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Lion (Panthera leo)
The 100 year old style in Africa has been to take visiting hunters to a bait of zebra or whatever and assassinate a lion while eating, and that is still the way it is done in Zimbabwe.
In South Africa by law any land owner who has dangerous game like lion, elephant, Cape buffalo and hippo on his minimum sized 80,000 acres property has to have a specified fence around it for the safety of neighbours. Lion available for hunting by law has to be free ranging within this property, catching their own meat and not allowed to be fed. Unlike Texas there are no corn feeders... err..sorry... deer dispensers ;-)...
The hunter who gets taken to private land WILL shoot his lion head-on. Face to face, because lion can be pushed for only so long and then they turn on the pusher because they know that somewhere ahead is a fence beyond which escape is impossible. That annoys them.
Your shot will have to be from the one knee kneeling position to have the rifle down at his heart level if he is approaching. He may not charge before about 20 yards but he WILL display a keen interest in one of us. (You will not stand for my bull terrier to approach you in this fashion - take it from me, so do not take hunting lion where a property is fenced as anything else but the real thing). That rifle with which you kill your lion at 20-15 yards you will never sell.
The ideal cartridge for the job is a .458 Win Mag with 510 gr soft point bullets but a .375 H&H or 9.3x62 with heavy, good quality cup and core bullets is good enough.
Is hunter guts needed, and some adrenaline when lion hunting? Only when your PH whispers: "Watch that fool female closely but don't shoot her!".
Emotion based on incomplete facts - as always - drove SCI and other organisations in the USA to ban importing of lion and elephant trophies. Below is an advertisement by an associate outfitter about a most affordable hunt of a male lion, a Cape buffalo and a Rowland Ward sable. Readers are welcome to comment or ask questions about that hunt, and about lion hunting in South Africa in general.
Let me make this opening statement: In Zimbabwe and Kenya, Tanzania, etc. lion have been and still are hunted over bait. Two or three zebra or wildebeest are shot and the carcasses visited over time, and if a suitable lion is feeding it is assassinated while it is eating.
Hunting lion in South Africa you will track it on foot on 30,000 to 100,000 acre private property which by law has to be fenced. Once you are within 200m of the lion, even from downwind the pride will know about you and either stand their ground or walk off. This then becomes the way. That is until an adult male decides enough is enough and he will turn back with the idea to discourage you from pressing them any further. The hunter will shoot his lion head on - him measuring whether you are worthy or not of a charge. That rifle with which you shoot a male lion front and centre in you life you will never sell.
Talk to me about this.