The recent Wade Lemon conviction, the mess in Zambia with Ibi and Andrew Baldry, Blair Worldwide Hunting and several others goes to show that we all need to be very careful in who we chose to hunt with or through.

I have been scammed/lied to on a few occasions.

1. A Canadian outfitter misled me on a Fannin sheep hunt. He took us to an area that was hunted out, then flew the area to find sheep. He tried to direct us to them but we chose to pass. In the end he refunded 1/2 our money after we offered to air our concerns with the authorities.

2. An extremely well known outfitter and agent sold me a dangerous game hunt in Africa. I go and find out they do not have the needed permits- after I shot the animal. I won't go into details, but this could have been a mess.

3. I book a simple mule deer hunt in Colorado with a long time outfitter. The "accomodations" were a run down farmhouse that I shared with 4 other hunters and cook. The lady cook slept in the room with the only bathroom. I slept on the couch, if you can call it that. I go hunt with the son of the outfitter and he tells me there are no mule deer of any size in this area as they had already shot 6 or so the week before. I end up with an ancient 3x3 that was so arthritic, it could not run. He said that was about all I could expect.

4. In Zambia, I booked a hunt in two areas. Lots of promises and lots of animals. However, the deal changed when I got there and was asked for a lot more money than quoted. We (3 hunters) finished the hunt using a missionary as one "PH" and the landowners son as the other. Both were seriously lacking in skills. The owner was desparate for cash and pushed us to shoot any and everything in order to get the trophy fees. Then, when the exporting of trophies was to happen, we had several bad suprises as well.

All of this to say- try to book with a long time reputable agent. Know the law where you are hunting. Verify quota or permits are in hand. Have a Plan B should things go wrong. Further, know the PH. I get it that we all lover our PH's, but that one person makes or breaks most hunts. I have had several kinds and settled on the ones I know and trust. I verify every promise made and get the promises in writing.

These are hard earned lessons but I have not been in a jam in many years.

So all of this without naming the outfitters? Of what use is this? Not being a dick but how does this help?

And to be clear, no matter how careful you are things still happen. I think there's a lot that outfitters can't control. For example, on hunts in ID and BC no one told us that ungulates had been devastated by bears and wolves and the chances of bagging your target had gone way down than in prior times. That said, I was lucky enough to get good animals in both places but my partners got nothing in both places. A recent trip to Bulgaria went about as seamlessly as possible. I've been on waterfowl hunts where the skies were black with birds and others where none showed up.

Point is, you do the best you can based on recommendations and reputation then the rest is luck. Lack of game is one thing, poor effort by the outfitter is another and is unacceptable. Even worse is scam artists. Anyway......I wish you all good hunting!

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So all of this without naming the outfitters? Of what use is this? Not being a dick but how does this help?

I can name them but prefer not to get into a pissing contest on this website over "crooked operators" as I have been called a variety of names and threatened over the entire Ibi/Baldry debacle.

Rest assured, giving those names is not worth the hassle or getting sued.

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Originally posted by dogcat:
I can name them but prefer not to get into a pissing contest on this website over "crooked operators" as I have been called a variety of names and threatened over the entire Ibi/Baldry debacle.

Rest assured, giving those names is not worth the hassle or getting sued.

Understood.....thanks for responding. I'd have to have a very bad experience to name an outfitter here and thankfully that hasn't happened....yet.