MOZAMBIQUE: Disappointing Hunt Booked With Hunt It All

Sergey

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My Mozambique hunting experience which I would like to share with all of you was not so nice.

Our group of 4 hunters arrived in Mozambique in September 2010. Preceding the trip was a few months of letter exchange with our agent Mark Willman from the American Hunt It All, Inc company. I have participated in over 20 African expeditions and usually (if we aren't talking about standard antelope hunt in Namibia or SAR) I prefer not to pre-purchase a whole hunting package. I pay daily rates beforehand and pay for the trophies only when I kill the animals. In this case however I made an exception. This decision was obviously influenced by the offered discount, but final argument was the fact that Hunt It All, Inc president Terry Сundiff was also a co-owner of the receiving Mozambique Unlimited Safaris company. This means that Hunt It All, Inc was not just a regular booking agent, but exclusive and well informed one. During the two week hunt we were planning to get three buffalos, two leopards, two sable antelopes, two crocs and two hippo's.

First part of the trip went very smoothly: we met with the receiving party, went through the formalities, spent the night in Maputo and then boarded the plane to Lechinga. Problems started to appear 15 minutes after we met our professional hunters. Group leader Stan Harding became very confused, when we told him, that our primary targets are buffalos, saying that he値l try to think of something. His partner Neil Lindsay was more radical: 典here are no buffalos in our area! Speaking forward his words were proven to be correct during our two week hunt we haven't seen even a single buffalo footprint.

It was the first, but unfortunately not the last 哲o we met with during our stay. Two hunters from our group had leopard included in their package with a prepaid (following Mark's recommendation) prebaiting ($1,500 per person). PH's had no idea about it and didn't make the baits beforehand. To make things worse money required to support basic camp functionality was not transferred in time. First couple days we were eating some leftovers, but later we were forced to survive without even such simple things as bread, eggs, tea, jam 徹utdoor lunch (me and my friend spend the whole day in the blind for the croc) for the two of us was just a small can of preserved fruits, and for PH's it was a can of beans of a similar size. I don't know if the problem was with money or with anything else, but promised shipment from Lechinga had never arrived. In the nearby settlements we were only able to occasionally buy bread, tomatoes or tinned fish and sometimes a few cans of cola or beer And for this we were paying a $1200 daily rate.

However food was not our main problem after all we came here not to eat, but to hunt. I had already described the situation with buffalos. Same story happened we the hippos, although PH's told us that hippos do inhabit the hunting area, but not during this season.

We could only get a single crocodile (the only one we had seen) and it was less than 3 meters long. However it's less than prominent trophy qualities were easily outweighed both by the interesting 2-day hunt and by the fact that this croc was with a å¡—istory? It had eaten two kids from the nearby village. We brought the croc to the house of one of the kid's parent and pictures where poor mother tries to smash the monster's head with her fists would remain our main trophies.

It would be unfair to say that there were absolutely no animals in the hunting area. We managed to get one mediocre sable, 3 or 4 non-trophy antelopes to eat, a few bushpigs (rare in other places, it was a common animal here) and whole lot of baboons to use as baits. However getting any animal required a lot of sweating many hours of stalking, long walks in the bush I have already mentioned that I have hunted many times in different parts of Africa. However in no place I have seen poaching on such a scale as in this part of Mozambique. During these two weeks we have removed hundreds of loops, seen dozens of hunting pits and once found a 3 km long wall made of dry wood with openings after each 150m ending with 2-3m pits.

On the other hand we致e seen a lot of elephants. While being in one of the fly camps we even helped to evacuate last inhabitants of a nearby village: elephants had destroyed the crops and razed a few huts. Now the villagers were facing a very grim perspective. Because of the abundance of the tsetse flies there are no cattle in the region, and now they lost their crops.

In terms of adventures and exotics the trip ended up being quite exciting. However only 3 trophy animals (one of the hunters at the end successfully ambushed the leopard, but missed which is obviously his fault and not hunt organizer's) from 11 is a result that can hardly be called satisfactory.

We tried to discuss the situation with the local organizers on the way back to Maputo. However soon we realized they had very vague understanding of their own lands and were only complaining that they never received the promised payment from the US partners.

Obviously we asked Hunt It All to return at least part of the money we paid at least for the inexistent hippos and buffalos and for prebaiting that didn't happen. And this is where the real trouble began. After two polite letters asking for a short deferment (they claimed they were waiting for a formal report from the professional hunters, Hunt It All representatives stopped answering e-mails or picking up the phone. They didn't appear on SCI convention in Reno either on their stand there was just a lonely piece of paper with the name Hunt It All, Inc.

Our professional hunters (we can't complain about their work they honestly tried to do all that was in their power) tried to persuade us not to make rash conclusions about hunting in the Northern Mozambique just by our experience in this hunting area. They told us that just 150-200 km to the north, closer to the Nyassa National Park, the situation is completely different. In either case I advise anyone planning to go on a safari in this region to be more careful than us when gathering information. Even more important we urge everyone not to trust their money to Terry Cundiff and Mark Willman, whether their company would be called Hunt It All, Inc or anything else.
 
Sergey,

Thank you for taking the time to post this well written hunt report on your experience with Hunt It All, Inc. booking agency and Mozambique Unlimited Safaris Inc. in Mozambique, even more impressive is that English is not your first language...

I am always sorry to hear when hunters travel to Africa and don't have a great hunt because they were mislead.

I am curious to know if anyone has any further information about Hunt It All, Inc. and why their booth was unoccupied at the SCI convention?
 
Sergey, thank you for the post.
Having someone with your level of experience explain, in depth, the situation certainly makes the story very credible and a potent warning.

The situation at minimum was unacceptable, if there are no Buffalo then it certainly borders on fraud.

Sad that it happened. I hope someone will be able to assist you with a partial refund at least.
 
Thank you for the warning and detailed account of the problem. I'm sorry to hear it went so poorly.
 
Thank for the hunt report! It will be interesting to hear if other complaints come out of this report.

I agree paying trophy fees up front, can be a loaded proposition. And the fact there was so much poaching in the area, seems troubling.
 
Advertiseing and then selling something not available appears all too common in this industry. It happens world wide and is a fatal mistake by product sellers.

It is also one of the reasons I never use a booking agent and go direct with the PH.
 
Thank you for the report. It s a shame everything went so bad.
 
Advertiseing and then selling something not available appears all too common in this industry. It happens world wide and is a fatal mistake by product sellers.

It is also one of the reasons I never use a booking agent and go direct with the PH.

I'm not surprised that there are people out there defrauding customers. What does surprise me is that there are people willing to defraud a customer who will be walking around armed in the middle of nowhere with no witnesses.
 
I certainly wouldn't be using my firearms to exact revenge and I hope most hunters wouldn't either. We have enough bad press from the anti's without turning into renegade rednecks.

In this case the defrauder appears to be safely away from the scene.
 
I wasn't advocating it! But, I did spend enough years living in a very rough neighborhood in Baltimore to know that the mix of firearms, alcohol, and negative emotions can lead to unpleasant situations.
 
Sergey.
Stories like these makes me sad. Hope you soon will find new a and honest hunt and soon be back to Mozambique.
 
Ah, but Bert. The defrauders aren't the ones that were in the field! At this apparently not in this case.
 
Sergey,

I'm really sorry to hear these types of reports. It saddens me to think that a hunter who had scrimped and saved his pennies for a safari could have ended up in what appear to be a nightmare of a safari let alone an experience hunter such as yourself. I applaud your attitude in trying to get as much positive out of this experience as possible. I assure you many others would not have been so understanding with the on the ground folks.

I must say that safaris like this make my job a whole lot harder. People read these things and when they talk to me about a hunt they are naturally a little suspicious making it more difficult to establish the trust that is necessary for a booking to go forward.
 
Sergey,

I was alerted to your post and promptly joined up to comment. I reported Hunt It All Inc. to SCI and DSC. We were appointed in 2009 to manage their Maua concession for them. I recruited Neil and Du toit to work for Moz. Unlimited Safaris. We found out they were selling hunts to clients that we know the animals were simply not there. This caused a big stir as we told them we will not be associated with an operation like theirs. We told them that if any hunter tunrs up that expects to hunt anything more than Elephant, Sable and Bushpig, we will leave. This happened. Other things went wrong and it became apparent these guys are nothing but LOW class crooks. There are questions about their area and quota that was never answered satisfactory. It is sad that a fine PH like Neil got mixed up in this nonsense, and I can report that these people are not in business anymore. I undertand Zak Grobler is now operating Moz. Unlimited Safaris with the Mozambiquan partners. I do not know anything about Zak and cannot comment on him, but I would take GREAT caution to book with Moz. Unlimited Safaris as I know the Moz. partners too well. This is in fact a sad incident, and I heard from Neil about your experience. We got out in the beginning of August last year and lost a lot of money. I trust this answer sheds more light on people that are very low on the moral chain when it comes to the hunting industry. They just try to rape it for what it is worth. Mark Willman is a Plumber in Louisville, Kentucky and Terry Cundiff (cannot say his name without swearing) owns a fish farming operation in Kentucky, I believe his business name is White Oak Lane Fisheries or something like that. I hope someone gets some justice.
 
Thanks for the report and the warning on Hunt It All; I'm sorry you had a trip that ended up with a bad experience.
 
Guys,

I've been silently watching this thread as its developed, reading with horror poor Sergey's experience and the comments added by CharlvR to place it in context.

First of all, Sergey, I'm so sorry for your horrible experience. This is precisely why I'm here... to learn about what's all involved in setting up an africa hunt to ensure I don't get stung. I'm not wealthy and can't afford to spend what will be a veritable investment in a perhaps once in a life-time experience only to wind up with the wrong outfitter. I can already tell there's a few out there I won't go near, while I've identified a few others, especially with the help of folks herein, that I feel completely comfortable with.

As for this Terry Cundiff character, CharlvR, I looked up the name, along with fish farm and Kentucky and came up with the following hunting outfitter on a website. Could this possibly be the same guy?

White Oak Lake Lodge
Box 70 Vancleve, KY 41385
Phone# 606-693-4868
tcundiff2003@yahoo.com

Terry Cundiff
Coyote, Deer, Turkey, Whitetail Deer
Archery, Muzzleloader, Shotgun, Semi-Guided, Guided Hunts

I'm asking because it has been my experience -- as a former police officer -- that if this guy is this bad a sheister then he's not likely to stop screwing people over. He's likely running other operations or will simply move on to other areas. Believe me, not all 'farmers' or other country folk are good people. I learned the hard way years ago criminals are not only city dwellers, but are sometimes those who live out in the country running farms or ranches. They do so because they're too anti-social, mean-spirited, or just nasty types that no one wants to be around them. In other cases, they're smooth talking con artists.

I lost an investment years ago during the Carter years when I got involved investing with a company drilling for oil in southern Illinois. We were opening up old wells that had been capped back in the early 20th century because new finds in places like Texas made their operations financially untenable. The rising costs of oil made these "moderate" producers more cost effective, so we drilled where we knew there was oil. The two wells I invested in hit and began producing. One was on a property owned by a Mr. Tedford, and another on land owned by a Mr. Poetker. I cannot remember which was which, but one of those farmers later, when all was set up, sued the company and in collusion with the local corrupt judge STOLE our oil well. I think it was the Poetker property where this happened. But in a nutshell, he got 32/64s for zero dollars investment. Other investors antied up the funds to pay for drilling and then setting up the rig. Operating funds would come out of the profits. The producer would maintain the site and the only thing we needed was permission to prepare a lane of access for the oil trucks to go pick up what had been pumped out. All was completed, per the contract, but as soon as everything was in place, the guy sued the company claiming they weren't maintaining the site properly and were damaging his property. The managers of the oil producing company immediately traveled to inspect the site to see what the truckers and oil rig guys had done. They found NOTHING wrong with the site or the route for the trucks. The guy was full of it. They presented this, with photos, in court anyway, but it dragged out and in the end this judge just arbitrarily "awarded" the whole thing to the land owner. Again, being a cop, I looked into this and found what I'd heard about some of those southern Illinois towns. They're just as corrupt as Chicago, and in this case, the land owner had always intended to STEAL the well from us once it was set up. We have no doubt the local judge, who lives in the area and knows these guys -- is probably drinking buddies with him -- was in on the deal. We lost our investment on that particular well. Unfortunately the other well was a loss too, although not due to the land owner. It simply quit producing in volumes sufficient to cover anything but the maintenance and operating costs. My $4,800 investment returned just over $1,000. Small fry perhaps, for many of you, but I was only 22 at the time, and that was a lot of money back in 1980 for a kid of that age. My intent was to invest what I got into a retirement account. Unfortunately, it didn't pay back.

Sorry for getting off subject of hunting, but it's the fact that there are a lot of cons, which I later learned are operated by people who then move on to conduct other cons. In some cases, these people are operating an otherwise legitimate business. However, they use the profits created by the legitimate and successful operation to help finance their fronts for what turn out to be cons.

I'm just wondering if the address and outfitter I listed above is one in the same guy. Would you be able to verify this CharlvR? If so, I would suggest everyone avoid this listed outfitter advertising for hunting in Kentucky as well. Just want to verify so we don't slam the wrong person/outfitter!
 
ALERT ALERT ALERT!

SON-OF-A-GUN! IT IS THE SAME GUY!

I justed looked up Hunt It All. The site must have been down the other day, but it came up this time, and in looking up the "contact us" section it lists the same friggin phone number as the hunting outfitter "Terry Cunliff" that I noted above.

I think it would be prudent to black ball his name as a hunting guide no matter what business it pops up as. Just a thought.

:punch:
 
Sir, this is the same guy. He operates a White Tail hunting lodge on the same basis as his Moz. "Safari" business. NO deer.

I have been raised as an ethical hunter and business man, and have an untainted record in the industry. When I realised what these guys were up to we got out immediately. I did not even think about the financial implications to our hunting business, I just knew the quicker we got out the better.

I wish I could get a lawyer in the States to assist me getting our pictures of their web-site.

My fellow hunters, these people are to be avoided at all cost, BEWARE!
 
Dear fellow hunters. As said before, its a shame to be fooled liked this. BUT, its good and strong of Sergey to inform us all, and guys, please remember..... REFERENCES at all times REFERENCES !! Doesn't matter how beautiful web page or emails.... only thing that you can trust are previous hunters.... and as more as better.

Michael
 
 
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