I've been a long time member here, largely inactive for the last few years though.
We are Ridgewalker Expeditions, we've been operating in Italy and around the world since 1999. Currently, the website is down due to a hack, but it is www.ridgewalkerexpeditions.com You can reach us by phone on +4553840338 or +61429110915. trips@ridgewalkerexpeditions.com is currently down, so for the moment, I will have to reply here. I trust the email will be back online very soon.

My name is Joe Marra, I'm an Aussie ex pat so I cater mostly, unsurprisingly, Australians and Americans on the European hunts.

This offering is for fallow bucks in beautiful Tuscany where there are huge, free range wild fallow deer, and we run these hunts with no sliding scale, at a fixed price.

Most of the bucks we shoot are CIC Golds, and Bronze at a minimum.

There is a cancellation week available from the 22ndth to the 30th of October that we are offering at a discounted rate of 5000€ per hunter, for a group of three hunters.

This spot is being offered with a 25% discount!

The hunts are inclusive of airport (or station) transfer from Bologna, Pisa or Florence, rifle and ammunition hire,

Here is our pricing breakdown & basic information:

7 day unlimited package

5000€ all-inclusive, one buck of unlimited size.

All-inclusive means the hunt is considered from pickup to drop, rifle hire and ammunition are included, even alcoholic beverages are included, and great local Tuscan food and wine, great accommodation with a swimming pool, and 2x1 guiding until one of the group gets their buck, then you hunt 1x1.

Breakdown of costs:
Trophy fee 2900€
Daily rates 2100€

Not included are flights, additional transfers, taxidermy, trophy preparation for shipping, shipping, vet cert, dip/pack.

There may also be an opening the first week of October for a single hunter, subject to deposit pending.

The first link takes you to our Instagram with a video of fallow bucks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C98-KvENsTc/

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Some serious fallow there and Tuscany is a wonderful part of Italy!

Shame we are booked solid to end of year. Good luck selling this!

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Thank you Charlie! It is a great hunt, very well suited for families as well!

I would be very cautious booking this hunt. We did it last year and have never received our trophies. The outfitter will not return our calls or emails. We have tried many times to contact him.

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Maybe now is the time for the outfitter to come forward and comment ......

Sorry to hear of your issues and thanks for posting that on here. Was really thinking about this for 2026, the pictures are after all monster fallow!


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I wanted to share some other details of the hunt. Also on this hunt was my friend's father who turned 86 while on the trip . He shot his first fallow ever on the last day. We were very happy for him. He is the most disappointed not getting his trophy back home. We were also told that they had good rifles in camp. Not true! my friend had to hunt with a double open sight rifle. We never saw anything close to the ones in the photos. Joe claims that he was hacked but he suspended his WhatsApp that we talked on many times before the hunt. NOTHING NOW.

Three days have lapsed without any response from the OP to the accusation of failing to deliver the goods by a new member/poster who had dealings with this outfitter.

Very hard to defend the indefensible!

I have not been able to log into my account, so I have made this new one.

I am the outfitter in question.

I'd like to adress Saddleman's claims.

Firstly, my whatsapp was not hacked.
I changed phone numbers and for whatever reason, some of my contacts, not all, were not able to contact me unless I had contacted them.

Because I had moved to Australia, my old number was not being used, which is the one he had, but only for the last month or so was it totally out of use. It has been back in use for weeks now.

I did not know he, or his friend were trying to reach me, possibly because I was in remote outback Australia for two months.

Although I do have to conceed that I was indeed not reachable for a significant period, and I do believe that Saddleman must have tried to reach me in that period.

More significantly maybe, due to another issue dependent on the move, the company email accound was suspended, which I was unaware of, due to being in the field.

Now, moving on the the accusations;

"We were also told that they had good rifles in camp. Not true! my friend had to hunt with a double open sight rifle."

The rifles in camp were a Blaser R8 with a Swarovski scope and a Blaser R93 with a March scope. And the hand crafted Italian double rifle.
Saddleman's friend agreed to hunt with the double rifle, and I accompanied him to 40 yards of a buck which he shot but unfortunately even with the use of a dog, were not able to recover.
He was however extremely happy with the hunt.

"We never saw anything close to the ones in the photos."

We have video footage of Saddleman shooting at a huge buck which he missed, that was certainly of the caliber of bucks in the photos.

And I personally guided him to several great bucks on the first day, that I passed up, hoping to get him better, even though they might have scored as CIC golds. The next day a storm moved in which turned the rest of the rut off.

The bucks in the photos posted here were taken last season, a week or two before Saddleman's hunt. His group had very bad weather and the rut action all but stopped early.

His friend also shot and wounded a giant buck, also on video, which due to the wounding being just a graze, he was not charged for it.

And Saddleman himself shot a buck that I did not consider to be of a standard I felt good enough for him, so I waived the trophy fee altogether and allowed him to continue hunting.

And it would appear Saddleman is unaware that his friend has reached me, and this situation was cleared up, before his post here.

Regarding the trophy, it was sent in May.
I say "it" because Saddleman did not want his trophy which he got for free, so it was only the father of his friend who is waiting on a trophy.
The cape arrived at the taxidermist, which was sent separately, and the antlers were retured by customs for insufficient documentation.
They had the same documentation as the cape, which makes the matter very unusual.
This is just an unfortunate incident with the shipping.

The trophy is safe and will be sent again, and will no doubt soon we united with the cape.

Nothing like this has never happened in over 20 years of hosting clients, and I find Saddleman's accusations to be very troubling, because aside from not being able to reach me, the rest are simply not correct.

As I said before the rifles were not what you are claiming. The next client whom I know said the rifles were crap. My friend hunted with the double because he had no other choice.

The buck I missed was a good deer but not a giant
The deer I passed up were not even close to gold

The big issue is not getting my friends trophy back.
You claim you sent it but who paid for the crating and the shipping.

Who cleared it through customs?

What taxidermy shop did it go to?

I have talked to everyone and nobody knows anything about your story.

I think you are full of crap and covering your ass or at least trying to.

You said all Italians are You know the end of the phrase.

Sir,

If the big issue is not getting the trophies, what is it?

Are you arguing that that Blaser rifles and Swarovski scopes are not good enough?

The bucks we have on video are indeed great ones, I can post screenshots from them here for the members to decide for themselves if they fit the description.

I know that the buck I told you in the field might have gone a gold medal, but being the first day I was keen to get you a giant.
So now do you want to argue that after 25 years guiding fallow deer that your estimation is going to establish what makes a big head.

Is the big issue arguing that you didn't see big enough bucks?
Do you remember that it poured rain and the rutting stopped?

Is the big issue you think I'm lying about the shipping of the trophies?

Your friend has the shipping receipts.

The capes are with Dakota Taxidermists, and the antlers are being held for me to set up the shipping again once I return to the area.

Furthermore, I realised that your wife was in regular contact with me during the period in which I was not reachable on whatsapp or the Ridgewalker email, on my personal email for the other business matters.

I paid for the shipping and crating.
Your friend, who when he was unable to reach me, wrote me an email, stating his worries but also stating that knowing me, he was hoping there would be an explanation for the problems.

He will pay me in good time, and because I trust him.

Since you are so insistent on trying to slander me, I'd like to ask you what you are going to have to say when the antlers are delivered and our friend has his mount home?

You left saying you wanted to hunt again with us.

10 posts in 10 years and 3 disaster hunts reported by Saddleman makes this look like a toss up. Who has that much bad luck?

Ridgewalker.....maybe you could answer Mark Young's questions on your hunt posted for axis deer in Argentina?? I am interested in axis, but not particularly the fallow.

There have not been any disaster hunts, and Saddleman left that hunt saying he was very happy.

Firstly.it has to be clarified that Saddleman states "our trophies never arrived."

He had no trophies coming because he decided he didn't want to keep his.

The friend Saddleman came with, who is the only person who actually has any business making any comments about this, since Saddleman has no trophies to collect, is happy.

So is the client who he claims shares his opinion that the Blaser rifles, with custom barrels that we let our clients use, are crap.
Both those rifles shoot half MOA with Peregrine and Cutting Edge bullets. Top tier handloaded ammunition. There isn't much to really.say about that aside from the personal view that are frequently contentious about Blaser rifles.
I have found then to be boringly reliable.

In fact that client, who is a well renowned and internationally highly regarded outfitter himself, had booked to return with his family for a second fallow hunt this year and cancelled last minute due to very unfortunate circumstances.

I am at a loss for this attack, I actually enjoyed the hunt with Saddleman and am very surprised at his attacks here.

The trophies in question have been delayed but not lost, and the other complaints seem to be desperate attempts to slander my operation, which as I have already said, I am quite shocked at after having met Saddleman and finding him to be a likeable and sensible character.

quote:

Originally posted by saddleman:


I have talked to everyone and nobody knows anything about your story.

I think you are full of crap and covering your ass or at least trying to.

You said all Italians are You know the end of the phrase.

I just talked to Brian of Dakota Taxidermy, and he confirmed having received the capes in May.

What he also told me was, that he has not spoken to Saddleman.


I wouldn't normally keep coming back to this, but the fact that statements have been made that are simply untrue and can easily be prove.

Before Saddleman posted here, I had also spoken to his friend, who is not a member here and is actually the interested party.

I am truly so profoundly disappointed by this slanderous posts.

I know Saddleman was upset that the trophies were not delivered 6 months after the hunt, he told me so himself.

That still doesn't justify his conduct here.

Ridgewalker. My apologies for my previous post. There are always two sides to these situations. Post in haste and repent at liesure!

Ridgewalker,

I wasn't implying that this hunt was a disaster. I was pointing out Saddleman has only posted 10 times in 10 years and yet has posted about "Disasters" on 3 occasions. That makes me believe that maybe he is just a pain in the ass client.

Thank you for clarifying that, Kevin.

As I've already said before, I found Saddleman to be a likable and reasonable man, which is why this episode shocked me.

I do understand he was frustrated that his head had taken 6 months to get shipped, he told me so at the time.
I apologized and agreed it had taken too long and also I realized I had only let the other hunter know about the delay.
Interestingly enough, Saddleman spoke to this other hunter in question at length 3 months later to establish that the rifles provided were crap, but the details of the shipping of the trophies were not mentioned.
Saddleman was annoyed that I "took off to other places" before I finished the job of shipping the trophies.
He was unaware they were also being tanned in the meantime.

Here is the buck that Saddleman stated was not a giant:



The portion of visible palm that faces forward is precisely that, a portion, with more curving around on the sides, which can be seen in the video as the buck turns to run away.

Palms are the main factor for an exceptional fallow buck trophy. The overall length and width on this buck are obviously also very big.
Fallow deer tend to look smaller from the front, and larger from the back.
So this image is a very relaible indicator that we are indeed looking at a giant buck.

And here are the first deer of this season.







The antlers that came back are being safely held and will ship when I get to the depot personally to ensure no more troubles, which will be before the end of this month and I will send them expedited.

Unfortunately, I was unable to log in to my account, and still cannot and was unable to even create a new one for several days.
In that interval, 930 people viewed this post before I could reply.

Sadly, the damage is done and it is unlikely that those who were interested in the hunt will know that these claims were unfounded and actually not true.

I have hunted this exact property several times and have seen the quality of the deer. There are very good bucks around and lots of them. This area is free range and forested, so you might not see them if conditions are not right and the weather is bad, but without a doubt this area has fantastic bucks.

I know Joe for +10years and we have hunted several times together.

Best Regards,
Dennis

Those are very nice Fallow. I would be happy taking any of them. Shipping from anywhere has become a pain in the ass.