I don't know how many PH's would voluntarily share their experiences in this regard on this forum but three current topics on AR including 1.) Kudu Bulls I've known and 2.) Big Eland got me thinking back to some stories (both being real life experiences) that I've heard about mistakes that PH's have made...

The first incident goes back some years ago when my mate Tallie was hunting Kudu with a US client. The client wounded a big Kudu bull late one afternoon after refusing to shoot a number of very good Kudu's seen earlier in the day. Tallie, knowing that the trophy quality of the bull his client wounded was inferior to the ones seen earlier in the day and on which they had perfect shooting opportunities was quite fed-up with his (not so easy to please) client and in spite of following up had to abandon the search for the wounded Kudu as result of setting darkness.

The following morning Tallie and his client were up early and started tracking the wounded Kudu bull. After several hours of tracking, the tracks led them to some thicket and Tallie and the tracker were in agreement that the Kudu bull was (in all probability) in the thicket. It was there and then that Tallie decided that, whatever happened, that kudu was going down - whether it was the client who shot it or him.

As fate would have it; Tallie saw some movement behind the bush and judging by the direction of the movement Tallie knew that the Kudu would be showing itself within seconds. He accordingly told his client to get ready to shoot. The next moment he saw the Kudu in an opening and having no intention of spending another 3 hours tracking he picked up his .270 and shot the "Kudu" through the neck...

In Tallie's own words: "I immediately knew I had sh*t when I came round the bush as there, on the ground lay a perfectly dead and very nice Eland bull!" To add insult to injury, a couple of yards further on was the Kudu bull that his client had shot the previous day!

Needless to say; Tallie ended up paying for the Eland and only got trophy fees for the Kudu...

The other incident involved Tallie again - only this time it wasn't him who made the call...

On this occasion, one of Tallie's fellow PH's was hunting Leopard with a client and they were having breakfast one morning when the PH who had been in the blind the previous night's truck came driving up the dust road.

Everyone got up and walked towards the approaching truck...

The usual question: "Did you get anything?" was responded with: "Yeah, we got something..." It was clear though that the PH was not particularly satisfied with the night's hunt. "So what did you get?" was the obvious next question... "A leopard", was the answer. "But where is it?" asks Tallie, screening the truck, "on the back of the truck", says the PH. Seeing the truck was empty on the back Tallie was puzzled..."But there is nothing on the truck", he says. "It's in the Coleman ice box on the back of the truck", says the PH...

It turns out that instead of a nice big tomcat that was seen at the bait earlier, a Leopard female and her cubs decided on coming to the bait that particular night. When the PH heard movement, he turned on the light and the client took the shot - shooting one of the cubs before the PH could say anything...A "cooler box leopard" as it is being referred to now!

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisTroskie:
When the PH heard movement, he turned on the light and the client took the shot - shooting one of the cubs before the PH could say anything...A "cooler box leopard" as it is being referred to now!

Ouch!

PH that on tracking a clients wounded Blue Wildebeest saw one laying down and had the client shoot it. On walking up to it there was still blood going down the trail. The Wildebeest in question was not the clients. To add insult to injury it was aired on TV He was none to keen to have me harassing him for a couple days the next summer about it.

A PH's nightmare.

I have heard a few stories about scew ups while hunting, but, the ones that take the cake are about one hunter.

Apparently he arrived in camp with one box of ammo, with 20 rounds of 416 Rigby.

He wanted to shoot a lion, but was unwilling to pay for bait animals.

He assumed it was all included in the price!?

Anyway, that set the tune of the hunt, and as the next morning arrived, the PH drove him to the range where ther normally sight in there rifles.

The client refused to check his rifle, telling the PH the rifle was sighted in by "his gunsmith".

After some discussion, he agreed to shoot a kudu cow for bait.

Off they went looking for their kudu cow. It did not take long for them to locate a herd of kudu. The PH points a big cow for him to shoot. The client fires a shot, and a young bull - horns only a few inches long - standing way to the left of the cow, drops dead!

A few days later, they needed more bait. Somehow a hippo was agreed upon, to provide plenty of bait for the lions.

In Zimbabwe, they havea rule that if you fire at a hippo or a croc in the water you pay, regardless whether you kill it or not.

The PH takes the client to an over hang that looks down on part of the Luzi River, where a large group of hippos are always found.

Our prospective lion hunter fires a shot at a hippo from about 20 yards and misses!

Of course, he had to pay the trophy fee.

A few days later he went home empty handed.

I think my best was delivering a client a very long leopard skin "belt"

He shot the leopard at last light and after a half hour follow up we gave up and came back in the morning. During the night the hyaenas had a field day and all that was left was the head, a stip of skin about 4" wide along the spine, the tail and four paws.

I never did work out how he had that mounted.

On my first safari, many years ago, I was priviledged to hunt with who is now a pretty big name. He was very young and a bit green back then.

A leopard bait was put up. It was hit quickly. A blind was built. We get in the blind. It gets dark. The PH has these head phones on so he can "hear" what is going on around the bait better.

After sometime, something was clearly on the bait. The young PH is nervous as hell. He give the signal to get ready. On comes the lights. When the lights come on, the cross hairs are almost perfectly centered between these 2 shining eyes. Shoot he says. Boom. I hear something hit the ground.

Thr tracker is called on the radio. He drives the truck pretty much under the bait. He gets out. All of a sudden I hear this hysterical laughter. Did we get him the PH asks. The tracker, still laughing, relies that yes you got him.

We now get out of the blind and walk over. I look in the back of the truck for my leopard. I don't see it. I ask the tracker, who is still laughing, where the leopard was. He said, still laughing, in the back of truck. Finally, I pull out my light and turn it on. There is the worlds biggest genet cat, minus his head.

I will be nice and not embarrass this gentleman by giving his name. It was funny as hell and he was mightly embarrased.

...we (entire group 3 hunters and 2 wives) were on our way from Windhoek airport to the farm. Our group was in the van following PH and his assistant in their 4x4. Somewhere along the route - we saw a porcupine crossing the road just ahead and all the sudden first car hit the brakes hard and stop beside the road - PH and his assistant jumped out - one grabed some heavy stones while other get a stick and they began to kick the sh@t out of the poor creature...after some stone age hunting technique display they pick the critter and throw it at the back of their car...in the mean time we were observing the whole thing - ladies began to scream, I must admit I had a hard time watching it myself, our friend that was also a booker - jumped out and ask the PH what the f@ck he was doing - PH`s answer was, that his regular client had a space in his trophy room for the porcupine - and he simply took the advantage - well that set the tune for the hunt as well...

I have two stories, one as a client and one guiding. The first one was hunting impalas in RSA, we have been chasing them for a while when suddenly we saw a nice ram partialy covered by a tree, it was sideways, the ph say shoot and I went bang!! when we get closer the ram has only one horn!!! the ph couln't believe his mistake, I have a good laugh and for me was a real trophy despite how many horns it has.

The other one, I was guiding a brazilian hunter for fallow deers, it was very early in the morning and a buck run up hill between us and the sun so I just saw a glipmse of his horns, he asked: is big? I answer shoot it... the deer went down and we get close to see it was just a young buck...I still remember his evil look at me

L

Started tracking a huge Eland bull in the "Sandfeld" (very sandy soil) early in the morning with a client from Germany. At three o'clock in the afternoon we cought up with him...standing in front of a Brahman-bull.
The client killed himself laughing and got released of his daily fee, the two trackers and myself went pale but had a big piss-up altogether that night.

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:
...when we get closer the ram has only one horn!!!
... the deer went down and we get close to see it was just a young buck...I still remember his evil look at me

L

My own experience:

Got a sideways glimpse at a 5" Steenbok and told the client to take it quickly which he did. Walked up to it and it also only had one horn. I felt like a real a-hole but fortunately the client was a nice guy. Didn't charge him for my mistake of course...

Another PH's experience:

It was the PH's first hunt on the game ranch. Saw a nice Zebra stallion, consulted with the tracker and allowed the client to shoot it but when they got to the Zebra it turned out to be a Mountain Zebra - not Burchell's. Mountain Zebra was CITES 1 in SA and the client didn't have a tag... The trophy fee on the Zebra was also about twice that of a Burchell's. Needless to say, the PH now has a pretty nice (rather expensive) Mountain Zebra skin on the floor in his lounge.

Mouse93

Sounds like your PH spent too much time in Angola

Kamaatu

Classic story! And a good piss up can fix many things...............

We needed a buffalo cow for bait and had found this big herd moving off through the bush .. The young PH who was 24 and about 6' 4" took off running after the bunch .. I am a normal size dwarf (5' 6 3/4") and way older and as I hared along behind him I couldn't help but wonder why we were chasing along behind them instead of getting ahead and whacking one as they wandered along .. Eventually we came to a long hill and we found ourselves running behind (maybe 50 yards) the last three buffalo .. as they reached the crest and started to top out Gary pointed out the last cow had a broken leg and I was to shoot her !!! I assumed that when he said to shoot her .. I was supposed to shoot her !!! If she hadn't had a broken leg I probably wouldn't have .. but I do what the guides tell me .. So I quickly stopped and shot .. Texas heart shot with the big .416 Remington Mag with solids .. As the rifle went off I remember the dot on the same hind quarter that had the broken leg .. The buff lurched back and then went over the hill and was gone .. Gary yelled at me, ' Why did you shoot !!!???' I wouldn't have been more surprised if he had kissed me !!! ' Because you told me to !' I snarled back .. 'Not now !' he continued !!! Aaargghhh !! We ran to the hill top and picked up its track and came up on the herd a bit later .. To my shock he then ran as hard as he could at the herd .. with me trying to keep up .. The herd took one horrified look and tore off through the bush .. dust a hundred feet in the air .. this was repeated a couple more times that day as we followed .. finally the herd had long split up into smaller groups .. and we had no idea where the cow was .. I was taken Lariam and with that horrible frickin' drug causing me to be irritable .. and having to pay for the lost cow .. It was not my finest day on that 15 day hunt ..

Hunting Gemsbok in the Karoo we were told by the land owner that there was "limper bull" in one herd and was asked to take him if the opportunity came. My PH told him yes but told me we would take whatever good bull presented it self. At dusk of an all day hunt we go directly at a herd of about 20 animals and I shot a good bull from a termite mound and watched him drop at the shot. I shouted "He's down!" but the PH and the tracker both said he got up and ran and there he goes, pointing to a single bull running off separate from the herd. I had my doubts but as they were heading in the direction of the running bull I followed. After a bit we again find this lone bull standing broadside and at 80 or so yards I shot him and he fell. Upon inspecting this bull he did indeed have another hole in him but it was an older dried-blood wound, ie, the "limper". The bull I first shot was laying dead back where I took the shot from the termite mound. I received a tremendous discount off the second bull and now have opposing Gemsbok shoulder mounts in my living room.

This one time hunter to Africa has much enjoyed reading the posts. I do hope, however, that some PHs will tell us about client errors (even if on a new thread)

Ahh yes there was that one PH who made the comment..There isn't a client on the planet who can out drink me!



I'm not sure who won but I can tell you that it was the longest day in my life when in the morning I boarded the charter flight to Dar and then right on to the USA. Talk about a hangover multiplier!!

After a long,hot stalk on a herd of black wildebeast, they finally stopped long enough for us to catch them. After 2 hours of glassing the herd,milling around in the thornbush, we finally see the bull we want, sniffing the rear of a cow in the herd. The light was bad, they are sort of drifting around, I can't see the bull. The PH swaps position, points my rifle at the wildebeast and says, "There, the one right of the bush facing right.Shoot" Boom,flop. Yep, it was a cow. He was very embarrased, they swapped positions when he moved. Two days later we shot the bull, being very careful this time to get the right animal. He gets to the down animal before me and shouts, " Shit, another cow." I almost have a stroke as I walk up, he bursts out laughing, it's a nice bull. Bastard, I owe him for that one. By the way "cooler box leopards" are also called "one hand jobs" since it only takes one hand to lift them up.

Hey 404, tough luck on those 2 Zebras. Hope you had a good trip back to NC!

I just remembered another story of a well known Outfitter that you also know...

The client was here for a Rhino hunt. Owner of the Safari Company - we'll call him "DV" - insisted on guiding the client himself and told his son (who hunts for him and wanted to do the hunt) that he didn't want him to screw up the hunt hence the reason for guiding the client himself.

DV spotted the Rhino, told the client to take it and it went down without much fuss. When they got to the dead animal they discovered that it was not the bull they had permission to hunt but was in fact a pregnant cow. The client had booked a bull and refused to pay for the cow so they had to continue hunting and got the bull later in the hunt.

DV ended up paying for three rhinos - the cow, her calf and the trophy bull and could only collect trophy fees for the bull that the client wanted in the first place. To top it all: cows were selling at twice the price of bulls - a very expensive lesson to learn!

Why were cow rhinos more expensive than the males? do they grow bigger?

Red

Cuz they make more Rhinos!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Scottyboy:
Cuz they make more Rhinos!!!

Exactly, specialized species such as Rhino, Sable, Buff etc. sell for more on auctions because they're used for breeding purposes.