Good thing, too. We discovered that I had gotten sand in the action and trigger. Not good. So, I switched to the .30-06 and put the .338 back on the truck. Ah, using a .30-06, in 2006--on its 100th birthday. Another connection.

Gemsbok, native to this part of southern Africa, are challenging to hunt and make for a spectacular trophy.

Back at camp that night Dwight took the .338 action out of the stock, flushed it out with solvent and we were back in business.

Calling it "camp" doesn't do Eden justice. It's even worse when I tell someone we stayed in tents. Well, we did, but these tents are huge, with wood floors, carpets, big beds, closets, electric lights, stone bathrooms and wonderful showers with plenty of hot water. Of course, the hot water heater is a fifty-five-gallon drum they build a fire under before you get back to camp in the evening--it works like a charm.

The food was spectacular, and we enjoyed the evenings sitting on the patio sipping rock sandies (ginger ale and bitters) and watching kudu, gemsbok, giraffe and other game coming to the water hole thirty yards away. I felt as though I was sharing camp with Ruark, O'Connor and Dad.

Next day, we had barely started the hunt when Jamy got the call that a neighbor needed help. A leopard had killed another calf. Did we want to hunt leopard? You're kidding, right? A fast drive to the neighbor's (this is big country, so the neighbor is twenty miles away), and we were on the track, with a half-dozen extra trackers and a pack of scruffy dogs to help.

Dwight Van Brunt (left) and Jamy Traut with the leopard that gave the party quite a thrill. Leopards are commonly hunted with highly trained dogs.

The plan was to get on the tracks, walk fast and push the leopard until it treed. Unfortunately, the leopard had not gotten the memo. It wouldn't tree, so we pushed and pushed, then we ran and ran. Dogs barking. Trackers tracking. Dwight and I huffing and puffing. We had decided it was my shot, but I made it clear that Dwight was to shoot if I didn't have the opportunity.

GUNS & LOADS Gearing Up For Namibia Doesn't Have To Be Difficult.

This hunt was typical of Africa. Shots are generally not long. You're more likely to have to slip a bullet through a small hole in the brush at seventy-five yards than you are to try a shot longer than 250 yards. Because of that, it's best to sight in your rifle to hit dead on at 100 yards. Bullet selection is key, and penetration is more important than muzzle velocity. For plains game, the rifle and cartridge you use for deer and elk probably will be perfect. Just use good, controlled-expansion bullets. Practice shooting from sticks. You may not have the option of sitting, kneeling or shooting prone because of brush. You'll shoot standing

Good thing, too. There were two leopards--big ones. We caught glimpses of them in the thick brush as we ran after them, then one broke off. We stayed with the other. At one point the big tom stopped, and as I caught up I could clearly see his head in the brush. I began to bring the rifle down to get the crosshairs on him, but the rifle stopped short. Kumati, trying to help, had stuck a branched stick under the rifle to serve as a shooting stick. It was too long, and I couldn't get the barrel down to the cat. In the instant that I figured out what was going on and knocked the stick out of the way, the cat sprinted off again.

At the next stop, things got ugly. Jamy was yelling for us to catch up, the dogs were darting in to keep the winded cat distracted, and that's when one of the trackers yelled, "Shoot him now, or he'll kill us!" The cat blasted away, and Jamy fired.

When your professional hunter takes the first shot, it's for a good reason. At that point, all bets were off, and we had to kill the cat to keep it from getting onto one of us. Jamy's shot, we found out later when we watched the video in slow motion, cut down a small branch, sending the bullet astray.