Maybe your experienced enough to do that but the average hunter experienced or not shooting in very dim light over bait between 75-100 yards is asking a lot. What you need for leopard hunting is quite simple, if the country your hunting in does not require a minimum of 375 then anything from a 270- 30-06 and 300 are plenty of gun. Highly recommend a Trijcon scope for the best light gathering capabilities. . Noslers are highly recommended by most PHs. Stay away from bullets such as Barnes ttsx as the just pass thru unless you hit bone. High shoulder shots can be difficult under those conditions. Just pick a rosette center body just behind the leg.
Forgive me , sir. It is my mistake and l should elaborate . When l used to be a professional shikaree guiding foreign clients in Nagpur , India from 1961 to 1970 , my personally favored region to shoot a charging leopard would be between both the eyes , when l had to follow up a wounded leopard into the thickets . Back in those days , leopard hunting was invariably done at night , in India . This is because leopards are predominantly nocturnal feeders .
When l used to hunt leopards on my own license , or leopards which were labelled man eaters by the local government , l would use the following method for shooting leopards -
1) Tie a goat to a tree and quickly move out of the goat's sight . When the goat begins to think that it is alone , it begins to bleat . This bleating is what attracts the leopard ( of course , this will only works in areas where there IS a leopard ) .
2) Hide either in a hole dug in the ground , or a macchan in a tree . I would use my 12 Bore shot gun loaded with spherical ball cartridges , and keep a small pencil torch light attached to the fore end of my shot gun with masking tape.
3) When the leopard would come at night , it would commence cleaning it's claws on the bark of a tree the minute it saw the goat ( leopards always clean their claws before making a kill ) and the goat would stop bleating when it saw the leopard.
4) When the leopard got closer to the goat , and within range of my shot gun ( say ... less than 30 yards . ) , I would quickly flick on the pencil torch light attached to my shot gun and shine the torch light on the brute's head.
5) As the animal turned to look at the source of the light , I would instantly put a 1 ounce spherical lead ball through the region between both it's eyes. This had to very an extremely Swift action , because l had a fraction of a second before the leopard began to run away.
Now , of course ... a 12 Bore shot gun , loaded with a 1 ounce spherical lead ball does not have good penetration for body shots on a large leopard . I had to make do with what l had on hand . With this weapon , l learnt that the only way l could kill a leopard reliably was by shooting it in the region between both the eyes .
For a client , of course ... Different considerations must be made and they usually brought good quality centre fire rifles. Clients were also typically less comfortable of shooting leopards at such close range. They preferred shooting from at least a distance of 50 yards and often at distances up to 100 yards . The best bullet for leopard which existed , during our time was the Winchester Silvertip soft point bullet and it was devastatingly effective for leopards . The Remington Core Lokt soft point bullet was another good 1.
There were ( and are ) 2 varieties of leopards in the Indian subcontinent :
The 1st variety is called the spotted leopard / village panther . These creatures typically lurk around villages and steal goats and chickens . They weigh in the ambit of 60 to 120 pounds and are quite brazen around human beings.
These creatures can reliably be killed with even a .270 Winchester and a 130 grain Winchester Silvertip soft point bullet .
The 2nd variety is called the hunting leopard / forest panther . These creatures live deep within the forests of India and typically feed in cheetal deer or barking deer or 4 horned buck . They are quite shy around human beings and the heaviest specimens can weigh up to 200 pounds .
For these creatures , l would recommend at the very least , a .300 Winchester magnum calibre rifle and a 180 grain Winchester Silvertip soft point bullet .
I 100 % agree with you about novices and clients eschewing the head shot . It makes for an extremely small target and is difficult to hit , unless you have considerable experience .
For the novice or the client , l would highly recommend the point of aim being behind the shoulder . The client's rifle rifle should always be equipped with a telescopic sight for making an accurate shot . During our time , the most popular telescopic sight brought by by clients to India was the Weaver K series . However , much more modern telescopic sights exist on the market today .
The specimen below was taken by a client using a 7 mm Remington magnum calibre Remington Model 700 and a 175 grain Core Lokt soft point bullet . The point of aim was behind the shoulder.
Of course , there is a great deal of difference between between hunting leopards in India in the 1960s and hunting leopards in Africa in modern times. I understand that it is now illegal to hunt leopards at night in many parts of Africa. It is interesting to read how leopards are hunted in Africa nowadays in modern times.
