This is copied from:
http://ww.african-hunter.com/Rifle_Choice_4_Dangerous_Game.htm
For starters, I want to look at that controversial issue of using a shotgun on cats. At the last two proficiency exams the choice of all learners, except for a smattering of old hands, for wounded leopard was a pump or semi-auto 12 bore. For wounded lion, most said that they would stick to their rifles, although several said that they would consider a shotgun in very thick cover. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! ! !
If you go through the Professional Hunters and Guides Association awards for bravery, an inordinate number seem to go to trackers who rescue their PH's from under a leopard they failed to stop with a shotgun. If you go through the records of the Department of National Parks, 86% of the PH's injured by animals fall prey to leopards, and invariably wounded leopards whose charges they have failed to stop with a shotgun. Bear in mind that at leopard charge ranges, the shot from a shotgun will not have begun to spread out. You therefore have a heavy, but very slow and very frangible projectile. Pellets are round and tend to ricochet off the skull, whilst all but the heaviest pellets may not get through the chest muscles. Not what the doctor ordered.
As Brian Marsh pointed out in an excellent article on the subject in last June's edition of Magnum, the best weapon for leopard is the one you are most familiar with. Unless you are a keen (and good) bird shooter who can definitely snap shoot better with your shotgun than a rifle, leave the shotgun at home. Also very few semi-auto shotguns and even fewer pumps are well fitting firearms (go and see how many are used for competition) and I, like Brian am convinced that 99% of hunters would be much better served by their rifles. If you are worried about being able to snap shoot with your normal rifle, get the stock professionally altered so that it fits you better than any off-the-shelf shotgun. In short, use a reasonably fitting rifle and you are very unlikely to end up under a leopard.
For those who insist on using a shotgun, use Breneke slugs. At least they will penetrate adequately on a leopard, and create a massive wound channel. Do NOT use the American Foster type slugs. On an unwounded cat they are great, but the only ones I've seen used on a charging leopard failed to get through the ribs, and that from a 3" Magnum load. The new saboted slugs will penetrate fine but give you a wound channel half the size of the Breneke:- pass. If you can get copper plated LG (000 Buck) that might be OK for the first shot if you really want to use shot, but you had better have a slug in the other barrel for when the shot fails.
I do not know where the idea arose that a 12g with 'loopers' (i.e. an old load containing 3.70" calibre balls) was the thing for dealing with lion charge either. I suspect that this originated either with people who had never tried it, or they were referring to 12g rifles. Col. Patterson, when trying to deal with the Man-eaters of Tsavo in 1898 (the hero of Ghost & The Darkness if you saw it) tried both a l2g shot gun loaded with slugs and a 12g rifle loaded with solids. He shot the one lion at a range of a couple of feet when it was trying to climb on to his pole platform (basha) with a 12g shotgun loaded with slugs. The lion pushed off, but when Patterson finally killed it 10 days later (using a .303) he found both slugs stuck just under the skin. He later tried a l2g double rifle. A lion charged, his first shot, a solid, went in under the eye and lodged in the lion's back leg. His second shot was a soft, and this failed to penetrate the muscles on the chest. Patterson only survived because his gun bearer broke and fled at this point and the lion turned on him, giving Patterson a chance to get his .303 into action.
Not much has changed in the last 100 years. A .303 with good bullets is still a better weapon for dealing with a wounded lion than any shotgun. As noted in my article on game toughness, a bullet needs to be travelling at over 2250fp to exploit a cat's susceptibility to shock. No shotgun load achieves this and you therefore have to rely on killing the animal by destroying organs. With a perforated heart a lion can still move for up to 8 seconds - at 15+ metres a second: perfect medicine in a close quarters confrontation. I wouldn't trust even a Breneke slug to get through the chest muscles on a charging lion at any but point blank range. Unmarked hunters are those who do not let anything nasty get anywhere near point blank range until after it has been skinned.
In conclusion then, shotguns and lions are a first class recipe for a mauled hunter, whilst if the National Parks records are anything to go by, a shotgun and a wounded leopard are not always a good mix. Leave shotguns for the birds and stick to rifles for big game. That way you don't get hurt… however, always carry a handgun when following up wounded cats. Pistoling a peeved pussy on top of you is infinitely easier than trying to throttle it. (If you are a complete chicken like myself, fit a bayonet to your rifle. You can then keep kitty at a reasonable distance while drawing your revolver: -much better than giving it an arm to chew on.)
