If the hunt was sold to him as for a particular damage causing cat, (and stipulated as such in the contract) and he accepted the deal, then he has no right to bleat about the size or sex of the trophy...... He agreed to take that particular cat, so I fail to understand why he should be unhappy.

(FWIW) It's different in Tanzania where we're not allowed to take females and we have a minimum size requirement to comply with. To make sure there are no mistakes, I place two small pieces of reflective tape as sizing marks on the branch where the cat will be perched and I take a spotting scope into the blind with me. If I can't see his nuts, I don't let the client shoot........... but that isn't the case up there.

I've never done a hunt with hounds so can't comment but I guess it's a helluva lot easier to sex and size them that way........ bit tougher on the legs though!

It's always interesting how people vary on the trophy expectation front though. Most want the biggest available if possible but a year or two ago, I was hunting with a client and we had two Leopards feeding on two separate baits a few miles apart. I sat down with him and told him he had a choice of taking a monster that was a bit twitchy and would take another three or four days before he would be ready to shoot or he could take an average tom the next night....... I nearly fell over bckwards when he opted for the smaller cat.

I guess variety is the spice of life huh!