I would be pleased to hear from all of you about any interesting experiences you have had with the game guards that were assigned to you.

Were any of you impressed with your game guards?

Mine was decent to work with but scared the hell out of me with his gun handling! (He carried an ancient FN with a round in the chamber and safety off. Fortunately he only had 4 rounds in his magazine, plus the one in chamber).

ANdy

The game scout who accompanied us in the Selous last year was excellent. He assisted in all phases of the safari from tracking, skinning and even helping to chop trees that had fallen across the trails. He always pitched in with a smile just like the rest of the crew. As I understand it, he was much better than the average.

My guy in the Selous was great. He always helped out and contributed to the week-long hunt. He packed a .404 and according to my PH, was a very good shot.

Most of them are pretty good, your PH should have insisted he unload the rifle..They can be bribed pretty easy but thats a way of life and it is accepted in many foriegn countries, and it's not a bad system, its above board and seems to work for every one. They like it because it cuts through the red tape and BS...

A Mexican cop once told me "Reymundo, the only difference in my country and yours is we pay our bribes on top of the table and your people pass in under the table" I came to find out that there is a modicum of truth to his statement.

Remember your man is a game scout today and an elephant poacher tomorrow!

I had a game scout that dropped his loaded AK on the rocks behind all of us. Everyone flinched as it bounced down the rocks behind us. I later carried his AK (and a bunch of other stuff) so he could pack out ele hide so he wasn't all bad.

I have heard some crazy stories though. Scary stuff.

We had a "game guard" when a pal and I hunted the Kafue Flats in Zambia. Boy did we feel secure....then Fred asked to see his rifle. I can't remember what it was, probably an old Enfield in 30-06. On working the bolt Fred noted it was unloaded. So was the game guard. He did not have one round. Fred gave him 6 or so when we left. Probably fed his whole family for the next month.

I've hunted out of four different camps in Zimbabwe (most of the time in the Zambezi Escarpment) and have still never seen a game guard. Even though I was with a long standing, well respected outfitter, I was told none were available in each case. How common is this?

Thanks,
Kyler

Kyler, it happens of course but 4 times in a row is kind of interesting. Which concessions? I was in Makuti last year and we had to pick up our game scout at the Parks office when I signed in to their ledger.

I have found the older Game Scouts to be pretty good and the younger "Rangers" terrible with poor safety with Firearms.
Most of the younger guys don't even like it in the bush, but I guess they will figure out sooner or later why they get no tip$.

had a few lazy ones, but by in large they were pretty good, with the exception of one this last september that was absolutely oustanding. he showed more resolution that any 10 i've been with

My only experience with one was positive. The concept and the system of having game scouts is a good idea.

On corruption, having traveled a lot, I have found that it takes two for corruption to occur - the payee and the payor. I have refused to pay bribes or facilitation payments when no service is rendered.

Builtinthewild,
Remind your friend Fred that giveing the game scout 6 rounds of ammo that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and his generosity just killed 6 elephants. A game scout today is a elephant poacher with 6 rounds of ammo..

I know some very well known old time PHs who loaded a few rounds of their 404 cases with a full case of Bullseye and gave it to certain suspect game scouts, and when the Game Scout opted to poach old Jumbo all hell took place..

quote:

Originally posted by Andy:
I would be pleased to hear from all of you about any interesting experiences you have had with the game guards that were assigned to you.

Were any of you impressed with your game guards?

Mine was decent to work with but scared the hell out of me with his gun handling! (He carried an ancient FN with a round in the chamber and safety off. Fortunately he only had 4 rounds in his magazine, plus the one in chamber).

ANdy

If any game guard hunting with us did this he would have been tied up at the butchery throughout our hunt!

I have hunted with many game scouts, most of them were very decent people.

We've had the odd one who was a bit officias, but we soon get them into line.

At Chete, one would not let us shoot an impala for bait close to the lake shores. Saying that the rules are that no animals can be shot below the high water mark.

Instead of arguing with him, we just waited until the impala got into the tree line, and I shot it.

He immediately named me "sniper", and we had no more problems with him.

Another one kept very close to us, and after a 375/404 with a muzzle brake went off close to him, he dropped way behind.

The rest of them have always been very helpful. They cut roads with us, butcher the animals and track. Generally do everything the trackers do.

Limited experience, here, but in my limited experience, TOTALLY WORTHLESS, and moreover, DANGEROUS.
In short, we were on the trail of three Dagga Boys and it was very hot. My wife was getting dehydrated, so my PH sent her back with the Game Warden named "peace", along with my hunting buddy back to the Toyota that was about 1KM away give or take. The dumbass got them LOST and were it not for the fact that my friend is a fellow aviator and knows how to Dead Reckon, God knows what would have happened. And here's the worst of it, he was leading them right into a small herd of very aggressive elephants.

Fortunately, we were able to intercept the elephants (before we knew they were lost it was just a lucky break) and caused them to take another route. On another occassion he was clueless as to the boundaries of where we were hunting. We were in Dande North. jorge

An elephant killed for every shot fired from a scout's rifle? They're not exactly Annie Oakley.

Game Scouts in my experience have been very good to excellent. They all pitched in with the work and were very helpful in general. I think most have figured out that if they want to share in the tips they need to show some ambition.

As for bribes people that understand more about the interaction of the game departments and safari operators than I have told me that bribes set a bad precedent. Once you pay a bribe to cover a game violation the game scout can hold that violation over your head if you have any future problems with the scout. Better to not get in that dangerous position in the first place.

Mark

I have had some really good ones and one that absolutely awful. The bad one was so disruptive that I was going to leave after a week of a 21 say safari.

I have had a couple of interesting and/or scary experiences.

There was an older gentleman with us last year In Tanzania. He was a nice guy. He worked hard and contributed to the hunt. However he carried an old single shot shotgun which always seemed to be pointed at me. I said something about it and he handed it to me to show me it was unloaded. I noticed a number of very unusual marks on the gun. I inquired. Bottom line is that there was a problem lion around some village. He was sent to sort it out. He fired at the lion and the lion promptly charged him. He stuck the shotgun in the lions mouths to stop it from chewing on him. At least that is what he told me.

In 1993, I was in the Gonarezhou. Near dark, I shot a waterbuck. I was left with the game scout who was armed with an AK. We had to sit in the bush and wait for the truck in the dark. At some point, I heard a slight noise in the leaves. Given the thick bush around us, I was 100% sure it had to something really small like a rat. Nevertheless, this game scout was almost scared white once it got dark. Then I heard a very unsettling noise. He chambered a round in the AK. This scared the hell out of me. I got as low on the ground as I could. Fortunately the truck showed up in a few minutes. This guy was absolutely terrified.

It was either Buzz or Alan Shearing who had a game scout fire an AK beside their ear at a charging ele this year. The ele was bluffing...the PH's response was real!

I guess I tipped by game scout too much. After we concluded our hunt in Matetsi he asked if it was OK if he tagged along for the 3 days of sightseeing we scheduled in Hwange. He was neat as a pin and a lot of fun. He said he had many children and liked to get away from them. My PH took his ammo first thing and did not return the 3 shells he had till the conclusion of our stay.

Our scout in TZ in 06 was quite helful, We notice he carried a stick in the barrel of his old 30.06. The exractor didn.t work so if he fired rifle he had to use stick to remove shell casing. When we returned home I sent him an extractor for the mauser action.

Some good, some less than good, some worthless and taking up space in the world.

The best was probably 1973 in SW Sudan. A forestry office sent a warrant for the "arrest of the white man that shot an elephant in MY forest." Game scout promptly worked the action of his .458, shoved the end of the barrel in the bearers face and told him "f---off, I'm in charge here." Never heard anymore of it. I had done nothing wrong to begin with anyway.

quote:

Posted 25 March 2008 20:13 Hide Post

If any game guard hunting with us did this he would have been tied up at the butchery throughout our hunt!

Saeed,

We did not discover he had been carrying w a round in the chamber and safety off until he rested his rifle against a tree and went off to help cut brush for the Toyota.

A helpful guy, just always pointing his rifle at you (unintentionally)!!!

When he was out of sight, my PH and I both raced to the tree to check out the condition of his FN.

It was a Belgian select fire model and was also on Full Auto! (Recharge).

When we picked up the game scout there was a large number of men waiting for assignment (Dande North end of season). My PH did not get the one he really wanted as he had already been out on several hunts and it appeared they were making sure everyone got a chance to work for a tip.

I did not get the impression it would have been proper (or allowed) for a PH to tell a game scout how to handle his rifle.

This particular scout treated both my PH and I fairly when I wounded my buffalo, after a long trek allowing us to shoot the one we were pretty sure but not 100% sure was the wounded bull. Fortunately we called that right.
And he was not afraid to work.



He managed to get into every picture. (2nd from left).

Our Game Scout in the Selous was a really great guy, helping in the tracking and everything (we nicknamed him "General"). He carried an SKS in horrible condition, and had a great sense of humor when the driver and I stole his ammo for a couple of hours. As bad as that SKS was, his colleague back at the village of Mbuga was worse off; he had a Mauser in 458 with the iron sights BRAZED on!! BN

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Atkinson:
Remind your friend Fred that giveing the game scout 6 rounds of ammo that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and his generosity just killed 6 elephants. QUOTE]

I doubt that very much. This was near 20 years ago. We never saw elephant in that area; it was teeming with lechwe and zebra. And Fred, a good friend, and wonderful hunter, passed away shortly thereafter.