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Originally posted by Heym 450/400:
I believe he has a legitimate grievance as well...but just post the hunt report and say your peace if you're trying to save the next poor sap who's thinking of booking.

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Originally posted by MJines:
I am not questioning whether you did or did not have a bad experience in Namibia. What I do find curious is how show season seems to bring forward folks that have axes to grind with outfitters. Why do folks that purport to be motivated by a desire to prevent others from having a negative experience seem content to wait until the shows to raise the issue? If the hunt was in October or November, why not post the details on your return? Even in the post today, there are no details. A cynic might believe that the motivation is more akin to retribution or leverage given the timing.

Again, I am not suggesting that you did not have a negative experience. If that was the case, I feel your pain. I had a negative experience this past year in Namibia myself with another outfitter. Just seems to me that when someone comes forward months or years after something is said to have happened you have to wonder what motivated the delay in coming forward.

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Uff da can be used as an expression of surprise, astonishment, exhaustion, relief and sometimes dismay.

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Originally posted by Opus1:

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Uff da can be used as an expression of surprise, astonishment, exhaustion, relief and sometimes dismay.

So which is it???

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Originally posted by MJines:
Perhaps I'm paranoid . . . when you have many qualified outfitters in a country but nevertheless book with someone from another country, e.g., booking with a Zim outfitter to hunt Nambia, booking with a South African outfitter to hunt Zim, etc., just strikes me as a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Perhaps I'm paranoid . . . when you have many qualified outfitters in a country but nevertheless book with someone from another country, e.g., booking with a Zim outfitter to hunt Nambia, booking with a South African outfitter to hunt Zim, etc., just strikes me as a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

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Originally posted by AilsaWheels:

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Originally posted by MJines:
Perhaps I'm paranoid . . . when you have many qualified outfitters in a country but nevertheless book with someone from another country, e.g., booking with a Zim outfitter to hunt Nambia, booking with a South African outfitter to hunt Zim, etc., just strikes me as a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

Mike,

I'm not disagreeing with you, but is there a difference in booking with a Zim agent to hunt in Namibia and booking with an American agent to hunt in Namibia?

quote:

Perhaps I'm paranoid . . . when you have many qualified outfitters in a country but nevertheless book with someone from another country, e.g., booking with a Zim outfitter to hunt Nambia, booking with a South African outfitter to hunt Zim, etc., just strikes me as a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

Mike

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Originally posted by COYOTE HUNTER:

quote:

Perhaps I'm paranoid . . . when you have many qualified outfitters in a country but nevertheless book with someone from another country, e.g., booking with a Zim outfitter to hunt Nambia, booking with a South African outfitter to hunt Zim, etc., just strikes me as a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

Mike

So, by your logic, one should never use someone like CMS to hunt somewhere like Zambia then, right? That would be Zim operators working out of the country.

I am consistently amazed that people will post negative reports on this website when all some want to do is blame the whole situation on them before they even know any of the details.

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Originally posted by Frostbit:

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Perhaps I'm paranoid . . . when you have many qualified outfitters in a country but nevertheless book with someone from another country, e.g., booking with a Zim outfitter to hunt Nambia, booking with a South African outfitter to hunt Zim, etc., just strikes me as a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

+1

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Originally posted by Joe Savikataaq Jr:
When I saw this title, it reminded me of when I did a tusk less hunt with MPS in Zim. We ran out of food during the hunt, we were down to 1 spoon of beans for breakfast and a thin slice of tomato, thats it, that was out breakfast. For one that like to have a big breakfast to start a hard day that was not enough. Never going back there again.

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Originally posted by jdollar:
Bottom line is that it is illegal for non NAmibian PHs to conduct DG hunts in Namibia. They may accompany clients but there HAS to a registered Namibian DG certified PH actually conducting the hunt. A bit of due diligence would have discovered this. There is no way MArtin was ever going to legally conduct this hunt unless he is certified IN NAMIBIA as a DG PH, WHICH HE OBVIOUSLY ISNT.

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Originally posted by MJines:
To be clear, I still question the timing of his report to coincide with the shows. If he wanted to alert everyone to a serious issue, I would have thought that would have been done before the jet lag was even over from a trip in October. That said, I stated at the outset I have no idea of the veracity of his allegations.

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Originally posted by Chris Drazan:
Here it is. By the way, as a transplanted Minnesota boy, Uff-Da would be used as an expression of "exhausted astonishment" in this case. There were some very good thing about the hunt, irrespective of the outfitter, which I will go into in a subsequent post.

First, it’s difficult to admit making this kind of mistake. We should have done more due-diligence on the hunt, we should not have paid all the fees up front, we should have put fees in escrow, and had a detailed contract drawn up. How could I be so careless with this hunt given the costs involved? Excitement, the expectations of the hunt with my brother, misplaced trust in the outfitter, and the fact that I’ve never had an issue like this before most likely played a part. While I likely won’t receive a refund, perhaps I can make it harder for this kind of behavior to continue in the hunting industry. I, for one, will never make this mistake again.

For the record, I’ve hunted in Africa seven times and twice in Martin Pieters’ areas. I’ve spent a great deal of money with Martin and considered myself to be a good client. I also had recommended Martin’s outfit to my brother who subsequently did several significant safaris with him. And just days before our departure to the Caprivi, we were planning some hunts in the Omay or the Matetsi with my son and a client in 2017. No longer.

SUMMARY
• We paid for a 2 (Client) x 2 (PH), 14 day trophy bull elephant hunt in Mayuni and Kwando Conservancies in the Caprivi.
• We received a 2 x 1, 14 day trophy bull elephant hunt in Bumunu Conservancy in the Caprivi.
• The conservancy changes were not communicated to us even though they were known months before the hunt.
• Martin and his team did not apply for the proper Namibia work visa’s, so they were denied entry into Namibia. So, they did not participate in the hunt as was intended to and we no longer had 2 PHs for the hunt.
• Martin had no direct experience with the conservancy, camp, trophy expectations, or professional hunters and refused to refund our fees after the hunt began to fall apart.

BACKGROUND AND BOOKING
In February 2016, my brother and I met with Martin Pieters at the SCI conference in Las Vegas to discuss plans for the year. My brother had not taken a bull elephant and was interested in an exportable trophy and thus, we were assessing options from various outfitters in Namibia. Given the amount of hunting we had done with Martin and what we considered to be a ‘trusted’ relationship, we agreed to pursue a hunt with him.

Martin said he had quota for 2 elephants in “areas with big bulls and an average in the low 60-pound range” and “a real chance at a much bigger bull”. I asked about which areas we would be hunting and he said the Kwando and Mayuni conservancies along the Linyati. We knew we were paying a bit of a premium, but the plan was to hunt with Mike’s Zimbabwe PH (Dalton Tink) with whom he had established a good rapport and Martin was to accompany me as I had not hunted with him directly. This would probably be my last exportable elephant hunt and a special one to share with my brother.

The booked hunt was a 2 x 2, 14 day Trophy bull elephant hunt in Mayuni and Kwando Conservancies in the Caprivi. Martin and Dalton would PH for each of us. The Cost: The very high end of the trophy elephant rate in the Caprivi.

Deposits were made.

Some research indicated that Jamy Traut (Jamy Traut Safaris) operated these conservancies so I assumed (wrongly) that Martin had been in contact with Mr. Traut and all was in line. Given what we now understand, Martin had collaborated with his colleagues Wayne Grant (a PH in Zimbabwe, South Africa) and John Harris (Outfitter in Mozambique and South Africa) and arranged the quota with them, and not Jamy Traut directly.
 
In March or April, the quota apparently became unavailable and in the background, Wayne Grant, John Harris, and presumably Martin, were searching for quota elsewhere in the Caprivi. We had no communication on this whatsoever. In April or May, John Harris contacted PH Vaughn Fulton with Camelthorn Safaris in the Bumunu Conservancy and negotiated for two exportable trophy bull quota.
 
Again. we were unaware of this change. Moreover, I sent Martin an email confirming the conservancies and he responded via email on July 13th that we were still hunting the Kwandu and Mayuni conservancies. I asked Martin several times for pictures of the Kwandu and Mayuni camps and recent trophies but received only pictures of elephant from his areas in Zimbabwe. Given what we know now, that’s not entirely surprising. Flights were booked, final deposits made, and we began arranging firearm permits and invitation letters.
 
At this point, I received an invitation letter from Felix M with Camelthorn Safaris for the Bumunu conservancy and, being a bit perplexed, I questioned Martin via WhatsApp as follows:

9/22/16, 8:48:05 AM: Chris Drazan: So, the invitation letter says Bumunu conservancy not Mayuni or Kwandu? Is that a change or just for the paperwork?
9/22/16, 8:49:10 AM: Martin Pieters: Just paperwork
9/22/16, 9:00:20 AM: Martin Pieters: They have given me an option as it is extremely dry right now and there is more movement Bumunu side.

As we found out later, he had NO access to Mayuni and Kwandu and he was (or should have been) completely aware of this. This change had nothing to do with water as both the Chobe and Linyante were dry. Again, these changes in the background were never communicated to us.

THE HUNT
On October 19, we began the long journey to the Caprivi. Upon landing in Johannesburg, I received a text message from Martin saying he, the other PH, and photographers had been detained at the Namibia border and would not be permitted entry on the “suspicion that they were conducting hunts in Namibia”. He was claiming to be accompanying a hunt, far different than operating or conducting a hunt which is what we had paid Martin to do. Martin had not applied for the appropriate visa’s nor arranged with Camelthorn to be on site and providing PH services.

We were now at the Afton Guest House in Johannesburg, and had no idea on how this expensive Caprivi elephant hunt would take place.

I eventually connected with Martin that evening and he explained to me that he had arranged a PH (Vaughn Fulton), to assist us on our hunt. We had never met or spoken to Vaughn before this point but we were expecting -- and had paid for -- a 2 x 2 hunt on two conservancies and not a 2 x 1 hunt on one conservancy!

I called Vaughn to understand from him what was being said. He informed me that the hunting is going to be “tough” given the drought situation and that “trophy expectations should be in the 40-pound range”. Vaughn had no information with respect to the other conservancies. Martin had never met Vaughn nor Felix Marnewecke (Bumunu) conservancy operator), had never been to the conservancy or camp, and had no understanding of the camp capacity (there would have been no room for an additional 5 people accompanying Martin). During the first evening at camp, we were told that Martin had been informed in August that the hunting could be less than productive and in fact, they had told one of their elephant hunting clients to postpone their hunt until next year given the drought conditions, and that Martin should have let us know. Felix could have adjusted the plan accordingly. Martin never informed us of this.

Given this new information, I then sent Martin a text requesting that we cancel the hunt and that he repay our deposits. His response was “Moneys have been paid to Camelthorn safaris, Chris”. No refunds.

Obviously, I wasn’t getting the entire story from Martin, so I then pressed the issue on where we were to hunt since at this point, we only have one PH and no additional logistical support to the multiple conservancies.

Text Messages - Wednesday, October 19th 10:07 CST
Chris Drazan: So, do we have access to the other concessions (around Bwabwata) or not? That is what we bought, and I'd like that option if need be. You mentioned "we had access to all three".
Martin Pieters: I am talking to Vaughn now
Chris Drazan: Do I have quota in Mayuni and Kwando or not?
Martin Pieters: Right now no, as far as I am aware.

To say we were shocked and upset, would be an understatement.

The next morning, we traveled to the Caprivi and meet Vaughn at the Katima airport. He introduced us to John Harris, who was already there. We assumed John was an additional PH hired to support the hunt and provided by Camelthorn and until this point, we had never heard of him.

After getting to camp, I asked Vaughn if he and John had hunted together and how they knew each other. Vaughn, clearly confused at this point, says, “Chris, we didn't hire him, he’s your agent. Didn't someone tell you this?”

Our “agent”?! I didn't know we had an “agent” other than Martin. All monies had been paid to Martin. At the time, we had no idea that it was John Harris and Wayne Grant who had booked the hunt, and not Martin. We asked John to leave camp and return to South Africa as he had no practical role in the hunt nor did we have room in the Land Cruiser.

Our hunting began, and as Vaughn had indicted, it was tough going. Elephant, at this point, were moving in only one section of the conservancy around the Chobe and the Botswana border. On the 8th day, Mike took a bull in the upper 40-pound range. To this point, this was the only ‘shootable’ bull we had seen and would prove to be the last mature bull we saw, and therefore I was unable to connect. This is, after all, hunting and there are no guarantees. Except, of course, that your outfitter should provide the hunt that you paid for.

While the overall issues with the booking weighed on the hunt, Vaughn, Felix, and the Bumunu team did a fantastic job. I would recommend a hunt with them if buffalo is the objective (we saw some fantastic bulls). The upside (if there is such a thing) of the drought was the atypical movement of game: we saw incredible numbers of zebra, buffalo, hyena, and several lions.

How to avoid this problem in the future (at least for me)?

• Get a detailed contract and do NOT send deposits until this is complete. Unfortunately, even with outfitters you know.
• Use an agent if you are unsure (or do not have experience with) a given operator.
• Escrow funds (daily fees and trophy fees to be fair to the outfitter) and never pay all up front.
• Contact the owner of the concession you will be hunting in advance of deposits being paid if the outfitter is not the concession operator or land owner.

The biggest disappointment was trusting Martin to deliver on his promise only to find out he did not communicate issues as they arose and worse, he did not follow through on appropriate due-diligence to ensure the hunt he sold us was delivered.

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Originally posted by Heym 450/400:
I would think that Vaughn would be handling his ivory and would steer clear of his issue with Martin.