Just received a request from Cabela's to sign a release if I intend to hunt Zimbabwe in September as planned.

They also indicated I had an option that I could have them help "negotiate" with the outfitter for a later hunt this year, or one next year. Option 2 was that they would negotiate a partial refund of deposits.

I will make them aware of Option 3, which they may not like.

Beware of booking through Cabelas. I've heard not many good things with them, especially with regards to Zimababwe.

Actually Cabela's is quite good. This will be my fifth hunt with them; my last if I'm not treated right. All hunts have been as advertised.

I felt they over-advertised a trophy elk hunt about five years ago, and they offered to change hunts, and threw in a half-price stone sheep hunt to boot.

I don't suspect I will have problems with them, but we'll see.

Good luck I hope things work out.

I've got a friend who booked a buffalo hunt through Cabelas three years ago and has had some pretty serious problems trying to get his trophies home. Cabelas has been less than helpful according to him.

I've never booked through them so I don't have any first hand information.

I have booked two hunts thru Cabelas, the first was not so good, but thought well give them a second chance, well enough is enough and from now on I will just prchase mdse from them, nuff said!

One of the areas Cabelas is hunting near Vic Falls is confiscated land and they know full well that if things change they will not be able to honor those hunts on that property.

I have written correspondence with them regarding their clinets hunts on Woodlands Estates. They feel that since the outfitter is not on the banned list and the government redistributed the land then hunting there is okay.

With so many good outfitters out there, some on AR, why book with Cabelas?

quote:

They feel that since the outfitter is not on the banned list and the government redistributed the land then hunting there is okay.

They've got to be kidding. Someone at Cabelas needs to read the restrictions in place, and the penalties for violating the laws and regulations.

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
With so many good outfitters out there, some on AR, why book with Cabelas?

Good point There are several good booking agents and PHs right here on AR. Who needs Cabelas?

quote:

Originally posted by adrook:

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
With so many good outfitters out there, some on AR, why book with Cabelas?

Good point There are several good booking agents and PHs right here on AR. Who needs Cabelas?

I agree. You could probably find better deals and meet PHs face-to-face at SCI Dinners/Shows, other hunting shows and hunting forums like AR.

I see no reason to give Cabelas more $. Look at what happened to all the people that put in for Elk tags in Arizona.

quote:

I will make them aware of Option 3, which they may not like.

Both of you have signed a contract and exchanged something of value to validate it. I'm assuming that you were astute enough to read and understand the contract when you signed it. Going under that assumption, I doubt you agreed to a contract that allows them to change the terms unilaterally. I'm not sure what it is that they are suggesting that you "release" them from, but you have the right to (1) demand their specific performance under the contract, and (2) not less than all of your money back plus any demonstrable damages if they should fail to perform under the contract.

Your "option 3" sounds like the best option, and I wouldn't hesitate to excersize it.

do a search here for Cabelas booking operation and i think you will be unpleasantly surprised( or maybe not).

I booked an Alaskan caribou hunt and a Sask bear hunt through Cabela's several years ago and I won't use them again. Just got the feeling that I was wasting their valuable time.

I buy quite a bit of "stuff" from Cabela's and have nothing but good to say about that part of their operation. Having not booked a hunt through them, don't have personal experience, but have heard enough iffy's from other folks that it will probably stay that way. As others have said, lots of proven people out there among us, so it's not worth the chance.

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

Keep in mind most of the iffys were probably fed by people competing against them for your money.

Like I say, up 'til now they've treated me more than fair and in one case (trophy elk hunt) I watched them bend over backwards to satisfy a man from Alaska and his wife, who were complete assholes. I would have written them a check and asked them to leave.

I think you are also right that there are good people here as well. In my business you hurt yourself when all you can say is something bad about your competitor, that's why I think less of people that just want to spread shit.

Tell that to the 568 people that used their TAGS service for AZ this year. An article about what happened. –

Cabela's T.A.G.S. Misses Arizona Elk and Antelope Deadline
March 15, 2008.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission unanimously voted on March 14, 2008, to deny a petition by Cabela's to accept late license applications submitted on behalf of their licensing service clients.

Cabela's offers an application service known as T.A.G.S. — Trophy Application and Guide Service. For a fee ($50 each in the case of Arizona elk and antelope), Cabela's will prepare your applications for western big game draw licenses, including analyzing and selecting premier trophy areas. They also front the application money for you ($595 in the case of Arizona elk, $485 in the case of antelope).

According to the petition, Cabela’s sent to the department three packages through a private courier from Nebraska on February 11, 2008. The packages did not arrive at the department location until after the published deadline of 7pm on February 12.

When the courier failed to deliver the applications based upon their committed service levels, Cabela's petitioned the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to consider accepting the applications of their 568 impacted customers.

The commission, which allows for petitions to be heard by the commission when no other administrative remedy exists, reviewed Cabela's request at their March 14 meeting.

The Cabela's request was unanimously rejected by the Commission. Arizona regulations are unambiguous that "No applications will be accepted after this
time regardless of the postmark."

For the customers of Cabela's TAGS, the good news is that it seems inconceivable that Cabela's would ever miss a deadline again. Unfortunately, they'll obviously miss their chance at a 2008 hunt, will fall behind in bonus point accumulation, and will lose their progress towards the loyalty bonus point (an extra bonus point awarded when you apply 5 years in a row).

That makes them look pretty incompentent. That may work in my favor. Surely they would like to work a little damage control.

I would like to read the letter that went out to the Arizona applicants. Do you have it?

I've booked 3 North American Hunts with Cabelas in the past and have been very happy with all three of the hunts and outfitters.

That being said, I'll likely use one of the recommended outfitters from AR for my African hunt. Not because of Cabelas past performance, but because of the high praise heaped upon some of the regulars here.

No mention of anyone receiving letters on this or other hunting forums. There were a lot of angry hunters out there earlier on this year; I was not one of them. I never understood why people used their TAGS service, but I found out they front the $ for your tags until you are drawn.

Cabelas is a great store but that is just it – it’s a store. I have never booked a hunt using them. I can only imagine the amount of hunters the Outfitter/PH takes a year, if they are in Cabelas. I guess I’d just rather book a hunt with someone I meet at a show/dinner or learned about from word-of-mouth and just not picking them out of a catalog.

quote:

I can only imagine the amount of hunters the Outfitter/PH takes a year, if they are in Cabelas. I guess I’d just rather book a hunt with someone I meet at a show/dinner or learned about from word-of-mouth and just not picking them out of a catalog.

Like I said, I've hunted with them 3 times. All 3 times were 1x1. One hunt there was 1 other person in camp with me and my father, on the other 2 hunts there was 2 other hunters in addition to my father, brother and myself. Two of the hunts have been with Mom and Pop outfitters that did a great job.

The reason we started using Cabelas is because we got burned on a hunt we booked the old fashioned way. We checked references talked to the outfitter several times, you name it. The guy was awful. There were 4 hunters in my party hunting moose in Newfoundland. My father's guide was the best. He was 71 and got lost on the lake one day. The second best guide was my brother's - he was missing an arm - He lost it shotgun accident. My guide couldn't have found a moose on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. After that we decided to try to take advantage of Cabelas research.

quote:

Originally posted by dla69:

quote:

I can only imagine the amount of hunters the Outfitter/PH takes a year, if they are in Cabelas. I guess I’d just rather book a hunt with someone I meet at a show/dinner or learned about from word-of-mouth and just not picking them out of a catalog.

Like I said, I've hunted with them 3 times. All 3 times were 1x1. One hunt there was 1 other person in camp with me and my father, on the other 2 hunts there was 2 other hunters in addition to my father, brother and myself. Two of the hunts have been with Mom and Pop outfitters that did a great job.

The reason we started using Cabelas is because we got burned on a hunt we booked the old fashioned way. We checked references talked to the outfitter several times, you name it. The guy was awful. There were 4 hunters in my party hunting moose in Newfoundland. My father's guide was the best. He was 71 and got lost on the lake one day. The second best guide was my brother's - he was missing an arm - He lost it shotgun accident. My guide couldn't have found a moose on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. After that we decided to try to take advantage of Cabelas research.

That reminds me a little of the moose hunt I did in Newfoundland. Most of the guides were pretty decent but wouldn't you know I got the new guy and he wasn't worth a shit. His biggest problem was laziness. We were the last ones out of camp in the morning and first ones back in, he didn't want to hunt past 9:00 am nor in the afternoon or early evening, I practically had to force him out of camp in the afternoon. He tried to get me to shoot a calf walking on the road from the 4-wheeler one morning and when we finally did get a moose to come to the call he had my rangefinder and got excited and wouldn't range the moose even after my asking 4 times. Probably partly my fault as I didn't say a lot but it will never happen again on a hunt that I'm paying for. I did use a booking agent (I wouldn't recommend him), talked to the outfitters several times, spoke with references, etc. and it still wasn't a very good hunt. A good booking agent that will stand behind the hunts he offers is a real asset.

Cheers,
Andy

Well I booked a hunt through Cabela's and went to Matetsi Unit #2 in 2006, (a place Kensco knows well). I had the perfect safari.

Cabela's research and acceptance of an outfitter means a great deal.

I will also say that occassionally when you get the "newest / youngest" guide, you get a motivated / aggressive guide. I had that experience on an elk hunt in New Mexico. I was disappointed when I was paired with the newbie. He was disappointed that we got assigned the "worst" area to hunt.

In the next few days he proceeded to guide, call, and stalk rings around everybody else. He called bulls in to thirty feet, stalked us into and out of a herd of twenty without them knowing we were ever there. He set the table and when I said "No" we moved on to the next opportunity with no let-down in his energy level. He out-thought the elk and placed me perfectly when a 6x6 and two cows fed out of the trees on day-four. About five minutes later when we were shaking hands he said just watching my thumb move the safety forward took all the pressure off him. That's the first time I realized we were both trying to prove something, and we did.

If you get the new guide, appeal to his competitive side.

PSmith

Oddly enough, because of the political situation, and the fact I'll be on Matetsi-2 again I am packing a compass for the first time. If the shit hits the fan I'm walking to Botswana.

I will be after Sable and Buffalo, and I remember in 2006 the biggest Sable we saw was standing about 100 meters inside the Botswana side of the border; flipping me the bird as I recall.

Hopefully I will get there in September, and if the most exciting part of the hunt is just finding my way back home, so be it.

If Mugabe is going to screw my hunt up, he better get the party started, because otherwise, I'm comin'.

Kensco:

Have a great hunt!

When I was there in 2006 the animals we saw the most were sable (which of course I did not have on license). They seemed to know it and did not bother to run far from the roads. We saw several over 40" bulls and a couple in the mid-40s. I'm sure you will get a great one.

I think legging it for Pandamatenga is the way to go if something happens.

Good luck!