Having a few friends in the industry I have in the last week heard of two instances where "celebrity" hunters have come out to Africa and done extensive hunts leaving a trail of PH's, outfitters and farm owners out of pocket.
Got me thinking of years of watching Boddington etc shoot everything under the sun, who actually pays for these hunts? Swift. Hornady. Trijicon? All the brands they punted?

May be they were promised exposure, and they took that as payment??

quote:

Originally posted by Snav:
Having a few friends in the industry I have in the last week heard of two instances where "celebrity" hunters have come out to Africa and done extensive hunts leaving a trail of PH's, outfitters and farm owners out of pocket.
Got me thinking of years of watching Boddington etc shoot everything under the sun, who actually pays for these hunts? Swift. Hornady. Trijicon? All the brands they punted?

Somewhat vague concerning the "celebrity" hunters leaving a trail of debts without offering more detail.

Boddington's hunts are largely sponsored/filmed for public consumption and rather unlikely that anyone got stiffed.

Just my thoughts.

I know quite a few people in the business.

At times these hunts are discounted. Most of these people are sponsored. I have even seen an e mail from one well known person soliciting someone to pay for a TZ safari and become part of his inner circle.

Did not imply that Boddington was guilty of anything like this. Used him as an example. Wondered how the whole things works.
Are budgets drawn up, motivated, invoices generated etc.

No exposure was offered as compensation. Clearly communicated that they want to shot x,y and z. Hunted, racked up expenses including food drink etc. Left. No payment.
Just something I thought about the other morning while having a crap. Not serious.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I know quite a few people in the business.

At times these hunts are discounted. Most of these people are sponsored. I have even seen an e mail from one well known person soliciting someone to pay for a TZ safari and become part of his inner circle.

Hahaha!

Typical INNER CIRCLE character!

I have absolutely, positively, no respect whatsoever to those striving to get into those stupid circles!

Not in Africa, but I had many writers, etc. hunt with me in my little outfitting business in California. I found that only the little players (local newspaper/website guys and wannabes) ask for freebies.
The big time guys would arrange a sponsor ahead of time (to field test a product, etc.) or offer to pay their own way. Boddington specifically hunted with me many times and if there wasn't a company/product sponsor or some other arrangement, he was ALWAYS quick to open his checkbox to cover the hunt. He never once asked for anything for free.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I know quite a few people in the business.

At times these hunts are discounted. Most of these people are sponsored. I have even seen an e mail from one well known person soliciting someone to pay for a TZ safari and become part of his inner circle.

Me as well...

I have been told that there is a lot of “payment in kind” aspect for the publicity.

Given the usual suboptimal look of hunting shows, I really don’t see it.

I’ve met quite a few guys who claim they are industry types, and I’ve never heard of them… is that me being a bit of a reclusive type, me being cheap, or that everyone seems to be jonesing for a way of getting their hunts for less?

I dunno.

I will say it doesn’t take me too long to decide if an article/show is able to contribute to my fund of knowledge or if it is going to present hunting in a less than favorable light.

Boddington and his wife hunted cougar with my guy in Idaho. Craig paid for everything.

Mark

I’ve shared Safari camps with several “celebrities”, Craig among them (3 times), some of the lesser known self styled celebrities have asked for huge discounts or free hunts, don’t know how it ended up. Sort of disgusting to me, but happened. The more well known guys were either sponsored by an ammo, optic or firearm company that had invited them on the hunt. One of the above mentioned well known hunting celebrities was in camp with my wife and I a couple of years ago on a group hunt sponsored by ammo and optics companies (sponsored their hunt, not mine). This well known guy was shooting an old iron sighted H&H double and had his sponsored ammo seized by Qatar Airlines in Doha due to gate agent in US not entering info into system and he had to use the only ammo the outfitter could scrounge up, which was a competitor’s ammo!

I think it all goes back to the very first shoot or hunt or whatever offered to the very first gunwriters that was sponsored by gun, ammo and accessory manufacturers and hunting purveyors.

This was way, and I mean way, if not wwaayyy, back when.

Ever since then, the firearms and hunting press have been bought and paid for.

But no longer.

Now, we have the interweb.

Ah yes, the webbernet.

Where it's left up to us hapless consumers to sort through even greater volumes of blurb in the ultimate marketplace of late-breaking notions and other whatnot.

I have no idea if this is true or not.

An old PH hunting Africa once told me while visiting Dubai, that the first time this happened was with Jack O'Connor.

He wanted to hunt for free, and provide exposure for whoever he hunted with.

Jack was one of my heroes.

I read everything he had written, especially his sort of word fight with Elmer Keith.

In fact, due to Jacks writings, my first wildcat was a 270 Ackley.

Which I used on several African safaris, and I was very happy with it.

Did quite a bit of bullet performance testing on animals.

From 130 grains to 150 grains.

Of several makes, like Barnes X, Trophy Bonded Bear Claws and Jensen bullets.

Not a single difference in effect on animals shot whatsoever.

Hit them right, and that is the end of it.

I have great respect for Jack O'Connor. He was a great writer and he always knew what he was talking about.

But he was a university professor and magazine writer and author of specialty books and not a rich man.

Yet he (and many others I could name, both past and present) somehow managed (and manage) to hunt the world, very often.

Many times per year, in fact.

And seemingly always with fine, custom-made firearms.

I think the common name for this sort of thing is influence peddling.

Just ask Hunter Biden and the "Big Guy" about it.

But, of course, neither they nor any other player of that game will ever admit openly that it happens.

I don't mean to equate commercial "fudging" or more to the point, dishonesty, to treason, but apart from national security concerns it's the same thing.

At least we can be grateful that it's fairly easy to spot.