded with no safety.  Jacobus told me the safety would make too much noise if I had to take it off safety.  Jacobus told me that if I was comfortable to take the shot and hit him right between the front shoulder blades.  I eased down onto the scope, settled the cross hairs onto the leopard and gently pulled the trigger of the 9.3x62.  As the rifle’s report rang out, I heard the bullet hit but he jumped. As I came back down from the recoil didn’t see the leopard.  At the moment of the shot he let out a bone chilling roar and we heard the sound go up the river valley to our right.  As it was getting difficult to see, Jacobus asked me how I felt about the shot.  I told him I was confident. He told me he heard the leopard run up the valley.  My heart sank.

I could tell Jacobus was nervous and we waited for about fifteen minutes before leaving the blind.  He called the trackers who were with the truck on a handheld radio.  They showed up with a dog and shotgun.  By the time the trackers drove up the river valley in the truck it was dark and we walked down to the bait.  We found blood, but no tracks.  Everyone looked for tracks and didn’t see any, but Jacobus said thought he heard the leopard go up the valley.  We got into the truck, Jacobus with the shotgun and me with the rifle.  Having hunted bears in Alaska when I lived there, I knew a wounded leopard in the bush is not a good situation.  After what felt like an eternity trying to spot the leopard in the riverbed from the truck with lights scanning the bush we decided to drive back to the bait station and see if the trackers could find tracks.  Jacobus told me not to worry because his dogs would find the trail even if it was the next day.  That wasn’t terribly reassuring to me as I knew I wounded a leopard and it was possible we weren’t going to find him.  When we got back to the bait station, it was pitch black and the trackers were looking around and suddenly one started yelling with a joyous tone.  Jacobus and I ran over to him and there lay the leopard.  We all started laughing and smiling and a tremendous sense of relief came over me.  The leopard took a massive leap when hit which must have covered ten yards and another massive leap the opposite direction.  He died thirty yards from the bait.  What had happened was when he roared, he was facing the rock wall to the left and the echo off the wall threw his roar to the right, the sound traveling up the river.  He’d managed to completely trick us into thinking he went up the river bed! 

The temperature was quite cold at night and Jacobus had the skinners wait until the next day to skin the leopard so we could get good pictures for both myself, and the Namibian Wildlife authorities.  Jacobus told me it was an amazing leopard and I should be very happy as not many hunters would every take a leopard the size of this one and certainly not on the second day of a leopard hunt!  We had an amazing time at dinner over the fire with a glass of wine, or two, retelling the story and kept laughing at the whole experience.