Africa is still Africa
I received an e-mail from Gene Wensel about the fellow that owns the ranch where I will be hunting next month...Dries had an elderly client (near 70) who had a hard time walking. They were gun hunting with hounds in Botswana. They jumped leopards three times but the client never got a good shot. Since the old guy had a hard time walking, they started following the hounds with the truck. The cat charged from brush at 12 yards. Dries' gun was in the rack. He managed to get to it in time for a point blank shot, which hit the leopard in the chest but didn't kill it quick enough. The cat pulled him from the truck and they started hand to hand combat on the ground. Dries yelled not to shoot the leopard as there was too much chance for the bullet to hit him. The tracker ended up clubbing the leopard on the head with a pump handle until it died. They were 2 1/2 hours from a hospital. He spent one day there, then they flew him to South Africa, where he spent a week. He lost a lot of blood on the long trip to the first hospital. He is home in bed now, fighting infection and pain. He cannot move his fingers yet as the bones in his hands are broken. He is okay but will carry multiple scars the rest of his life. Never play with leopards.
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