Dear Mr. Graham:
...........
I am having a bad experience with a NZ/Australian hunting guide. I cannot contact this guy and am hoping that you can supply me with some current information on him. His name is David Musgrave, his guiding business is South Pacific Hunters, and his website is: http://www.southpacifichunters.com/
Back in the day he guided some bowhunters (Tim Wells, et al.) who did TV shows of their hunts and they were quite successful. He seemed very respectful when I contacted him in 2011 and his price for a 4 day Australian buffalo bull hunt was unbeatable. He promised a good trophy and that was exactly what I shot! My bull was a monster of over 110". I flew back home and David promised to send the horns & skull when he had done the export paperwork. Several months later I got an email from him with instructions to wire A570 to his bank account as the horns were ready to ship. I sent him the money and shortly got this email back:

Jan 18, 2013
Hi Herb,
Not sure how to tell you this but come right out with it.
I went to pick up all trophies and discovered yours was missing. Another outfitter also had trophies stored in the same place and am assuming he has picked yours up by mistake. I am currently trying to locate him.
In the event I cannot locate your trophy I will offer you an all expenses trip back to Australia for another hunt in 2013.
My apologies for this
David Musgrave
PO Box 526
Dunedin

I accepted his offer and we agreed on an October 2013 hunt if he could not locate my horns. And that is where the trail ends. Up until this point I had no trouble contacting him via email, now none of his contact info is good. Sent emails are returned to me because his inbox is full and no one answers his phone. He never contacted me again and I am really steamed over this. At the very least the man should return my A570! I don't know if he is still guiding/outfitting or not, but his website is still active. Any assistance that you can give me in contacting him or updating his situation will be much appreciated.
Thank you,

That's a bummer. I can't help but I hope some of our Kiwi mates can. His web site has an address for Queenstown.

Oh I meant to add that I have this gentlemans email address if anyone needs it - I took his contacts off the message.

Try enquiring in NZ. There is a guides association in NZ and it is a small country.

A little persistence and a few phone calls to NZ should find him. Perhaps start with the guides association.

He has guided a few US hunters and some of these might know whose private property/game park they hunted on. That info could give you a contact.

This was his old tel number - cell / mobile.

Dunedin + 64 27 662 5119

quote:

Originally posted by secondtry:
Try enquiring in NZ. There is a guides association in NZ and it is a small country.

A little persistence and a few phone calls to NZ should find him. Perhaps start with the guides association.

He has guided a few US hunters and some of these might know whose private property/game park they hunted on. That info could give you a contact.

Yeah, I sent it to Gerald already. He is a member here.

I just sent David an email requesting info on a NZ hunt and he has replied. So he is around.

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
I just sent David an email requesting info on a NZ hunt and he has replied. So he is around.

Which address Bakes?

I have a good friend in Dunedin that's a hunter, shooter. I will contact him and pass this thread along.
PM me and I'll share his e'mail with you.
Good luck, Bakes, bait him a bit and see where it goes.
George

PS: Just sent my man a note asking for a quick contact and referred him to this site/thread. Don't be surprized to get a contact shortly.
Gld

George, thanks for the heads up about this.

I checked the Southpacific hunting website and found this contact info, I notice it's a Queenstown number.

South Pacific Hunters - PO BOX 766 - Queenstown - New Zealand - T/F +64 (0) 3 441 2145

Not sure what the Dunedin PO Box is about
I will make a few enquiries and see what I find out about him.

Cheers
Kiwi

The one from the web site Matt

Thanks Kiwi:
Knew that would get your response.
Now send me an e'mail ok?

Matt/Tony: did this info help at all?

George

I all over it Matt. Spoke with Dave today and offer the assistance of the NZPHGA . He declined my offer and assures me he will get the situation under control. Time will tell. Dave isn't currently a member of our Association but I do not like to see anyone in this situation so am doing what little I can.
Its up to Dave now.

The main thing is this gets sorted out and sooner than many.
George

Interesting photos and some great trophies on his web site considering "Specializing in Free Range Trophy Hunts"

I suppose "specialising" doesn't mean that he claims the photos are all of free range animals.

I hope your lost horns do get found. I would find the loss of my trophies very frustrating.

I hunted with David several years back and had a wonderful time. I can attest that everything we hunted was indeed free range. I took a great Stag and a fair Fallow buck. We hunted hard for a better fallow and ended up settling on this guy.

Thats a good size Fallow Buck, long & good shape, cant see the palms from that angle how ever, I think you should be happy with him, very good Red for True free breed/range again you should be happy !

To the hunter in the OP I hope he got some nice photos, as 110 sure is a huge Bull !

It's been long enough, had there been any success on this problem yet?

Looks like you had a good hunt over there. I'm happy for you, what else did you do on that trip?
Thanks,
Georg

any updates? I see David's sight is no longer up.

I think I saw a 2013 hunt report from someone who hunting with Dave on The Hunting Report. I dont have access to HP at the moment. Maybe someone who does could take a look, Im sure something was there. Dont know if bad or good?