(Edited Note: This was posted at the same time "Blank" posted his comment. This has nothing to do with his comment!)



Let's get this one settled. Most have already figured out that the ph is Vaughan Fulton, so I am not letting any cat out of the bag here. I have received phone calls already about the thread.



Besides Vaughan himself, I am the only one who visits AR who can answer these questions. Vaughan is Leopard hunting right now with one of my clients. I felt it was necessary to answer on his behalf since he will not even know about this thread for the next two weeks.



I have already communicated with Mark and he didn't know what was involved in shipping from this hunting area, but since this problem is out in the open now, I best explain it to everyone.



Here is a bit of a run down.



First of all, this is no game ranch hunt. It is a remote tented camp. Logistics of running a camp here are similar to that of running a dangerous game camp in Mozambique or Zimbabwe. It is not easy, nor is it cheap. This adds a bit of time and difficulty to the equation.



Any trophy taken on this side of the veterinary control fence has to be quarantined. While I was in Namibia in July and August, some of the trophies were still in quarantine. In addition to the quarantine, there are other inspections and permits that must be obtained to be able to ship these trophies. These are all things that the game ranches do not have to deal with. This adds time to the equation.



Vaughan is a one man show. Throw in a few problems and kinks and you can expect that there might be delays. This is Africa and there will always be kinks. Anyone who hunts with him should be prepared for a possible delay. It happened this year and it will probably happen again.



Trophies take longer to ship from this area. 12 months is a bit longer than he wanted, but, when you run, what is essentially, a one man show, sometimes there are unavoidable problems that delay things like this.



I hate to see negative comments about this guy. Not just because I work with him, but because I know Vaughan as a person. I have worked with him for the past two years now, just after he started working in the concession he is in now. I have spent time in Windhoek with him as he prepares for his next clients. I have been in his home and have dined with his family, and not least of all, I have hunted with him in the field. I can attest to his skill as a dangerous game ph, I can also tell you about him as a person.



I get to see what the client doesn't see. I see the pride he puts into his business and his own name. I see the concern he holds for every clients enjoyment of the hunt and how he is genuinely disappointed if a client doesn't shoot everything he came for. He has a huge heart and without a doubt, it is in the right place. Anyone who knows him will agree with me.



He would rather shoot himself than have a client shoot an immature animal. He will bend over backward to accommodate any clients wish.



Nobody here knows what he did for the first client I sent him. They hunted hard for Lion for 18 days. There were no problems, no screw ups ... the Lions just outsmarted them. That is the way it sometimes goes. He wanted this guy to shoot a Lion so bad, he invited him back for an additional 18 days at no charge.



That is a ph who cares.

Wendell,

I could not agree more with your assessment of Vaughan as a man and a professional hunter. And I don't think that Mark would disagree.

Delays are part of the price of hunting in remote regions. It's true in the Selous, where there is no three month quarantine, and it's true in many other locations.

I don't know the details of this situation, but I do know Vaughan. There is not a malicious or mendacious bone in his body and I know without any doubt that he must be doing his absolute best.

Even if I knew I would have to wait two years for my trophies, I would gladly sign up to hunt with Vaughan again.

Welcome to Africa. Sometimes s... happens. Africa runs on a different clock than we do. I'm booked with Vaughan for next May, and I have every confidence in the world that things will be great.

I hunted with Vaughan last September and have not received my trophies but I know this is Africa.

I have known Vaughan since 95 and he is completely dedicated to doing a good job and shipping trophies is part of that. I talked to him about it and he is getting better organized to speed the process. However I must say in his own defense he has had some very bad luck some of which includes the theft of one of his newest hunting vehicles which was completely customized for remote hunting and loaded with lots of his equipment.

Mark had a good hunt but he is concerned about his trophies which is understandable, just as I was when my buff,sable etc safari from Zim was delayed for 18 months!

Mike

The fact remains that its been a year now and I'm disappointed in the way this has been handled.

Mark,

I managed to get in touch with Vaughan. As I suspected, your trophies are at the shipping agent. They are out of his hands now.

I discussed the problems with the delayed delivery of the trophies. He honestly felt very bad about the delay. He has made some changes to streamline the process. Future shipments will be done a lot quicker. Unfortunately, Mark, yours was one of the ones that took the longest.

He is sorry about it and I feel bad about it as well ... even though I had nothing to do with the whole thing ...

.

I don't think there is any excuse for taking a year to get them here. I hunted May 28-June 8th of 200e in Namibia and mine were here August 1st 2003. There is no way in hell any excuse for them to not be here by now.

.

Alf, read my first post again.

Quote:

---

we still have not gotten our trophies. By trophies I mean just the skins, horns and skull, we didn't have anything tanned or mounted. The PH was to just dip, pack and ship everything to us.

---

There was/is no taxidermy work to be done in Namibia.

Wendell, thanks. I'll be glad when this whole mess is over with.

jstevens,

When did you hunt in Namibia? Where in the country did you hunt?

Mike

I've never met Vaughan personally, but I will say that he has an excellent reputation in the industry and I have no doubt whatsoever that he is doing his very best to get the problem sorted out.



One of the major irritations of outfitting, is that once the trophies are out of the hunting camp the outfitter (no matter who he is or how good his reputation) can't actually do a hell of a lot to expedite matters. It's all in the hands of third parties, and if they don't process paperwork or answer e-mails or return phone calls then all the outfitter can do is chase things when he has time. His only real power is to remove (or threaten to remove) his business from the third party in the future........and despite this, it's always the outfitter or the PH who seems to get the blame when there's a delay. Those comments are not meant to criticise anyone, they're just an observation of how things actually work in the real world of African hunting.......



If Vaughan is involved, I have no doubt that he is even more annoyed about the situation than anyone else and that he will be doing his utmost to put things right.



.......Having said all that, a year is a long time to wait and I can understand your frustration. I'm glad you had the good sense to hunt with a reputable company rather than one of these fly by nights who promise the world at a cutthroat price and deliver nothing.

I hunted in Namibia in two different locations. The first one was about 45 miles east of Winchoeck, the remainder of the hunt was in a more mountainous region near Okajanda. I doubt that I spelled that correctly, but that's where were. We had a great hunt, came back with 10 trophies including a 42" oryx, and a 54 1/2 kudu.

When I left my Namibian outfitter in July, he told me that the dip and pack was done during my hunt and that it was going to be shipped as soon as possible. Probably the week after.. They have many clients from Scandinavia, and they normally ship a big crate every second month.
Hopefully they`re already at my taxidermist..
Good luck, BTW!